Session Information
Contribution
Cities are sites of cohesion and exclusion and are often characterized by sharp discontinuities. This paper will describe students with migrant backgrounds (international students hereafter) differing experiences of ‘integration’ and educational achievements in two secondary schools in the Dublin15 area, one with a middle class and one with a working class student population. The two secondary schools are only three kilometres away from one another, yet one of the schools is ranked among the best in the country while the other is included in schemes for social inclusion and has high non-completion rates. These inequalities are further sharpened by school admission policies, which are based on strict residency criteria, thus placing limits on parents’ school choices: a policy which is not uncommon in other European countries (see also Hofman, Hofman and Gray, 2010). Both schools host an increasing number of international students and have developed inclusive policies such as language support. But how is the inclusion of international students performed in the everyday relations in a middle class school and in a disadvantaged school?
In Europe, and particularly in the UK, there is a wide ethnographic literature looking at the impacts of social class on students’ attitudes towards school, learning and achievements (Aggleton, 1987, Mac anGhaill, 1988, Evans, 2006), and although there are documented cases of schools in deprived areas performing above the average (NCE, 1996), schools with poor intakes tend to reproduce disadvantage (Evans, 2006) and shape future social positions (Bowles and Gintis, 1976). However, this doesn’t say much about the inclusiveness enhanced by working and middle class schools and about the sense of belonging to the school that international students might perceive in their everyday experiences.
Scholarly literature often describes an ‘inclusive middle class,’ referring to a white middle class open to cultural diversity, even valorising the ‘ethnic other’ (Reay, 2008). However, it has been argued that this openness and curiosity towards cultural diversity seems not include the ‘working class other’ (Faas, 2010:177). As my research project is based on ethnography, I think it is essential to go beyond simplistic binary oppositions such as inclusive/exclusive, middle or working class and, rather, contextualize these orientations in the socio-economics contexts of today’s Ireland and by considering young students not as simply reproducing their family ethos but as continuously negotiating their orientations as a result of the interactions they have with their family, school, and peers.
I will look at young migrant’s experiences through the lens of the ‘intersectionality’ as used in Critical Race Theory (Gillborn, 2008:36), which implies that every analysis of disadvantage and social inclusion should look at identity markers such as ethnicity, class and gender as intersecting between each other. This provides a useful tool to avoid the reification of the ‘migrant student’ as a static entity: migrants are often referred to as a homogenous group, while by problematizing their social background, their voices and stories regain the necessary level of complexity to portrait at best their different experiences.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Aggleton, P. (1987), Rebels without a cause?Middle class youth and the transition from school to work London:Falmer Press Archer, L. and Francis, B. (2005) ‘British Chinese pupils’ and parents’ constructions of racism’, Race Ethnicity and Education 8(4): 387-407. Bowles, S., Gintis, H., (1976) Schooling in capitalist America: educational reform and the contradictions London:Routledge Evans, G. (2006) Educational Failure and Working Class White Children in Britain Basingstoke:Palgrave Macmillan Faas, D. (2009) Negotiating Political Identities. Multiethnic schools and youth in Europe London:Ashgate Gillborn, D., (2008) Racism and education: coincidence or conspiracy? London:Routledge Hofman, W. A., Hofman, R. H. and Gray J. M. (2010), Institutional Contexts and International Performances in Schooling: comparing patterns and trends over time in international surveys. European Journal of Education, 45: 153–173. Mac an Ghaill, M. (1988) Young, gifted and Black. Student-teachers relations in the schooling of black youth Milton Keynes: Open University Press National Commission on Education (1996) Success against the odds. Effective schools in disadvantaged areas. London:Routledge Reay et.al. (2008:240 Re-invigorating democracy? White middle class identities and comprehensive schooling Sociological Review 56(2), 238-255
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