A Turn in Intercultural Education – from Dialogue to Social Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention?

Author(s):

Magdalena Prusinowska(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2011

Network:

21. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES D 09, Parallel Session D 09

Paper Session

Time:

2011-09-12

15:10-16:40

Room:

JK 28/130,G, 37

Chair:

Philipp Sandermann

Contribution

The aim of my paper is to present results of analysis of the European Union immigration policies, practices influenced by them and and their relations to multi-/inter-cultural education. In other words, the core of this text will be critical discourse analysis concerning asylum seekers, refugees and “undocumented”/”irregular” immigrants (later in the abstract referred to as “immigrants” due to the word limit) and educational implications of their situation generally in the EU and in Poland.

In Europe liberal and left-liberal multiculturalism tend to dominate the public discourse (Clary-Lemon, n.d.), together with ideals of cultural and social dialogue with “the Other” placed on equal ground. However, if one looks closely into media coverage and policies concerning immigrants signs of a crucial shift appear.
On the one hand, non-discriminatory framework of legislation affecting these groups has been concentrated on the issue of human rights and antifascist movement (Rabczuk, 2002), but nowadays it is also accompanied by new wave of restrictions, e.g. the EU immigration policy with FRONTEX (agency for external border security, but also chain of detention or reception centres) as its embodiment. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as “Fortress Europe”. In my presentation I will see into these apparently contradictory practices and their consequences for intercultural education.

Can this situation be analysed in terms of Foucauldian technologies of governmentality? Has the EU become “Fortress Europe” inflicting stigmatisation and trauma, shifting from the matters of intercultural dialogue/education to possible social rehabilitation?
It is through such bodies as FRONTEX that immigrants are pushed aside from the societies they wish to become a part of. Nowadays, detention, immigration and open reception centres create essential educational context. Indeed, in these environments the future of intercultural dialogue in education might be established or dissolved. Furthermore, there is a visible tendency to deal with the issue of immigrants not within but rather beyond the EU's borders.
These issues are becoming crucial on the European level as it has been reported that while the numbers of migration are quite stable, the number of children detained in immigrants centres is rising in certain countries (EUAFR, 2010).
What educational preparation will the people working with immigrants or at such centres have? When discussing criminalisation of migration, it is crucial that in Poland educators and pedagogues with social rehabilitation specialisation do not usually participate in intercultural education academic programmes, which are typically ascribed to general education courses. And possibly they will be the ones to encounter issues of immigrants in the centres and after their path through them.

One of my reference points in examining this issue, is a study by Dilys Schoorman and Ira Bogotch. These authors raise questions about the gap between academic teacher training courses (their underlying ideology, content etc.) and educational practice. I assume this gap is especially crucial as far as immigrants education is concerned - access to quality education or even lack of thereof is still a problem (EUAFR, 2010).

Method

Methods I find especially useful for the aforementioned tasks are documents analysis rooted in hermeneutic tradition (the most “transparent” one) and critical discourse analysis. As this paper is only a first stage of my further research, my methodological approach will concentrate on sketching a wide background formed mainly by immigration policies through the use of critical discourse analysis. For instance, in order to contrast some of the underlying ideologies of university teacher training courses (immersed mostly in critical theory tradition and thus promoting pluralistic, democratic and emancipating vision of multicultural education) with issues of immigration in the EU. In the future, my PhD research will be supplemented with elements of ethnography and phenomenography (participatory observation and interviews with personnel, especially pedagogues, of the centres for immigrants, as well as refugees, asylum seekers themselves). What is of essential interest to me is the social construction of meaning which can be studied in the interdisciplinary perspective of critical discourse analysis. In this way on three levels (micro - individual, mezzo - institutions and macro – social/power mechanisms) the relations of policies, education and life trajectories can be analysed.

Expected Outcomes

One may anticipate a shift from multi-/inter- cultural education perceived as a dialogue, towards multicultural education dealing with the field of crime prevention and re-socialization of immigrants who have been stigmatized as criminals by mechanisms of the EU immigration policy. Unfortunately, the same concerns migrants' children who depend on their parents' legal situation – as some reports inform, they get lost in the system for too long. Some points showing importance of my study can be found in reports which indicate that, for example in Poland, the existent alternatives to detention, are rarely used (Chmelickova, 2006) – which can be perceived as pointing toward the process of criminalisation of aforementioned types of immigrants from outside the EU. In fact, students of education faculties, especially with specialisation in social rehabilitation, might start their work in all kinds of immigration centres, where they will face “the Other” not on equal and formed for dialogue ground. On the contrary, “the Other” will often be marked as a criminal and unwanted political problem - the notion of “illegal/irregular” immigrant is being broadened to new groups (e.g. “economic refugees” perceived as “fake”) as paths to becoming “legal” are being consecutively closed.

References

Chmelickova, N. (2006). Badanie alternatywnych wobec detencji środków zapobiegawczych w przypadku osób ubiegających sie o nadanie statusu uchodźcy w państwach członkowskich Unii Europejskiej. Retrieved from: http://www.hfhrpol.waw.pl/pliki/alternatives.pdf. Clary-Lemon, J. (n.d.). Critical Multiculturalism. Pedagogy and Rhetorical Theory: A Negotiation of Recognition. Retrieved from: ERIC Database. European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights [EUAFR] (2010). Annual Report 2010. Retrieved from: http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/attachments/AR_2010-conf-edition_en.pdf. Fleischer, M. (2002). Konstrukcja rzeczywistości. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego. Howarth, D. (2008). Dyskurs. Warszawa: Oficyna Naukowa. Kreissl-Dörfler, W. (n.d.). Draft Report from the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs on the Delegation to Poland. Retrieved from: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/dv/732/732439/732439en.pdf. Rabczuk, W. (2002). Polityka edukacyjna Unii Europejskiej wobec imigrantów oraz mniejszości narodowych i etnicznych. Warszawa: Instytut Badań Edukacyjnych Refugees. Human Rights have no borders (1997). London: Amnesty International Publications. Schoorman, D., Bogotch, I. (2010). Moving beyond 'diversity' to 'social justice'” the challenge to re-conceptualize multicultural education. Intercultural Education, Vol. 21, Issue 1. Spencer, B. (2009). Governmentality and Urban Schooling: The Effects of Policies for Accountability and Standardized Literacy Testing. Discourse of Sociological Practice, Vol. 8, Issue 2. Surzykiewicz, J., Kulesza, M. (eds.) (2008). Integracja w świecie powszechnej migracji. Otwarte pytania pedagogiki społecznej. Warszawa: Instytut Profilaktyki Społecznej i Resocjalizacji Uniwersytet Warszawski. Van Dijk, T. A. (n.d.). Analyzing Racism Through Discourse Analysis Some Methodological Reflections. Retrieved from: http://www.discourses.org/OldArticles/Analyzing%20racism%20through%20discourse%20analysis.pdf.

Author Information

Magdalena Prusinowska (presenting / submitting)

University of Gdańsk

Institute of Education

Ustka

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