Germany’s tracked schooling has been contested for decades. Although research on educational inequality is done, reforms seem to be slowly realized. In particular, one of the most important findings in recent years was the evidence of educational disadvantages for immigrant students, just as the fact that corresponding changes have been relatively moderate (see Educational Reporting Consortium 2006; Stanat et al. 2010). In this study educational inequality is considered from the bottom-up: Students´ views on educational inequality, immigration and the educational system in general. The research reported in this paper aims to analyze what students in a plural society think about the education they get, the chances people have and the identities and belongings negotiated in the field of education.
Students could face a lot of personal transitions passing through a tracked secondary school system, as well as they eventually become observers of the success and failure of others. Early selection, separation, reputation, changing the type of secondary school up or down, and tracks differing in learning opportunities, chances, and social status are just some contexts where educational inequality could matter for young people. Stratification is observed not only in public debates, but also through social and ethnic segregation. In education they discover who could be economically disadvantaged or excluded socially or culturally. They perceive themselves and others in social relations, and start thinking about what is fair or unfair in society.
Therefore political demands explored by students could be based both on identifying unequal resources, which are prohibiting equal participation of some individuals, groups or minorities, and on a lack of recognition, because of institutionalized cultural values and norms. Following the theoretical ideas of Nancy Fraser (2003) social justice should be considered as two-dimensional, by “redistribution” and “recognition”. She is criticizing popular ideas of social justice either focusing on “redistribution” or on “recognition”. The study is empirical research on how students explain and criticize educational and social inequality. It is empirically examined according to Fraser’s ideas, how students understand these inequalities in the sense of the two dimensions, and how explanations shift in talking about varied markers of difference. Three core questions will be stated: (1) How is difference and inequality experienced by young people in schooling and society and how do they evaluate the educational system? (2) Who is usually denoted as `minoritized´ in education and society? (3) What do they think of the social challenges that immigration poses to education, to labour and to a social cohesive society? Furthermore this paper inquires if differences, specifics and similarities in “majority-minority-relations” (Eriksen 2007) occur, and if new patterns of prejudices arise in more super-divers social relations (Vertovec 2007). Concerning erupting (new) patterns it will be explored how young people deal with `culturalization´ of education and social conflicts (Messerschmidt 2009).
