Language and cultural capital in school experience of Polish children in Scotland

This article addresses the complex relationship between migration and education in the context of recent intra-European labour mobility. It considers how this mobility impacts the education and life chances of migrant students attending schools in Scotland, UK. By examining the experiences of Polish migrant children and youth at schools in Scotland, the article engages with the issues of language, cultural capital transferability and social positioning. Drawing on qualitative data from 65 in-depth interviews with school children aged 5–17?years, their parents and teachers, as well as observations in the contexts of school and home, the article points to a range of factors affecting the transition of migrant pupils to new schools and social environments.     

Inconsistent Latino Self-Identification in Adolescence and Academic Performance

Research has documented important connections between ethnic identity and academic success. In the multiethnic context of the US, ethnic self-identification is a dynamic process that develops through social interaction within institutions. Understanding the emergence of a Latino self-identity within schools can provide insight into the meanings adolescents confer to a “Latino” identity and the relationship between a Latino self-identity and academic success. This study uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine (1) the association between a Latino self-identification in-school but not at home and academic well-being, (2) the association between a Latino self-identification in-school but not at home and school processes, and (3) whether school processes help to mediate the relationship between Latino self-identification in-school but not at home and academic well-being. Results suggest that while adolescents who identify as Latino at school but not at home come from families and neighborhoods with higher levels of economic and human capital, by the end of high school they have accumulated less educational capital then either consistently identifying Latinos or non-Latino whites. Much of this association can be explained by prior academic experiences, yet other factors associated with resistance to institutional norms and attending low performing schools may also be important. Results suggest that non-minority, underachieving adolescents may choose to self-identify as Latino in schools as a way to save face and avert identity crises and that perhaps youth in schools have come to associate a Latino identity with poor school performance.     

Identity,Othering and belonging: toward an understanding of difference and the experiences of African immigrants to Australia

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to contribute to understanding of difference and knowledge on the analysis of the concepts of identity, Othering and belonging not only from a theoretical perspective, but more importantly by relating them empirically to the Australian context in a way that sheds a better light on the experiences of African immigrants to Australia. It draws on data from interviews conducted with 30 black Africans living in South East Queensland. Their racialized identities impacted on how they felt, were defined, related to and constructed, in Australia. Their accounts suggest that Othering practices can marginalize, exclude and affect migrants and refugees’ ideas and sense of belonging. The findings indicate the need for a more inclusive Australia, the accommodation of difference, the fostering of new identities, the rejection of negative representations and stereotypes of the Other, and the recognition that Othering is one of the important factors to understanding the marginalization, exclusion and challenges of ethnically and racially marked people in Australia.     

Locating black mixed-raced males in the black supplementary school movement

This article draws upon data from semi-structured interviews conducted with black mixed-race males in the UK and the US, to argue that a revival of the black supplementary school movement could play an important role in the education of black mixed-race males. The article contends that a strong identification with blackness, and a concomitant rejection of the values of mainstream schooling, make black supplementary education a viable intervention for raising the attainment and improving the experiences of black mixed-race males. Whilst blackness was important to participants’ understandings of their lived experiences, this did not engender a disregard for their mixedness. Supplementary schools must therefore find ways of recognising black mixedness within their practice.     

Impostors of themselves: performing Jewishness and revitalizing Jewish life among Russian-Jewish immigrants in contemporary Germany

In the early 1990s, Germany officially opened its gates to the immigration of Russian Jews as part of the politics of repentance and restitution for the Holocaust. The immigration of Russian Jews seemed to offer an opportunity to strengthen and revitalize Jewish life in the country, even to restore it to its pre-war scale and condition. For the Russian-Jewish immigrants, that task has proven a difficult challenge. Tracking the stumbling blocks and difficulties of the project of revitalization and recreation of Jewish life, this article moves through different arenas of the immigrants' performance of Jewishness – artistic, ritual, and mundane, individual as well as communal. It examines the situation in which role-playing or ‘passing’ as Jews fails to be perceived as credible and is interpreted as ‘imposture.’     

‘You are not born being racist,are you?’ Discussing racism with primary aged-children

Ethnic-racial socialisation is broadly described as processes by which both minority and majority children and young people learn about and negotiate racial, ethnic and cultural diversity. This article extends the existing ethnic-racial socialisation literature in three significant ways: (1) it explores ways children make sense of their experiences of racial and ethnic diversity and racism; (2) it considers ways children identify racism and make distinctions between racism and racialisation; and (3) it examines teacher and parent ethnic-racial socialisation messages about race, ethnicity and racism with children. This research is based on classroom observations, semi-structured interviews and focus groups with teachers, parents and students aged 8–12?years attending four Australian metropolitan primary schools. The findings reveal that both teachers and parents tended to discuss racism reactively rather than proactively. The extent to which racism was discussed in classroom settings depended on: teachers’ personal and professional capability; awareness of racism and its perceived relevance based on student and community experiences; and whether they felt supported in the broader school and community context. For parents, key drivers for talking about racism were their children’s experiences and racial issues reported in the media. For both parents and teachers, a key issue in these discussions was determining whether something constituted either racism or racialisation. Strategies on how ethnic-racial socialisation within the school system can be improved are discussed.     

Arab-American male identity negotiations: caught in the crossroads of ethnicity,religion, nationality and current contexts

We examine how the identities of male adolescents of Arab descent (ArD) relate to their current physical and phenomenological contexts and to the negative fallout from recent ethnicity-related political events. Seventy-seven ArD adolescents in seven United States middle schools with varying proportions of ArD students participated in focus-group interviews. Qualitative analysis provides evidence that adolescents' social identities depended on complex combinations of personal, situational, and contextual factors. Findings extend Spencer's PVEST theory, demonstrating that the salience of adolescents' national, pan-Arab, hyphenated Arab-American, or assimilated American identity stems from phenomenological experiences within their current context and from the cognitive processes and associated affects of their prior experiences in other proximal and distal contexts.     

Jewish Hatzolah and the barriers to equivalent Aboriginal Australian cultural adaptation

Insofar as they perceive secularisation as loss of attachment to tradition and community, Orthodox Jews face difficulties somewhat similar to those facing Aboriginal Australians. Both fear that engagement with the wider society equates to loss of cultural particularity. Orthodox Australian Jews have responded to this fear by countering the trend to secularisation and adapting traditional cultural beliefs and practices so that they may be retained while also allowing engagement in modern secular life. Hatzolah is one adaptation that reconciles dissonances between cultural heritage, secular life and good health. My interest in Hatzolah is as a metaphor that may help in exploring the possibility of equivalent Aboriginal responses, whereby Aborigines may negotiate the discourse that, for them, pits culture against health, education and socio-economic status. In this case, powerful discourse makes structured adaptation like Hatzolah less likely than it might otherwise be. Yet in their everyday, Aborigines do negotiate the tensions of being modern, much as Orthodox Jews. I argue that the discursive oppositions are the product of public policy and identity politics that are both invested in a solidary culture, unitary identity and binary difference. I also argue that the emergence of Hatzolah-like adaptations depends on the recognition and full consideration in policy of Aborigines' contemporary lived realities of interculturality, subjective multiplicity and ambiguity.     

‘I was forced here’: perceptions of agency in second generation ‘return’ migration to Tonga

Migrants’ adolescent children sometimes live for periods of time in their parents’ homeland; however, little attention has been paid to this in the literature on ‘return’ migration and transnationalism. This paper explores the experiences of overseas born Tongan youth spending time in high schools in Tonga, whether by choice or because they have been taken or sent due to concerns about their behaviour. The importance of these young people’s perceptions of agency in relation to their move is considered as a factor in their responses to their experiences in Tonga. Other factors shaping those experiences include their family situation, the school they attend and the wider attitudes in Tongan society towards these young people. The paper also considers the question of agency in relation to the cultural expectations these overseas born youth must learn to meet, which entail significant restrictions on their behaviour yet are also a means of strengthening their cultural identity and sense of belonging.     

Race,ethnicity, young people and offending: the elephant in the room

ABSTRACT

Can we start to say Race again when discussing youth and justice? This demand emerges from the findings of the participatory action research reported in this article. Fifty young people, in custody or in contact with youth offending teams (YOT), discussed the support that would enable them to desist from offending behaviour. Race was a prism through which they saw their experience. Rather than naming racism, family appeared to be a covert, legitimate, way of talking about identity, solidarity and difference. Family ties, overlaid with experiences of race and racism, could be reasons for engaging in behaviour that was seen as criminal. Family, overlaid with ethnicity, could become a source of support to enable young people to cope with the challenges of being involved in and desisting from offending behaviour. At a time where policy and political language has shifted from rac(ism) to a culturalist discourse focused on ethnicity or religion, naming Race and racism remains vital. Only by acknowledging the differentiating power of Racism can the experience of young people in contact with YOT be understood. Only by appreciating the value of shared experience of race (within families and communities) can appropriate pathways towards alternative futures be offered.     

Shas and the resignification of the intersection between ethnicity and religion

Current analyses of ethnicity and religion emphasise the subordination of the one to the other in the construction of collective identities. One line of research perceives religion as a resource of political mobilisation, while another conceptualises religion as the essence of ethnicity. As opposed to these analyses, this article explores how these two markers intersect and constitute each other in the process of identity formation. I centre on the ways Shas, an ethno-religious movement in Israel, mobilises hegemonic ethnic and religious markers of Middle East and North African (MENA) Jews in order to construct its collective identity. The analysis of Shas’s newspapers shows how, by suffusing religious traditions with ethnic meaning and marking an ethno-class collective as religious, Shas interweaves ethnicity and religion and resignifies their relation. This identity project is intended to redefine the symbolic boundaries of the Jewish nation and to redeem MENA Jews from their marginality. Intersectional analysis as applied in this article explains why different ethno-class and religious collectives imagine themselves as sharing a common identity, illumines why particular identity markers are chosen out of the numerous existing categories, and provides an explanation for the flexibility of social movements.     

Understanding racial literacy through acts of (un)masking: Latinx teachers in a new Latinx diaspora community

As Latinx teachers are recruited to work in U.S. schools, a continued agenda to understand their experiences is warranted. This multiple case study considers the storytelling of six Latinx teachers in a new Latinx diaspora community. It documents both their racial literacy (the ability to resolve racially stressful issues) and their experiences with (un)masking (literal and figurative ways to cover or embrace racial markers). This study reveals the tensions that arise when Latinx teachers attempt to define their identity in social spaces where their languages, bodies, and names, among other markers, are racialized when read by others. Implications for teacher education include a call to include storytelling as a pedagogical tool to develop Latinx teachers’ racial literacy skills. By experiencing storytelling in their own schooling, Latinx teachers are more likely to model such racial literacy skills in their schooling communities; thereby, empowering a generation of students to enact more humanizing behaviors.     

Changing places: children of return migrants in Albania and their quest to belong

This study examines the experiences of children of return migrants to Albania following the economic crisis in Europe. Adopting a longitudinal approach in which participants were followed-up after a year and employing participative qualitative research methods, the study investigates how perceptions of local and translocal spaces and social relations interact to shape children’s (aged 7–12 years) sense of belonging to their parents’ homeland. Findings suggest that the children’s initial positioning is influenced by a perceived lack of everyday places of play and unsettled local interactions with peers. The research indicates further that, over time, children actively seek to inhabit and identify with their new surroundings and that meaning-making is shaped by experiences that transcend multiple localities. It documents how children of return migrants attain a sense of belonging via interacting with different physical and social contexts in a complex process which appears simultaneously facilitated and impeded by adults. Overall, the findings of this research suggest that children’s sense of belonging is negotiated in relation to multiple temporal and spatial frames of reference to which children attribute meaning.     

Ethnic origin and identity in the Jewish population of Israel*

The paper addresses the multifaceted quality of ethnicity in the Jewish population of Israel by probing into the ethnic categories and their subjective meaning. The analyses utilise data collected during 2015–2016 on a representative sample of Israelis age 15 and older, as part of the seventh and eighth rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS). Hypotheses are developed concerning the relationship between demographically based ethnic origin and national identity, as well as the effect of ethnically mixed marriages on ethnic and national identities. The analyses reveal a strong preference among Jews in Israel to portray their ancestry in inclusive national categories – Israeli and Jewish – rather than more particularistic, ethno-cultural, categories (e.g. Mizrahim, Moroccan, Ashkenazim, Polish, etc). Yet, whether Israeli or Jewish receives primacy differs by migration generation, socioeconomic standing, religion, and political dispositions. While the findings clearly add to our understanding of Israeli society, they are also telling with regard to immigrant societies more generally. First, they reveal a multi-layered structure of ethnic identification. Second, they suggest that ethnic identities are quite resistant to change. Third, ethnically mixed marriages appear to erode ethnic identities and are likely to replace them with national identities.     

Learning to be gay: LGBTQ forced migrant identities and narratives in Belgium

Within the wider population of forced migrants, LGBTQs face particular challenges. While sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) are recognised grounds for asylum, academic and civil society observers are critical of the imposition of Western identity labels and liberation narratives on asylum seekers. This paper explores the situation in Belgium, where an increasing number of people obtain asylum based on SOGI claims. First, the relevant regulations and practices are discussed, based on desk research as well as interviews with advocates. Second, the personal experiences of forced migrants are discussed, based on in-depth interviews with gay-identifying men. The advocates confirm the prominence of (Western) conceptions and narratives of sexual identity in the procedure. While the forced migrants seem to reinforce this view, by expressing Western views on sexuality in the research interview, this paper explores the degree to which this can be attributed to the asylum procedure.     

How Australian Female Muslim Students Interpret Challenges in High School Sports

Abstract

The present study focuses on the experiences of female Muslim students in school sporting activities in Australian public high schools. Specifically, the study examines how the students interpret their engagement in relation to their Islamic background. The study aims to provide deeper understanding and greater awareness of female Muslim students’ participation in sporting activities within the public high school environment and the challenges they may face. The study employed critical race and social identity theories as an analytical framework. In addition, the study utilized qualitative research methods. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 female Muslim students and 4 teachers responsible for sporting activities in school. The findings of the study reveal that despite a variety of sporting activities provided by Australian public high schools, some of these activities were challenging for Muslim girls to participate in. The study also found that there is a strong relationship between students’ Islamic background and their participation in schools sporting activities. The study recommends that educators and teachers who work with youth from different background are provided training on equity issues arising from ethnicity, race, culture, religion and other identity categories.     

The diversity trap? Critical explorations of black male teachers’ negotiations of leadership and learning in London state schools

ABSTRACT

Black and minority ethnic teachers are significantly underrepresented in British schools. Despite increasing anxieties about Britain’s ‘diversity shortage’ among teachers, recent studies on the experiences of Black teachers generally, and Black male teachers specifically, remain rather sparse. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 25 Black Caribbean and Black African male teachers with five or more years of experience in London schools, this article deploys Bourdieusian conceptions of organizational habitus to explore the ways in which the national ‘diversity shortage’ can lead to a local ‘diversity trap’ in state schools that limits the range of roles Black male teachers are encouraged to pursue in schools. Findings suggest that pressures for Black male teachers to serve in racialized roles as community liaisons, role models, and school-wide disciplinarians, particularly for ethno-racial minority students, have stymied the long-term progress of Black male teachers towards departmental and administrative leadership – ranks at which the diversity shortage is even more acute.     

‘Chinese-Mexicans’ and ‘Blackest Asians’: Filipino American youth resisting the racial binary

This study provides a deeper understanding of the interracial connections not just between non-whites and whites, but among non-whites. Filipino American youth attending high school in New York City contended with a dominant bipolar racial discourse that marginalizes the racialized experiences of Asians and Pacific Islanders. However, instead of feeling invisible or marginalized, data point to how they negotiated a black–white racial discourse to decide when and how they enter dialogues about race. Filipino youth reconceptualized this racial binary to position themselves on a continuum to form the racial ‘middle ground’ between blacks and whites. Importantly, rather than a racial hierarchy that places whites at the top, youth used discursive strategies to place themselves on a racial continuum that emphasizes the interconnectedness among racial minorities.     

Sharks and Shylocks: Englishness and otherness in popular discourse on ‘the City’ 1870–1914

Despite its hegemony as a financial centre, the City of London occupied a relatively minor place in the discourse of British imperialism. Periodic collapses and scandals made the City an inscrutable source of anxiety, engendering a need to distance it from the mainstream of national life. This distancing centred on doubts about the City’s national identity, stemming from its increasingly cosmopolitan interests and its contingent of prominent Jews, who were conventionally understood to have no nationality. Scrutiny of discourse on the City leads to a richer understanding of the role of ‘Semitic discourse’ in the construction of British national identity.