Ethnicity in School: Reconstructing the Problem

Extract

[...] - Finally, the author highlights that "the cognitive disengagement leads to a disengagement from the inscription in schooling as a student, which in turn prevents any cognitive re-engagement due to the rejection of school learning. In short, the author analyzes that the School thus finds itself reinforced in a phenomenon that it sometimes apprehends awkwardly in its definition, by highlighting it more than by erasing or valuing it. The way the School apprehends it tends to reinforce the feeling of exclusion that certain populations may thus feel. [...]

[...] For him, identity affirmations within the School begin outside the School, and then invade it . To understand how these identity affirmations influence the relationship with the School of these students, the author relies on two distinct researches in classes located in disadvantaged social environments, within neighborhoods, where the majority of people from immigration are concentrated. The article highlights several points: Firstly, the observed students underwent an evolution in the way they approached their ethnicity between primary and secondary school. [...]

[...] Thirdly, he emphasizes that students from this ethnicity would suffer from a 'socio-cultural handicap', which generates 'socio-cognitive misunderstandings' and the idea of 'conformity'. According to his analysis, the misunderstanding lies in the fact that these students seek to conform to the expected exercises in class without realizing that the purpose of the School itself is learning and exercise, a means of acquiring knowledge. Finally, the two researches in which students were observed in class, with a concentration of students from disadvantaged social backgrounds, highlight that: - In these environments, teachers start with a negative a priori towards students since they approach the class thinking they cannot teach the entire body of knowledge transmitted to normal students; - Teachers implement cultural adaptation efforts that are sometimes perceived awkwardly: this is the case in the second research, where the teacher proposes reading Bilbo the Hobbit by Tolkien. [...]

[...] In fact, in 2004, the French government promulgated a law on secularism within the School, in which the wearing of religious signs is prohibited within the School1. Sign that the questions of cultural differentiation within the School were already a concern for the ruling powers and in public opinion. Thus, the author reports within this article, the growing tensions within the School on the subject of cultural differences. Key Concepts The main key concepts of the article are the terms: - « Ethnicity « manifestations of student identity" or "communitarianism". [...]