Transcript Identity, power, and inclusive practice in a minority

The interactions among identity,
power, and inclusive practice in a
minority-language school
Carla DiGiorgio, PhD
Faculty of Education, UPEI
Canada
Introduction
Inclusion: “Individuals with disabilities
are entitled to an education that
includes full participation with their
peers and an educational process
that allows access to the same
resources as other students” (Jordan,
2007, p. 249).
Question: How does inclusion work?
Multicultural schools: Inclusion
relates to acceptance of all
students from diverse racial,
ethnic, social and economic
backgrounds (Obiakor, 2007).
Question: How does inclusion
work in a Francophone school?
The Canadian scene: Charter of
Rights and Freedoms
Cannot discriminate against a person because of race,
national or ethnic origin, color, religion, sex, age or
mental/physical disability (15.1)
A Francophone person has the right to have their children
educated in their own language (23)
Federal charter, provincial policies and governance
Question: How is policy implemented, and how do politics and
micropolitics affect inclusion, from the point of stakeholders
such as parents, educators, and students?
Bourdieu’s Theory of social
structure
Habitus: the unconscious identity that
one houses in one’s body and mind
as internalized from one’s physical
and social environment
Question: How might stakeholders’
identities affect their involvement in
the process of inclusion?
Capital=Power
Capital represents resources that people
accumulate and exchange in order to
maintain their position of power within a
field of society
Capital can be economic, cultural, social or
symbolic
Capital can be exchanged for more capital
Question: How do people use their capital as
power in the process of inclusion?
Field
Fields are dynamic, concrete, political, social and
symbolic institutions
E.g. family, law, education
Each institution has its own rules, hence its own
power distribution
However, fields can change when the rules
change according to shifts in accepted notions of
who and what is important
Question: How does inclusion involve the fields of
law, education, family? And what does this mean
for its implementation?
The Game
Illusio: unfair practices and rules are hidden behind the
illusion of the ‘correct’ness of the status quo
Misrecognition: We accept unfair allocation of capital to
some over others as being correct, because it is considered
‘the right way’ or ‘the way it is’
Crisis: brings about change, in which people can assert their
capital to be valuable where it was not before.
Question: Is inclusion a crisis between beliefs about access
and beliefs about ability? Between school and society?
Between achievement and social acceptance? How is the
crisis reconciled?
Inclusive practice
Some themes from the literature:
Parent involvement
Educator involvement
Leadership
Student engagement
School culture
Community connections
Big Question:
How do identity, power and
inclusive practice interact in the
inclusion of students with special
needs in a minority-language
school?
Methodology
Qualitative research design:
ethnographic case study
Researcher as parent/community
member/teacher/French speaker?
Data and methods of data collection:
interviews, observations, document
analysis
Data analysis: grounded theory, then
theory elaboration (Vaughan, 1992)
Participants
Royale Education Centre (all names in the paper are pseudonyms)
was four years old and composed of 173 students and 15 teachers
at the time of the study (the 2003-04 school year).
It was located in a regional municipality of about 100,000 people
within the jurisdiction of the Francophone school board of a
maritime province.
Most in the community were Anglophone. 3.9% of people in this
province had French as their mother tongue.
Royale was a K-12 school and had an attached daycare and
community centre run by a Francophone community group.
Interviews were conducted with 8 students with disabilities, thirteen
parents, eleven teachers, three teaching assistants, and five
administrators and special service staff, totalling forty.
Observations made of classes, meetings, school events
Document analysis of newspaper articles, school and school board
documents, pamphlets, and websites.
Findings: A model of inclusion?
Power
Identity
Inclusive
practice
A revised model for parents and
educators
Traits/possessions
capital
power
Effects on students
choices
School decisions
Decisions/threats
Identity
1. The school’s external identity
Royale School stands proud in the centre of town. A large newly made
soccer field stands next to the town’s main road, high fences surrounding its
new fledgling grass, a small Acadian flag on each of numerous fence posts.
The school’s name, punctuated by a star, is painted on its welcoming sign.
A large gymnasium and swimming pool are all that is left of a former English
vocational school. The rest of the building has been torn down and
replaced by two floors of new classrooms. Construction is still going on.
Around the back is the actual front entrance of the school. A large enclosed
playground flanks the angular and impressive glass foyer. The name of the
school again relates its position as the star of Acadia. This is not only a
school, but also a community center, replete with daycare and preschool,
community outreach and technology center, as well as school and
community facilities. On the large wall just inside the door, a huge mural
depicts a flower garden, each paper flower made by a child, with a
photograph face in the middle of the petals. The painted sun shines happily
in the background. The title in French reads, “Nous sommes tous une partie
de notre communité” (We are all part of our community).
Identifiers: French language and culture, community and acceptance, rich
resources
Identity
2. Parent identity and school choice
French: “Why? Because I’m totally French.
Bilingual. Ah, I’m not Acadian. I’m French.
Um. I wanted her because my wife don’t
speak French, I wanted her to at least go to
French school and that would be the first
uh easier way of her learning French.
Identifier: Language, threat of English, school
as cultural teacher
Parents cont’d
English: “And but the main reason was class size. Because the other
schools in the area. It was all talk about class sizes and not
enough attention for students, and we just felt that, he would get a
better education there.”
“But one of the things I found with the teachers here with regard to
(child), and no doubt it’s the same with the other students, they
almost intuitively can sense what the kids know and what they don’t
know. They can tell by, they get to know them so well from facial
reactions and body language and stuff. Like in a class of thirty I’m
sure you would have no sense if little Johnny knows his work or not,
so you just give him the test, and lo and behold he fails it. In this
school, I think they can sense what you don’t know so they can
start preparing the kids to make sure that they do understand it, so
when tests and assignments come along, they can do them and get
through them…And that’s one of the things (child) likes. That’s
what I like about the school. You know, they know, they really know
him?”
Identifier: English but looking for one-on-one attention,
achievement, awareness of strengths and teaching practice that
addresses student needs to ensure success; children need more
but parents are determined to get it for them. Children with needs
but parents don’t want them to stand out.
Parents cont’d
Special needs:
“We were looking for another school, but they couldn’t
guarantee us um a teacher’s assistant and they couldn’t
guarantee us the resources. So a friend of mine who works
with children, had mentioned, why not this school? And we
thought about it, and it’s like, this would be the perfect
school. Because there’s more programs available, more
funding, and (child) would be starting basically at the same
level as everyone else. Not being able to speak it (French).”
Identifiers: Rejection from other English school; safety;
resources; same level of French ability; reputation of school
Other parent traits
Economic status:Poor/rich: “And (the lady at the Salvation Army) looks at my stub, my
pay at the end of the month? And she said, how do you make it? And I said with
difficulty, So it’s not- it’s not easy.”
Single parenthood/dual parenthood: “I’m not lying. It can take us over three hours to do
his homeowrk. I know by that time when it’s over I’m really stressed out.”
Health: parents ill, child in foster home, unkempt appearance, lack of involvement in
parent-teacher meetings
social and cultural connections: “Well, just people approached me and asked if I would
like to participate and I said ya, I went and ah…I wanted to if not only for myself but
because of her (child). To try to bring out some stuff.
Work: “I had a lot of resources at my fingertips. And now that I’m working (at the
hospital), getting her tested, that’s even..before it would be such a long wait…Now I
think because I work there, I’ll get there quicker.
education, school background “um, Michel was having problems. See. It’s the
teachers that are, that Michel was going to were my teachers…so, um, I knew them all
well. They all knew, you know, that I was a so-so student.
place of origin, “French”ness: “That’s the only thing about that school, they don’t make
you feel unwelcome, but I can’t volunteer to do things, because I don’t speak French
well enough? Like you know to go dole out pizza or something…” This affected
mothers more than fathers.
Identity
3. Educators
Language and place of origin: “The teachers here are mostly
Quebecois…but the cultural characteristics are different. The motto
“Be proud to be Acadian” is not evident when your group isn’t
Acadian…It’s a challenge when I try to see myself, and to live an
identity, particularly, specifically, Acadian.
Seniority and relationship to administration: better workloads for
friends, senior members of staff. Newer teachers given worst
classes
identities within the school, i.e. teachers, resource, principal, E.A.,
parent, student. EA not invited to staff party. Resource teacher
was principal; principal was board administrator. All are parents.
Parents as educators and educators as parents: community; lack of
privacy; families become models
Children of educators: Kids are ‘in the know’ about what is going
on; also expectations high as they have a public persona.
Capital becomes power
Economic: parents, staff,
school and board
Keep school open
Social: Francophone,
English families, other
barriers, teachers’ social
groups
Pass the word along
Social network
Cultural: embodied (e.g.
language), objectified
(products) and institutional
(diplomas)
Symbolic: resources,
entertainment, car, time.
Speak the language
Member of community
Live the culture
Are qualified and educated
Help children succeed
Add to reputation as a sort
of private school
Advantages
French vs. English
Social capital in
French community
Cultural capital for
children to live
culture, speak
language, succeed
at school
Can communicate
with school
Social capital in
English community
Cultural capital in
English community
Symbolic capital in
English community
Economic capital
Access to English
resources, e.g. with
special needs
Disadvantages
French vs. English
May not have economic
capital
May have disabilities
May be single parents
May have health issues
May not be able to
communicate, get involved
with school
Gender issue because
many French parents are
male
Lack of full family
participation
Children may have
difficulty with language,
less help at home
Less dedicated to the
mandate of the school
Less loyalty to the school,
depending on level of
disability
English
School principal
French
Inclusive Practice
1. Formal program planning (Jennifer):
IEP
Little parent involvement
Limited teacher collaboration
Slow progress
Little catch-up.
2. Informal planning (Becky):
More teacher collaboration e.g. coteaching
Better use of EA
Still limited involvement of parent
3. Early and late intervention/streaming:
K/1 split results in classes streamed
for language and ability/behavior
Resource stops at grade seven,
results in high expectations for high
school students and teachers
Conclusions
School level:
Identity of school became one of
language, public privilege and
inclusion
Language and inclusion of special
needs were at odds at times
Clientele and employees could
change at any time, therefore a very
tenuous balance
School and home values sometimes
at odds
School cont’d
This school offered membership when
others didn’t
Used higher grades to emphasize
achievement and individual expectations
Lower grades were used to establish
clientele and promote inclusion
Teachers and EA’s bore the brunt of
curriculum and language challenges
Image was more important than reality
Conclusions: Parents
Parents who got involved with the school were privy to more
truth and were able to secure what their children needed
Parents who did not speak the language lost out on this
inside info, but could pull their children. School wanted their
capital.
Parents who returned the favor of being included with a child
with special needs, by getting involved with the school’s
activities, gained social and cultural capital
The school needed the economic benefit of a populous
school to stay alive, hence were more inclusive to otherwise
less-wanted clientele (special needs). In this way, the school
which was exclusive with regard to language, became
inclusive with regard to special needs. Its advantages from
the point of view of smaller class sizes and attention to
students, translated into popularity with parents.
What about students?
Many students appreciated the attention they received at this school: like
the principal, like the teachers, the language.
However, there was a tension between students and parents with regard to
staying at the French school, and going to English school for more
socialization: “He would have gone. If I would have told him he would have,
he would have went. But I just felt he’s not a strong –he wasn’t- you know
what I mean…And you have to be socially active and all that. But I figured
less chance of him getting into trouble?”
Some students found the language and behavior rules to be unreasonable:
“If you just say, like if you ask somebody the teachers don’t hear the
beginning, and you just hear the English part. Like you can get suspended
just for that?”
Others found that discipline was lacking: “Last year a girl was picking on
me. We told the principal. He didn’t do nothing when we went. So when
our parents started going, that’s when he kind of like started talking and
saying to us what would happen.”
Some of these students left the school the next year.
There was a lack of student input in this study due to the students’ special
needs, and their availability due to some parents’ lack of access
Finale
So how do identity, power and inclusive practice interact?
Many stakeholders with common and contrasting characteristics
Common social and cultural circles in a small community
Schools respond publicly and privately to maintain and improve public
image and private expectations
The academic vs. social roles of school still limit potential of inclusion
However, linguistic and cultural goals of this community allowed for more
inclusive approaches and parents returned the favor in terms of participation
and recruitment of new families
Students benefit from more attention from teachers, but the social
limitations of a small school restricted some from enjoying wide social
networks, and did not prepare them for the big world outside.
Parents with French background and willingness to get involved, got a
better education for their children
They won capital by buying into the cultural community of the school
Economic clout led to better service for these parents
Parents who did not buy into the cultural mandate of the school felt freer to
leave. They also had less to lose due to the lesser extent of their children’s
‘needs’.
Limitations/Recommendations
Small sample: one school
Long-term study would be beneficial
Further study of intersection between
culture, language and inclusion
needed
More student voice