Conference Agenda

With direct relevance to the conference theme “The Value of Diversity in Education and Education Research”, this symposium considers the education of asylum-seekers and refugees with particular reference to race.

The UNHCR (2018) estimates that there are now more than 12,500,000 displaced children across the world. Young refugees have an entitlement to an ‘inclusive and equitable quality education’ in their destination countries (United Nations, 2015), which has implications for national education systems (McIntyre and Neuhaus, 2021: 796).

Research has shown that although young refugees have the right to an education, the situation is very different in different European countries. While there has been a recent increase in research on education and asylum seekers and refugees, one of the aspects often overlooked in academic research is the racialised context of refugees and the raced nature of national education systems. Equally, when this context is mentioned, then only briefly rather than fully theorised (Chadderton and Edmonds, 2015; Wischmann, 2022). This is perhaps because refugees are often not explicitly recognised as a racialised group. However, scholars have demonstrated that they are actually constructed as non-white, whether or not they are white by skin tone (Garner, 2013), and should therefore be considered a racialised group.

‘Racialisation must be understood not exclusively in terms of categorising according to appearance and culture, but also as a more abstract process of attributing innate characteristics to all members of a given group. In the case of asylum-seekers in England, it is the group’s social status, rather than shared physical characteristics, that serves as the basis for racialisation’ (Garner, 2013:504).

Research has shown that European education systems are racially unequal, and reproduce disadvantage. There has been a focus on the outcomes and experiences of racialised minorities, the racialising function of education policy, the operation of white privilege, the Eurocentric nature of the curricula, the impact of colour-blind practices. However, barely any attention has been paid to the implications of this racialised educational context for asylum-seekers and refugees.

This symposium then, aims to fill a gap in research by offering a series of papers on education, refugees and race in three European countries: Germany, England and Austria. The papers collectively consider the arrangements for education for refugees in relation to the racialised context. We ask, how does this racialised context impact on education policy, practice, or the experiences of refugees themselves in education in these different national settings? How do the different national histories shape educational provision for refugees and asylum seekers? How do Eurocentric curricula shape the experiences of refugees? How does teacher education and professional development prepare teachers to work with refugees and asylum seekers?

Germany is one of the countries hosting the most refugees and asylum seekers worldwide (UNHCR, 2022). Many of them are minors and have the right to attend school immediately after their arrival (Züchner 2017). In the federal education system in Germany the models of educational integration of refugees differ (El Mafaalani et al. 2021). However, the fact that refugees and other newly arrived immigrant children and youth underachieve in compulsory schooling applies to all federal states (ibid.). To understand this, it is fruitful to reconstruct the historical discourse of refugees in education in Germany since World War II by analysing three dispositives of power (Foucault 2020), that frame educational policies: The first one is the invisibility of refugees in German society, including education, once the notion of a 'refugee crisis' disappears from the headlines (Ackermann 2004). The second is the German taboo of racism that prevents critical reflections on the racialisation of refugees. The third dispositive is what I call institutional irresponsibility within the education system that denies the needs the refugees systematically (Wischmann 2022). Data includes political documents such as strategy papers mainly taken from the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK) (Siegling 2019), political statements from stakeholders, teacher organisations, as well as public discourse in media (e. g. Sueddeutsche Zeitung 2022). The corpus of data will be restricted to the years 2015 until today and analysed with critical discourse analysis (Blommaert & Bulcaen 2000; Arribas-Ayllon & Walkerdine 2017). For each of the three dispositives illustrative examples will be used point out the mechanisms of silencing refugees in education in Germany.

Ackermann, Volker (2004): Das Schweigen der Flüchtlingskinder: Psychische Folgen von Krieg, Flucht und Vertreibung bei den Deutschen nach 1945. In: Geschichte und Gesellschaft 30 (3), S. 434-464. Arribas-Ayllon, Michael; Walkerdine, Valerie (2017): Foucauldian Discourse Analysis. In: The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology. 1 Oliver's Yard, 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP: SAGE Publications Ltd, S. 110-123. Blommaert, Jan; Bulcaen, Chris (2000): Critical Discourse Analysis. In: Annual Review of Anthropology 29, S. 447-466. Online verfügbar unter El-Mafaalani, A., Jording, J., & Massumi, M. (2021). Bildung und Flucht. In Handbuch Bildungs-und Erziehungssoziologie (pp. 1-19). Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. Foucault, Michel (Hg.) (2020): Power. Essential works of Foucault, volume three. London: Penguin Classics (Essential works of Foucault, 1954-1984, volume three). Siegling, Sybille (2019): Schulische Bildung von jungen Geflüchteten - ein Überblick. In: RdJB 67 (2), S. 151-160. DOI: 10.5771/0034-1312-2019-2-151. Sueddeutsche Zeitung (2022): https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bildung/schulen-kmk-praesidentin-rechnet-mit-400-000-ukrainischen-schuelern-dpa.urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-220414-99-913267 UNHCR (2022): https://www.unhcr.org/germany.html Wischmann, A. (2022). Whiteness and Racism in Education. Implications for Young Refugees in Germany. In: Delić, A., Kourtis, I., Kytidou, O., Sarkodie-Gyan, S., Wagner, U., Zölch, J. (eds) Globale Zusammenhänge, lokale Deutungen. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-37356-6_7 Züchner, Ivo (2017): Beschulung von geflüchteten Kindern und Jugendlichen. In: Handbuch unbegleitete minderjährige Flüchtlinge. Frankfurt/Main: IGfH-Eigenverlag, 2017.

In this paper I explore the racialised context and implications of policies affecting the education of young refugees and asylum seekers in England. While previous research has examined both education policy for refugees, and race inequality in education in England, education policy for refugees and race is an under-researched area. I conduct a Critical Policy Analysis of education policy for refugees and draw on insights from both Critical Race Theory and the concept of racist nativism to theorise both the racialised context and racialised outcomes for refugees. The concept of racist nativism originates in the US and denotes the link between race and immigration status and the interaction between racism and nativism (Lippard, 2011). It describes the positioning of the native as white, and the non-native as raced. I focus on issues such as the absence of specific policy for refugees, the lack, or inadequacy of English language classes, the competitive nature of the education system, and the policy clash between young refugees’ right to education and the way in which wider refugee and asylum policies actually present a barrier to access to education. I argue that since 2010, education policy for refugees has not only been fuelled by discourses of racist nativism, but fuels these discourses as well by maintaining white, nativist norms, leading to the racialisation of refugees, producing educational disadvantage, and leading to a promotion of white supremacy.

Lippard, C. D. (2011). Racist Nativism in the 21st Century. Sociology Compass 5(7), 591–606.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a piece of ‘racism-critical’ research and discuss its impacts on teachers and teacher education as well as the development of curricula in Austria. Using the example of Styria, a region which is known for innovative educational initiatives, and the installation of the so-called Mobile Support Team (MUT), we want to show the interdependences between those initiatives, government policies, and professional development in education. MUT was pursued in 2017 as a first step, which aimed to quickly and unbureaucratically improve the training of educators in dealing with heterogeneity in view of the increase in refugee students (Chadderton & Wischmann, 2023). Our analyses of interviews with school leaders, stakeholders, group discussions with teachers and interpreters, and policy documents confirm what other research suggests (e.g., Mecheril 2018; Messerschmidt, 2020; Doğmuş, Kourabas, Rose, 2022; Zara, 2022): a fundamental de-thematization of racism, which is expressed in the fact that it is not addressed directly but is played down in its effectiveness using euphemistic terms in both the case initiatives and schools. In addition, the data shows that for the teachers we interviewed, diversity and ‘otherness’ is often conceived as a characteristic of students and parents, but that less thought is given to social hierarchies and the associated pedagogical scope for action. Finally, the paper poses the question how such initiatives, and the experience gained through these, can be sustainably incorporated into training and anti-racist practices (Thoma & Czejkowska, 2017). Because one thing has become clear: Despite the results of this research, teachers are highly committed to ‘racism-critical practices’, as highlighted by many school leaders. Teachers’ social commitment is also emphasized by their willingness to undertake further training especially on the subject of diversity and heterogeneity. However, in this regard the further training courses available are often criticized for not corresponding to the needs of the educators facing – as well as fighting – institutional racism and discrimination. Currently too much value is placed on imparting ›information‹ about the ›culture‹ and ›religion‹ of certain migrant and refugee groups. In addition much more differentiated offers are needed than the existing courses, which are primarily designed to be introductory.

Chadderton, C. Wischmann, A. (2023) Schlaglicht: Flucht und Geflüchtete in der EU. In: JBfP 2022, pp. 203–205. Doğmuş, A., Kourabas, V. ,Rose, N. (2022) Beredtes Schweigen über Rassismus. Be- und Entlastung von Lehrer*innen im Sprechen über Rassismus und das Potential von Rassismushinweisen. In: Ivanova-Chessex, O., Shure, S., Steinbach, A. (eds.) Lehrer*innenbildung (Re-)Visionen für die Migrationsgesellschaft. Weinheim Basel: Beltz Juventa, pp. 186-185. Mecheril, P. (2018): Orders of belonging and education. In: Bachmann-Medick, Doris/Kugele, Jens (eds.): Migration. Changing Concepts, Critical Approaches. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 121-140. Messerschmidt, A. (2020) Fremd werden. Wien. Thoma, N., Czejkowska, A. (2017): Evaluationsforschungsstudie zur Erstanlauf- und Beratungsstelle Mobiles Unterstützungsteam Steiermark (MUT). Graz. ZARA (2022) Racism Report 2021. Institutional and Structural Racism. Analysis of racist attacks and structures in Austria.