Conference Agenda

This research project is part of the connection between the system of social welfare services for the protection of minors, which in Europe is called Child and Family Welfare (CFW), and the juvenile justice system. In Italy, the Tribunale per i Minorenni, in the future 'Tribunale unico per le persone, i minorenni e le famiglie', deals with both the protection of minors and juvenile offenders. Due to the composition of the different services and professionals present in the juvenile justice system and the strong component of children of foreign origin involved, in this context the relationships between operators and users are characterized by a high degree of diversity and plurality. It is therefore evident that legal professionals, in their daily work, must learn to manage the encounter with otherness characterized by a strong component of diversity in biographical, cultural and linguistic terms.

It is therefore evident the need to make use of specific competences to manage diversity and plurality in the interactions and relationships proper to the juvenile justice system, starting from the awareness that the cultural and normative pluralism that characterizes the life of the child is an unavoidable fact for the legal professional (Mancini, 2019). These competences can be identified in the construct of intercultural competence, as also suggested in the report "The child welfare challenge- policy, practice and research" (Pecora et al., 2009), which includes intercultural competence among the five principles identified to guide interventions in the field of CFW. According to Deardorff, intercultural competence can be defined as "appropriate and effective communication and behaviour in intercultural situations" (Deardorff, 2009, p. XI), while the Council of Europe identifies attitudes, knowledge, understanding, skills and actions as building blocks of intercultural competence (Council of Europe, 2014; 2018).

Therefore, the focus of this study is on the intercultural competence (CIs) used by juvenile law professionals (judge, honorary judge, lawyer, magistrate, juvenile carer, etc.) to manage interactions with young people of different cultural backgrounds. The research's focus is on the aspect of everyday practices since working environments are seen as a special setting that can foster skill development and maturation (experiential learning). As a result, the research examines the forms of in-practice intercultural skills, with a particular focus on contexts supporting the development of these competences. From the analysis of the intercultural competences that emerged from the research, it is planned to construct a professional profile of the intercultural juvenile law practitioner/professional based on models of the Regional Frameworks of Professional Standards. This profile can be used to define what competences may be useful for juvenile law practitioners in increasingly multicultural contexts, but also to build specialized training courses.

The structure of the research methodology is qualitative and involves the use of different tools, one of which is quantitative: semi-structured interviews, questionnaire and focus groups. The research fits into the strand of pedagogical research in that the research design and the researcher's outlook belong to these paradigms. Furthermore, it is an intercultural research as it does not intend to pit immigrants and natives against each other but to address problems related to situations in which cultural differences are at the forefront (Mantovani, 2008). The main epistemological paradigms within which the research is developed are intercultural education (Cohen-Emerique, Bennett, Council of Europe) and intercultural competence (Deardorff, Fantini, Portera), and the child rights paradigm (Convention on the Rights of the Child-CRC-). Furthermore, by focusing on the relational dimension and the interaction between subjects in a systemic framework in which individuals and society influence each other, another theoretical framework is identified in symbolic interactionism (Mead, Blumer and Goffman).

UNESCO recognised that “every human being has a fundamental right of access to physical education and sport” (UNESCO, 1978, pp2), and that it is “the most effective means of providing all children and youth with the skills, attitudes, values, knowledge and understanding for lifelong participation in society” (UNESCO, 2013, pag.6). Furthermore, through sport activities it is possible to promote the development of skills and knowledge needed to create new forms of global citizenship (UNESCO, 2015).
The debate on physical education has been enriched by the publication of the Quality Physical Education Guidelines (UNESCO, 2015). These identify the promotion of physical literacy as a fundamental principle for the implementation of physical education by promoting the maintenance of physical activity throughout the life course (Whitehead, 2010) and enabling an understanding of the learning experience (Lundvall, 2015). Physical education must therefore deal with a subject who lives the experience by being a body in constant transformation (Lipoma, 2016), bearing in mind that the educational value of didactics is realised through the way he/she experiences situations and by giving meaning to the activities in which he/she is involved (Ceciliani, 2018).
However, there is no shortage of criticism of the dominant approaches of the time, which rarely associate Physical Education with “critical pedagogy” and “social justice” (Fitzpatrick, 2018; Hawkins, 2008; Evans & Davies, 2004).
In Italy, there is a general tendency towards traditional and assimilationist approaches (UNESCO Trento, 2020), but a substantial change seems urgent given the high rate of migration linked to global economic processes and the growing number of refugees and asylum seekers fleeing wars, persecution and climate change. In fact, approximately 7 million people holding international protection are hosted in the EU countries (UNHCR, 2021), people who have settled with the hope of finding security, continuing their studies and building a future (Harðardóttir & Jónsson, 2021). A situation that has been exacerbated by the crisis in Ukraine. However, at least in Italy, little or no research is available on the refugee’s experience in an increasingly heterogeneous educational context. (Zoletto, 2016, 149)
Physical education can play a crucial role in integrating young people into their new environment by promoting embodied interactions and interpersonal encounters (Anttila et al., 2018), providing spaces for reflection where they can express themselves and become emotionally close to others (Spaaji, 2015), and following the values-based approach of Global Citizenship Education as defined in the Maastricht Declaration on Global Education 2002.
Physical education teachers and sport educators may be key actors in the process of adaptation of asylum seeker and refugee students to their new life context (Richardson et al., 2018), but the general claim that sport is always an inclusive tool seems controversial as it may expose participants to forms of racism, social exclusion and cultural resistance (Spaaji, et al., 2014).
Against this framework and due to the lack of specific research in the area, the generative research question of this study seeks to explore and examine the experience of asylum-seeking, refugee, or displaced students during high school physical education classes and/or in university settings.

This is a submission for a paper presentation on the theoretical study of a four-year-long place-based and practice-oriented empirical research project on citizenship education and diversity in secondary schools. The further description below explains the full project and the contribution of and to literature. While the research project focuses on educational practices in Antwerp, Belgium, the overarching educational questions are relevant and timely across Europe and beyond.

This research project is set in the highly diverse city of Antwerp in Flanders, the Northern Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. At national and European levels, citizenship education is described as a key educational goal carrying high expectations (Joris et al., 2021; European Commission, 2018, p. 4). However, the understandings of citizenship and what constitutes good citizenship education are contested (Joris et al., 2021; Biesta, 2014, p.5). Recently, the Flemish government adopted explicit citizenship education goals as part of a modernised educational programme (Loobuyck, 2020; Vlaams Parlement, 2018). Decisions surrounding the realisation of the citizenship education goals lie at the meso-level of the school and even at the micro-level of the classroom. Prior studies connect macro-level societal processes, including structural socio-economic inequalities, to the micro-level of the classroom (Clycq, 2016; Nouwen & Clycq, 2016). Antwerp has been considered a “majority-minority-city” since 2019 due to a majority of the citizens having a migration background (Geldof, 2019, p. 368). The emergence of majority-minority cities has prompted policymakers’ contradictory responses, also described as diversity approaches (Celeste et al., 2019). While some approaches focus on cultural homogenisation by stressing one national identity, culture and shared values, others focus on cultural heterogenisation, emphasising a global mindset, cultural empathy and interculturality. These tensions are also found in schools in super-diverse urban contexts like Antwerp. This study explores how these diversity approaches in schools converge or diverge with recently implemented citizenship education practices.

This literature study answers how citizenship education and diversity are related theoretically. Overall, the main research question of the full empirical research project is: How are citizenship and diversity enacted in urban Flemish secondary schools, and when and why do difficulties and opportunities arise? This project is part of the broader European research consortium “Solidarity in Diversity” (SOLiDi) that seeks to identify practices of solidarity in ethnic-cultural diversity as alternatives to national new-assimilationism trends.

A pragmatic approach to the role of theory is taken (Biesta, 2020, p. 8). Centralising the researched problem requires building upon the various streams of literature on citizenship (education), diversity and their relation. Banks (2022) and Biesta (2011; 2014) write on citizenship education and diversity. Biesta argues that “plurality and difference” are approached differently when emphasising social or political citizenship. For social citizenship, difference is considered a problem, while conversely, difference and plurality are important and need protection for political citizenship (Biesta, 2014, p. 2). Another relevant concept is Banks’ citizenship education dilemma, occurring when the “democratic ideals taught in citizenship lessons are contradicted by practices such as racism, sexism, social-class stratification, and inequality” (2022, p. 5). Moreover, earlier empirical studies on diversity approaches at secondary schools, both within citizenship education and beyond, are included (Celeste et al., 2019; Sincer et al., 2019). The project is practice-based, and therefore literature on pedagogy, especially critical pedagogy, is built upon (hooks, 1994; Freire, 1921). Finally, a specific theoretical aim includes exploring the relationship between difference (diversity) and sameness or unity (equality) in education. From a theoretical perspective, various authors write on tensions between diversity and equality (Abu E-Haj, 2007; Banks, 2022; Giroux, 1985; Fraser, 1997). It is questioned if, underlying the assumed tensions, forms of abyssal thinking are present (Santos, 2007).

Discussions around racism have recently propagated that before meaningful antiracism work can take place, societies must become more self-aware in how racist structures control everyday encounters. As outlined in the 2018 FRA report ‘Being Black in the EU’, racism continues to be a prevalent phenomenon in European countries. Especially in countries such as Finland, where racism has largely been ignored, there is a severe lack of tools for addressing systematic racial oppression. Arising from the Fanonian concept of Otherness (1952 & 1963), Ahmed’s theory of affective encounters (2000 & 2007) and Anderson’s exploration of epistemically safe spaces (2021), the article contemplates how to build learning environments that encourage critical reflections on racist structures among young people. More specifically, this paper explores what kind of space could encourage the formation of an affective community where young people, and the facilitator, come together to discuss, feel and learn about racist structures to challenge the abiding silence.

The theoretical framework presents race as a socially constructed phenomenon used to uphold unequal hierarchies of power, which have also reached their way into formal and informal educational spaces. In line with Ahmed (2000, 2007), the article outlines that the western aim to assimilate non-white bodies into constructions of whiteness has resulted in a structural act of Othering that labels individuals racialised as Other as not belonging. In Finland, previous research has problematised its multicultural approaches to antiracism education and emphasised a lack of tools to approach critical conversations. In response, this paper intertwines concepts of learning space and an affective community to suggest ways in which young people can be guided in developing a critical race consciousness.

By examining interview findings with experts (see methodology for details) in line with theoretical frameworks, the paper asks what experts consider essential in building up spaces for young people to begin constructing a collective understanding of race? The analysis is divided into three main categories: dynamics of power within learning environments, what affective encounters might transpire and addressing behaviours that disrupt the sense of community.

As a starting point for learning spaces, we look at Anderson’s (2021) criticism of safe(r) spaces; rather than providing marginalised groups with support and a sense of safety, they have turned into environments that often protect majorities from feelings of discomfort. In turn, epistemically safe spaces (Anderson, 2021) identify systematic inequalities in knowledge production and promote agency of marginalised groups through challenging normative constructions of knowing. The concept of epistemically safe spaces is intertwined with the Fanonian idea of a dehumanising white gaze and Ahmed’s figure of ‘the stranger’ as a production of affective relations between marginalised people and the white majority. To address the research question, the paper examines the concept of an epistemically safe learning space in encouraging young people to explore production of Otherness as an act of racism, which has become normalised in structures of everyday living.

The other key concept, becoming an affective learning community, arises from bell hooks’ thought that gaining a critical outlook on structural oppression requires learning with each other and about ourselves. Therefore, rather than presenting acts of racism as a personal choice and separating individuals between good people and bad racists, the paper addresses how epistemic awareness of systematic oppression and structural inequity might help in forming a sense of learning together as a community. In summary, the paper aims to visualise how epistemically safe learning spaces might reinforce the formation of an affective community where a group of young people become aware to the world from different perspectives while considering what kind of power dynamics their own position in society might reflect.