07. Social Justice and Intercultural Education
Paper
The Pursuit of Social Justice: Schools’ Self-evaluation and Resilience Approaches of TEIP Schools Located in Portuguese Border Regions
Marta Sampaio
Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Portugal
Presenting Author: Sampaio, Marta
Since the 74 Portuguese Revolution, policies associated with the promotion of school success and education improvement were implemented and justified based on social justice principles. One of these policy measures was the TEIP program - Educational Territories of Priority Intervention (like French ZEP). This policy implies the promotion of innovation through the identification of local problems, namely, for schools in territories/regions characterized by poverty and social exclusion where dropout and school failure are more evident; and mandatory schools' self-evaluation processes (Law 147-B/ME/96). Some of these TEIP schools are located in Portugal's border regions which already suffer from structural inequalities as well as unequal access to local services, education prospects, and job opportunities. These regions have high levels of school underachievement and high rates of illiteracy when compared with coastal territories. Moreover, due to regional inequalities and depopulation, the National Program for Territorial Cohesion (2018) was created based on the need to provide equitable services and access justified as an important issue in terms of social justice between different territories.
In fact, border regions have additional challenges that may print specificities to local policy developments in addition to the heterogeneity of border regions themselves. In 2023, 146 school clusters are included in the TEIP program and, in addition, 10 of them are in border regions (Mogadouro, Freixo de Espada à Cinta, Idanha-a-Nova, Castelo Branco, Portalegre, Serpa, Elvas, Mourão, Moura and Vila Real de Santo António). The social and demographic scenario regarding Portuguese border regions illustrates striking opportunity inequalities for young people living in these regions (Silva, 2014) and this is why addressing these issues is a matter of social and educational justice (Sampaio, Faria & Silva, 2023). Fraser (2001, 2008) states that social justice results from a dualistic dynamic between recognition and redistribution that, idealistically, should be balanced. Whilst redistribution seeks a more equal distribution of material resources, recognition calls for institutionalized cultural values that express equal respect for all actors, thus ensuring equal opportunities for social recognition (Fraser, 2008). Taken the portrait of the Portuguese border regions, this dynamic is undermined as the struggle for recognition occurs in a context characterized by countless inequalities that may be material, also demanding redistribution, considering the lower incomes and limited access to employment; but also, the symbolic demand for recognition of identity differences linked to geographical, historical and cultural context (Sampaio, Faria e Silva, 2023).
Indeed, as youth transitions are generally accepted to have become more protracted, heterogeneous, complex, and non-linear over time (Furlong et al., 2019; Sanderson, 2020), young people face new opportunities and risks, where social structures continue to shape life experiences opportunities (Furlong et al., 2019). There is also growing evidence that young people from these regions value the role of school in their pathways (Silva, 2014). Some authors even consider that the resilience of schools as organizations may positively influence the students’ education path quality (Ungar, 2012; Whitney, Maras & Schisler, 2012) despite being in unequal conditions compared with others. Additionally, previous works (Sampaio & Leite, 2015; Sampaio, 2018) showed that social justice inside the TEIP program is related to schools' self-evaluation processes. So, if schools play a fundamental role in building a social justice ideal, it is then essential to pay attention to how schools are mediated by politics, power, and ideology, as well as the contradictions among them. Given this, can schools’ self-evaluation promote social justice inside these TEIP schools and, at the same time, make schools more resilient? This is the guiding question of this paper.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe data analysed in this paper is grounded on a large-scale study on resilience, engagement, and sense of belonging of young people growing up in border regions of Portugal, (GROW.UP - Grow up in border regions in Portugal: young people, educational pathways and agendas – PTDC/CED-EDG/29943/2017). Following a qualitative orientation (Braun & Clarke, 2013) this research aims to answer one main question: can schools’ self-evaluation promote social justice inside these TEIP schools and, at the same time, make schools more resilient? More specifically, this research aims to: (1) identify specificities of TEIP schools from border regions, and (2) map locally grounded approaches and practices that foster resilience and self-evaluation practices with a focus on social justice.
The data consists of 38 face-to-face semi-structured interviews with school leaders from the 38 schools located in border regions, 10 of which are part of the TEIP program. The goal is to gather school leaders' perceptions on TEIP school specificities in border regions and the impact of the TEIP policy on social justice, including criteria related to self-evaluation processes, as well as identify conditions that favor schools' resilience. These participants were interviewed through semi-structured interviews (Hopf, 2004) focusing on the main aims of this research as previously pointed out. The data will be analyzed through content analysis (Bardin, 2011), using the NVivo software.
The nature of this research raises ethical issues since the data collection involves contact with a variety of people and the gathering of their perceptions and opinions. To ensure compliance with ethical requirements the research protocol was submitted to the scrutiny of an ethical committee for validation.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsSome preliminary results point out that border region schools are perceived as a mechanism to promote the dynamics of inclusion and participation of young people, as well as a mechanism for the dynamization and vitality of their communities (Yndigegn, 2003; Amiguinho, 2008). There seems to be an understanding of school as a resourceful social space to promote the well-being of young people and to support and engage them in positive educational pathways and future prospects. Also, compared with the non-TEIP schools, there seems to be an additional experience in the TEIP schools' working background that drives the development of actions and practices towards achieving social justice, in particular through educational activity follow-up and evaluation and concerns linked to curricular contextualization. Based on the interviews collected, the locally grounded approaches and practices associated with schools with resilience features are based on self-evaluation processes as a way for schools to be aware of their current situation and available to reorganise when necessary since their actions are assessed and monitored to mobilise and maximise their strengths. There are different features in these schools that the literature considers to be associated with schools with resilience approaches, namely, practices (e.g. mobilisation of data to inform decisions), cultures (e.g. a school that understands itself as embedded and in interpellation with the environment) and policies (e.g. capacity to respond and local adaptation).
References•Amiguinho, A. (2008). A escola e o futuro do mundo rural [School and the future of the rural world]. Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.
•Braun, V. & Clarke, V. 2013. Successful qualitative research: a practical guide for beginners. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
•Fraser, N. 2001. Da redistribuição ao reconhecimento? Dilemas da justiça na era pós-socialista. In J. Souza (Ed.), Democracia hoje: Novos desafios para a teoria democrática contemporânea (pp. 245-282). UnB.
•Fraser, N. 2008. Escalas de justicia. Herder.
•Furlong, A., Goodwin, J., O’Connor, H., Hadfield, S. Hall, S., Lowden, K., & Plugor, R. 2019. Young people in the labour market: Past, present, future. Routledge.
•Hopf, C. 2004. Qualitative Interviews: An overview. In Uwe Flick, Ernst von Kardoff & Ines Steinke (Eds.), A companion to qualitative research (203-208). London: Sage Publications.
•Law 147-B/ME/96
•National Program for Territorial Cohesion. 2018.
•Sampaio, M. & Leite, C. 2015. A Territorialização das Políticas Educativas e a Justiça Curricular: o caso TEIP em Portugal [The Territorialization of Educational Policies and Curricular Justice: the case of TEIP programme in Portugal]. Currículo sem Fronteiras, 15, 3, 715-740.
•Sampaio, M. 2018. Avaliação Externa de Escolas e programa TEIP: que lugar(es) para a justiça social? [School External Evaluation and TEIP programme: questioning for social justice] Porto: FPCEUP.
•Sampaio, M., Faria, S., & Silva, S. M. da. 2023. Aspirations and transitions to higher education: Portraits of young people living in Portuguese border regions. Revista de Investigación Educativa, 41(1), 223-242. DOI: https://doi.org/10.6018/rie.520181
•Sanderson, E. 2020. Youth transitions to employment: Longitudinal evidence from marginalised young people in England. Journal of Youth Studies, 23(10), 1310-1329. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2019.1671581
•Silva, Sofia M. 2014. Growing up in a Portuguese Borderland. In Children and Borders Spyros Spyrou & Miranda Christou, 62-77. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
•Ungar, M. 2012. Social Ecologies and Their Contribution to Resilience. In M. Ungar (Ed.), The Social Ecology of Resilience: A Handbook of Theory and Practice (13-31). New York: Springer
•Whitney, S., Maras, A., & Schisler, L. 2012. Resilient schools: connections between districts and schools. Middle Grades Research Journal, 7(3), 35-50.
•Yndigegn, C. (2003). Life planning in the periphery: Life chances and life perspectives for young people in the Danish-German border region. Young, Nordic Journal of Youth Research, 11(3), 235-251. https://doi.org/10.1177/11033088030113003
07. Social Justice and Intercultural Education
Paper
Co-production as a Catalyst for Social Justice: Empowering Student Voices in Finnish Secondary School Education
Keith O'Neill1,2, Jenni Alisaari2,3, Anna Kuusela2, Anuleena Kimanen2, Aleksi Seger2, Samaneh Khalili2
1Åbo Akademi University; 2University of Turku; 3University of Stockholm
Presenting Author: O'Neill, Keith
The benefits of student participation in educational design has long been established. Furthermore, in both education and civic particiaption the importance of critical agency has been shown to be highly beneficial for participation and attainment. Minorities and marginalized youth seem to benefit from developing critical consciousness (Diemer et al., 2015). This research aims to highlight the opportunities and challenges of co-production in the Finnish secondary educational system and sets out to illustrate how, when utilized effectively, co-production can be effective in improving both the design and delivery of educational programs which invariably shape educational climate. This research seeks to further expand the analysis of co-production by going deeper, by framing the argument in terms of what traditionally marginalized groups in educational organisations (students) can contribute in designing and delivering educational experiences and achieving social justice as localized, grassroots constituents of educational organisations.
As a normative concept social justice is fairly recent, stemming back to the middle of the 19th century, however as a sociological practice, its roots are ancient, with evidence of what we now call social justice stemming back millennia. In recent years the term has become weaponised, taking on new political meanings and contestations. This research refers to social justice in a normative sense, that being the Rawlsian conception of rights and opportunities for individuals, regardless of their race, gender, religion, class of origin, natural talents and reasonable conception of a good life.
Previous studies have shown that Finnish lower-secondary school students are not very active in civic participation nor school democracy (Schulz et al., 2018.)” Thus, more effective social justice education would be needed, entailing analysis of systems of power and oppression and aiming to promote social change and student agency. Four tools for this are: factual information, critical analysis, personal reflection and action, and awareness of group dynamics of culturally diverse groups (Hackman 2005). Democratic and inclusive practices are often seen as fundamental. This requires reciprocal relationship between teachers and students fostering their identities and advocating for their active participation (Hackman, 2016; Klaasen, 2020).
The theory of co-production goes beyond participation. While participation allows for some input, when realised to its full capacity, co-production enables people with lived experience to play an equal role in both designing and delivering services (Ostrom 1996; Pestoff 2014; Turnhout et al. 2020; McMullin 2022). The topic of this research surrounds the potential for co-production in lower-secondary education to act as a catalyst to increase social justice in the Finnish educational sector, and furthermore seeks to understand more about student engagement in regulating and negotiating organisational capacity, to which they themselves are deeply contingent upon. The topic of this research thus directly relates to the expansion of democracy to groups in society historically understood as having low productive value in sustaining democracy and democratic principles, namely young people. This is investigated with the following research questions:
RQ1: How do students act as representatives of their own interests to seek empowerment?
RQ2: To what extent do students themselves see their role in shaping and formulating educational climate to achieve social justice?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedFor this study the research team collected data using semi-structured group-interviews. The participants (N= 55) were diverse students from two different schools in Finland.
The age group of the students who participated were between 15-17 years old, from diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds.
Participants were recruited with an open call for both students and teaching staff. The research team visited the schools’ lower-secondary 8th grade and upper-secondary 2nd grade classes and presented the study and its purpose to investigate students’ perceptions on their sense of belonging and engagement at school. Especially students who speak other languages than the language of schooling were invited to participate in the study. One of the teachers offered her English classes to be the sites of the research interviews. All the students and their guardians were informed about the study by sending them a letter including the purpose of the study, information on the interviews, the ethical procedures and the possibility either to participate or not in the study.
The group-interviews were organised in autumn 2022. In the interviews there were 4 – 6 students and 2 interviewers in each group. The discussions were recorded and then transcribed by one of the researchers. Up to this point, the transcribed data were used for a content-driven thematic analysis, however the subsequent phase will implement a discourse analysis.
To code the data, author 2 read the responses to gain an initial understanding of the data and identify sub-categories for coding the data. Author 1 used NVivo software to make initial codes. The suggested categories were then discussed among authors 1 and 2; categories were decided upon. Categories relevant to this research paper that arose from the data were (1) belonging, (2) school climate, (3) social justice; (4) engagement
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsOur preliminary findings indicate that students offer localised solutions for gender equality, anti-racism and inclusivity. As grassroots inhabitants of educational organisations, students themselves are well positioned to offer sound practical and pedagogical solutions to foster a more holistic and responsive educational environment, tailored towards meeting their needs, as defined by themselves; “bottom-up”. While acknowledging that full co-production is unlikely in educational design and delivery owing to the structural nature of educational context, two important findings from the research are identifiable at this preliminary stage:
1. Some students have a lot to offer in designing and delivering improved educational experiences.
2. Some students do not consider themselves viable agents in discerning solutions for educational improvement, suggesting a wider issue surrounding a democratic deficit in Finnish secondary level education.
While this research is grounded in the Finnish context, it may also be relevant to educational systems outside of the Finnish specific context. The data suggests that the students themselves, representative of varied economic positions, identity backgrounds and life experiences, can offer tangible solutions to improving school experience by identifying key areas which could be improved in the school environment, particularly for students experiencing discrimination and inequality - important areas that need to be challenged according to conventional proclamations towards expanding civil and political rights, and achieving social justice.
ReferencesDiemer, M. A., McWhirter, E. H., Ozer, E. J., & Rapa, L. J. (2015). Advances in the conceptualization and measurement of critical consciousness. The Urban Review, 47(5), 809–823. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-015-0336-7
Hackman, Heather. (2005). Five Essential Components for Social Justice Education. Equity & Excellence in Education, 38. 103-109. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665680590935034.
Klaasen, J.S., (2020). Socially just pedagogies and social justice: The intersection of teaching ethics at higher education level and social justice. HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies, 76(1), a5818. https://doi. org/10.4102/hts.v76i1.5818
Ostrom, E. (1996). Crossing the Great Divide: Co-production, Synergy, and Development. World development 24(6), 1073-1087. https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(96)00023-X
McMullin, C. (2023). Individual, Group, and Collective Co-production: The Role of Public Value Conceptions in Shaping Co-production Practices. Journal of Administration and Society 55(2), 239–263. https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997221131790
Pestoff, V. (2014). Collective Action and the Sustainability of Co-production. Public Management Review, 16(2), 383-401. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2013.841460
Schulz, W., Ainley, J., Fraillon, J., Losito, B., Agrusti, G. & Friedman, T. (2018). Becoming Citizens in a Changing World. IEA International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2016 International Report. Springer.
Turnhout, E., Metze, T., Wyborn, C., Klenk, N., & Louder, E. (2020). The Politics of Co-production: Participation, Power, and Transformation. Environmental Sustainability, 43(1), 15-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2019.11.009
07. Social Justice and Intercultural Education
Paper
Teaching Arabic to Scottish Primary Educators. A Reflection on Decolonial Possibilities
Giovanna Fassetta
University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
Presenting Author: Fassetta, Giovanna
This paper discusses the Welcoming Languages (WLs) project, with a specific, critical focus on the elements of decoloniality as de-linking embedded in project’s aims, objectives and processes. The WLs is a 12-month proof-of-concept project funded by the UKRI (AHRC, funding Ref n. AH/W006030/1) between Jan 2022 and Jan 2023. The project was collaboratively designed and carried out by an international team based at the University of Glasgow (Scotland) and at the Islamic University of Gaza (Palestine).
The project explored the potential for inclusion of a ‘refugee language’ in Scottish education as a way to enact the idea of integration as a two-way process that is at the heart of the "New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy" (Scottish Government, 2018). It did this by offering a tailored beginner Arabic language course to education staff in Scottish primary
Schools. Arabic is a language spoken by many children and families who make Scotland their home (who we call here, in line with the Strategy, the ‘New Scots’). Arabic was also chosen as it is the language in which the international team has a long history of collaboration, having previously designed an Arabic course for beginners.
The WLs project started from the premise that, by learning language useful in a school setting, education staff can make Arabic speaking children and parents/carers feel welcome, to see that their language is valued and that staff in their school are willing to make the effort to move ‘towards’ them. Throughout, the project sought to ‘delink’, that is to “[…] change the terms in addition to the content of the conversation” (Mignolo, 2007: 459) in order to “[…] reorient our human communal praxis of living” (Mignolo, 2018: 106). The project pursued a delinking in several ways. Firstly, it challenged the expectation that it is the (sole) duty and it is the sole responsibility of New Scots to make themselves understood. This meant ‘delinking’ the role of language in Scottish education from the unquestioned teaching of the national/majority language(s) and of a smattering of standardised named European languages. Secondly, by grounding the course content on the linguistic needs identified by Scottish staff and by Arabic speaking children and families, the project delinked language learning from the accumulation of an object/system to be ‘had’, instead grounding learning in the “analyses of local language practices and assemblages” (Pennycook, 2019). Thirdly, the project made a deliberate (and deliberated) choice of teaching the Levantine Arabic dialect spoken by most New Scots, rather than opting for the standard variety of the language. This meant delinking the target language from the colonial assumption that official, standardised varieties of a language have higher status, and thus are more worthy of being taught/learnt (Macedo, 2019). Fourthly, through the crucial expertise of the Palestinian members of the team, who took leadership in developing and delivering a tailored course, the WLs project delinked international research with LMIC countries from widespread assumptions around who has needs and who provides solutions (Fassetta and Imperiale, 2021).
The WLs project shows that it is possible to build a culture of hospitality that includes language as a crucial component, to make space in Scottish education for the many languages that New Scots bring with them. It argues schools can accommodate a greater number of languages, including those of the people and the communities who have more recently settled in Scotland (Phipps and Fassetta, 2015), and that learning the languages spoken by New Scots can be a way to act in favour “[…] of conviviality, harmony, creativity and plenitude [which] are some of the ideals and interests that decoloniality promotes” (Mignolo, 2018: 109).
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe WLs project consisted of an intervention, which was carried out in four primary schools of the Glasgow City Council area. After having contacted the schools and identified 25 Scottish educators (class teachers, headteachers, EAL teachers, nurture teachers, etc) interested in being part of the project, the intervention was articulated into four different phases.
Phase 1. Needs analysis. At this stage, the UofG team run focus groups with staff in participating schools to gather their language needs. Moreover, Arabic speaking children and their parents/carers were asked what language they thought it would be crucial to include in the Arabic course for staff in their school. For parents/carers this was done through multilingual (Arabic and English) focus groups. With children, the focus groups were both multilingual and multimodal, as they included group conversations and posters.
Phase 2. The Palestinian team, with the support of the project's Research Associate, developed an online Arabic language course that took on board the needs that emerged from the language needs analysis identified in Phase 1.
Phase 3. Staff in the participating primary schools took a 10-lesson beginners Arabic language course (20 hrs in total) designed by the Palestinian team. The course was divided into two blocks of 5 lessons each, one before and one after the summer holidays and was taught online by the Palestinian team.
Phase 4. After Phase 3 was completed, the UofG team carried out individual interviews and focus groups with participating primary school staff who had been learning Arabic and a focus group with Arabic speaking children, to gather feedback and evaluate the extent to which the project achieved its aims. It also gathered feedback from the Arabic language experts at IUG through individual interviews.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe final evaluation shows that the WLs project managed to unsettle the terms and the content of the conversation in several ways. (i) Challenging the responsibility for communication. Scottish education staff were eager to find ways to communicate with ‘New Scots’ children/families in Arabic and expressed the need and willingness to move towards children/families to offer them ‘linguistic hospitality’ (Phipps, 2012). This meant learning Arabic to address immediate practical needs/concerns and to ensure engagement, but also as a symbolic gesture which was seen as having huge value in ensuring welcoming and inclusion. (ii) Reversing the teacher/learner dynamic. Being in the position of a language learner helped education staff to decentre their understanding, to see the challenges experienced by language learners, both children and parents/carers, and to critically reflect on their own teaching approaches. (iii) Questioning the dominance of European languages. Scottish staff noted that their language learning resulted in an increased interest towards all languages in all pupils. Some Scottish educators, moreover, openly challenged the need to learn exclusively European languages in schools where they are not spoken nor likely to be of relevance. (iii) Re-locating expertise. Arabic speaking children reported feelings of wellbeing knowing that staff are learning their language, and gratification at being in a position of expertise. Scottish staff agree on the importance of a language course that was built on needs they had identified and believed that this was crucial in maintaining motivation. Moreover, the project drew on the huge amount of knowledge, skills and expertise of the Palestinian team, which was invaluable to redress the needs of the Global North partner. (iv) Challenging stereotypes. An unexpected outcome of the project was the way in which for some participants, the Arabic lessons challenged portrayals of the Gaza Strip as a place of devastation, grief, and desolation.
ReferencesFassetta, G. and Imperiale, M.G. (2021). Revisiting indigenous engagement, research partnerships, and knowledge mobilisation: Think piece. In: Heritage, P. (ed.) Indigenous Research Methods: Partnerships, Engagement and Knowledge Mobilisation. People's Palace Projects.
Macedo, D. (2019) Rupturing the Yoke of Colonialism in Foreign Language Education. An Introduction. In Macedo, D. (ed.). Decolonising Foreign Language Education. The Misteaching of English and Other Colonial Languages. Abingdon: Routledge.
Mignolo, W.D. (2018). What does it mean to decolonize? Ch 5 In: Mignolo, W.D. and Walsh, C.E. On Decoloniality: Concepts, Analytics, Praxis. Durham (NC): Duke University Press.
Mignolo, W.D. (2007). DELINKING, Cultural Studies, 21(2-3): 449-514.
Pennycook (2019). From Translanguaging to Translingual Activism. Ch 6 in: Macedo, D. (ed.) Decolonising Foreign Language Education. The Misteaching of English and Other Colonial Languages. Abingdon: Routledge.
Phipps, A. (2012). Voicing Solidarity: Linguistic Hospitality and Poststructuralism in the RealWorld. Applied Linguistics, 33(5): 582–602
Scottish Government (2018). New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy 2018-2022. Available from: https://www.gov.scot/publications/new-scots-refugee-integration-strategy-2018-2022/documents/. Last accessed 27/01/2023
07. Social Justice and Intercultural Education
Paper
Socio-educational Variables Influencing the Integration Process of Refugee Families in Spain: Proposal of a Model.
Jesica Núñez García, Alexandra Miroslava Rodríguez Gil, Kateline de Jesus Brito Tavares
University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Presenting Author: Núñez García, Jesica
The increase in migratory movements and, in particular, forced displacements since 2015 has led to a significant increase in the number of third-country nationals seeking protection in different European countries, which, together with the uncertainty that characterises the reception and asylum process in the receiving communities, requires studies that, from the educational and social field, show potential courses of action in the face of such genuine circumstances (ACNUR, 2020; Cernadas et al., 2019; Donato & Ferris, 2020; Iglesias-Martínez & Estrada, 2018; Iglesias et al., 2016; Pace & Severance, 2016).
This is why understanding the various factors that condition the integration of third-country nationals is key to the effectiveness of policy interventions. Policy-makers need to know which categories of participants are involved in the integration process and what their specific characteristics are. Furthermore, they must examine the role of the different social fields, institutions and entities involved in integration. On this basis, we must highlight the indicators and determining factors for achieving integration, as well as the problems or difficulties in this process (Hynie, 2018; Wolffhardt et al., 2019).
Therefore, we start from the ‘two-way process’ approach to the concept of integration, applied mainly in the field of forced migration and refugee status. (Ager & Strang, 2008; Castles et al. 2002; Iglesias-Martínez & Estrada, 2018; Klarenbeek, 2021; Strang & Ager, 2010). Specifically, we refer to the connection between "belonging" and rights and values, the role of social capital in integration processes, and the dynamic interconnectedness of the dimensions that constitute integration as a ‘two-way process’.
In this sense, in our study, we follow the ten core domains identified by Ager and Strang (2008), which reflect normative arrangements, while providing a potential structure for the analysis of integration processes. Specifically, they consider the successful attainment of and access to education, employment, health and housing; processes of social connectedness within and between community groups; barriers arising from lack of cultural and linguistic competencies, and from fear and instability; and assumptions and practices about citizenship and rights. Beyond identifying possible 'indicators', we based the paper on a conceptual framework that encompasses the key components of integration.
This model incorporates common elements found in other research attempting to define and measure integration (Berger-Schmitt, 2002; Cantle, 2005; Sigona, 2005), as it bring together perceptions of the key challenges that determine the integration of refugees in disparate contexts. Furthermore, these indicators form the basis of subsequent studies (Bakker et al., 2016; Correa-Velez et al., 2015; Fozdar & Hartley, 2013; Grzymala-Kazlowska & Phillimore, 2018; Hynie, 2018), as they explore social capital as an explanatory concept for integration processes.
In a context in which the growing social and educational interest in attending to intercultural coexistence is more than evident, the aim of this paper focuses on the importance of examining integration and the factors that condition it. Specifically, the main objective of this research is to analyse the process of integration of refugees, asylum seekers, applicants for asylum, subsidiary or international protection in the educational, social and labour fields in Spain. More specifically, we study which variables influence the integration of refugee families and which can enhance this process fully in a society characterised by uncertainty.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedWe have opted for a non-experimental research of an exploratory and descriptive character, under a quantitative methodological approach, while the data were obtained through the Integration Questionnaire for Refugee Families (CIFRE)*, from which we have been able to identify socio-educational variables that influence the integration process. Specifically, the CIFRE is made up of 28 questions grouped into 6 central blocks. In addition, it includes 5 scales designed to measure the opinion of families in relation to: family involvement in the education of their children; satisfaction with the host country; the importance given to and fulfilment of expectations for the future in the host community; the procedures followed for the resolution of problems encountered in the integration process; and the assessment of the situation experienced so far in the host country.
With regard to the selection of participants, we opted for a non-probabilistic purposive sample, locating participants through organisations that work with forcibly displaced persons in Spain. More specifically, ten (10) organisations provided us with access to their users. In addition, we used the snowballing procedure, progressively expanding the participants through contacts facilitated by other subjects who are in the same or a nearby social network, thus increasing the sample with families located in different areas of the national geography.
The sample is made up of 157 refugees, asylum seekers, subsidiary protection or international protection residing in Spain. Specifically, they are mothers (40.7%) or fathers (32%), although we also have a considerable number who are included in a category that we call others (27.3%), which includes legal guardians, members of the extended family or adults who indicate that they do not have children. These are young people, aged between 25 and 37 (M=36.30; SD = 10.01), and mostly asylum seekers (74.7%).
* The design of the CIFRE Questionnaire is carried out in the context of the research carried out in the UNINTEGRA Project (2017-2019) funded by the European Commission's Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) (https://unintegra.usc.es/).
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsFollowing the theoretical-conceptual framework proposed by Ager and Strang (2008), which provides structure to the analysis of integration processes by identifying its determinant dimensions, such as education, employment, housing, health, social connections, language skills, security, and rights and citizenship, we have carried out bivariate correlations between all variables, as a preliminary step to proposing an explanatory model of the integration of people benefiting from protection. The data from this first analysis allow us to affirm that the variables employment (r=.177, p=.000), education (r=.188, p=.000), health (r=.160, p=.001), security (r=.437, p=.000) and rights (r=.781, p=. 000) correlate significantly with the integration variable (dependent variable), but in addition many independent variables correlate with each other (accommodation, language, stability and support), indicating the existence of a probable mediation between what are theoretically considered independent variables and the dependent variable.
Therefore, the model we propose shows that the variables access to employment, having a support network, satisfaction with one's own and family members' health, feeling of security and having rights as a citizen directly influence the integration process, but also many independent variables correlate with each other. In addition, we report a good fit of the model (χ2 =1.7; GFI=.98; RMSEA=.040 [.019-.059]; and SRMR=.050).
In short, the bidirectional and multidimensional character of the integration of third-country nationals in host communities is therefore evident, with a multitude of dimensions mediating and directly influencing the integration process. We therefore highlight the need to promote mechanisms and actions that involve the refugee and indigenous population in the integration processes through intercultural education, drawing up lines of educational exploration that address the challenges involved among the host communities.
ReferencesACNUR. (2020). Tendencias Globales. Desplazamiento forzado en 2020. https://www.acnur.org/60cbddfd4
Ager, A. & Strang, A. (2008). Understanding Integration: A Conceptual Framework. Journal of Refugee Studies, 21(2), 166–191.
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