Language and cultural capital in school experience of Polish children in Scotland

This article addresses the complex relationship between migration and education in the context of recent intra-European labour mobility. It considers how this mobility impacts the education and life chances of migrant students attending schools in Scotland, UK. By examining the experiences of Polish migrant children and youth at schools in Scotland, the article engages with the issues of language, cultural capital transferability and social positioning. Drawing on qualitative data from 65 in-depth interviews with school children aged 5–17 years, their parents and teachers, as well as observations in the contexts of school and home, the article points to a range of factors affecting the transition of migrant pupils to new schools and social environments

Structural dimensions of Roma school desegregation policies in Central and Eastern Europe

Scrutiny of the socio-economic exclusion of the Roma in Central and Eastern Europe has brought attention to the widespread practice of school segregation of Romani children who are automatically placed in classes for the mentally disabled or shunted into separate and inferior schools and classrooms. It is now widely recognised that such practices adversely affect the educational development of Romani children, which in turn dramatically constrains their possibilities to succeed in adult life. Thus far the legislative changes and political commitments to desegregation and integration measures have delivered limited outputs and outcomes. While national programmes face implementation challenges at the local level, the grassroots initiatives are rarely mainstreamed into wider policy strategies. At the end of the day the status quo is preserved. Given that little analytical effort has been made to explain the causes of desegregation failure, this article aims to address the void. It argues that the narrow desegregation aims prevents creation of comprehensive approaches sensitive to structural dimensions of segregation and discrimination. It builds on the policy design theory in order to capture the impact of discourse and policy content on the implementation outputs

Dutch policies on socio-economic and ethnic inequality in education

Item does not contain fulltextSince the 1960s The Netherlands has produced policy to combat educational inequalities stemming from the social milieu and ethnicity of pupils. This policy has evolved from local to central policy and back again to a decentralised level. The initial focus on disadvantaged native Dutch pupils in big cities has shifted to immigrant groups and – at the time of writing – to disadvantaged pupils in general. According to many, the various policies have produced disappointing results. The under-performance of children with under-educated parents from ethnic minorities are still quite large while the under-performance of children of native Dutch working-class parents is somewhat smaller but still substantial. This article gives an overview of the various policies that were implemented over time. It also devotes attention to the outcomes of the policies and the current state of affairs with regard to the achievements and attainment in education of disadvantaged children. In closing, it places the findings in an international perspective and discusses reasons for the policies' disappointing lack of success