The interactions among identity, power, and inclusive practice in a minority-language school

Carla DiGiorgio, PhDFaculty 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 societyCapital can be economic, cultural, social or symbolicCapital 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 institutionsE.g. family, law, educationEach institution has its own rules, hence its own power distributionHowever, 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 studyResearcher as parent/community member/teacher/French speaker?Data and methods of data collection: interviews, observations, document analysisData 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 eventsDocument analysis of newspaper articles, school and school board documents, pamphlets, and websites.

Findings: A model of inclusion?

Identity Power

Inclusive practice

A revised model for parents and educators

capital

power

Traits/possessions

choices

Decisions/threats

School decisions

Effects on students

Identity1. 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

Identity2. 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 meetingssocial 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.

Identity3. 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 classesidentities 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 modelsChildren 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

Social: Francophone, English families, other barriers, teachers’ social groups

Cultural: embodied (e.g. language), objectified (products) and institutional (diplomas)

Symbolic: resources, entertainment, car, time.

Keep school open

Pass the word alongSocial network

Speak the languageMember of communityLive the cultureAre qualified and educated

Help children succeedAdd to reputation as a sort of private school

AdvantagesFrench vs. English

Social capital in French communityCultural capital for children to live culture, speak language, succeed at schoolCan communicate with school

Social capital in English communityCultural capital in English communitySymbolic capital in English communityEconomic capital Access to English resources, e.g. with special needs

DisadvantagesFrench vs. English

May not have economic capitalMay have disabilitiesMay be single parentsMay have health issues

May not be able to communicate, get involved with schoolGender issue because many French parents are maleLack of full family participationChildren may have difficulty with language, less help at homeLess dedicated to the mandate of the schoolLess loyalty to the school, depending on level of disability

English

French

School principal

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. co-teaching

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 inclusionLanguage and inclusion of special needs were at odds at timesClientele and employees could change at any time, therefore a very tenuous balanceSchool 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 neededParents 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 capitalThe 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 characteristicsCommon social and cultural circles in a small communitySchools respond publicly and privately to maintain and improve public image and private expectationsThe academic vs. social roles of school still limit potential of inclusionHowever, 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 familiesStudents 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 childrenThey won capital by buying into the cultural community of the schoolEconomic clout led to better service for these parentsParents 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