Editorial
Melting pot at school remains a dream
Mixité (heterogeneity) at school can increase instead of diminishing the problem of segregation. This is, in short, the out come of a research that I have been carrying out by comparing in Belgium two schools with different organizational models: the first one with a multicultural population and the other with an ethnic preponderance of Turkish and Moroccan girls. The model of “mixed” schools has undoubtedly the advantage of fostering a certain degree of emancipation of students with relation to the most widespread life’s models of the community of origin. However, it also has some “perverse effects”. To this purpose it is worth mentioning the fact that this model, on one hand, contributes to homogenize the school choices on the behavioural styles of the “middle class” and, on the other hand, can reinforce the processes of segregation between the “good” and the “evil” pupils, by relegating the latter to the least prestigious institutions. Furthermore, in mixed schools I could ascertain that students tend to “establish hierarchy” in their curricular choices and specializations. Meaning that those students who opted for the most traditional studies negatively judge those who chose more technical-professional courses, in fact these last ones often belong to ethnic minorities or to socially disadvantaged groups. An attitude that we might notice also in the behaviour of the professors of these schools. In addition to that, the results of the research suggest that in this kind of schools, the students whose performances are the poorest ones, who generally belong to the least supported socio-cultural groups, are disadvantaged. In particular, due to the self-selection effect: the fact of being compared to the “good students” can contribute to a loss of motivation and self-esteem. A situation that, consciously or unconsciously, often leads these students to subsequently choose schools that are deemed “simpler”, and that almost always are also the least prestigious ones.
Texte collected by Corrado Alfano
Emmanuelle Lenel is a sociologist and assistant at the Facultés universitaires Saint-Louis. After conducting several research studies on education in connection with gender issues, she began working on a doctorate in the area of urban sociology. She recently published ‘Réussir au pluriel. Facteurs et logiques de la différenciation sexuée des trajectoires scolaires dans le secondaire’, in Une fille = un garçon?, identifier les inégalités de genre à l’école pour mieux les combattre, Gavray, Cl., Adriaenssens, A. (dir.), L’harmattan,
On the inside: