To mix or not to mix? Exploring the dispositions to otherness in schools

Abstract

This paper discusses literature around school mix (the school’s social diversity) and school mixing (the interactions between students/parents from different backgrounds), and their possible relationship with the development of democratic dispositions. I draw on the current global context, which is moulded by a tension between national ideologies driven by democratic values and the challenges posed by increasing levels of social diversity. Studies addressing the possible effects of school mix argue that both democratic and exclusionary dispositions may emerge depending on the form heterogeneity takes, particularly depending on whether school mix is translated or not into school mixing. Based on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus or dispositions, the paper outlines an analytical framework to conceptualize the possibilities for democratic dispositions to emerge through the experience of social difference.