‘We value your food but not your language’: Education systems and nation-building processes in Flanders

Abstract

Education systems are crucial social and cultural apparatuses. They are designed to homogenize at least to a large extent the discourses and praxis of the citizens of a nation by channelling them as much as possible through a unified educational system. However, in ethnically and culturally diversified societies, these homogenizing social institutions can become counterproductive as they are primarily designed by and for the dominant ethnic group. This issue is particularly important in nation-building processes, something that is still explicitly ongoing in Flanders (Belgium), as these institutions put forward a unified nation with one culture and language. In this article we study how these macro-level processes can be related to the interaction processes in and between families and schools. The central research question this article tries to answer is: is the idea of a culturally and linguistically unified representation of the Flemish nation relevant when studying teacher-pupil-parent relations? We aim to build upon the existing literature by relating meso-level processes of institutional racialization and culturalization to micro-level interactions in educational settings and to macro-level processes of nation-building in Flanders. To answer these questions, we rely upon data from two qualitative research projects: (1) one study that focuses on the family socialization processes in ethnic majority and minority families and collected 42 interviews with parents; and (2) a second study that focuses on the educational trajectories of students, with specific attention on the school environment, and collected 114 interviews with students and 57 interviews with school actors. The findings show clear similarities between the macro-level processes and the interactions between families and schools in such a way that the article discusses if ongoing and explicit nation-building processes are capable of appreciating the existing diversity in a nation.

(Sub)national and supranational identity among majority and minority youth in superdiverse urban schools

“…Moreover, in Flandersa context wherein (subnational) Flemish identity is quite salient in political and public debates on education (Clycq 2016) already from the age of eleven children with a (predominantly Muslim) Turkish migration background identify significantly less with the Belgian (national) identity than children without an immigration background (Agirdag et al 2016). Thus, research shows that in superdiverse urban areas across Europe youth can (and does) identify with a variety of collective identities and often constructs multidimensional identities (Verkuyten and Martinovic 2012).…”

“…Since their establishment as key institutions in nation-building processes formal education was given as one of its major tasks to socialize children into becoming 'good' (national) citizens and members of collectivities such as a (sub)national society (Green 2013). Therefore, it is argued that studying collective identity formation in education is important, as certain identities are made available in this domain, while others are potentially suppressed (Clycq 2016;Valenzuela 1999). Two major factors can be studied that can deeply influence identification processes of pupils in schools: (1) feelings of discrimination and exclusion of pupils, and (2) the impact of the relations pupils have with their most significant other in education, their teacher.…”

‘I’m a genuine Italian, but not a genuine Italian’: Complex and shifting strategies of ethnic and moral boundary making in the narratives of Italian minority parents in Flanders

“…Respondents see it as their task to pass on what they imagine as ‘typically Italian’. As they lack to a large extent the institutional support from, for example, formal Flemish educational systems and schools to pass this on – a partly ethno-cultural support system native Flemish parents heavily rely on in their socialization processes – they feel obliged to construct new strategies (Clycq, 2016). They argue this is a core task they as a parent have to take on because they are Italians and thus their children are (to a large extent) too.…”

Feeling at home in school: Migrant youths’ narratives on school belonging in Flemish secondary education

“…The short interview extract below, in which she describes how in other schools 'Moroccan' teachers are 'Belgianised' in the sense that they take over the attitudes of 'Belgian' teachers and reprimand or punish students for not speaking Dutch, is illustrative of the monolingual ideology that reigns in Flemish schools and society more generally (see e.g. Agirdag, 2010;Clycq, 2017;Van Der Wildt et al, 2017). I think that in another school a Moroccan teacher wouldn't be able to be herself.…”