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Teachers’ Constructions of Students’ Transnational Biographies: Analyses in German and US Schools

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Regimes of Belonging – Schools – Migrations

Abstract

This article explores how teachers in German and US public schools relate to students’ educational paths and experiences in the context of transnational migration. The analysis is based on focus groups held in two schools. Selected sequences were analyzed comparatively with the aid of interpretative methods. The focus groups firstly reveal different types of knowledge and notions of normality teachers draw on when relating to their students’ lives, as well as heterogeneous professional self-positionings. These differences can be linked to local school cultures, professional knowledge repertoires and institutional hierarchies, as well as distinct traditions of anti-discrimination in Germany and the US. Secondly, the analysis highlights overlapping paradoxes of pedagogical professionalism resulting from the tension between students’ transnational biographies and nation-state-oriented school systems.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Undoubtedly, types of mobility which (by law) fall into the category of forced migration potentially create a specific vulnerability due to legal frameworks which are beyond the individual’s control. Yet in this article we focus on similarities rather than on differences in relation to other types of transnational migration, by highlighting the confusion students’ transnational biographies create in nation-state-oriented public schools.

  2. 2.

    Our analysis is part of a comparative qualitative research project on school cultures in migration societies, which was conducted in German and US schools. The EDUSPACE project (2015–2019, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and led by Merle Hummrich, Goethe-University Frankfurt) investigates how schools in Germany and the US refer to issues of diversity and inequity, and how difference is constructed and processed, against the backdrop of distinct histories of migration and racism, as well as different educational policies and approaches to diversity and anti-discrimination. The study is designed as a qualitative multi-level analysis (see Hummrich and Terstegen 2018) with a focus on case studies in four schools. These include analyses of school programs, homepages, focus groups with teachers and interviews with principals, as well as ethnographic writings and audio recordings of classroom interaction (see also Hummrich 2019).

  3. 3.

    Here, we refer to Paul Mecheril’s concept of a migration society (“Migrationsgesellschaft”; see Mecheril 2010, p. 11).

  4. 4.

    All names have been changed for the purpose of anonymization.

  5. 5.

    Here, Pries refers to Elias (1986).

  6. 6.

    For further research on transnational biographies in migration societies see for example Lutz (2004) as well as Apitzsch and Siouti (2014), who use the concept of transnationalization for biographical case studies.

  7. 7.

    Schools can therefore also be examined as transnational educational spaces themselves (see Hinrichsen and Paz Matute 2018).

  8. 8.

    The teachers participating in the discussions were the ones whose classes we observed. The observations in all schools took place in grade 9.

  9. 9.

    “English as a second language”: these are students who are attributed support in the English language. Their first language is mostly Spanish, as they have migrated mainly from South and Central America to the USA. The ESL classes at this school are therefore held in both languages.

  10. 10.

    This term is used to describe a certain mode of generalization, which focuses on similarities with respect to individuals’ positions in social space and life conditions, while disregarding the particularity of individual experience (see Schulze 1997, p. 178).

  11. 11.

    The enduring interpersonal relationships between family members in Syria and in Germany as described here mark an example of social interdependencies (Pries 1996, p. 457) and illustrate transnational dimensions of forced migration.

  12. 12.

    The interview statements were translated by the authors.

  13. 13.

    School cultures are neither uniform nor rigid in themselves but should rather be regarded as contested and alterable (see Helsper 2008; Altrichter 2010).

  14. 14.

    For a comparative perspective on school cultures with regard to transnationalization, see Hummrich (2018).

  15. 15.

    German as a second language (“Deutsch als Zweitsprache”); the provision and organization of DaZ courses varies between schools. During our research, one of the schools we visited provided DaZ in separate classes on different levels for newly arrived migrant students. The other school offered no DaZ classes at all at this time.

  16. 16.

    However, this commitment also reaches its limits when migration- and asylum-related conditions endanger students’ school participation. Sara Fürstenau (2015, p. 161) thus emphasizes these limits of schools as opposed to a challenge which always includes the possibility of a solution to the problem.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Humanities, Otto Von Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany

    Dorothee Schwendowius

  2. Faculty of Education, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Saskia Terstegen

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  1. Dorothee Schwendowius
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  2. Saskia Terstegen
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Correspondence to Dorothee Schwendowius .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Lydia Heidrich

  2. Universitat Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Yasemin Karakaşoğlu

  3. Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany

    Paul Mecheril

  4. Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany

    Saphira Shure

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Schwendowius, D., Terstegen, S. (2021). Teachers’ Constructions of Students’ Transnational Biographies: Analyses in German and US Schools. In: Heidrich, L., Karakaşoğlu, Y., Mecheril, P., Shure, S. (eds) Regimes of Belonging – Schools – Migrations. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-29189-1_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-29189-1_19

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