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ISOTIS - Education inclusive et soutien social pour lutter contre les inégalités dans la société - 2016-2017

ISOTIS - Education inclusive et soutien social pour lutter contre les inégalités dans la sociétéISOTIS - Education inclusive et soutien social pour lutter contre les inégalités dans la société

  1. Scope
  2. Objectives
  3. Results
  4. Experimentation
  5. European networks
  6. French networks
  7. Publications & Presentations

Introduction

Education is central to economic and societal progress, and pivotal to the socio-economic outcomes and life chances of individuals. Among the groups in Europe with persistent educational disadvantages are major immigrant groups from origin countries such as Turkey, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, indigenous ethnic-cultural minority groups, foremost the Romani people, and native-born low-income working class groups. There is a clear need to tackle inequality and the problems arising from diversity to increase participation, integration and deployment of human potential. The proposed research addresses these challenges.

The years from zero to six are formative years for basic cognitive, social and emotional skills. This holds especially for the cognitive and emotional self-regulation systems that emerge around the age of three, but also basic language-learning systems and vocabulary show rapid development and set the stage for further learning (Duff et al., 2015; Fernald et al., 2013; Messer et al., 2015). Low-supportive and deprived environments in early childhood have irreversible consequences for brain development and long term outcomes (Hackman et al., 2010; McClelland et al., 2013).

Currently, one in four children below six years of age is at risk of poverty or social exclusion in Europe (Eurydice, 2014). Poverty and social exclusion are related to numerous risk factors in the family and neighbourhood that have a negative impact on children’s development. Parenting support programmes that help parents to create safe, nurturing and stimulating family environments can have substantial positive effects on children’s cognitive, language and social development (Engle et al., 2011). Likewise, providing high quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) to children can have positive effects on children’s outcomes (Magnuson & Duncan, 2014; Melhuish et al., 2015; Nores & Barnett, 2010).

I. Scope

In the context of increasing diversity, the social mobility of children of disadvantaged families not only depends on educational achievement, but also on social and cultural integration. One of the key challenges for Western societies is their growing cultural heterogeneity (Putnam, 2007). This heterogeneity not only concerns differences between ethnic-cultural groups, but equally differences within these groups (Crul, 2015). Vertovec (2006) has coined the term super-diversity to refer to the complex interplay of ethnicity, religion, language, traditions, and cultural values and practices. Europe’s education systems are in the centre of this super-diversity. It is particularly within classrooms that diversity is contested (Valdes, 1998). How well students from immigrant and cultural minority groups achieve at school is not only related to their attitudes, socioeconomic status and prior education, but also to the quality and receptiveness of the education system (OECD, 2015).

Related to the increasing cultural diversity, there is increasing linguistic diversity. Linguistic diversity is a challenge for Europe’s education systems (Gogolin, 2002; van Gorp & Moons, 2014; Young, 2014; Vetter, 2013). With sustained immigration from countries outside Europe, the increasing migration between European countries, and the recent arrival of refugee families, the number of children who learn the school language as second language is rapidly increasing (Akgündüz et al., 2015a; Eurostat, 2015). Children growing up with a different language than the language of the school, show persistent educational disadvantages over and above disadvantages that arise from low socioeconomic status (Crosson & Lesaux, 2013; Leseman & van Tuijl, 2006; Stanat & Christensen, 2006). Even if multilingualism is favoured, current linguistic super-diversity poses many problems for curriculum, pedagogy and teachers’ competences.

Children from native-born low income families, often with a working class background that spans several generations, show persistent educational disadvantages as well. In many respects these families form cultural communities characterized by shared beliefs, values and practices, and ways of talking (Bernstein, 1975; Heath, 1983; Lareau, 2003; Leseman & van Tuijl, 2006). Family support and early education are equally needed to prevent educational disadvantage in this group. In local neighbourhoods, native-born low-income families often live together with immigrant families in an increasingly diverse and multilingual context, share local services and early childhood provisions, and enrol their children in the same schools. There are tensions reflecting rivalry between groups, lack of inter-cultural contact and decreasing support for multicultural integration, undermining social cohesion (van der Meer & Tolsma, 2014).

Segregation tendencies are a particular manifest in primary and secondary education, with some schools becoming predominantly ‘white’ and others ‘black’ ethnic-cultural minority schools, though segregation also occurs in the ECEC system (Vandenbroeck, 2015). Social and ethnic segregation gives rise to diversity in the quality of learning environments (Brunello & Checchi, 2007). A high concentration of children with disadvantages in a single school leads to accumulation of family-related risks and cognitive delays that decrease the effectiveness of instruction, lower expectations of teachers, and threaten the social climate in schools (Cadima et al., 2013; Loeb et al., 1998; de Haan et al., 2013; Wright & Neuman, 2014).

II. Objectives

ISOTIS aims to contribute to effective policy and practice development at different system levels in order to effectively combat early arising and persisting educational inequalities. ISOTIS will do so by generating evidence-based, contextualized and concrete recommendations and tools for:

(1) supporting disadvantaged families and communities in using their own social, cultural and linguistic resources to create safe and stimulating home environments for their children;

(2) creating effective and inclusive curricula and pedagogies in early childhood education and care centres and primary schools;

(3) professionalization of staff, centres and schools to improve quality and inclusiveness;

(4) establishing inter-agency coordination of support services to children and families;

and (5) developing national (state-level) policies to combat educational inequalities.

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III. Results

(1) To determine educational inequalities in European countries and changes over time in the patterns of inequality as related to changes in educational institutions and policies.

(2) To examine the resources, experiences and perspectives of a number of significant disadvantaged groups in Europe as related to the preschool and primary school system and the local system of support services.

(3) To collect research evidence and expert knowledge on best practice in supporting families of disadvantaged groups to provide informal education and a safe, healthy, nurturing and stable environment to their children.

(4) To collect research evidence and expert knowledge on best practice in curriculum, pedagogy and inclusive climate development in early childhood and primary school education to enhance the accessibility, effectiveness and inclusiveness of these provisions.

(5) To collect research evidence and expert knowledge on innovative practice in professional development in early childhood and primary education to increase the quality, effectiveness and inclusiveness of education practice.

(6) To collect research evidence and expert knowledge on best practice regarding inter-agency coordination and local governance of comprehensive inter-sectoral support services to disadvantaged children, families and communities.  

(7) To disseminate (intermediate) research findings to stakeholders, to initiate debates about the research findings and to involve stakeholders in developing the final policy recommendations.

(8) To develop a set of concrete recommendations and innovative (ICT-based) models for curriculum and pedagogy implementation, professionalization of educators, and governance.

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IV. Experimentation

The first year a survey will be conducted in each of the 10 countries among families- parents of children aged 3-6 years and children 10-16 years with a low income and/or migrant background.

The surveys will be conducted using qualitative and quantitative data and so the appropriate methodology.

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V. European networks

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VI. French networks

As far as France is concerned, the following sites were selected :Montereau & Massy (Essonne, Ile de France)

1- Massy (Essonne), a sensitive urban area (which means that there is a high rate of poverty) with a high level of families with a low income and a migration background mainly from North-Africa (Algeria & Morocco) and sub-Saharan Africa (Mali & Senegal), at 30 minutes South of Paris with a high density of population (industrialised area) 5 130 inhabitants/m² (average in France: 162 inhabitants /km²) with a total population of 48 372 hab (medium sized city). Massy belongs to the Academy of Versailles which represents 9.1% of the total number of pupils in France (aged 6-16 years, compulsory education)

2-  Montereau (Seine & Marne) also a city with a high level of families with a low income and a migration background mainly from North Africa (Algeria & Morocco) but also from Chechenia, at 1 hour South East of Paris with a small density of the population (rural area) with 2015 inhabitants/km² and a total of 18 339 inhabitants (medium sized city). Montereau belongs to the Academy of Creteil which represents 7.1% of the total number of pupils/students aged 6-16 years (compulsory education)

For the children aged 3-6 years and their parents: 

Montereau (Seine et Marne, Ile de France) contact: Maison des familles & City hall of Montereau – department of school and primary education

City hall of Massy- department of Education (secondary school)- Coordinatrice de l’Unité Educative et Parentalité, Direction Jeunesse et Cohésion Sociale

For the teenagers aged 10-16 years & their parents: 

Montereau (Seine et Marne, Ile de France) contact: Maison des familles & City hall of Montereau – department of school and primary education

Massy-  Collège Blaise Pascal & City hall of Massy- department of Education (secondary school)

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VII. Publications & Presentations

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