Scientific Research and Educational Success of Migrants and Cultural Minorities: An Analysis of One Contribution from the Social Sciences to the European Social Cohesion
Author: Ramis, Mimar , mimarramis@ub.edu
Department: Sociological Theory, Philosophy of Law and Methodology of the Social Sciences
University: University of Barcelona, Spain
Supervisor: Esther Oliver and Iñaki Santa Cruz
Year of completion: 2012
Language of dissertation: English
Keywords:
education
, minorities
, successful actions
, policy
Areas of Research:
Education
, Migration
Abstract
This thesis stems from the goal to understand whether there is a relationship between the lack of implementation of evidence-based successful actions in countries with a significant rate of migrants and/or minority groups and their educational failure. Furthermore, we also understand that evidence-based educational provisions are key to attaining educational success among migrants and cultural minorities.
To address these questions, first we identified the successful educational actions that are pointed out by the international scientific community (ISC) as contributing to the educational success of both migrants and minorities. Secondly, we analyzed some of the main educational policies that are addressed and implemented with these communities: with a preliminary analysis of data regarding the situation at a European level, to then deepen into the particular cases of four selected countries. To study the main policies and the educational actions addressed to migrants and cultural minorities, we selected four member states from the European Union: The Netherlands (NL), Spain (ES), The Czech Republic (CZ) and France (FR) according to the presence of migrants and/or cultural minorities among their schooling population and the diversity among the educational results for migrants and cultural minorities. The analysis in the four selected countries enabled us to identify the limited extent to which the policies and subsequent educational actions explored are taking into account the recommendations that the ISC has made in regards to what brings educational success for migrants and cultural minorities. Furthermore, one of the particular case studies investigated in the context of the INCLUD-ED Project (http://creaub.info/included/), the Montserrat school, was analyzed - selected as object of study for this research due to the success that migrants and cultural minorities in this school are achieving. We focused on the study of the implementation of successful educational actions that were bringing success to those most underprivileged vulnerable groups in society. The Communicative Methodology, a cardinal element in the development of the INCLUD-ED project throughout the research also guided the elaboration of this thesis. The goal of this methodology is to identify both the dimensions that reproduce social exclusion as well as those components that contribute to social exclusion, in particularly complex contexts or with vulnerable groups such as migrants and cultural minorities. The use of this methodology in our research has allowed setting the focus on the transformative dimensions of the research, those that identify the educational actions that bring success to migrants and cultural minorities. In the third part of the work, a school with a high percentage of migrants and cultural minorities among its population and where they are achieving educational success is identified, the Mare de Déu de Montserrat School (MD Montserrat School). The research work focused on the educational actions implemented in this school to know how they function and what the elements that bring success are. Our analysis confirmed that if the scientific evidence is implemented following the orientations of the international scientific community, success for these most vulnerable groups is achieved.
