I have just published (witha collegue) a new article on Ukrainian children in Polish schools. The article appeared in Human Organizations, the flagship journal of the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA). It is Open Access and you can read it here.
ABSTRACT
Bordering is a process of socio-cultural exclusion. Migration scholars discuss bordering mainly in relation to how immigration status can prevent migrants from accessing public services. In Poland, children regardless of their immigration status have access to free public education, but this does not necessarily mean that foreign-born children are accepted by their classmates and feel that they belong to the school community. In this article, we look at education as a bordering practice that excludes migrant children from full integration into Polish schools. Using ethnographic data, we identify borders present in educational spaces and analyze their social, material, epistemological, and political effects. Our analysis centers on places and actors involved in re/bordering public education in Poznań and Wrocław. We show that schools are important spaces for building social relationships and facilitating integration, but they also become places of exclusion.
IMPLICATIONS
Bordering is an active process of social and cultural exclusion. The concept has been used in studies of migrant education mainly in relation to immigration status that excludes foreign-born children from schooling. In this article, we ask how borders affect both access to formal education and integration within schools in Poland. Our discussion centers both on places and actors involved in re/bordering public education in the cities of Poznań and Wrocław in western Poland, where – apart from physical, political, and legal borders – migrants and refugees are likely to experience other boundaries, which we elucidate using thematic analysis of interviews we conducted with Ukrainian pupils, their parents, and teachers.
SOCIAL MEDIA STATEMENT
Elżbieta M. Goździak and Anzhela Popyk look at education as a bordering practice and ask how borders affect both access to formal education and integration within schools and in the wider Polish society. @Egozdziak
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