Identity projects in complementary and mainstream schools: the views of Albanian and Bulgarian students in England

Abstract

This paper contributes to the literature on complementary schools as sites of learning and social and cultural identification. We draw on a small-scale multi-method qualitative study conducted in Albanian and Bulgarian community schools in London to explore the agendas of ‘new’ Eastern European complementary schools with respect to learning and heritage and their impact on migrant students’ identities and experiences with education in the UK. Findings demonstrate that different models of complementary schooling and students’ experiences of mainstream education affected students’ views in different ways. The paper explores how the ‘hard’ and ‘boring’ culture of Bulgarian complementary school resulted in students’ expressions of greater liking for learning in mainstream school and valuing of its multiethnic context. It further examines how practices in another complementary school and students’ wider social experiences resulted in a stronger sense of Albanian heritage identity in students, but in more problematic views of UK cultural diversity. In elaborating these themes we seek to draw some implications for policy and practice.

Keywords:

• identity
• complementary school
• migrant students
• Bulgarian
• Albanian

Acknowledgements

This research has been supported by the British Academy (ref. VS100002). We wish to thank all the students, teachers and parents without whom this study would not have been possible.

Notes

1. We use the term ‘Eastern European’ loosely to include the countries of Central East Europe and the former Soviet Union, which stayed under communist regimes until 1990 (the end of which and the subsequent European Union (EU) accession in 2004/2007 of some countries contributed to the migration of the population to the UK).

2. Instead of solely relying on English paraphrasing of what was said in Bulgarian in discussion groups, we asked a Bulgarian colleague Radostina Schivatcheva to check the recordings in conjunction with transcripts and provide a verbatim translation of the Bulgarian phrases, for which we are grateful.

3. Although five Albanian students returned the cameras, the researcher managed to meet only with three Albanian students because the additional two students were absent from the school on all of the research Sundays following the return of the cameras. The photography class in the school initially offered a promising context for introducing this method of data collection to a larger group of students and was supported by the teachers as relevant to the school programme. Although we (and teachers too) were disappointed by the low participation rate in the activity, we would argue that the photo-elicitation method is relevant for data collection on identity issues, especially when complementing other research methods. Yet, this method is also time-consuming and can be perceived as demanding on teenagers who are not fully invested in the research project on researchers’ terms.

4. The rest of the schools were in a range of countries across the world, including popular countries of Polish emigration in Europe (e.g. France, Germany, Holland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden) and outside Europe (e.g. Australia, Canada, USA). A large number of schools were in neighbouring countries such as Belarus, Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine, where sizable Polish minorities have traditionally resided. See http://www.polska-szkola.pl/.