Encountering migration: English primary school teachers’ responses to Polish children

Abstract

Schools in England have recently undergone a shift in their pupil demographic, which in part reflects changing patterns of trans-European migration since the accession of new member states to the EU in 2004 and 2007. There is evidence that this shift is one experienced not just in inner-city schools most commonly associated with minority ethnic populations, but in a wide range of schools in rural and smaller town settings in a number of counties across the country. This article explores the responses of English primary school teachers to Polish children arriving since 2006 in a county in the South of England. Using Bourdieu’s logic of practice, interview data are analysed to examine attitudes towards Polish children and their families. Discussion centres on how teachers’ professional habitus may unconsciously govern their reception of children from Poland and on how the teacher-friendly behaviour of Polish children and families may support a generalized construction of the Polish model learner.

Keywords:

• Polish migration
• model minority
• Bourdieu

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Naomi Flynn

Naomi Flynn is a senior lecturer in Education at the University of Winchester where she works as a teacher educator. Her research interests centre on practice for the teaching of children with English as an additional language in primary schools and on how teachers respond to ethnic and linguistic difference in their pupils. Additionally, she has published work relating to the teaching of English in England and how it is shaped by policy. Naomi’s most recent research uses a Bourdieusian framework for analysis of the inter-relationship between policy and practice in the classroom.