School inclusion, young migrants and language. Success and obstacles in mainstream learning in France and New Zealand

ABSTRACT

Inclusive schooling practices that support immigrant students with low language-of-schooling proficiency to actively participate in learning within mainstream contexts is crucial during the newly-arrived phase. The concept of reciprocal integration and its more recent evolution through the inclusive education movement, reframes school-community relationships as negotiable and re-positions young migrants as empowered navigators of new routes into school integration processes. This study conducted between 2017 and 2019 examines how four immigrant teenagers (‘late arrivers’ aged between 13 and 15) navigated mainstream learning in two schools during the newly-arrived phase, in two different educational contexts – France and New Zealand. A key aim is to see where educational conditions and individual learning behaviours intersect, as a way of highlighting how students respond to differing integration variables within these two school systems. Four case studies explore similarities and differences, comparing effects on students’ experiences of integration. Findings identify, describe and explain a set of common best practices for newly-arrived immigrant teenagers in mainstream learning, with implications for teacher education in language-adapted approaches.

KEYWORDS:

• integration
• immigrant students
• school systems
• comparative education
• teacher education

Acknowledgements

Warmest thanks to the participating schools, teachers and students who willingly gave their time and energy for this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 UPE2A (Unités pédagogiques pour élèves allophones nouvellement arrivés) are classes in which newly-arrived immigrant students in French schools can be enrolled to learn French during the first year after arrival, or longer depending on the school. EL (English Language) are classes in NZ schools which offer English language learning to immigrant students for the duration of their schooling, depending on students’ varying language proficiency and academic requirements.

2 Further data on students’ plurilingual interactions in UPE2A and EL classes was collected during 10–12 week periods of school visits in both countries, which is not treated in this article (see Smythe 2021 for full description).

3 Classes d’inclusion (French school) and mainstream classes (NZ school) are the terms used for classes where immigrant students follow the national curriculum learning with their local peers.

4 For these categories, I simply define passive strategies as situations where the learner is listening. reading, or silent; and active strategies involve the learner seeking help.

Additional information

Funding

The New Zealand field research was supported by a mobility grant from LACES, Université de Bordeaux.