The what and why of supplementary schooling in Flanders: purposes and underlying motives as perceived by initiators

ABSTRACT

Supplementary schooling can play an important role in the educational trajectory of minoritised youth. Yet, our knowledge of the communities’ motives for organising education and the purposes the schools pursue remains limited. Existing literature tends to understand supplementary schools either as resisting ongoing inequity in mainstream society or as transmitting the heritage language. We argue that it is valuable to transcend this fragmented view by taking a more comprehensive approach to the diversity of purposes of supplementary schools and by revealing how purposes respond to various motives. Methodologically, semi-structured in-depth interviews with initiators of 12 supplementary schools in Flanders took place to learn about the pursued purposes and the motives underlying them. Rather than the fragmented view often presented in the literature, the initiators show a strong sensitivity to the variety of needs and are deeply invested to support and strengthen youth in navigating the different educational and socio-cultural contexts they are part of. These findings shed light on the variety of educational needs and desires of minoritised communities in continental Europa, highlighting opportunities to tackle enduring inequalities experienced by minoritised youth in mainstream school

KEYWORDS:

• Supplementary education
• grassroot initiatives
• complementary education
• after-hours schools

Disclosure statement

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

Ethical statement

The authors declare that this project was approved by the ethics committee of the social sciences department of the Antwerp University

Notes

1. The Italian school has more than 1 location. The interviewee managed all the locations which together offered classes to more than 100 pupils.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Antwerp DOCPRO4 [43308]

Notes on contributors

Julia Steenwegen

Julia Steenwegen is a PhD researcher in educational sciences at the Department of Training and Education Sciences at the University of Antwerp. Her research focusses how attendance to educational grassroot initiatives undertaken by minoritized communities and affects the educational trajectory of its pupils.

Noel Clycq

Noel Clycq is a research professor in education sciences at the Department of Training and Education Sciences at the University of Antwerp. His main research topics are diversity, identity, globalization and the governance of learning.

Jan Vanhoof

Jan Vanhoof is a professor at the Department of Education and Training Sciences at the University of Antwerp. His research activities focus on quality assurance and policy making in school systems and, specifically, informed decision making within schools.