Multicultural Ideology in the Hidden Curriculum of Schoolbooks for Migrant Children

Abstract

The study explores different aspects of the educational integration of migrants in Russia. The analysis shows that the challenges posed by cultural heterogeneity are not taken into account at the legislative level in the sphere of education. Analysis of the content of textbooks for migrant children shows tendencies towards the elimination of cultural specificity from grade to grade, the exclusion of adult migrants in representations of intercultural contact and the implicit reinforcement of the dominant role of the majority. The results demonstrate the necessity of rethinking the legal framework for regulating education and the content of schoolbooks.

Acknowledgements

The study was implemented in the framework of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University) in 2022.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 In 2015, UNHCR defined the difference between refugee and migrant according to the reasons and motives that people left their homes and relocated to another country. However, while differing in terms of bureaucratic consequences, the refugee/migrant nexus is a continuum rather than a dichotomy (Biasutti et al. 2020).

2 For an in-depth analysis of these models see Dryden-Peterson et al. (2019).

3 Federal'nyi zakon ‘Ob obrazovanii v Rossiiskoi Federatsii’ ot 29.12.2012 N 273-FZ, 29 December 2012, available at: http://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_140174/, accessed 25 June 2020.

4 The indigenous population in Russia includes representatives of more than 140 ethnic groups, of which the most numerous are Russians (77.7%) and Tatars (3.7%) (Natsional'nyi i etnicheskii sostav Rossii, Rosstat 2010, available at: https://rosinfostat.ru/natsionalnyj-sostav/, accessed 25 June 2021).

5 Report by the Russian Academy of Education (RAE), № 24-н, 29 January 2017.

6 Report by RAE report № 439, 29 January 2017.

7 Report by the Russian Book Union, № 808, 7 February 2014.

8 The degree to which a child is liked and noticed by peers.

9 In the above text, the names Nina, Zhenya and Lyova are typical Russian names, while Lora, Yusuf and Ayaz are not.

10 In general, it seems that riddles were the less thought-through type of texts. For instance, inclusion of the following riddle in the Alphabet Book: ‘It sits goggle-eyed /Doesn’t speak Russian /Was born in water /But lives on earth’ (Aznabaeva et al. 2019, p. 130) can hardly be considered to be a deliberate likening of non-Russian-speaking people to frogs, although this is also possible. Most likely the authors, while focusing on the answer to the riddle, overlooked the content of the riddle itself.

11 ‘Kak organizovat' obuchenie migrantov russkomu yazyku? (zhurnal “Knizhnaya industriya”)’, 8 April 2016, available at: https://prosv.ru/articles/show/13.html, accessed 25 June 2020.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maria Kozlova

Maria Kozlova, International Laboratory for Social Integration Research, National Research University Higher School of Economics, 11 Myasnitskaya Ulitsa, Moscow 125009, Russian Federation. Email: [email protected]

Tatiana Ryabichenko

Tatiana Ryabichenko, International Laboratory for Social Integration Research, National Research University Higher School of Economics, 11 Myasnitskaya Ulitsa, Moscow, 125009, Russian Federation. Email: [email protected]