Staff perspectives on victimisation in multi-ethnic Chilean elementary schools

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on qualitative interviews conducted with school staff in four multi-ethnic urban public schools in Santiago, Chile, to provide a sociological analysis of common-sense constructs surrounding victimisation. The questions guiding the study were to what extent school staff share similar perspectives toward victimisation (as demonstrative of a school culture), and how this impacts the capacity to generate positive school climates in multi-ethnic elementary urban schools in Santiago. Drawing on theories of school culture, I propose that staff members’ abilities and willingness to identify and implement preventive measures in schools are collectively defined and legitimated. I demonstrate that this has important repercussions in contexts of higher-than-average ethnic compositions where assimilation is encouraged, and victimisation is denied or attributed to other causes. Symbolic and superficial celebrations of multiculturalism are common, but cultural discourses of difference maintain ethnic youth in marginalised positions and prevent more inclusive educational practices. Some staff perspectives adhere to colour-blind liberal forms of racism in these contexts, and these are most common in school cultures where victimisation is downplayed or thought to be an issue cultivated in the home. Recommendations are made to incorporate culturally-sensitive pedagogies and cultural mediators to confront these narratives among school climate committees.

KEYWORDS:

• Victimisation
• Chile
• ethnic diversity
• school culture

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank Veronica Acevedo for her invaluable contribution to the research project, and to each of the schools and participants for their time and willingness to take part in the research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The analysis tool used in Atlas Ti. was ‘Codes-Primary-Documents-Table’. All interviewees from the same school were assigned into a single document group, then the tool was applied to show how often a code occurred within that document group.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research (CIIR) [grant number FONDAP 15110006], and the Millennium Science Initiative of the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism grant “Millenium Nucleus for the Study of the Life Course and Vulnerability”. Conicyt/Fondecyt Regular [grant number 1190604] 

Notes on contributors

Andrew Webb

Andrew Webb is Assistant Professor at the Instituto de Sociología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. His research is focused on schooling and inequalities in contexts of ethnic diversity. He has researched issues relating to school segregation, institutional racism, teacher expectations, interculturality/multiculturalism and youth identities using qualitative methodologies in primary, secondary and tertiary education settings.