Repertoires on diversity among primary school children

Abstract

This article examines how children in super-diverse schools draw on cultural repertoires to construct ethno-cultural similarities and differences. Based on 47 interviews, we show how, first, children talk about diversity as a commonplace aspect of daily life. Second, we describe how cosmopolitan arguments are used to make sense of diversity. The third repertoire focusses on ‘otherness’ and emphasizes the ‘cultural frictions’ that would stem out of diversity. Finally, we describe how some children share a strong belief in group disadvantages.

In search of a cool identity: how young people negotiate religious and ethnic boundaries in a superdiverse context

“…How do youth navigate peer relations and everyday interactions within a super-diverse context? Most respondents, as illustrated by Mauro’s account, draw on a cultural repertoire of commonplace diversity (Albeda et al, 2018; Kostet et al, 2021; Wessendorf, 2014). Mauro (ethnic majority, school 2): “I get along with everyone.…”

“…In this paper, we have shown how ethnic majority and minority youth in a super-diverse city and school context blur group boundaries by applying a cultural repertoire of commonplace diversity and stress the normalcy and coolness of their super-diverse peer relations and school context (Kostet et al 2021; Wessendorf, 2014). However, a more in-depth analysis revealed how ethnic and religious symbolic boundaries emerge as bright, where minority youth need to navigate othering and social exclusion processes.…”

“…Youth from various backgrounds feel at ease with super-diversity and are able to navigate such contexts without many difficulties. Researchers show how, for example, children in super-diverse schools tap into cultural repertoires where diversity is discussed as a commonplace and self-evident element of everyday life (Kostet et al, 2021; Wessendorf, 2014).…”

“…While the notion of superdiversity brings a new perspective to familiar issues of group formation, we still know relatively little about “how super-diversity unfolds and operates in concrete every-day relations and interactions in a variety of settings” (Foner et al, 2019: 2). Furthermore, there is a paucity of research into how young people experience and navigate a social environment which is significantly more diverse than that in which their parents came of age (Kostet et al, 2021; Maene et al, 2021; Tran, 2019). Hence, to better understand how superdiversity operates in the everyday relations of youth, this paper investigates how young people from different ethno-racial and religious groups navigate and give meaning to their diverse peer relations.…”

Empowering children to speak up and act on social justice issues: The use of folktales and collaborative storytelling as tools of social imagination

“…They thus defined social justice as the ‘natural’ acceptance of our human commonalities above and beyond any other characteristics. Our findings mirror Kostet et al .’s (2020) research findings that some children make the choice not to place emphasis on ethnic, cultural or religious differences as they view diversity as ‘commonplace’. In their research focusing on the repertoires of diversity among primary school children, they inter alia found that ‘ethno‐cultural diversity is not always highly relevant for some children’, which was ‘also evidenced by the lack of spontaneous references to this form of diversity’ (Kostet et al ., 2020: 8).…”