Teachers’ Approaches to Ethnic Minority Students through a Comparative Lens

Tackling gendered aspects of acculturation through Turkish migrant Women’s experiences in Europe

“…These findings contribute to the existing literature through a gendered lens in terms of reorganized I positions, social representations and internal/external voices in the migratory context (Gamsakhurdia, 2020; 2021). These boundaries and stressors include downwards mobility ladders in schools and negative prejudices against children of migrant descendants (Schiff, 2014), intensification of domestic and care work (of children) which has been more likely to be shared (with the extended family) in the home country (Gilmartin & Migge, 2016), challenged power dynamics within the household (Inowlocki, 2016), microaggressions from locals and “self-appointed moral guardians” within the own migrant community (Espin, 1997) and de-skillization and/or flexibilization of paid work.…”

‘There Is an Exemplar because I’m There.’

“…Finally, minority teachers may also use their cultural expertise and sensitivity to act as advocates, cultural brokers, or mentors by easing students' adaptation to school, maintaining good relationships with parents, or modeling successful integration (Carrington and Skelton, 2003;Georgi, 2016;Schmidt and Schneider, 2016). The different roles and practices that teachers make use of varies according to national contexts, types of minority group, and in accordance with the capacity in which teachers are recruited (Schiff, 2014 When evaluating the added value that either role modeling or teachers' unique positioning may bring about, a number of risks should be kept in mind too. On the one hand, the presence of minority teachers does not automatically improve education.…”

“…2 Nevertheless, the experiences of Roma in the teaching profession deserve attention for several reasons. On the one hand, teachers shape their students' motivation, identities, and learning capacities, and thus play an important role in mitigating or deepening disadvantages (Schiff, 2014). By unfolding the biographical and contextual factors that impact professional identities and practice, this specific sub-group of teachers may bring new perspectives to the education of socially disadvantaged learners which are relevant to teacher education programs.…”