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FEDERAL STATE AUTONOMOUS EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

FOR HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

St. Petersburg School of Social Sciences and Area Studies

TEACHERS AND ETHNIC MIGRANT STUDENTS: PERCEPTION, ATTITUDES, AND INTERACTION

BACHELOR'S PROJECT

Field of study: 39.03.01 Sociology

Degree programme: Sociology and Social Informatics

teacher student migration ethnic

Aleksandra Yurevna Starikova

Supervisor:

Deputy Head of the Laboratory

of Sociology in Education and Science

S.S. Savelieva

Saint Petersburg 2020

Table of contents

• Preface
• Introduction
• 1. Theoretical background
• 1.1 Teacher-student relations
• 1.2 Teachers' tensions
• 2. Migration situation in Russia and child adaptation programs
• 2.1 Statistics and dynamics of migration to Russia
• 2.2 Adaptation and integration programs for migrants in Russia
• Regional programs
• Local programs
• 3. Research methodology
• 3.1 Data 14
• 3.2 Methods
• 3.3 Limitations and advantages
• 4. Teachers' narrative analysis
• 4.1 Assessment of migration situation by teachers
• 4.2 Domains of teachers' work with migrants
• Recognition of migrants
• Migration strategy and status
• Cultural discontinuity
• Evaluation of migrant students
• Academic performance
• Behavior: the influence of ethnicity, gender and appearance
• Parents participation in the educational process
• 4.3 Practices for adaptation of migrant children
• Common practices for the adaptation of migrant children
• Adaptation approaches
• Expression of attitude in practices
• Conclusion
• References
• Appendix
• 

Preface

For this project, we used the data of the research project “Children of Migrants in Russian Schools”, implemented as part of the collective projects of the Laboratory of Sociology in Education and Science of the Higher School of Economics - St. Petersburg from 2007 to 2014 (supported by the HSE Program of Fundamental Studies).

Project Manager - D.A. Alexandrov.

Project participants: V.A. Ivanyushina, S.S. Savelyeva, K.A. Tenisheva, D.K. Khodorenko, V.V. Titkova, V.V. Baranova and others.



Introduction

School plays a significant role for society, being one of the main agents of socialization. Here the assimilation of norms and traditions occurs, as well as preparation for real life and interaction within society. In some cases, school also becomes an agent of adaptation and integration - for migrant children, school becomes almost the main place of involvement in the host society. In this case, teachers play the role of a mediator for foreign children and also become role models of behavior, broadcasting certain attitudes and norms. However, at the state level in Russia there are no unified programs nor set of practices for working with migrant children, despite the fact that the number of migrants arriving in Russia is constantly growing. So, most often, teachers or the administration of a particular school themselves develop certain practices for migrant adaptation as well as grading parameters for these students. In the absence of reference points, this creates difficulties in the work of teachers as well as a lack of common understanding of how to establish effective work with migrants. Therefore, in addition to the fact that teachers' attitudes towards migrants can affect their approach to teaching and the work practices, teachers themselves may experience misunderstandings and internal conflicts. This may affect the teacher-student relationship, which is especially important for migrants, and their success in learning and adaptation. 

This work aims to identify Russian teachers' attitudes and beliefs regarding migrant children, as well as to consider the context in which these beliefs may manifest in order to determine their impact on the learning and adaptation process. This goal provides for the implementation of 4 main tasks:

1. describe the context the context in which teachers and migrant children interact;

2. identify beliefs and attitudes of teachers towards migrant children and the factors on which they are based;

3. identify practices that practices schools of Russia create to help ethnic students learn and adapt;

4. consider practices applied in schools in connection with the identified attitudes of teachers.

The first chapter discusses the migration situation and politics in Russia. It also examines existing studies on the relationship between teacher and migrant student, along with parameters that can influence the formation of a certain attitude, and the contradictions that arise in working with migrants. The second chapter presents a description of the empirical basis of the work, the process of its collection and subsequent analysis. The third chapter presents the results of an analysis of the narratives of teachers and school staff and the main conclusions of this work.



1. Theoretical background

1.1 Teacher-student relations

Considering that activities aimed at the adaptation and integration of foreign children are developed by employees of educational institutions, the attitude of employees, especially teachers, to migrants, as well as possible stereotypes that exist towards them, are of great importance in these processes. Teachers' personal attitudes may also have a direct impact on the adaptation of migrant children, and the attitudes that teachers broadcast may affect the classroom atmosphere and shape attitudes of other students towards migrants. Teachers try to incorporate a variety of practices aimed at spread of the ideas of multiculturalism and tolerance (Smits & Janssenswillen, 2019). Thus, pro-social attitudes of tolerance and acceptance of differences increase openness and friendliness in the classroom, both in relation to ethnic majority and to migrants (Bombieri, Galyapina, & Bushina, 2019). The demonstrations of a positive attitude of teachers towards migrants not only create a comfortable atmosphere for the adaptation of these students, but also increase their involvement in the educational process, and may even lead to reduction of the prejudices and stereotypes of teachers (Abacioglu et al., 2019). Rarely teachers can act as representatives of an ethnic minority, also striving to develop the ideas of tolerance in children and dispel their stereotypes (Saada & Gross, 2019).

In most cases teachers are the “models” of the host society: they reflect values and norms, demonstrate an example of normative behavior in society and become role models for migrant students. Therefore, for the latter, perception and attitude on the part of teachers is of great importance. Migrant students feel unequal treatment from the teachers, receiving less attention than students from the ethnic majority, which negatively affects their academic performance (Pequero & Bondy, 2011). However, healthy and positive relationship with the teacher may stimulate the academic success of the ethnic migrant student. The so-called immigrant optimism may appear here: migrants, trying to integrate in the new country, are making more efforts in the hope that their efforts will result in success (Fernбndez-Reino, 2016). Perhaps this is why the reaction and attitude of the teacher is so important for foreign students - this kind of encouragement can stimulate them to further work. Migrant children are more sensitive in their relations with the teacher, more susceptible to conflict situations and at the same time more prone to such situations than their peers from the ethnic majority (Thijs, Keim, & Geerlings, 2018).

1.2 Teachers' tensions

Working with migrants causes many difficulties for teachers. On the one hand, working with these students requires different methods, practices and approaches in general and in the absence of the necessary support and qualifications, teachers can perceive migrant children more negatively (Walker, Shafer, & Liams, 2004). At the same time, special conditions for their education are not created, and migrant children are trained and evaluated on a par with local children with the same requirements for them. In such situations, teachers, on the one hand, are forced to develop and implement new practices specifically for working with migrant children, and on the other hand, they need to maintain and comply with existing standards for the organization of the educational process. In similar situations the “forces of transformation and preservation” collides, and in social space this put the actors interacting in this space into tension (Bourdieu, 1998). In other words, actors tend to act like they used to, but they also have to react and adapt to changes. Devin (2013) developed this theory on the case of school as a social space. According to her study, teachers have several tensions in working with migrant children. 

In a neo-liberal context, every member of society will bring some benefit through his actions, i.e. people have their own value and added value that they bring. From this position, the first tension is connected with the value of the migrants as a labor force and the threat to the stability of society that they carry. In the context of the school, this means a mismatch between what is the added value that migrant children will bring if they integrate into society and what is the threat the country's economic growth if they don't add anything to society. In the latter case, resources spent on adaptation and training of children will be wasted, which is equal to losses. 

Significant issue is the choice of approach to work with migrant children, which leads to another tension. Devin describes two approaches that are found in discourses of related fields: “holistic perspective” - aimed at giving migrant children a quality education, taking into account their background, native culture and language, and the “conditional directive approach” - a simplified approach that involves language, literacy and numeracy acquisition, but not implying acculturation of the child (Devine, 2013). The next one, “central to pedagogic practicing”, is tension over recognition. It includes 3 main aspects: “whom to recognize (who is visible?); what to recognize (how much of `the other' to incorporate as `our own'); if this recognition is viewed as core to the pedagogical relationship or peripheral (an additive extra) to the work of teachers in schools” (Devine, 2013). Whom and what to recognize may be determined by a number of parameters and the nomination "our" or "other" can determine the attitude of the teacher to the student. Devin does not name these parameters, but they can be identified by the results of other studies. Firstly, knowledge of the language of host country plays an important role. Knowledge of the language directly determines how well migrant children understand tasks and educational materials, but for teachers a good knowledge of the language may also be marker of sense of purpose, desire to learn, and aspiration to settle in host society. What is more, because of their better adaptation, children of the second and third generation of migrants born and raised in Russia and within the framework of Russian culture are perceived by teachers almost as “natives” (Soldatova, 2015). This illustrates the importance of convergence of cultural norms and traditions between teachers and ethnic minority students. Cultural discontinuity can directly affect student academic performance, reflecting the prevailing teacher's attitudes and values in a form of conscious or unconscious lowering grades (Taggart, 2016). Devin (2005) refers to study in European countries (Gogolin, 2002), which revealed that because of the orientation of teachers toward monolingualism and monoculture, those students who do not fit this norm are considered “other”. A similar effect on the teacher's attitude toward the child can be caused by a discrepancy not only between the values of teacher and student, but also between teacher and child's family (Sirin, Ryce, & Mir, 2009). The study shows that significant differences in the values of the family of an ethnic student and teachers lead to an unconscious underestimation of student not only in academic performance, but also in behavior. That study examined quite drastic differences in religion and traditions, so it can be assumed that less pronounced or “habitual” differences may not affect teachers' attitude so much.

Some theses described above illustrate another tension that teachers face when working with migrant children - tension of evaluation of these students. Knowledge of the language is the crucial point for teachers when assessing the performance of migrant children. Teachers talk about students in terms of problems in the language skills of the host society that children experience without paying attention to their achievements in other areas (Ahooja & Ballinger, 2019). For migrant children, academic performance can be a marker of their “normalisation” and becoming a “native” as well, because in this case, teachers spend less additional resources on their education (Devine, 2013). If ethnic migrant children are actively involved in the educational process, a break in the educational process, including holidays, greatly affects the knowledge (Alexander, Entwisle, & Olson, 2007) resulting in the achievement gap in learning the Russian language. 

In addition to the direct assessment of students on their knowledge and performance, student's behavior within school is also important for teachers. While a child's behavior may affect his or her performance directly (Wentzel, 1993), it may have an impact on the formation of teacher's attitudes and perceptions. Normative behavior within the school, which is in line with teachers' ideas, may promote positive relationships between teachers and ethnic students. Some studies show that teachers in elementary grades tend to perceive students as one group regardless of their ethnicity, religion, culture, or other possible differences (Lynch & Lodge, 2002), however, the results of other studies may cast doubt on this conclusion. The ethnicity of the child can affect the attitude of the teacher as it is often a source of emerging stereotypes and can cause discrimination by teachers (Soldatova, 2015; Jarkovskб, Liљkovб, & Obrovskб, 2015; Brown & Tam, 2019). In context of Russian schools children from Asia and the Caucasus are especially prone to stereotypes. In a study conducted in St. Petersburg schools, a hierarchy of cultures was identified in the perception of teachers: East - wild culture, West - developed and civilized. In addition, a kind of “classification” of nationalities with the characteristics of each was revealed (Panova, 2006). So, worst of all teachers relate to Azerbaijani children and Gypsies and sympathize more to Jews and Armenians. Some studies also revealed teachers' negative attitude towards Roma (Jarkovskб, Liљkovб, & Obrovskб, 2015; Stoilescu & Carapanait, 2011), but such an attitude and practices of segregation of students of this ethnicity can limit their life chances, further education and affect self-esteem (Messing, 2017). As noted earlier, discrepancies between values of teachers and parents are also important as they can lead to unconscious more negative academic and behavioral evaluation (Sirin et al., 2009). This difference in perception leads to the assessment of the child as a more "alien" student. Also, the teacher's ethnicity can influence the teacher's attitude toward the ethnic migrant child: if he or she is a member of the same ethnic minority as the student, the teacher's implicit and explicit attitude towards student will be more favorable, reflecting in-group favoritism (Glock & Kleen, 2019; Glock & Schuchart, 2019; Kleen, Bonefeld, Glock, & Dickhдuser, 2019).

An additional aspect affecting the formation of teacher attitudes in evaluating ethnic children behavior is gender. For children of the host society, gender differences are erased - both boys and girls are evaluated without reference to their gender, while teachers have a different attitude when evaluating foreign ethnic children. Often it is worse for girls: they are considered less diligent, capable and motivated (Fedorova & Panova, 2006; Soldatova, 2015) and generally teachers do not expect academic success from them, believing that they will have a future in the role of wife and mother (caretaking roles) which girls themselves accept (Kleen & Glock, 2018). For foreign ethnic boys, the opinion may be different. Teachers can consider them more capable and purposeful students (Soldatova, 2015), appealing to their male leadership qualities. At the same time, they are found to be aggressive, too active, having bad academic performance but at the same time kind and helpful. Although the latest grades often relate to the ethnicity of the child, a generally more positive attitude of teachers towards foreign ethnic boys is observed.

The attitude of the teacher and school staff towards the migrant child may be related to the tensions that schools face in working with migrant children, but its formation is also influenced by many other parameters related to both the personal and cultural characteristics of the students, their family, and teachers' characteristics. In this work we will try to identify what kind of tensions Russian teachers experience in work with migrant students and how these tensions, along with other factors that we also aim to reveal, can influence the attitude of teachers and other school staff towards ethnic students.



2. Migration situation in Russia and child adaptation programs

2.1 Statistics and dynamics of migration to Russia

According to statistics from the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the period from January to December 2018, 17,764 thousand migrants were registered. 1,672 thousand migrants received a patent, 191 thousand received a residence permit (primary) and 269 thousand received Russian citizenship.

For comparison, in 2019, 19 518 thousand migrants were registered. 1 767 thousand migrants received a patent, 182 thousand received a residence permit (primary) and 498 thousand got citizenship of the Russian Federation. 567 thousand people were registered at the place of residence, the remaining 18 951 thousand - at the place of stay. Among registered at the place of residence migrants from Ukraine (134 thousand), Tajikistan (102 thousand), Kazakhstan (69 thousand) and Uzbekistan (66 thousand), as well as citizens of Azerbaijan (46 thousand), Armenia (44 thousand), Moldova (27 thousand), Kyrgyzstan (16 thousand), and Belarus (15 thousand) predominated. Among the registered at the place of stay citizens of Uzbekistan were leading (4740 thousand). Then, which is several times smaller, there are those who arrived from Tajikistan (2653 thousand), China (2314 thousand), Ukraine (1508 thousand), and Kyrgyzstan (1039 thousand).

  Among the migrants from these states, the following entry goals prevailed:

· Ukraine (550 thousand), Uzbekistan (366 thousand), Tajikistan (331 thousand), Kazakhstan (247 thousand), Azerbaijan (210 thousand) - private entry targets;

· China - tourism (1781 thousand);

· Belarus - private (160 thousand) and work (163 thousand);

· Uzbekistan (2107 thousand), Tajikistan (1179 thousand), Kyrgyzstan (454 thousand), Armenia (210 thousand), Moldova (174 thousand) - work.

Of the total number of migrant arrived in 2018 (for 2019, relevant statistics are not yet available), according to the Federal State Statistics Service, 43 thousand are children under 15 years old, the largest number being at the age of 6 years (9272 children) and at the age of 15 (6934 children). Another 3.8 thousand children were at the age of 16 years and another 5.1 thousand - at the age of 17 years (in total 70.2 thousand children). 

Statistics on the number of foreign children in Russian schools are fragmentary and available for different regions and from different sources because of the difficulties with its unification from all schools, since they can conduct it on various bases (citizenship, students' native tongue, etc.). According to the results of a study by Alexandrov, Ivanyushina, and Kazartseva (2015), in 2010-2013 in schools of different regions of Russia the number of ethnic students differed. According to a survey of 21,320 students in 365 schools, the largest number were in the Moscow Region - 16.2%, followed by St. Petersburg (12.8%) and Tomsk and Tomsk Region (10.1%). In Pskov and the Leningrad Region, the number of foreign ethnic scientists was minimal - 8.5 and 6.6%, respectively.

According to the latest available data from St. Petersburg Center for Educational Quality Assessment and Information Technology, in the 2014-2015 academic year, 9648 migrant children without Russian citizenship studied at schools of St. Petersburg. Gender distribution is almost equal: a little more than half (54%) of them are boys, and 46% are girls. Almost half of the total number of children (4382 people or 45%) is in primary school, 38% (3698 people) are in grades 5 to 9, and a little less than 17% (or 1568 children) are in high school. However, the real extent of the problem is not clear, since statistical accounting is not well organized. Number of migrant children with citizenship may include those who have recently received it and who are still not adapted (and, in fact, are still migrants). In addition, there is a separate category of children - internal migrants from other regions of Russia who do not know the Russian language. Despite the fact that they are citizens of Russia, their culture is far from the culture of ethnic majority. In this case, schools, when conducting statistics, will consider these children as citizens of the Russian Federation, although teachers that work with these children may perceive them as ethnic migrants.

Having even approximate statistics, the positive dynamics can be traced - the number of migrant children in Russian schools is increasing. That is the reason why the issue of their effective adaptation and integration into society as a systematic approach arises.

2.2 Adaptation and integration programs for migrants in Russia

At present, in Russia there is no unified policy for migrants' adaptation nor there is a special program for the adaptation of children. The migration policy in general describes only legal aspects - the rules for the entry of foreigners and obtaining documents for staying in Russia. Other aspects of migrants stay in Russia are not considered nor are regulated at the state level, as well as there are no “extenuating circumstances” for their staying for the first time - there are no benefits and no help in language learning and adaptation.

This aspect is partially covered in the "Concept of the State Migration Policy of the Russian Federation for the period until 2025 (approved by the President of the Russian Federation of June 13, 2012)", but the proposed measures are limited to three points:

«c) the establishment of centers for the promotion of immigration to the Russian Federation and medical examination of immigrants, including abroad;

d) the creation of infrastructure for the residence of labor migrants through public-private partnerships;

e) the creation of infrastructure for the integration and adaptation of labor migrants, including centers for information and legal support, language, history and culture courses of the Russian Federation».

Regional programs 

Attempts to organize adaptation and integration processes as a systematic approach were made in certain regions. In St. Petersburg there are municipal programs in the field of national policy, which each of the municipalities is obliged to develop. Also, in 2011-2015 in St. Petersburg there was a “Tolerance” program aimed “at maintaining in St. Petersburg international peace and harmony based on observance of human rights and freedoms, ensuring social integration and cultural and linguistic adaptation of migrants”. The program covers several areas: culture, media, religion and, in addition, the educational environment. The first section of the program is more focused on working with the host community: developing a culture of tolerance, increasing the level of intercultural communication, and developing measures to facilitate the integration of foreign students. Section 5 presents a set of measures to “facilitate the adaptation of migrants in St. Petersburg” and is aimed at developing and “facilitating” the processes of adaptation and integration of migrants, especially foreign children. In 2015, the program ended.

Also, in St. Petersburg there are programs and courses for teaching the Russian language for migrants: the program of the All-Russian Public Organization “Russian Red Cross”, the Autonomous Non-Profit Organization of Socio-Cultural Programs and Projects “Children of St. Petersburg”. These programs work with the help of volunteers.

Local programs

In addition to regional programs, such complexes are developed at the level of individual (educational) institutions. Programs and methods usually distinguish 3 main aspects of adaptation:

1. Socio-psychological aspect - interpersonal communication, formation of an atmosphere of acceptance in the community, prevention and work with conflicts, psychological diagnostics.

2. Linguistic aspect - progress in oral and written speech in Russian, identification and correction of problems.

3. Cultural aspect - inclusion in the culture of the host society, following accepted traditions, norms and patterns of behavior.

* Educational aspect - creating conditions for the successful development of the curriculum. This aspect is not allocated in all programs, because it is often included in previous aspects.

  The main areas of work identified in the programs are teaching migrant children language and culture and communication. For the first issue, short-term and long-term individual or group classes in Russian as a foreign language are offered as part of additional school classes. The importance of teaching foreign children in mixed classes together with local children is also discussed, with the possible preparation of an individual plan for migrants. The organization of bilingual education for them is also being considered.

  To stimulate communication of a migrant student within the host community, program authors propose methods of school workers influence (involvement in group activities) and through peers (the formation of special groups, the selection of volunteers among local children to accompany and integrate ethnic children).

  In the programs reviewed, the process of adaptation and integration of migrant children is considered as reciprocal. Independent actions and practices of the child are of great importance, but to enhance the effect of his personal actions, the development of tolerance and respect in the host community is also important. In addition, the help of parents and their efforts for the successful adaptation of children have a significant impact: the practice of the Russian language at home and their involvement in child's school life.

In Russia, there is a need to develop a unified program for working with migrant children in schools. Studies show that the lack of necessary resources not only complicates the work of schools, when the development of necessary measures and practices places an additional burden for them but can also affect the attitude of teachers towards migrant children. The development of a unified program for the adaptation and integration of migrant children will not only facilitate the work of schools in this direction but will also reduce the manifestations of personal bias and stereotypes regarding migrants in schools.

3. Research methodology

This work was carried out on the empirical base collected in the project “Children of Migrants in Russian Schools” of the HSE Laboratory of Sociology in Education and Science project. The logic of the work involves the use of qualitative methods, so the main method was interview with teachers and staff of Russian schools. An analysis of these narratives will help to determine what attitude the teachers position towards migrants and what their real attitude is, what the actual attitude is based on and how it affects the practices that teachers and other school staff implement for the successful adaptation and integration of ethnic students.

3.1 Data

The empirical base of this project consisted of interviews with school workers in which ethnic migrant students are present in different numbers. Interviews that were used for analysis were collected at schools of several regions and at different periods. In St. Petersburg, interviews were collected in 2008-2009 (58 interviews), 2010 (36 interviews) and 2019 (53 interviews). In Moscow Region - in 2010 (97 interviews), and in Kaluga and Kaluga Region - in 2019 (32 interviews). In total 276 interviews were used for analysis. The sample presented schools of different statuses: secondary school and gymnasium, and of different size. Almost all interviews were collected by participants of the research project. The author of this work participated in the collection of interviews in St. Petersburg in the fall of 2019, visiting 2 schools and collecting 3 interviews with school staff. All interviews were encrypted. Instead of the school number, its ID from the created interview registry is indicated in quotations; the names in the quotes have been changed.



3.2 Methods

A guide for interview was compiled by the project team for the study of migrant children. The guide includes not only questions relevant to the study of this particular work, but also covers other aspects of teachers' work and includes sections on school and class, school's migration situation, and migrant families and adaptation of foreign children.

All interviews underwent a coding procedure. Coding was carried out in 2 parallel stages. First, for this work, recoding was carried out on the relevant topics of all interviews from 2008-2010 and 2019 (only from Kaluga region) which have already been coded by project participants. These interviews were encoded with the help of QDA Miner. Secondly, together with the coding group, coding of the 2019 interviews collected in St. Petersburg was conducted on a wider list of topics that also included relevant topics for this work.

In both cases, first, open coding was performed, and the main codes of narratives were highlighted. The topics important for the field were coded: the name and description of migrant children in teacher's narratives; language acquisition by migrant children from the perspective of school workers; the school's solution of language and other problems of migrant children; adaptation barriers, and others. So, for example, a large category “The attitude of teachers toward migrant children and the problem of adaptation” was identified. After that, axial coding was performed, and the main codes were divided and correlated with each other. In this part of the work, it was decided to focus on topics where the narratives of teachers are not consistent and where they speak differently on the same issue in approximately the same context. At this stage, subcategories of the main category were highlighted. In the category “The attitude of teachers toward migrant children and the problem of adaptation”, the declaration of the same attitude constituted a separate subcategory due to the frequent mention of such an attitude by teachers. However, the narratives themselves show a different attitude towards local and migrant children and a special approach to working with the latter - these subtopics constituted separate subcategories. The following subtopics were identified in the ideas about the adaptation problem: the difference in the success of adaptation in children of different ages and different nationalities; examples of successful adaptation cited by teachers; teachers' ideas about the need for adaptation or assimilation; and manifestations of successful adaptation in relationships with peers. A separate category was constituted from quotes about the distance between the teacher and migrant student. As a result, the category was composed as follows:

1. The attitude of teachers towards migrant children and the problem of adaptation:

a. Quotes about the distance

b. Teachers declare the same attitude

c. How children of ethnic majority and minority are compared, as well as different nationalities (including negative attitudes towards children of migrants)

d. In fact, teachers take a differentiated approach to teaching.

e. How children adapt in middle and junior school (including a comparison of the specifics of adaptation at the age of younger / older)

f. Examples of successful adaptation

g. Assimilation vs. integration (compliance with the norms of the cultural majority \ follow their own standards - as it seems to teachers that they should act)

h. How children of different nationalities adapt

i. Peer Relationships

j. Other

The remaining categories were compiled on the same principle, but as the work progressed, changes were made in the code tree, new categories were added, so the interviews had to be recoded (for final code tree developed by the coding group see Appendix 1). Coding categories fully cover topics relevant to this work.

The author of this work also participated in organizing the archive, creating an interview registry, and developing an interview anonymization system. The analysis of the coding results was carried out by the author independently for this work, however, the results of the analysis were presented and discussed with other members of the coding group.

3.3 Limitations and advantages

Interviews collected at schools may not reflect the real opinions of teachers and staff. Some information could be hidden or presented in a certain way, which differs in reality, but this restriction is specific for any qualitative study. 

The main advantage is the volume and characteristics of the data. The sample presents cases from different regions, different periods, school workers of different statuses, and schools with different numbers of migrants. This diversity will make it possible to reconstruct narratives most deeply, taking into account possible habituation of ideas and concealment or distortion of information: employees of certain status (principal, deputy principal) in their narratives may not express some facts that may be revealed in the narratives of others.



4. Teachers' narrative analysis

4.1 Assessment of migration situation by teachers

In their narratives, teachers call migrants predominantly cross-border migrants who do not have Russian citizenship, but sometimes also include internal migrants from some regions of the country in this category. The numbers of migrant children differ among schools: somewhere teachers distinguish 30% of the students from the total number of students, while in some schools there are few migrants. This may depend on the district in which the school is located and on the status of the school and its qualifications, since it is easier for migrants to get into weaker schools, which leads to an increase in their number among students. This may partly explain the fact that in secondary schools there are more migrant children compared to gymnasiums. 

In general, school staff have noted an increase in the number of ethnic students. Among the countries where students come from, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, as well as Ukraine and Moldova are most often found, but some schools do not keep statistics on ethnic composition, tracking only the number of children without citizenship of the Russian Federation. The school staff describe the majority of migrant families as low-income. Parents can have their own small business, or they are employed in working specialties: drivers, builders, etc. Families usually have more than one child, and often school-age children study in the same school.

This constitutes the context in which teachers work. The number of migrants in schools is growing, their families cannot and sometimes do not consider it important to devote a lot of time to adapting their children, so this task is transferred to teachers.



4.2 Domains of teachers' work with migrants 

In the case of Russia, we couldn't identify tensions, since there are no programs that prescribe a teacher's specific behavior towards a migrant student. On the one hand, this is a situation of uncertainty, which is difficult for teachers and they have to adapt to new working conditions. On the other hand, they do not have set standards for working with migrant children, which teachers would be required to observe - in other words, they have nothing to rely on and nothing striving to keep in the context of working with migrant children. In these situations, we cannot fully speak of tensions in the sense that Devin (2013) speaks of, but we can observe conflicting situations in the work of teachers. School, as a social space, consists of several areas of action in which teachers are involved, regardless of their desire, and which may not be directly related to their main activity. In this project, such areas will be called domains. Teachers may have internal conflicts due to the fact that they do not have a common understanding of how to act in these domains. We will describe the contradictions that teachers have in the domains and consider the explanations that teachers find for themselves in these conflicting situations.

Recognition of migrants

In accordance with Devin's (2013) results, the central domain in the work of teachers with migrant children is the process of recognition, which consists of developing informal criteria for identifying “ours” (closer to natives) and “others” (alien). Due to the lack of a unified program for the adaptation of migrants and any criteria for determining the level of their adaptation and assimilation in the host society, teachers themselves have to determine these criteria in the absence of reference points. In the lack of the necessary qualifications and, sometimes, experience working with migrant children, such situations can mislead teachers, so they have to decide for themselves who can be considered as “our” and who is seemed like a stranger. And despite the fact that teachers and school staff declare that they perceive all children equally as “students” whom they should teach, in the future their narratives will show a different attitude towards students, depending on a number of parameters.

Migration strategy and status

At the stage of admission to school, the citizenship of the child is important. The presence or absence of citizenship determines the package of necessary documents for admission and is important for accounting for the number of migrants in the school:

“Deputy principal: ... there is such a thing, we are giving in data ... “migrants” ... there are about 20 of them. It's not that much…

Int: 20 people?

D.P.: Well, about. Now, unfortunately, I don't have statistics. These are those who are stateless. And all the rest for us are all indigenous.

Int: Even if they are from Dagestan ... from the southern regions?

D.P.: Well, we don't ... this is not divided …” (ID 122, St. Petersburg, 2009, deputy principal)

Lack of citizenship does not interfere with admission to school but may affect a more negative attitude of the teacher. Migrants who do not receive citizenship do not integrate into society and leave or stay in Russia. In relation to the last students, teachers have particular difficulties regarding the educational process. They are primarily associated with the fact that these migrant families often live in two countries, periodically leaving Russia to update documents necessary for staying in Russia, or to meet with relatives. Often, they leave without warning, so it is not clear whether migrant children will return to Russia and continue their education or stay in home country:

“There is a boy - I started working [in this school] last year - who was on the lists, but he missed two-quarters, he studied there in Tajikistan. Then he arrived in the third quarter, that is, his parents [live] here and here, and he studies here and there. And of course, it's difficult.” (ID 119, St. Petersburg, 2019, teacher of Russian language)

This uncertainty creates a more negative attitude towards migrants as students and adds additional difficulties to teachers. In addition to the fact that some foreign ethnic children do not study for a full year due to family departures, their performance can be greatly reduced after they return. The influence of the summer gap is observed among ethnic minorities and is especially manifested in a significant drop in the level of knowledge of Russian language, which also affects the educational process in general:

“Int: Please tell me, are there cases when children leave for the holidays before the end of the quarter? Or the school year? And what happens to them when they return from their homeland?

Teacher: Yes, there are such situations. They come completely forgetting everything. That is, at home they ... do not do lessons with them. Naturally, few people speak Russian ... and ... they have to learn them again in a new way, or at least be sure that they remembered all this. That is, they [departures] have a bad effect” (ID 106, St. Petersburg, 2008, 1st grade teacher)

Thus, the education of migrant children requires even more efforts, although it is possible that these children will not integrate into Russian society, as their families do not plan to stay in Russia. Teachers are faced with the need to educate ethnic children in the absence of the necessary qualifications and this, in turn, leads to subsequent tensions.

Cultural discontinuity

“Discrepant value differences” of the teacher and student and his or her family can play a significant role in the attitude of teachers to migrant students (Sirin et al., 2009). Although teachers may not demonstrate nor even be aware of the difference in their attitude towards students of different ethnicities, this difference may manifest itself in an unconscious more negative assessment of both the performance and behavior of those children.

  In Russian schools, such discrepancies include language. For teachers, the level of knowledge of the Russian language is important not only in terms of building the educational process. A good knowledge of the language symbolizes the inclusion of a foreign ethnic child in the host society:

“Basically, if a child comes already completely able to write, read, speak - honestly, it doesn't matter if he is Tajik or Russian.” (ID 106, St. Petersburg, 2019, 2nd grade teacher)

Some teachers almost do not consider students from Ukraine and Belarus as migrants, since they often know Russian, and therefore the process of adaptation and inclusion in the educational process becomes faster and easier:

“Well, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, well, there are guys from Uzbekistan. There, let's say, from Ukraine, from Belarus - I do not consider them [as migrants]. They are, as it can be said, like ours. And, of course, with these [students] it is much more difficult, because there are language problems.” (ID 103, St. Petersburg, 2009, deputy principal)

On the contrary, students who came from the countries of Central and Middle Asia and from some regions of Russia (Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, and Tuva) may encounter greater problems in learning Russian, if they have not studied it before:

“And the hardest is Tuva. Now, since here ... this can be a discovery for you, in Russia there are regions where Russian is taught through ... Tuvan language. A Russian child, a non-Russian child who lives in Tuva, it is the Soviet Union ... maybe they don't even realize that they are Russian citizens, I say ... in general ... this is the official language ... parents also don't speak [Russian]” (ID 106, St. Petersburg, 2019, principal)

Such an attitude towards representatives of certain ethnicities can be associated not only with the language distance, which becomes a barrier in the interaction of the teacher and the child, but also with differences in traditions and accepted norms:

“All these small nations, they have a fraternization, a folkloric word, it is more common for them than for our self-sufficient Petersburg children. And they have such a moment that if someone of them is offended, they are ready to unite. Here is a moment. Now this, again, I already said, is not common in school, but we faced with this when there was such a rather complicated cub, an Azerbaijani. So, he instantly collected all of Narva [district] for me. Instantly, here at the porch, the horde was gathering simply. Well, in general, thank God, he left. And so, it was, yes, these small nations, they allow themselves such things here.” (ID 108, St. Petersburg, 2019, principal)

Also, discrepancies may be related to the religious traditions of migrant families or their misinterpretation of traditions and holidays accepted in Russia:

“Here, you know, lately, this year and last year, I had another problem. The fact that Muslim families do not consider, for example, New Year to be a holiday. And we say that we have a secular ... this is ... a school, a secular state ... and the New Year, in particular, the New Year is a tradition, this is not a religious holiday. This is a tradition. Therefore, the only thing you can do is simply not to bring your child to school on the day when we will celebrate the new year. And already at home to celebrate or not to celebrate - you can decide for yourself” (ID 118, St. Petersburg, 2019, primary school teacher)

“There were conflicts when Easter and Maslenitsa were held at school, that “we will not celebrate Orthodox holidays” although Maslenitsa is no longer an Orthodox holiday.” (ID 121, St. Petersburg, 2019, deputy principals)

Such manifestations of significant differences between the norms of the majority and the culture and perceptions of migrant families can lead to conflicts between migrant families and the school and to the formation of a more negative attitude of the teacher towards the migrant child, even if the student himself does not demonstrate these differences. Also, as studies show, this can negatively affect the assessment of migrant students, expressed in lowering grades.

Evaluation of migrant students

Student evaluation is another domain in teachers' work. In Russian schools, teachers evaluate all students according to two criteria: behavior and academic performance. Assessment of the behavior of Russian teachers is similar to the assessment of teachers in other countries and studies show that it is important that the student behaves “well” and is not problematic. However, the performance of all students is also important for employees of Russian schools, since their salary informally at the school level may depend on the performance of children. The salary of teachers depends on the workload of the teacher, which is distributed by the director, so, load distribution can be one of the tools to encourage teachers whose students have better academic performance. At the same time, teachers have to evaluate ethnic students on a par with local children, since there are no special criteria and scales for migrants, which would take into account possible difficulties in adaptation and poor knowledge of the language, so teachers have to find compromise schemes for assessing migrant children.

Academic performance

The main factor determining the academic achievements of a migrant child is knowledge of the Russian language. It determines the success of understanding the curriculum. According to teachers, diligence and interest in learning, which are present in most migrant children, are of great importance in the learning process.

“Since I have a large class, and different children ... different social ... social status is different for children, the children of migrants are more interested in knowledge. They, apparently... they are told that they need to survive in this world, and they survive, and they try” (ID 108, St. Petersburg, 2009, deputy principal on educational work)

In their stories, teachers sometimes contrast the diligent migrant students to Russian students, speaking about the lack of such an attitude towards studying among Russian children:

“I had children ... foreigners. They even try harder than the others. They want to prove themselves. Last year I had an Armenian in class. That is, they are trying. They try to show themselves” (ID 111, St. Petersburg, 2009, deputy principal)

At the same time, requirements and grading scale for migrant children are informally shifted down. In teachers' narratives, it can be noted that if ethnic children make efforts and are successful in language acquisition, they can receive mark “3” (satisfyingly on a five-point scale) and this is already a success for them:

“Recently, a student came to us in September ... from Uzbekistan. He is already involved in the work, he gets already [mark] “3”, he gets “3” for dictations” (ID 106, St. Petersburg, 2019, teacher of Russian language)

Teachers describe migrant children, who receive marks “4” and “5” or make achievements in certain areas, as exceptions and note their outstanding success:

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