Social Justice Education in European Multi-ethnic Schools Addressing the Goals of Intercultural Education Routledge Research in International and Comparative Education Series

Winner of the American Educational Studies Association Critics? Choice Book Award, 2019

Europe is a multi-ethnic society experiencing a rise of anti-immigration, racist, xenophobic discourses, and right-wing political rhetoric and movements proposing legislation to further solidify structural inequality and institutionalized systems of oppression that fuel educational inequities. Social Justice Education in European Multi-ethnic Schools brings together researchers in the fields of sociology and education to examine debates in multicultural education. Drawing on critical theory, the book takes an in-depth look at how these challenges are being addressed (or not addressed) in educational contexts and in the proposed framework of intercultural education adopted as a conceptual and educational framework by the European Union over the last two decades.

The book begins with an analysis of the sociological models and theories of migration and their connection to multiculturalism and interculturalism. It engages in the current debate between multiculturalism and interculturalism, bringing to light the "political rhetoric" that fueled narratives about the "failures" of multiculturalism, which ushered in the intercultural framework. It puts forth a critical analysis of interculturalism, linking it to neoliberalism, and policies of civic integration and the concept of govermentality. Advocating for a transformative framework informed in social justice education that aims to promote more equity in schools, it critically analyzes and discusses intercultural education, the pedagogical extension of interculturalism, as per the European documents highlighting its goals, pedagogies, tensions, and challenges.

Social Justice Education in European Multi-ethnic Schools will be of great interest to academics, researchers, and scholars in the fields of intercultural, multicultural, and transformative education.

Foreword: Paul Gorsky

Introduction

Part 1: Intercultural education: Origins, current thinking, practice and critiques

1. Social theories of migration, political realities, and the rise of interculturalism
2. Intercultural education: theoretical model and strategies for implementation
3. Talking back: critical theory and critical pedagogy
4. Intercultural education in Italian schools: A case study

Part 2:Theory in practice: "us and them", intergroup friendships, intergroup dialogue, and the promise of social justice education

1. "Us and them," the social construction of race, intersectionality and the importance of discussing race
2. Intergroup relationships in school, intergroup contact, & prejudice reduction: is it enough?
3. Social justice education and anti-colonial educational frameworks and pedagogy

Final thoughts

Afterword: Maurizio Ambrosini

Cinzia Pica-Smith is an Associate Professor in both the Department of Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies and the Education Department at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts in the United States.

Rina Manuela Contini is an expert in Welfare Theories and Social Intervention in the Department of Management & Business Administration at the University of Chieti-Pescara in Italy and is certified at the Associate Professor level in sociology of communication and cultural processes.

Carmen N. Veloria is an Associate Professor in both the Department of Education and Department of Sociology at Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States.