Refugee Pupils in Scottish Schools: Integration in a previously monocultural school

Refugees and education in Scotland: worlds apart?
Chair; Ian Menter
Presenters: Geri Smyth. Nathalie Tasler, Margaret Allan, Rhona Hodgart, Jeremy Idle, Henry Kum, (77 symp)

Paper i Refugee Pupils in Scottish Schools: Integration in a previously monocultural school
Geri Smyth and Nathalie Tasler, University of Strathclyde

A case study of the Schools and Social Capital network of AERS (Applied Educational research Scheme) has been investigating the experiences of refugee pupils in two Glasgow schools, using the lens of social capital to investigate the social and educational experiences of the pupils. This paper reports on the fieldwork from one of those schools: a secondary school in Glasgow with a GASSP (Glasgow Asylum Seekers' Support Project) unit within the school. The researcher spent eight days observing in classes, interviewing teachers, having conversations with pupils and being involved in an extra curricular photography club. In spite of access difficulties possibly arising from the limited social capital of the researcher in this situation (reported in another paper to SERA at this conference) a range of important issues for further discussion and exploration have arisen. This paper will focus on a discussion of the distinctions in integration between the GASSP Unit and the mainstream classes, the impact of detention of one of the pupils on other children, the creation of ethnic racial and other niches among the children and the way in which social class acts to create Bonding Social Capital across these other divides. The authors will conclude with suggestions for turning this bonding Social Capital into Bridging and linking Social Capital that could potentially enable more effective integration for the refugee pupils and at the same time enhance the intercultural understanding of all pupils.