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 MIGRATIONSFORSCHUNG
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Hilde van Schaeren

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In Search for Esteem and Respect – An Investigation of Identity Building Processes with Pupils from a Secondary School in Maastricht

 

 

I am only a stone in a river, the water is streaming all over me ….
(Dishad, Afghanistan, 13 yrs old)

 

At the age of 10-15 years, the adolescent comes to internalise the standards by which significant others judge the self. So young adolescents may have to learn that others also might have a negative attitude towards them. The risk is real that they are confronted with negative judgements against themselves or against the group they belong to. This might be problematic because at this age the group of significant others is growing with family, friends, classmates, teachers etcetera. Judgements and attitudes from these diverse others might especially be difficult to combine for adolescents belonging to minorities. (Rosenberg)

 

In the light of the latest developments, the growing intolerance and even aggression against diversity in the Netherlands, we aim to gain insight in factors that might influence and improve their emotional well-being. By using questionnaires about safety feelings, feelings of acceptance, tolerance towards diversity and empowerment in the classroom situation. Later on, with the results of these questionnaires, we have interviewed them.

 

In my study I focus on recent literature on identity building and self-esteem in adolescent migrant pupils of 12-15 years and I will present the results of an examination of 75 pupils (20% migrants), 20 teachers, one social worker and one member of the school management of a secondary vocational school in Maastricht (The Netherlands).

 

With our research we hope at least to get the possibility to enlarge our insight in the actual classroom situation of a selected school in Maastricht. Our ultimate goal is to advise schoolteachers and educators about what is going well and what can be improved in a class situation and to start a reflection process about the respondents own possibilities.

 

 

Hilde van Schaeren has a master degree on Slavonic Languages. (University of Ghent Belgium). Since 1991 she worked as a teacher at the Russian department of the Translating and Interpretation Higher Professional Education Institute of Maastricht. Actually she is working at the faculty of Social Studies of the Hogeschool Zuyd, where she is teaching at the departments of Social Pedagogical Services (SPH), Social Work and Services (Social Workers) and Cultural Social Work (CMV). Her main fields of interest are: problems of integration, diversity and migration have my special interest.

 

 

 

 

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