Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

(Re)constructing Nationalisms in Schools in the Context of Diverse Globalized Societies

  • Chapter
Governing through Diversity

Part of the book series: Global Diversities ((GLODIV))

Abstract

Schools are key battlegrounds between competing ideas of national identity, belonging and nationalism on four key, interconnected grounds. First, in many societies, there is an increasing ethnic diversity of students, associated with global migration, globalization and past waves of migration. Second, schools are sites wherein competing ideas of national identity are habitually circulated in non-conscious and non-deliberate ways. Third, deliberate attempts are made to “teach” children specific ideas of nationalisms, which can be more or less inclusive or exclusive, via formal curricula. Fourth, schools are arenas wherein attempts are made to teach children and young people to be more accepting and tolerant of difference. As Mitchell (2003) and others (Arnott & Ozga, 2010; Kong, 2013; Kotowski, 2013) have argued, schools remain key sites where national belonging and identity and specific types of nationalism are taught. Clearly, there is a tension between “the two roles of the educational system as, on the one hand, a mediator of the dominant culture, commemoration of imagined nationality and, on the other hand, a promoter of democracy, multiculturalism and ethnic and cultural divergence” (Hjerm, 2001, p. 38). Given the importance of schools as sites of the reproduction of different and sometimes competing ideas of nationalism and national identity, the study of nationalism in schools is crucial.

This chapter emerged from a grant proposal co-written with Heike Jöns and Louisa Webb and is dedicated to Louisa, who sadly died on 20 January 2012.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Abbas, T. (2007). Muslim minorities in Britain: Integration, multiculturalism and radicalism in the post-7/7 period. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 28(3), 287–300.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ajegbo, K., Kiwan, D., & Sharma, S. (2007). Curriculum Review: Diversity and Citizenship. London: Department for Education and Skills.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined Communities. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anthias, F., & Yuval-Davis, N. (Eds.) (1992). Racialized Boundaries. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Antonopoulos, G.A. (2006). Greece: Policing racist violence in the “fenceless vineyard”. Race and Class, 48(2), 92–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Antonsich, M. (2010). Searching for belonging — an analytical framework. Geography Compass, 4/6, 644–659.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnott, M., & Ozga, J. (2010). Education and nationalism: The discourse of education policy in Scotland. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 31(3), 335–350.

    Google Scholar 

  • Banks, J.A. (2008). Diversity, group identity, and citizenship education in a global age. Educational Researcher, 37, 129–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Billig, M. (1995). Banal Nationalism. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackledge, A., & Creese, A. (2009). “Because tumi Bangali” Inventing and disin-venting the national in multilingual communities in the UK. Ethnicities, 9(4), 451–476.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blumer, N. (2011). “Am Yisrael Chai! (The nation of Israel lives!)”: Stark reminders of home in the reproduction of ethno-diasporic identity. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 37(9), 1331–1347.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blunt, A. (2007). Cultural geographies of migration: Mobility, transnationality and diaspora. Progress in Human Geography, 31(5), 684–694.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brubaker, R. (2004). In the name of the nation: Reflections on nationalism and patriotism. Citizenship Studies, 8(2), 115–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bushin, N., & White, A. (2010). Migration politics in Ireland: Exploring the impacts on young people’s geographies. Area, 42(2), 170–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calhoun, C. (2007). Nations Matter. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department for Education (February 2013). National Curriculum in England: Framework Document for Consultation. London: Department for Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Devine, D., Kenny, M., & Macneela, E. (2008). Naming the “other”: Children’s construction and experience of racisms in Irish primary schools. Race Ethnicity and Education, 11(4), 369–385.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dwyer, C. (1999). Contradictions of community: Questions of identity for young British Muslim women. Environment and Planning A, 31(1), 53–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dwyer, C., & Paritus, V. (2012). “Faith in the system?” State-funded faith schools in England and the contested parameters of community cohesion. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 38(2), 267–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faas, D. (2008). Constructing identities: The ethno-national and nationalistic identities of white and Turkish students in two English secondary schools. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29(1), 37–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faas, D. (2011). The nation, Europe, and migration: A comparison of geography, history, and citizenship education curricula in Greece, Germany, and England. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 43(4), 471–492.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flintoff, A., Chappell, A., Gower, C., Keyworth, S., Lawrence, J., Money, J., Squires, S., Webb, L. (2008) Black and Minority ethnic trainees’ experiences of physical education initial teacher training Report to the Training and Development Agency. Leeds Metropolitan University. Retrieved from: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/4693/1/Fulltext.pdf [accessed 15 June 2015].

    Google Scholar 

  • Habashi, J. (2008). Palestinian children crafting national identity. Childhood, 15(1), 12–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haydn, T. (2012). History in schools and the problem of “the nation”. Education Sciences, 2(4), 276–289.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Higher Education Academy and Equality Challenge Unit (2008). Ethnicity, Gender and Degree Attainment. Retrieved from: http://www.ecu.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/external/ethnicity-gender-and-degree-attainment-project-final-report.pdf [accessed 15 June 2015].

    Google Scholar 

  • Hjerm, M. (2001). Education, xenophobia and nationalism: A comparative analysis. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 27(1), 37–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holloway, S.L., & Valentine, G. (Eds.) (2000). Children’s Geographies. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holt, L. (2004). Children with mind-body differences: Performing disability in primary school classrooms. Children’s Geographies, 2(2), 219–236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holt, L. (2007). Children’s sociospatial (re)production of disability within primary school playgrounds. Environment and Planning D, 25(5), 783–802.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holt, L. (2011). Introduction: Geographies of children, youth and families: Disentangling the socio-spatial contexts of young people across the globalizing world. In L. Holt (Ed.), Geographies of Children, Youth and Families (pp. 1–8). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holt, L., Bowlby, S., & Lea, J. (2013). Emotions and the habitus: Young people with socio-emotional differences (re)producing social, emotional and cultural capital in family and leisure space-times. Emotion, Space and Society, 9, 33–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, J. (2007). Mediating and moderating effects of inter-group contact: Case studies from bilingual/bi-national schools in Israel. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 33(3), 419–437.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joppke, C. (2004). The retreat of multiculturalism in the liberal state: Theory and policy. The British Journal of Sociology, 55(2), 237–257.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kasselias Wiltgren, L. (2013). Youth using national symbols in constructing identities. Journal of Youth Studies, 17(3), 308–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kiwan, D. (2011). “National” citizenship in the UK? Education and naturalization policies in the context of internal division. Ethnicities, 11(3), 269–280.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kong, L. (2013). Balancing spirituality and secularism, globalism and nationalism: The geographies of identity, integration and citizenship in schools. Journal of Cultural Geography, 30(3), 276–307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kotowski, J.M. (2013). Narratives of immigration and national identity: Findings from a discourse analysis of German and U.S. social studies textbooks. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 13(3), 295–318.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mansell, W. (21 June 2013). Michael Gove redrafts new history curriculum after outcry. The Guardian. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/jun/21/michael-gove-history-curriculum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mansouri, F., & Trembath, A. (2005). Multicultural education and racism: The case of Arab-Australian students in contemporary Australia. International Education Journal, 6(4), 516–529.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mavroudi, E. (2007). Learning to be Palestinian in Athens: Constructing diasporic national identities. Global Networks, 7(4), 392–412.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mavroudi, E. (2010). Nationalism, the nation and migration: Searching for purity and diversity. Space and Polity, 14(3), 219–233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McLaughlin, S. (2006). Metaphors of the Holy Land: Palestinian children re-conceptualise paradise. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 27(4), 435–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Minello, A., & Barban, N. (2012). The educational expectations of children of immigrants in Italy. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 643(1), 78–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, K. (2003). Educating the national citizen in neoliberal times: From the multicultural self to the strategic cosmopolitan. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 28(4), 387–403.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Motti-Stefanidi, F., Pavlopoulos, V., Obradovic, J., & Masten, A.S. (2008). Acculturation and adaptation of immigrant adolescents in Greek urban schools. International Journal of Psychology, 43(1), 45–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mueller, C. (2012). The educational philosophy and curriculum of the Palestinian nationalist movement: From Arab Palestine to Arab-Islamic Palestine. Middle Eastern Studies, 48(3), 345–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murray, H. (2008). Curriculum wars: National identity in education. London Review of Education, 6(1), 39–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Connell Davidson, J., & Farrow, C. (2007). Child Migration and the Construction of Vulnerability. Stockholm: Save the Children Sweden.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peled-Elhanan, N. (2012). Palestine in Israeli School Books. London: IB Tauris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pryke, S. (2003) British Serbs and long distance nationalism. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 26(1), 152–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Purdie, N., & Wilss, L. (2007). Australian national identity: Young peoples’ conceptions of what it means to be Australian. National Identities, 9(1), 67–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (2009). National Curriculum Cross-Curriculum Dimensions. London: Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds, G. (2008). The Impacts and Experiences of Migrant Children in UK Secondary Schools. Sussex Centre for Migration Research Working Paper No. 47. Retrieved from: https://www.sussex.ac.uk/webteam/gateway/file.php?name=mwp47.pdf&site=252.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhamie, J., Bhopal, K., & Bhatti, G. (2012). Stick to your own kind: Pupils’ experiences of identity and diversity in secondary schools. British Journal of Educational Studies, 60(2), 171–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sayer, A. (1982). Explanation in economic geography abstraction versus generalization. Progress in Human Geography, 6(1), 68–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scourfield, J., & Davies, A. (2005). Children’s accounts of Wales as racialized and inclusive. Ethnicities, 5(1), 83–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sion, L. (2013). Passing as hybrid: Arab-Palestinian teachers in Jewish schools. Ethnic and Racial Studies. Retrieved from: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870.2013.851398#.U1fGsWdOXIV.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soysal, Y. (1998). Towards a postnational model of membership. In G. Shafir (Ed.), The Citizenship Debates (pp. 189–221). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spicer, N. (2008). Places of exclusion and inclusion: Asylum-seeker and refugee experiences of neighbourhoods in the UK. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 34(3), 491–510.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spyrou, S. (2011). Children’s educational engagement with nationalism in divided Cyprus. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 31(9/10), 531–542.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stevenson, J., & Willott, J. (2007). The aspiration and access to higher education of teenage refugees in the UK. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 37(5), 671–687.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strand, S. (2011). The limits of social class in explaining ethnic gaps in educational attainment. British Educational Research Journal, 37(2), 197–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Triandafyllidou, A., & Kouki, H. (2013). Muslim immigrants and the Greek nation: The emergence of nationalist intolerance. Ethnicities, 13(6), 709–728.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tyrrell, N., White, A., Laoire, C.N., & Mendez, F.C. (2013). Transnational Migration and Childhood. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valentine, G., & Sadgrove, J. (2012). Lived difference: A narrative account of spatiotemporal processes of social differentiation. Environment and Planning A, 44(9), 2049–2063.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Valentine, G., & Sadgrove, J. (2013). Biographical narratives of encounter: The significance of mobility and emplacement in shaping attitudes towards difference. Urban Studies, 51(9), 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valentine, G., Sporton, D., & Nielsen, K.B. (2009). Identities and belonging: A study of Somali refugee and asylum seekers living in the UK and Denmark. Environment and Planning D, 27(2), 234–250.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Valins, O. (2003). Stubborn identities and the construction of socio-spatial boundaries: Ultra-orthodox Jews living in contemporary Britain. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 28(2), 158–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Blerk, L., & Ansell, N. (2006). Children’s experiences of migration in Southern Africa: Moving in the wake of AIDS. Environment and Planning D, 24(3), 449–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vertovec, S. (2007). Super-diversity and its implications, Ethnic and Racial Studies 30(6), 1024–1054.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vertovec, S. (2011). The cultural politics of nation and migration. Annual Review of Anthropology, 40, 241–256.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, H.F. (2013). Learning to think differently: Diversity training and the “good encounter”. Geoforum, 45, 73–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, H.F. (2014). Multicultural learning: Parent encounters with difference in a Birmingham primary school. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 39(1), 102–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zembylas, M. (2011). Investigating the emotional geographies of exclusion at a multicultural school. Emotion, Space and Society, 4(3), 151–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zervas, T.G. (2012). The Making of a Modern Greek Identity. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Elizabeth Mavroudi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Louise Holt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Roskilde University, Denmark

    Tatiana Matejskova (Assistant Professor of Urban and Mobility Studies) (Assistant Professor of Urban and Mobility Studies)

  2. Loughborough University, UK

    Marco Antonsich (Senior Lecturer in Human Geography) (Senior Lecturer in Human Geography)

Copyright information

© 2015 Elizabeth Mavroudi and Louise Holt

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Mavroudi, E., Holt, L. (2015). (Re)constructing Nationalisms in Schools in the Context of Diverse Globalized Societies. In: Matejskova, T., Antonsich, M. (eds) Governing through Diversity. Global Diversities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-43825-6_10

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation