Teachers in Schools of the Migration Society

Typical Pedagogical Orientations and the Significance of the Teacher’s Own Sense of Recognition

Abstract

Teachers are called upon to provide the best possible educational opportunities as well as social belonging for all their students. This study scrutinizes what teachers orient to in this regard and how these orientations are shaped by the teachers’ life and professional histories. The investigation is based on a qualitative-hermeneutic approach with data collected from biographical-narrative interviews and analyzed according to the documentary method (Bohnsack, 2011). The sample comprises 38 primary school teachers in German-speaking Switzerland. The analyses reveal five idealtypical structures, which can be described in the light of professionalization theory (Helsper, 2011) as more or less professionalized. It becomes clear that, firstly, professionalized teaching in the migration context – and in particular the ability to decentralize perspectives – essentially depends on whether teachers have learned to perceive their students’ realities beyond stereotypes. Secondly, there is evidence that this professionalization largely depends on the question whether teachers feel sufficiently recognized. If they do not, their ability to professionalize is significantly restricted. Conversely, there seems to be great potential if the teachers’ recognition is improved. At the same time, it seems enormously supportive if teachers deal conciliatorily with the fact that recognition can only ever be realized in a broken and incomplete way.