Monday, 13 September 2010

Negotiating Political Identities: Multiethnic Schools and Youth in Europe

Symposium mit Daniel Faas

Globalisation, European integration, and migration are challenging  national identities and changing education across Europe. The nation-state no longer serves as the sole locus of civic participation and identity formation, and no longer has the influence it once had over the implementation of policies. Drawing on rich empirical data from four schools in Germany and Britain, Daniel Faas examines in his new book how schools mediate government policies, creating distinct educational contexts that shape youth identity negotiation and integration processes. The study is the first of its kind to bring together between-country and within-country differences in identity formation among young people. By delving into the discourses of ethnic majority and Turkish minority youth, the book unravels a wide range of factors shaping contemporary identities and offers new insights into the particular role school policy approaches play in this process. The book situates these discussions within broader European and transatlantic theoretical and empirical debates on immigrant incorporation and offers a much-needed synthesis of European and American scholarship.

Daniel Faas is Lecturer in Sociology at the Trinity College Dublin. His research interests include migration and education, European integration and globalization, citizenship and identity politics, multiculturalism and social cohesion, ethnicity and racism, curriculum and policy developments, and comparative case study methodologies. Daniel Faas is author of Negotiating Political Identities: Multiethnic Schools and Youth in Europe (Ashgate, 2010) and a large number of articles published in British Journal of Sociology, European Educational Research Journal, European Societies and other peer-reviewed journals. He has acted as advisor to the European Commission Directorate-General for Education and Culture and consultant to the Irish Department of Education and Science.