Design Charles & Ray Eames - Hang it all © Vitra Family, school and teachers. The case of Lucerna schools in Flanders Prof. Ides Nicaise University of Leuven

The challenge Students from Turkish origin in Flanders… – perform substantially below average – have relatively poor command of Dutch – are seriously under-represented in general education The Flemish education system is characterised by… – extreme competition => selectivity and segregation – early tracking (age 12) – assimilationist climate (‘Dutch first’)

Vicious circles… Low SES cultural barriers Structural inequalities Educational disadvantage

The social capital of schools Schools with disadvantaged students get educational priority funding, and yet often have less resources: – Private infrastructure – Financial, social and cultural resources of parents / alumni – Teachers: quasi-market mechanisms result in ‘Mathew effect’, with teachers competing for the ‘easier’ schools (monolingual, close to home, high-SES etc.) => de facto inequalities in human resources

Lucerna’s response: building on the ethnic capital of the Turkish-Belgian community Leadership from 2nd generation of immigrants Financial support from Turkish entrepreneurs Commitment of teachers (extra- curricular activities, team teaching, individual tutoring, home visits…) Parents (partnership, voluntary work, sponsoring…) Peer mentoring by successful students Commitment Motivation Performance

Extended school strategy Supplementing the material, human, social and cultural capital of families – Dutch language development: summer camps, essay contests… – Multidimensional education (sports, arts, health, Ipad class…) – Link between curricular and extra-curricular activities / between formal and informal learning (science clubs, inter-school contests…)

A culture-sensitive community school Free choice of religious / moral education Building on values and attitudes of immigrant community (generosity towards community, nurturing excellence, gender sensitivity…) Partnership between school, parents and local community school Parenting support community action personal development parents Voluntary work diversity of talents sponsoring

Achievements (note: Lucerna schools started in 2003 => too early to measure full impact) Majority of students remain in general education Performance > Turkish students in other schools  gap with average Flemish students has not yet been closed Parents’ involvement and teachers’ commitment have strongly increased Transition into / success rate in higher education are gradually improving

Points of attention Achieving a diverse ethnic and social composition of student population => magnet school concept Interfaith dialogue – Dissemination of modern, open image of Islam in islamophobic environment – Active dialogue between students with different religious / philosophical background => potentially very attractive for native students

Related initiatives Of Turkish community Olympiad associations Parents’ associations Early childhood project Youth clubs Tutoring, homework classes, intercultural mediation Career guidance & social activities for HE students Adult education projects Of other immigrant communities Early childhood (e.g. Eerste Stappen) Homework classes (IQRA, Mariam, buddy project Leuven…) Parenting support (IC, AIF…) Peer mentoring Literacy / mother tongue courses (Arthis, GROVG…) Intercultural mediation, anti- discrimination actions (Selam, FMV…) Representation, political action (Flemish Minorities Forum )

Conclusion: civil society as a triple bridge Between families and education Between communities Between citizens and government This role deserves to be recognised and subsidised