The Institutionalization of Inclusive Migration Pedagogy as an Academic Discipline in the Context of Austrian Teacher Training

By Manfred Oberlechner | May 27, 2018
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Abstract: Since the 2016-17 winter semester, migration has become an essential component of the theoretical and practical teacher training in the central region (Upper Austria, Salzburg) as part of the interdisciplinary unit on diversity and inclusion. Reflective and inclusive migration pedagogy requires therefore extensive self-critical reflection work by teachers and students on recognizing difference and plurality, critically examining structures of discrimination and privilege, such as age, class, education, place of residence, physical and mental disabilities, giftedness, sexual orientation, beliefs, religion, and also racially-motivated dehumanization and ethnic stereotypes. In 2013 the “Federal Framework Law Introducing New Training for Educationalists” was passed in the Austrian National Council, thereby creating the legal basis for the education policy project PädagogInnenbildung NEU (see URL: https://www.bmb.gv.at/schulen/lehr/labneu/index.html; retrieved August 10, 2016).
Keywords: migration pedagogy, inclusion, Austria, new training for educationalists

概要 (Manfred Oberlechner: 在奥地利师资培训语境下，把包容性移民教育的制度化作为一项学术原则): 自2016年至2017年冬季学期以来，作为多元化以及包容性的一个跨领域的单元，移民在中心地区 (上奥地利，萨尔茨堡)已成为理论与实践方面师资培训的一项重要组成部分。因此，反思性及包容性移民教育要求师生在下列认知方面要开展延伸性的自我批评工作: 区别，多元化，犯罪结构及优越感方面的批判性的考察，如年龄，阶级，教育，居住地，生理及心理残疾，天赋，性取向，信仰，宗教以及出于种族动机的的非人道性和民族刻板印象。2013年奥地利国家委员会通过了“推介教育工作者新型培训的联邦框架法律”。对此，为教育工作者的新型培训这一教育政策项目建立了法律基础。(参见 https://www.bmb.gv.at/schulen/lehr/labneu/index.html; 2016年8月10日)
关键词: 移民教育，包容，奥地利，教育工作者的新型培训

Abstract (Manfred Oberlechner: Die Institutionalisierung der inklusiven Migrationspädagogik als akademische Disziplin im Rahmen der österreichischen Lehrerausbildung). Seit dem Wintersemester 2016/17 ist Migration im Rahmen der interdisziplinären Einheit von Verschiedenheit und Inklusion ein essentieller Bestandteil der theoretischen und praktischen Lehrerausbildung in der zentralen Region (Oberösterreich, Salzburg). Reflexive und inklusive Migrationspädagogik erfordert somit weitgehende, selbstkritische Reflexionsarbeit von LehrerInnen und Studierenden, bezogen auf das Erkennen von Verschiedenheit und Vielfalt, das Prüfen der Strukturen von Diskriminierung und Privilegien. Hierzu zählen Alter, Klasse, Bildung, Wohnort, physische und psychische Beeinträchtigung, Begabung, sexuelle Orientierung, Glaube, Religion, ebenso rassistisch motivierte Entmenschlichung sowie ethnische Stereotypen. 2013 wurde das „Bundesrahmengesetz zur Einführung einer neuen Ausbildung für Pädagogen und Pädagoginnen“ vom österreichischen Nationalrat beschlossen. Hiermit wurde eine Basis für das Projekt PädagogInnenbildung geschaffen (siehe URL: https://www.bmb.gv.at/schulen/lehr/labneu/index.html, Stand: 10. August 2016).
Schlüsselwörter: Migrationspädagogik, Inklusion, Österreich, neue Ausbildung für Pädagogen

Pезюме (Манфред Оберлехнер: Институционализация инклюзивной миграционной педагогики как академическая дисциплина в рамках подготовки учителей в Австрии). С зимнего семестра 2016/17 миграция в рамках междисциплинарного единства различия и инклюзии является неотъемлемой составной частью теоретической и практической подготовки учителей в центральном регионе (Верхняя Австрия, Зальцбург). Рефлексивная и инклюзивная миграционная педагогика требует обширной самокритичной рефлексивной работы учителей и студентов с точки зрения выявления различия и разнообразия, проверки структур дискриминации и привилегий. Сюда относятся возраст, класс, образование, место жительства, физическое и психическое нарушение, одаренность, сексуальная ориентация, вера, религия, а также расистко мотивированная дегуманизация и этнические стереотипы. В 2013 году австрийским Национальным Советом был принят «Общий федеральный закон о введении новой подготовки педагогов». Тем самым создана основа для проекта подготовки педагогов (см. URL: https://www.bmb.gv.at/schulen/lehr/labneu/index.html, состояние на: 10-е августа 2016г.).
Ключевые слова: миграционная педагогика, инклюзия, Австрия, новая подготовка педагогов

1. Salzburg and its higher education institutions: a location for migration, a location for cultural capital in terms of inclusive migration pedagogy

The sociologist Pierre Bourdieu extends and gives new meaning to the concept of capital. He sees the ownership of the means of production, money and capital (“economic capital”) as a source of organizational power not only within economic relations but also within social relations (“social capital”) as well as education (“cultural capital”) (Bourdieu, 1984). In this context, the key terms, in addition to “capital”, are “field” and “habitus”: “field” describes “social spaces” with a relatively flexible structure, it consists of a “set of objective historical relations between positions” (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992, 16). This field can, according to Hofbauer and Krell, be applied to a great variety of institutions and levels of aggregation, as well as to a university or the whole academic system (Hofbauer & Krell, 2012, 85). These “fields” are the result of processes of social differentiation; within them, individuals or groups compete for positions or rankings, and there are different rules of play for each field. The individual actors’ differing levels of capital are relevant to this contest (Aulenbacher & Riegraf, 2012). Furthermore, depending on their circumstances, an individual or a group develops different forms of habitus. Bourdieu defines “habitus” as a primarily unconscious system of schemes of perception, thinking and action which is focused on particular goals and which structure individual and collective action (Koller, 2002, 185). In other words, Bourdieu is describing the idiosyncratic “style” of the individual or the individual groups taking the action, a style which draws on past experiences and has an impact on the present and the future. “Habitus” is thus the result of biological determinants as well as both individual and social socialization and may express itself specifically in the form of a group’s “professional habitus”: experts in the academic field therefore refer to “the subject’s habitus”.

The logical consequence is to refer likewise to a “teacher habitus” and to call for this in connection with pedagogical professionalism in order to promote an inclusive migration pedagogy as part of the new teacher training in Austria. As “internalized cultural capital” (Bourdieu, 1984, 228), this “teacher habitus” presents itself – to draw on Bourdieu – as “permanent dispositions of the organism” (own translation) of teaching staffi – in other words, education for an inclusive migration pedagogy, the accumulation of knowledge about migration in the context of a new teacher training, is the “incorporated capital” (Bourdieu, 1991, 230) of each teacher.ii

In this context, the time factor is not insignificant. “The accumulation of culture in an incorporated state – i.e. in the form we call ‘culture’ in French, ‘Bildung’ in German, and ‘cultivation’ in English – presupposes a process of internalization which takes time because it requires teaching and learning time. The time must be personally invested by the investor (…)” (Bourdieu, 1983, 187; own translation). “Educational capital” is part of incorporated cultural capital. This means that anyone now applying to be “trained” in inclusive migration pedagogy as part of their teaching degree at the Salzburg University of Education Stefan Zweig, at one of the universities among Salzburg’s higher education institutions, or at other colleges and universities belonging to the “Cluster Mitte”iii must also prioritize the need to work on themselves. It is only via this route that specialist knowledge in inclusive migration pedagogy can subsequently become “incorporated capital” (Bourdieu, 1991, 230).iv This assumes that students invest much more time and effort than ever before (in research projects, too), so that inclusive migration pedagogy does not simply become a buzzword in teacher training.

The focus of the teacher training reform in Austria is on changes to the way teaching training colleges and universities work together. All the teaching degrees offered in Austria are encompassed by this reform. The students are therefore academically trained “in conformance with the Bologna Process”. The new bachelor’s and master’s degrees therefore provide an academic and practice-related qualification within the framework of a skills-based and professionally oriented training for future educationalists. This, in turn, is based within a study programme that is standard for all in terms of its main features. With cooperation between the training institutions – teacher training colleges and universities – and the formation of four regional development networks (clusters) in Austria, the aim is to provide a collective, homogeneous training for all high school teachers. Since 2009 the Austrian federal government has been trying to make careers in teaching more attractive and put professionalization at the heart of continuous national reforms of the whole teacher training system.v

This teacher training reform is – as in most of the prosperous European countries – embedded in a situation of social diversification through immigration. Currently (as on 1.1.2017), for example, 22.1% of the resident population in Austria have a migration background. 18.9% of the migrants were born abroad and therefore come from the first generation of immigrants, whereas 5.6% of parents have foreign ancestors but were themselves born in Austria, so they belong to the second generation. Most of the foreigners in Austria originate from the former Yugoslavia (primarily from Serbia (118,454), Bosnia-Herzegovina (94,611) and Croatia (73,334), followed by immigrants from Germany (181,618) and Turkey (116,838).vi

The state of Salzburg, too, is today an immigration state. The Salzburg State Statistical Service provides a good overview of the distribution of migrants in the state of Salzburg: in addition to 15.6% of residents with foreign citizenshipvii, there are people with a migration background who already have Austrian citizenship (in total, 21.3% of the population, i.e. the third highest percentage after Vienna: 42.8% and Vorarlberg: 24.5%)viii. The data on the distribution of population from the city of Salzburg’s municipal authority (as on 1.1.2017) shows that in the city of Salzburg (153,766 residents) around 25% (approx. 40,000 people) do not have Austrian citizenship. The majority of immigrants come – in keeping with the Austrian distribution (see above) – from the former Yugoslavia; in addition, there is a greater number of people with German and Turkish citizenship. Citizens from Africa, North and South America and Oceania are more of a minority in the city of Salzburg – there is a smaller number of these (under 1,000 residents of each).

Salzburg as a location for higher education therefore stands as a symbol of historical and current migration movements. At the time of the Protestant expulsions in the 17th and 18th centuries, many Salzburg families had to leave their homeland. Post-1945, Salzburg was a hub for large-scale international migration movements (Jewish emigres, war refugees, foreign-language forced labourers and prisoners of war, and many others), just as today many refugees (the majority from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq) are passing through Salzburg en route to Germany and other EU countries. – All these historical and current migration movements impact on Salzburg as a location for higher education, and therefore also on the social framework conditions for teacher training at Salzburg’s higher education institutions.

A third point of contact, for the purposes of this contribution, is the disciplinary specialization of migration pedagogy, as suggested by Paul Mecheril (Mecheril, 2004); theoretical positions on the issue of inclusion and, in particular, norm-setting within international (educational) policies offer further orientation here. This is consistent with the UNESCO Salamanca Statement (1994), which argues that regular schools with a corresponding “inclusive orientation” are the best way of combating discrimination. In addition to “disability”, the “UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” (2006) also identifies, inter alia, the following as socially effective markers of difference: “cultural belonging”, “skin colour”, “language”, “religion”, “gender identification”, “political or other opinion”, “age”, “socio-economic status”. In other words, this means “inclusive education” refers to the “entire diversity”, including migration.

Based on all the lines of argument cited above, the author takes the view that an inclusive migration pedagogy should be implemented as a core element of the reformed teacher training in Austria. This is linked with broad-ranging ideas pertaining to a (self-)reflective and inclusive teacher training that is increasingly able to avoid shortcomings in the Austrian education system, such as the phenomenon of adolescents “with a migration background” leaving school early. This inclusive teacher training is based on a particular kind of knowledge transfer whereby migration pedagogy is broadened to include an inclusive pedagogy. The aim is to prevent injustices and provide fairer higher education, thereby also achieving a perspective on migration that is more sensitive to diversity.ix

Socio-educational knowledge is necessary for this: this is what enables the more socio-critical consciousness required for the new teacher training in the first place. The appropriate fundamental question is: to what extent can educational institutions influence stability and change in a society and, in so doing, make a specific impact on social inequalities? This kind of reflective teacher habitus can provide innovative alternatives which make it possible to think and act from an educational science and pedagogical perspective, taking into account every aspect of inclusive migration and diversity pedagogy.

“Diversity” and “plurality” are terms which are used in an almost inflationary manner in relation to the issue of “multiculturality” in education. In rare cases, a detailed definition is given of what these terms mean. Usually, the aim is to convey the idea that diversity should be considered an “enrichment” or something “valuable”. In this sense, even illness, for example, can be considered a characteristic feature in relation to the differential field of health – one which, however, hardly anyone in a western meritocracy would wish to claim for themselves. Neither should (deviating here from Prengel, 1993) every line of difference be automatically socially, legally or politically recognized, but should be part of a democratic struggle for recognition. Diversity understood in the most comprehensive way, taking into account the overall plurality of the world, admittedly evades definition. Categories can only be formed if equality and difference are related to one another (Prengel, 1993, 31). It is evidently impossible to conceive the whole, the overall diversity, sociologically. When Prengel (1993, 49) writes: “Radical plurality develops out of the inherent idiosyncrasy of different creatures and forms of knowledge and thinking; each of these are highly valued in their idiosyncrasy”, this statement can only be understood as normative and appellative – not, however, from a sociological, analytical perspective. There is also scope to challenge her assertion that “the plurality that develops out of difference on the basis of equal rights, i.e. out of egalitarian difference, realizes democracy in a radical way” (Prengel, 1993, 49; own translation). If undemocratic or antidemocratic or democracy-eroding components of plurality come to power within the democratic process, democracy is radically endangered.

It is therefore essential to include issues pertaining to society as a whole – issues which go beyond the direct teaching learning context – in the research and teaching of teacher training colleges and universities in Austria. In the case of diversity or migration, this may lead as far as socio-philosophical questions and drawing, in particular, on Critical Theory. (The Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School is concerned with the ideological content of educational theories from the perspective of a critique of ideological bias; see also the Enlightenment criticism and the criticism of reason in Dialectic of Enlightenment or Eclipse of Reason on what happens when education is subject to the criteria of market-economy thinking, the aim of which is to maximize utility (Horkheimer & Adorno, 2002; Horkheimer, 2004; Adorno, 2015). A corresponding educational mandate to colleges and universities that is based on critical theory might start with the following main aspects: the reflective competence of both teachers and learners, the characteristics of the educational organization, as well as the prevailing teaching methods and teaching content.

At the same time, it is important here to consider social change from a socio-critical perspective: this raises the question of to what extent social change leads to social dimensions of difference – where advantages and disadvantages prevail – and to multiple experiences of recognition or neglect among persons included in the educational process. For precisely this reason, intersectional analysesx on social dimensions of difference or potential categories of discrimination must be carried out with a focus on a concept of tolerance and education that is humanizing, self-empowering, democratic and egalitarian.xi Against this background, the available potential and existing barriers in teaching and learning situations can be assessed more accurately, and positive and negative spirals with regard to individual learning can be triggered and halted respectively. Such a reflective teacher habitus provides innovative possibilities, promoting pedagogical debate and didactic practice in relation to migration too: the critical potential of the considerations that follow should contribute to a deeper and more systematic understanding of inclusive migration-pedagogical professionalism in the context of a reflective teacher habitus.

2. Challenges to teacher professionalizationxii in the context of living in a migration society

The issue of “migration” has “arrived” and now features teacher training courses at Austrian teacher training colleges and universities – including at Salzburg’s higher education institutions. Migration is therefore, today more than ever, of fundamental importance for pedagogical forms of organization and practice. The Austrian Ministry for Education (BMB, formally BMUKK) has, in response to this, institutionalized a department for diversity and language policies, the education of minorities, and school partnership, creating the “Kompetenzstelle USB DaZ”, an information and service centre for monitoring language competence in the field of German as a second language. In addition, an advisory board has been set up to advise on intercultural education, and the University College of Teacher Education Styria has been commissioned, as a national centre, to set up the Austrian Teacher Training Colleges Network in order to promote quality development and professionalization around the issues of interculturality, migration and multilingualism.

In terms of students enrolled on teaching degree courses at Salzburg’s higher education institutions, the following picture emerges with regard to migration and demographic data: an analysis of students in the third and fifth semester of the elementary school course shows that of a total of 213 students enrolled, 44 of these (20.7%) had foreign citizenship (predominantly German) (the analysis was carried out by the admissions office of the Salzburg University of Education Stefan Zweig without including students in their first semester, as at the time of the analysis (as on 25.8.2017) they had not yet been registered correctly). The Paris Lodron University of Salzburg makes its student statistics publicly available.xiii It offers the option to filter both by “teaching degree” and by “students’ parentage” (based on citizenship). In the 2017 summer semester (as on 1.9.2017), 3,594 students were fully registered for the teaching degree at the Paris Lodron University of Salzburgxiv – 373 of these were teaching degree students with foreign (predominantly German) citizenship, i.e. 10.5% (admissions continue until November every year – as of then, the data for the respective semester is “final”).xv This contribution will go on to explain further what this means in terms of anchoring the issue of “migration” in the elementary and high school teacher training course curricula at Salzburg’s higher education institutions.

At all events, the term “migration” in this contribution refers to a cluster of multifaceted phenomena relevant to education. These phenomena produce different educational trajectories and are therefore of importance to educational institutions – including Salzburg’s higher education institutions. Accordingly, the author uses “migration society” and “migration” as terminologically adequate references in terms of pedagogical thinking (Mecheril, 2004, 11).

A migration pedagogy that nevertheless continues to direct its theory and practice towards an imagined majority population “can at best be described as problematic […] and doomed to fail […]” (Castro Varela, 2015, 657; own translation). Consequently, it is not enough to add optional modules on migration or “interculturality”xvi to the curricula of teacher training degrees. All students need to receive systematic basic training with regard to migration, and this must include an intersectional perspective on other dimensions of difference such as gender, sexual orientation, language, religion, aptitudes or cognitive, motivational and emotional potential,xvii age, mental and physical impairments and/or position within the structure of social inequality.

The Austrian education system is still structured in a way that means migrants are more likely to be systematically disadvantaged (Steiner, Pessl & Karaszek, 2016, 84). Or, to put it another way: the Austrian education system is significantly more likely to offer students “with a migration background”xviii “opportunities” to leave school early, and this over several generations of school students (Steiner, 2009). However, given that many pedagogical practices paradigmatically see migration exclusively as a problem, it must be asked whether early school leavingxix among young people “with a migration background” is being systematically co-produced by schools. (The percentage of people “without a migration background” who left school early in 2015 in Austria was 4.3%. The percentage of people “with a migration background” who left school early was 19.6% (first generation) and 16% (second generation). In absolute numbers this means approx. 27,700 people. In other words: 30% of people between the ages of 15 and 24 who were not born in Austria are today considered early school leavers; they have completed – as a maximum – their mandatory schooling and are not completing any form of training. In the group born in Austria, this is approx. 10% (Bruneforth et al., 2016, 134).); i.e. where the students who are selected are those who do not have enough ability to appropriate the techniques of academic success at school – including the required level of technical textual competence according to the educational standards (BISTxx), or where young people “with a migration background” who leave school early have also previously found themselves facing “intersectional”xxi discrimination which systematically impacts on their education across multiple dimensions. It is therefore not surprising that the proportion of “children with a migration background” who are certified as having “special education needs” is significantly overrepresented in Austrian special education schools – even though poor German language skills are not supposed to be the reason for this (Kornmann, 2006, 71-72). Via this “special pathway”, learners “with a migration background” are more likely to be de facto shunted into special education establishments which generally fail to offer them any adequate school-leaving qualification for them to build on in their further education.

3. Inclusion and migration pedagogy

Inclusion starts with the needs of all participants and claims it can provide a response to the diversity of individuals. Inclusive education is therefore focused on diversity and not merely on the joint education of students or school students “with or without a migration background”. In terms of evaluating the richness of human experiences, this diversity corresponds to pedagogical and didactic ideas which do not focus on learners’ deficits but on fostering their diverse skills. This focus on potential emphasizes the benefits individual diversity can bring to educational processes.xxii Moreover, against the backdrop of a society that defines itself in terms of respect for human rights, migration pedagogy can contribute to an “inclusive understanding of society”, and do so in accordance with the paradigmatic aim of teacher training in Austria, which sees itself as committed to egalitarianism and inclusiveness (Allemann-Ghionda, 2013, 126).

In the Austrian education system, which practises educational selection at a very early stage (Nusche, Shewbridge & Lamhauge Rasmussen, 2009, 24) and has many half-day schools that in effect displace a large proportion of learning to the private sphere, the need for inclusive intersectional reform of educational structures is especially pressing. From this intersectional perspective, the corresponding educational policy with regard to migration is always connected with a critical approach to power and domination: this inclusive and intersectional migration pedagogy with a critical approach to power is practice-oriented because it is concerned with dimensions of difference and the interactions between them, with the aim of minimizing social inequalities in practical teaching and learning settings. In terms of the phenomenon of migrants leaving school early, this means that migrants are a major risk group for early school leaving – not because they are migrants but because they often lack sufficient educational attainment (especially an adequate level of German, the language of education) to be able to make use of the many educational opportunities that are available in Austria. This also goes to the crux of equal opportunities: in principle, everyone in Austria has the opportunity to choose higher education. The preconditions, however, that would also enable everyone to excel in higher education are linked with previously acquired “socio-cultural capital”. This means that in Austria migrants are often unable to “access” various routes through education because the requirements for higher education in Austria are too demanding for them. For this reason, early school leaving must be understood as a problem generated by a variety of social factors: the phenomenon of students, for example, “with a migration background” leaving school early can only be explained in detail with reference to the interplay between socio-economic milieu, a lack of problem-solving strategies at an individual level, and systematic conditions (such as the fact the Austrian school system is highly selective) (Steiner, 2009, 152; BMUKK, 2012, 12).

4. Professionalization in the teaching/learning context from the perspective of inclusive migration pedagogy

The diversity differentials that learners themselves contribute to educational institutions – e.g. in terms of their language(s), their knowledge, or their relationship to the educational institution – are differentials that are constitutive of migration societies. It is crucial here that these are not “intercultural” differentials conceived in terms of a bipolar model according to which “others” have brought their ethno-cultural customs “to us” in “our” Austrian educational institutions. Rather, this inclusive migration pedagogy takes account of everyone’s experiences of foreignness in its learning processes: these experiences represent the cultural and linguistic differences of a single pluralistic (educational) society (Mecheril & Oberlechner, 2016).xxiii Teacher training in Austria needs to recognize this heterogeneity both symbolically and practically, and to provide learners with educational processes that correspond to their skills, knowledge and interests (Oberlechner, 2015, 735). The project of implementing an inclusive migration pedagogy in higher education institutions must therefore also be analyzed in the context of teachers’ and learners’ divergent milieus and experiences of socialization within educational institutions. Teachers (cf. the socio-cultural context of Austrian teachers: primarily stationary in terms of location, “petit-bourgeois”, so to speak, with a distinct interest in safety, security and roots), almost all of whom (with some exceptions) only have German as a first language and have no experiences of migration, do not understand the milieus and social experiences of the increasingly heterogeneous learners they teach.

These teachers often do not know what it is like to be at home in two or more linguistic, ethnic and social worlds and to have to balance different – and often contradictory – systems of norms and values on a daily basis.xxiv Consequently, it is of vital importance to revise our concepts of linguistically sensitive teaching and lay down foundations that ensure that all learners (even so-called native students who are significantly lacking in language skills) acquire, through their education, the ability to communicate to a respectable standard within Austria’s multilingual, pluralistic society. At the same time, reflection on how the “foreign” and the “other” are constructed on a daily basis within and beyond educational institutions should be central to this inclusive teacher training.

From the perspective of an inclusive migration pedagogy, we must counteract segregation if it is based only on the language development or language skills of students who do not have German as a first language. The new teacher training should therefore not be about introducing elective modules on migration or interculturalityxxv which students may attend voluntarily. Instead, it is necessary to establish within the new curricula a systematic basic training and education on migration issues relevant to education for all teaching degree students. Furthermore, anti-racism, anti-discrimination, political and religious fanaticismxxvi and extremist Islamization (e.g. in terms of excluding women and girls from education) should also be components in an inclusive migration pedagogy. This also includes sensitivity to difference as regards fair educational participation for all – in line with Austria’s own objective for education reform: to provide an educational science and pedagogical and didactic response to heterogeneity by introducing learning processes appropriate to all learners.xxvii

5. Migration and internal higher education development

An inclusive migration pedagogy must counteract this in both theory and practice within the curricula of the new teacher training. It should be targeted towards all students, teaching and administrative staff, it should be highly differentiating, and it should promote a reflective competence that makes it possible to absorb or counterbalance mechanisms in the education system which produce or reinforce inequalities.xxviii Here, for example, a revision of the concepts of language-sensitive teaching is of crucial importance, laying the foundations for all learners (even so-called native students who demonstrate a significant lack of language skills during their degree programme) to acquire the ability to communicate to a respectable level in a multilingual society.

At the same time, a key function of this new inclusive teacher training is to reflect on how “foreignness” or “otherness” is construed on a daily basis in institutes of higher education and universities. This all has a concrete impact on the content profile of the educational institutions in “Cluster Mitte”: the Salzburg University of Education Stefan Zweig has accordingly changed its organizational structure by setting up a centre of excellence for diversity pedagogy with an emphasis on migration and multilingualism (with a particular focus on intersectionality). In addition, the higher education institutions are promoting higher education teaching processes with a focus on migration-pedagogical practice during their internal teacher training programmes through publications, research proposals, specialist conferences, and continual professional development programmes for teachers, and they are also establishing national, international and interdisciplinary research collaboration projects on migration and education. Furthermore, in 2013 the first professorship for sociology with an emphasis on migration pedagogy was instituted at the Salzburg University of Education Stefan Zweig; this shows that the issue of migration has an important role to play in the development of the “Inclusive University”xxix.

Finally, by changing its name to include that of the exiled Stefan Zweig in November 2014, and by hosting the first Stefan Zweig conference in December 2015, the Salzburg University of Education Stefan Zweig has made a clear statement with regard to the relevance of migration issues in pedagogical training.

Professional pedagogical practice, including migration-pedagogical practice, always takes place within a field of structural and cognitive contradictions – and this is also the case in teacher training colleges.xxx This therefore suggests that in general – and especially under conditions of migration and diversity – all students – and teachers – should be given the opportunity to acquire a professional approach that is accordingly reflective with regard to migration pedagogy. In other words, because migration-pedagogical practice is always case-specific, and because it is not just a matter of applying the same “recipe” in each individual case, teachers and students cannot be expected to always demonstrate “correct” practice from a migration-pedagogical perspective.

Teachers’ critical self-reflection should proceed on an anti-positivist basis (Horkheimer, 1989). Its starting point should be that thinking must engage with and embed itself in reality, but at the same time it requires distance if it is to be self-critical. Criticism therefore requires not only the negative, sceptical moment but, at the same time, the individual’s inner independence if it is to resist the prevailing zeitgeist (inclusive of education policy issues).

Thus, a teacher who practises in a critically enlightened way uses inclusive migration pedagogy to diagnostically identify and dialectically neutralize socially-mediated oppositions in order to deepen and preserve these – raising them to a new level where new perspectives are permitted – and to make use of them in pedagogical practice: the purpose of critical pedagogical professionalism is not to create a pedagogy that is free from oppositions, rather to recognize and grasp real oppositions in such a way that they can be changed through pedagogical practice.

The question of how the educational institutions of the “Cluster Mitte” – where this inclusive (migration-)pedagogical practice is in operation – can become places of reflection, places in which professional teachers see themselves, at the same time, as learners, is crucial here because reflective practice requires reflective environments. Especially when it comes to the competing demands of migration and performance assessment and efficiency at teacher training colleges and universities which must comply with prescribed assessment, selection and allocation requirements, this migration pedagogy will always be influenced by social interferences, paradoxes and ambiguities.

6. Implementing the interdisciplinary material on “diversity”

Overview of the implementation of the interdiscipinary material within the “elementary school” curriculum of the bachelor’s and master’s degree programme (modules)

EC Module code Module title Topic
1 P 1:1 Language as the Basis of Teaching Multilingualism, differentiation
3 P 1:3 Linguistic Foundations of Language Acquisition Multilingualism
1 P 1:3 Language Level Monitoring and Language Support Multilingualism
2 P 2:2 Inclusive Rhythmicity and Motopedagogy Inclusion, differentiation
3 P 2:5 Diversity and Inclusive Pedagogy: Gender, Interculturality/Multilingualism, Disability Diversity and inclusive pedagogy: gender, interculturality/multilingualism, disability
1 P 2:5 Gender, Interculturality/Multilingualism, Disability Gender, interculturality/multilingualism, disability
1 P 3:1 Changing Perspective: Diversity/Inclusion and Society Diversity, inclusion
2 P 3:4 Gender and Media Gender
2 P 3:4 Migration Pedagogy, Intercultural Learning/Multilingualism and Media Migration, multilingualism, diversity
2 P 3:4 Diversity and Inclusive Pedagogy: Disability Diversity, inclusion
2 P 3:5 Political Education in Elementary School
2 P 4:2 Reading and Literary Skills Gender, diversity, multilingualism, migration; heterogeneity
4 P 4:2 Reading Diagnostics and Reading Support Gender, diversity, multilingualism, migration; heterogeneity; differentiation
2 P 4:3 Communication and Conflict Gender, migration
2 P 5:1 Performance Assessment and Diagnostics Diversity, heterogeneity, differentiation
1 P 5:1 Ethics and Ethical Practice Migration, gender
4 P 5:2 Social and Historical Learning Gender
4 P 6:1 Heterogeneity and Differentiation in Mathematics Teaching Heterogeneity, differentiation
2 P 6:3 Educational and Career Orientation Gender
2 P 7:2 Autonomous Language Use in Differentiated Foreign Language Teaching Differentiation, inclusion
2 P 8:1 Concepts of Sustainability Inclusion
2 P 9:1 Sensorimotor Learning Inclusion, gender, differentiation

Figure 1: Implementation of the interdisciplinary material on “diversity” (including migration) within the bachelor’s and master’s degree programme in elementary school teaching at the University of Education Stefan Zweig

Since the start of the winter semester 2015/16, the Salzburg University of Education Stefan Zweig has offered a new elementary school course curriculum for bachelor’s and master’s degrees; the interdisciplinary topic of “diversity” (including “migration”) is anchored in this and is worth 49 ECTS (European Credit and Accumulation System) points.

Within the framework of the bachelor’s and master’s elementary school course curriculum, however, there are very few course units which are required to focus on migration or inclusive migration pedagogy. For example, one course unit which must include, i.e. thematize, migration is: “Migration Pedagogy, Intercultural Learning/Multilingualism in the Context of Media and Foreign Language Teaching”.xxxi

Since the winter semester of 2016/17, the thematic field of “migration” has likewise been one of the components in educational science and pedagogical and practical training as a sub-field within the interdisciplinary topic “diversity and inclusion” as part of the “new teacher training” for bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the Mitte region (i.e. Upper Austria, Salzburg). In this respect too, differentiated abilities in perception, evaluation and making judgments with regard to teaching and learning processes, combined with an inclusive attitude, are the key educational objectives of all courses. These are identified, in comparison with the Salzburg University of Education Stefan Zweig elementary school curriculum, not via an explicit allocation of ECTS points but in terms of content at the level of the module and course descriptions. In the ten guiding principles of the bachelor’s and master’s high school teaching programmes and, respectively, in the subject areas of the bachelor’s high school teaching degree there is very little content on migration or migration background; in the subject area of geography and economics within the bachelor’s teaching degree, for example, students must pass “restricted elective” modules corresponding to 8 ECTS points, and these include migration studies modules. This means students can pass by specializing or by taking individual subject-specific seminars.

What is immediately noticeable when the two curricula are compared is that, overall, at high school level, the diversity topic is not integrated as compactly as at elementary school level, and this is primarily because of the dominance of subject areas or specialist disciplines. On the other hand, the field of diversity is more strongly connected with the respective research within subject areas, and the new specialization “inclusion pedagogy” – instead of “special needs school teaching” – may be able to anchor migration pedagogy in the high school curriculum on a long-term basis. However, it remains to be seen whether the issue of migration will tend to be “included” as a visible, discrete unit in the “interdisciplinary topic” in the Mitte region, or whether it will tend to get lost or even “dissipated” within this. This is because the core curriculum (apart from the optional course specializations) is largely lacking in the specialist courses reserved solely for the specific thematic field of migration and available in comprehensive breadth.xxxii Moreover, as regards multilingualism in relation to migration, it is apparent that although the new curricula do, on the whole, address multilingualism more explicitly, there is certainly more “scope for development” in terms of establishing concrete approaches or making it compulsory to anchor the respective teaching content in the compulsory core curriculum in the middle region or in the elementary school curriculum of the Salzburg University of Education Stefan Zweig (Purkarthofer, 2016, 11).

These curricula do not convey the issue of migration by any means substantially enough, and they do not adequately address requirements such as learning process design for bilingual or multilingual learners, engaging with differences in ethno-cultural socialization, possible traumatization due to forced migration, etc. This is certainly true of the elementary and high school curriculum at the Salzburg University of Education Stefan Zweig (Purkarthofer 2016, 11). This is also true if results are compared nationally: “Migration is used relatively sparely in the curriculum and appears most frequently where it is part of the interdisciplinary topics” (Purkarthofer, 2016, 13). In addition, there must also be a comparative analysis of the respective paradigmatic starting points for anchoring migration (as a resource, in the context of intersectionality, etc.) in all elementary and high school course curricula).

The teachers’ attitudes, knowledge and practical skills are a key factor in this connection, because module descriptions represent, as a starting point, general “positions on paper”; the decisive factor will be how the individual teacher implements the content of the course. It will depend on the teacher’s attitude as to whether he or she approaches migration primarily as a problem and a liability or as an educational opportunity with great potential and transfers his/her knowledge (possibly also via an emotional perspective) to students accordingly.xxxiii

In order to ensure that there is a correspondence between pedagogical and didactic concepts of empowerment on the one hand and migration pedagogy within curricula on the other, there should not be a one-sided focus on the deficits of learners with a migration or refugee background, rather the emphasis should be on fostering the diverse skills they have brought with them. This focus on potential highlights the benefits of heterogeneity for teaching and learning processes. If we wish to achieve fairness, social justice and equal opportunities for all, migration pedagogy needs a concept of diversity that, firstly, sees diversity as the norm and, secondly, reflects critically on existing relations of power and domination. This intersectional migration pedagogy with a focus on the criticism of power and domination is a practice-oriented science that is concerned with dimensions of difference and the interactions between them in order to minimize social inequalities in practical teaching and learning settings.

7. Requirements for core skills in inclusive migration pedagogy

However, the idea is not that inclusive migration pedagogy simply becomes another buzzword. In order to prevent this from happening, reflection at both a systematic/theoretical and an individual level is required, as well as concrete answers regarding pedagogical practices. The following section outlines requirements for core skills in migration pedagogy (for more details see Oberlechner, 2016) within the context of the new teacher training.

7.1. Inclusive migration pedagogy is not an esoteric discipline

Migration relativizes both individual certainties and social norms. Migration is therefore never a minority issue, and migration pedagogy is never a minority pedagogy. Questions relevant to the whole of society intersect within the thematic field of migration, above all because they concern social change. Inclusive migration pedagogy must also take account of multiple socio-cultural and socio-psychological aspects (e.g. in relation to people’s sense of time and experiences of aging, family ties, death and funerals in a foreign country). Migration pedagogy poses questions regarding the multiple causes, motives and purposes of migration, and distinguishes between different supra-individual types of migration. The processes and structures of interaction associated with these issues, which operate at the levels of both individuals and society as a whole, therefore represent particular thematic fields within migration pedagogy: migration pedagogy accordingly analyzes and interprets constructions of “we” and “you” or of “self”/“own” and “other”/“outsider”, of community and society, state, nation, rights, ethnicity, language (including bi- and multilingualism). In addition, there are processes of acculturation, integration and disintegration; of transnationality, transculturality, assimilation, marginalization, stereotyping, the formation of prejudices, racism and ethnocentrism, inclusion and exclusion or segregation. Inclusive migration pedagogy also examines related questions of power, domination and social participation, including differences in educational opportunities and risks arising from multi-layered, plural biographies (which are of particular interest in the context of migration pedagogy). This special pedagogy therefore enables not only analysis and interpretation of “we” and “you” identities, but also criticism and deconstruction of these. A theoretically complete picture of migration does not therefore get “stuck” at the level of “cultures” and “discourse” but is always related within the analysis to the socio-cultural conditions of these constructions, e.g. to the national logic of competition, which, when the necessity arises, repeatedly instrumentalizes identities (including those of migrants) (see the analyses by Balibar & Wallerstein, 1990).

7.2. Inclusive migration pedagogy is comprehensive and differentiated

A migration pedagogy-based approach that is too simplifying is therefore characterized by a condensed analysis of current social situations, one which unjustifiably suppresses the dimensions of difference into which migrants are incorporated, and overlooks the fact that differences such as ethnic origin, nationality, class, gender or sexual orientation – which are acquired in unequal societies (either inherited/imported from another country or imposed upon arrival in a new country) – can manifest cumulatively, that is to say, in the form of multiple intersectional discrimination.xxxiv For this reason, migration pedagogy does not simply tease apart discriminatory dimensions of difference in the context of migration, education and early school leaving and regard these as discrete elements that are merely added together; instead, it regards these as unique composites that are inherently different from one another (or, to put it more concretely, in the words of someone directly affected: you are not discriminated against as a Turk plus as a girl, but as a Turkish girl). This comprehensive, differentiated concept of migration includes, in addition, questions relating to immigration and emigration, regular and irregular migration, economic migrants and refugees, environmental migration, the construction of foreignness, gender, transmigration, exile, brain drain, brain gain, brain waste,xxxv and many more besides, i.e. all those migration phenomena that are also relevant to education.xxxvi This migration pedagogy thus incorporates, right from the outset, not just the dimensions of difference of students “with a migration background” but those of everyone in the teaching and learning context.

7.3. Tools for inclusive migration pedagogy?

How can inclusive migration-pedagogical knowledge be mediated through concrete lesson planning in inclusive teaching and learning settings? Specialist learning on the issue of migration requires incisive subject-didactic research on inclusive subject-based teaching in migration pedagogy. In addition to this subject-didactic perspective on migration pedagogy, therefore, inclusive pedagogy must be broadened out if migration pedagogy is to become part of an “Inclusive University”. This requires effective collective learning on the collective topic of migration, and it is only inclusive teaching that can create the right conditions for this.xxxvii Migration-pedagogical learning thus does not draw on simplified constructions of identity which focus in a knee-jerk and overhasty manner on, for example, students having a particular nationality or a first language other than German, thereby causing students from families with multiple “family bases” to feel “trapped between two worlds” (Oberlechner, 2011, 34). In such cases, all the various individual localizations arising from multiple and simultaneous sources of identity are overlooked in the educational context. To ensure this does not happen, migration pedagogy requires constant (self-)critical reflection and permanent analysis of the actual situation as regards recognizing difference and plurality and structures of discrimination and privilege. Only then can a didactics that is sensitive to difference also be accorded actual value within the context of teacher training; not, however, in the sense of a complete migration pedagogy tool with an exhaustive list of correct teaching and learning methods with regard to students “with a migration background”, rather in the sense of a differentiated, self-reflective awareness of all learners within learning processes.xxxviii

7.4. A critical and reflective teaching habitus

A correspondingly critical and reflective teaching habitus contributes significantly to ensuring that the requirements of migration pedagogy are met as adequately as possible in teaching and learning situations. This is primarily the case where institutions of higher education also have a reflective culture that is accepting of mistakes, where they are familiar with the practices of case review, peer advice and supervision, and where offers of training are not interpreted as implying weaknesses or even incapacity on the part of the staff. The question of how the educational environments in which (migration-)pedagogical practice takes place can become places for reflection, places where professionals likewise view themselves as learners, is central: reflective practice requires reflective environments. It is important to increase awareness of this, as otherwise it is not possible to continually re-conceive the field of migration and take it beyond an overly-prescribed migration discourse. The usual “educational talk” around migration, however, often merely obfuscates “talk” and “action”– even the language used by migration educators should be continually deconstructed anew.

8. Closing remarks

Accordingly, a reflective habitus with regard to inclusive migration pedagogy uses a concept of migration that is neither a-political nor post-political but is instead cognizant of moral pitfalls, difficult balancing acts between divergent world views, and the risks of instrumentalization. It always reflects critically on approaches that culturalize and essentialize the phenomenon of migration in connection with education: students and teachers should therefore learn, as part of their teacher training, how to justify their own migration-pedagogical practice at all times. Those responsible for managing schools or higher education institutions need to know themselves, from a theoretical perspective, how and why the issue of migration should be included within the curricula, and how and why it should be a consideration within administration, further education and training, and the selection of teaching staff. This might involve schools and higher education institutions modeling processes on their own initiative or offering suggestions for reform in order to create an inclusive school and class climate. Migration in the context of education is not least about all individuals’ emotional connection with, and sense of belonging to, the educational institution. The objective of inclusive reform in educational establishments includes, above all, the migrants themselves. Thinking about high achievement and excellence is especially important in the context of migration (e.g. on the part of the Austrian Academy of Sciences) as well as in terms of academic achievement in colleges of education, universities and schools. All this requires continuous institutional reforms. Furthermore, colleges of education in Austria must not leave fundamental research on migration to non-vocational universities and limit themselves to research that is narrowly focused on the teaching profession and only covers issues “directly linked to actual practice with children”. This requirement to measure direct impact in practice ultimately and unjustifiably restricts migration research and the migration pedagogy that goes hand in hand with it. Critical reflection, principle-oriented theorization and deconstructive criticism do not necessarily lead directly to practical proposals for pedagogical solutions. The aim is to develop comprehensive theoretical knowledge about education, for critical awareness is only possible if it is cultivated within teacher training. A reflective habitus therefore generates innovative solutions which make it possible to maintain the momentum of educational science approaches and pedagogical thinking and practice in the field of migration. This should enable teacher training colleges in Austria to include problems pertaining to society as a whole, and which go beyond the immediate teaching and learning context, in their teaching and research. In the case of migration, this might even include socio-philosophical problems.

The aspects addressed in this contribution – the reflective habitus, the focus on individual cases, skills or resources instead of on deficits, etc. – can of course also be found in other concepts of pedagogical professionalism unrelated to migration (and this comes some way towards systematically anchoring inclusive migration pedagogy within special pedagogy). However, if we are to develop the potential of the reflections that are, to a certain extent in this contribution, consciously exploratory into a systematic understanding of inclusive migration-pedagogical professionalism in the context of the new teacher training, the following questions must be addressed (in further contributions elsewhere). The focus here should be to define more precisely – in a systematic and conceptual sense – and empirically investigate the challenges pertaining to teacher professionalization in the context of living in a migration society:

  • Upon which understanding of professionalism will this inclusive migration pedagogy be based, and to which processes of professionalization will it refer?
  • To which concepts and empirical evidence on professionalization can inclusive migration pedagogy be linked for the purpose of mediating pedagogical skills?
  • How should the relationship between inclusive migration-pedagogical skills and other pedagogical skills be conceived?
  • How should the interplay between the different (empirically proven) aspects of professional teaching skills and inclusive migration-pedagogical skills be conceived?
  • What is the perception of the relationship between professional habitus and professional skills within migration pedagogy?
  • Which specific bodies of knowledge should form the basis for inclusive migration-pedagogical professionalism (assuming that professional practice always refers to concrete, domain-specific content)?
  • To what extent can inclusive migration-pedagogical professionalism be empirically justified?
  • To what extent can research results pertaining to other concepts of diversity-sensitive practice and to intercultural competence be applied to inclusive migration pedagogy?

If inclusive migration pedagogy is to generate cultural capital for teacher training at Salzburg’s higher education institutions in the future, too, there has to be a need – and indeed a market – for it, not least on the part of the teacher training students and the individual schools. Schools, who have increasing autonomy over selection of personnel, are now in fact seeking candidates with qualifications in inclusive migration pedagogy. The implementation of inclusive migration pedagogy in the context of the new teacher training in Austria cannot therefore only be a top-down process (imposed by the government and administrative bodies) but must also be bottom-up. This is the only way in which inclusive migration-pedagogical education can become both ideal and capital in equal measure.

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About the Author

Dr. Manfred Oberlechner: Professor of sociology, director of the Competence Centre for Diversity Education at the Salzburg University of Education Stefan Zweig (Austria). Research interests: sociology of education, migration and integration. E-mail: Manfred.Oberlechner@phsalzburg.at

Endnotes

i To find information on “objectified cultural capital” in connection with migration at Salzburg’s higher education institutions, enter the search term “migration pedagogy” into the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg electronic library catalogue: this produces four results; the same online research for the Salzburg University of Education Stefan Zweig yields three results (accessed: 26.8.2017). Cultural capital in an “institutionalized state” appears, for example, in the curricula, the personnel and organizational structure or the certificates of the Salzburg University of Education Stefan Zweig and the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg.

ii Teacher training colleges and universities in the “Cluster Mitte” are called upon, in this connection, to explain, with respect to migration and an inclusive migration pedagogy, why inclusive migration pedagogy represents “cultural capital” for teacher training students. Salzburg’s higher education institutions are, in addition, called upon to provide cultural capital for inclusive migration pedagogy in an objectified state by purchasing specialist books, didactic documents, dictionaries, databases of migration and exile biographies, artworks, research databases, etc.; and ultimately they must provide cultural capital in an institutionalized state for inclusive migration pedagogy, i.e. independent degrees that prove their worth in the scientific community and within teaching practice and that are also recognized outside Salzburg’s higher education institutions. There is a need for additional and compulsory modules on migration pedagogy leading to ECTS points or grades, which are also a statement of the teacher training students‘ level of knowledge; and there is a need for inclusive migration pedagogy to be implemented as its own specific subject (e.g. within the framework of migration studies) and to gain institutional recognition. In addition, to ensure the success of this migration pedagogy, it must be subject to ongoing evaluation.

iii Six universities and four teacher training colleges in Upper Austria and Salzburg are participating in the collective training for “high school general education”: Johannes Kepler University Linz, University of Education Upper Austria, Salzburg University of Education Stefan Zweig, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Private University College of Education of the Diocese of Linz, University of Art and Design Linz, Mozarteum University Salzburg, Anton Bruckner Private University, Catholic Private University Linz, and Church College of Education – Edith Stein.

iv The impetus for this form of incorporation must, however, come from outside.

v URL: https://www.bmb.gv.at/schulen/pbneu/fakten/fakten.html (retrieved: August 22, 2017).

vi URL: https://www.integrationsfonds.at/publikationen/zahlen-fakten/statistisches-jahrbuch-2017/, pp. 23–27 (retrieved: August 22, 2017).

vii URL: http://landversand.salzburg.gv.at/WebRoot/Store/Shops/Landversand/57AD/A0CC/6BBE/30D1/D6A4/4DEB/AE3E/64A9/statistik_daten_zahlenspiegel2016-folder.pdf (retrieved: August 22, 2017).

viii URL: http://www.statistik.at/web_de/statistiken/menschen_und_gesellschaft/bevoelkerung/bevoelkerungsstruktur/bevoelkerung_nach_migrationshintergrund/033241.html (retrieved: August 22, 2017).

ix Furthermore, the aim of this contribution, or the scientific value of its elucidations, is to provide critical reflection, for theory and criticism focused on basic principles do not always have to flow into practical-pedagogical solutions. Which specialist knowledge on inclusive migration pedagogy can become “incorporated capital” in the context of teacher training? This contribution constructs a self-reflective understanding of inclusive migration pedagogy within teacher training on the basis of these and other questions.

x “Intersectionality” is understood here less as a research theory and more as a theoretical concept with a normative claim. The term was conceptually coined in the 1980s by Kimberlé Crenshaw; she used the image of an intersection where various roads of power and domination intersect, overlap and cut across one another as a metaphor for the specific interwovenness of social inequalities in a situation of social discrimination.

xi Marcuse’s remark that tolerance requires a fundamentally partisan attitude towards goodness and humanity (Marcuse, 1965).

xii From the perspective of sociological and professional theory, the concept of professionalism here proceeds not only from the individual level of the actors but also from an analysis of the structures and processes of society as a whole.

xiii URL: https://online.uni-salzburg.at/plus_online/StudierendenStatistik.html (retrieved: August 31, 2017).

xiv i.e. the teaching degree like the Diplom degree in teaching (equivalent to a master’s degree) (is being phased out), the teaching degree as a bachelor’s degree (likewise), as well as the bachelor’s degree within the “Cluster Mitte”.

xv In neither of the electronic databases “PH-Online” or “PLUS-Online” was it possible to filter by “migration background with Austrian citizenship”.

xvi Even the term is problematic, for it tends to culturalize complex socio-economic lines of conflict.

xvii Here, too, there are significant differences – sometimes denied by teachers – with regard, for instance, to the willingness to learn.

xviii The respective construction of this definition and its content should be subject to constant review: To whom does the concept “with a migration background” refer, in real terms, if it is used discursively? Research cannot function without such conceptual constructs. At the same time, researchers and consumers of research need to be aware that these concepts are not essentialist.

xix The group of early school leavers consists of young people who end their educational career as soon as they have completed their mandatory schooling, as well as of those who begin senior high school education but then discontinue this without replacing it with anything else, i.e. who do not switch to any other form of schooling or training (BMUKK, 2012, 11).

xx URL: https://www.bifie.at/bildungsstandards (accessed on 30.6.2017).

xxi In the sense of intersectional research.

xxii In general, this formulation conveys how diversity in itself is already “valuable”.

xxiii Normative requirements alone will admittedly not change everyday school practices. Endeavours to change the positions, attitudes and prejudices of (higher) education actors can only be demonstrated here as examples; the European Commission, for example, provides suggestions for international good practice (European Commission, 2013).

xxiv See Oberlechner, M. on the subject of “Vielfalt unerwünscht” (“Diversity Unwelcome”) in DIE ZEIT No. 22 (May 4, 2017).

xxv The term is in itself problematic, as it tends to culturalize complex socio-economic lines of conflict.

xxvi This is not meant to be applied in a bipolar way to the relation between allochthonous and autochthonous people; discrimination and anti-racism within and between ethnic communities must also be taken into account.

xxvii This also encompasses teachers and the whole school educational context, including parents, communities, school administration and NGOs.

xxviii This means that in their critical reflection, teacher training colleges in Austria must no longer view themselves as “subordinate agencies”, rather they must realize autonomy in teaching and research in concrete terms.

xxix URL: http://www.phsalzburg.at/index.php?id=inklusivehochschule (retrieved: September 2, 2017).

xxx A concrete example of this: adequate personnel, financial and material resources at a school are one of the most important prerequisites for the implementation of an inclusive teacher training. However, the resources that are actually available often fall very short of this requirement.

xxxi “Speechless through Migration?” became the title and thematic focus of this module in WS 2016/17 (module leaders: Manfred Oberlechner, Michael Manhart, Wolf Hilzensauer, Robert Obermair) with the homepage: http://sprachlosdurchmigration16.phsalzburg.net/; on the optional anchoring of migration within the curriculum, see the exercise (1 ECTS) connected with the lecture “Diversity and Inclusive Pedagogy: Gender, Interculturality/Multilingualism” which focuses on migration; and the lecture (3 ECTS) and exercise (1 ECTS) on “Migration Pedagogy and Intercultural Learning, incl. Multilingualism”, as both come under the focus of “Social Learning” within the bachelor’s degree in elementary school teaching. Information on the curricula of the bachelor’s and master’s degrees in high school teaching (general education) in the development combination “Cluster Mitte” as well as on the curricula of the bachelor’s and master’s degrees in elementary school teacher training can be found under URL: http://www.phsalzburg.at/index.php?id=8 (retrieved: June 30, 2017).

xxxii Currently, there are no respective national comparative results on the high school core curricula (Purkarthofer, 2016 offers initial partial results). The “National Centre for Interculturality, Migration and Multilingualism” (abbreviated in German as BIMM) is undertaking a research project (“Linguistic Education in the Context of Migration and Multilingualism in the Elementary School Curricula. A Collaborative Research Project by the PHOÖ, PHSt, PHT and PHV on the Elementary School Curricula at Bachelor’s and Master’s Level, Taking into Account the (Course) Specializations”; time span: 2016 – 2018, cf. www.bimm.at, accessed on 31.8.2016; the investigation focuses on four areas of diversity: interculturality and interreligiosity, migration and multilingualism).

xxxiii Admittedly, this is not just about the individual teacher’s attitude: in many cases, lines of discourse on the issue of migration from across the whole of society are so dominant that it is impossible to ignore them.

xxxiv A migration pedagogy perspective on early school leaving takes into account, for example, the specific disadvantages of learners who grow up in families “with a migration background” in socio-economically and ethnically segregated urban districts and attend schools which have high levels of social and ethnic segregation.

xxxv This contribution employs many concepts, and each concept generally requires further explanation. There is not enough available space to address this in this contribution – this is one of the core tasks of migration pedagogy.

xxxvi As Mecheril (2004) demonstrates, they have an effect on individual and shared educational careers and are relevant to educational institutions.

xxxvii The National Centre for Interculturality, Migration and Multilingualism’s subject platform offers, for example, models on “Linguistic Education in the Context of Migration and Multilingualism”. See URL: https://www.bimm.at/themenplattform/ and https://www.bmb.gv.at/schulen/unterricht/uek/interkulturalitaet.html (retrieved: August 28, 2017).

xxxviii This might mean intensive preparatory work or the provision of self-compiled didactic material for individual learning settings. “Method pools” can certainly be helpful here – they are designed by the teaching staff and implemented by everyone.

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