Child migrants’ right to education in a London academy: tensions between policy, language provision, and international standards
As a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, enshrined in national legislation, all children in the UK have the right to education. In the everyday life of schools, this human rights framework must often be balanced with other policies, such as immigration and securitisation ones...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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OsloMet — Oslo Metropolitan University
2021-03-01
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| Series: | Human Rights Education Review |
| Online Access: | https://journals.oslomet.no/index.php/human/article/view/4010 |
| _version_ | 1798037577884762112 |
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| author | Vanessa Hughes |
| author_facet | Vanessa Hughes |
| author_sort | Vanessa Hughes |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
As a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, enshrined in national legislation, all children in the UK have the right to education. In the everyday life of schools, this human rights framework must often be balanced with other policies, such as immigration and securitisation ones. Teachers are expected to police membership boundaries and keep their students under surveillance, while delivering results in compliance with audits and league tables. Based on a thematic analysis of an ethnographic study of an English as an Additional Language (EAL) classroom in a diverse London academy, this paper argues that recently-arrived migrant students and their teachers often find themselves at the intersection of contradictory policy agendas that rarely consider the needs of the children themselves. Analysing how national and international policy discourses play out in the classroom, I argue that there is a mismatch between different policy areas, and between policy expectations and everyday practice.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T21:28:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3f8c87277fdb43ce9f7549dbae4a844a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2535-5406 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T21:28:27Z |
| publishDate | 2021-03-01 |
| publisher | OsloMet — Oslo Metropolitan University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Human Rights Education Review |
| spelling | doaj.art-3f8c87277fdb43ce9f7549dbae4a844a2022-12-22T04:02:16ZengOsloMet — Oslo Metropolitan UniversityHuman Rights Education Review2535-54062021-03-014110.7577/hrer.4010Child migrants’ right to education in a London academy: tensions between policy, language provision, and international standardsVanessa Hughes0Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics, UK. As a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, enshrined in national legislation, all children in the UK have the right to education. In the everyday life of schools, this human rights framework must often be balanced with other policies, such as immigration and securitisation ones. Teachers are expected to police membership boundaries and keep their students under surveillance, while delivering results in compliance with audits and league tables. Based on a thematic analysis of an ethnographic study of an English as an Additional Language (EAL) classroom in a diverse London academy, this paper argues that recently-arrived migrant students and their teachers often find themselves at the intersection of contradictory policy agendas that rarely consider the needs of the children themselves. Analysing how national and international policy discourses play out in the classroom, I argue that there is a mismatch between different policy areas, and between policy expectations and everyday practice. https://journals.oslomet.no/index.php/human/article/view/4010 |
| spellingShingle | Vanessa Hughes Child migrants’ right to education in a London academy: tensions between policy, language provision, and international standards Human Rights Education Review |
| title | Child migrants’ right to education in a London academy: tensions between policy, language provision, and international standards |
| title_full | Child migrants’ right to education in a London academy: tensions between policy, language provision, and international standards |
| title_fullStr | Child migrants’ right to education in a London academy: tensions between policy, language provision, and international standards |
| title_full_unstemmed | Child migrants’ right to education in a London academy: tensions between policy, language provision, and international standards |
| title_short | Child migrants’ right to education in a London academy: tensions between policy, language provision, and international standards |
| title_sort | child migrants right to education in a london academy tensions between policy language provision and international standards |
| url | https://journals.oslomet.no/index.php/human/article/view/4010 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT vanessahughes childmigrantsrighttoeducationinalondonacademytensionsbetweenpolicylanguageprovisionandinternationalstandards |