¿Fronteras en las aulas? Contacto transcultural y endogamia en las interacciones del alumnado

Authors

Mariano Fernández EnguitaSalto de línea José Manuel GaeteSalto de línea Eduardo TerrénSalto de línea Universidad de Salamanca. Departamento de Sociología y comunicación. Salamanca, España.

Abstract

Are there Borders in Classrooms? Transcultural Exchange and Endogamy in Students InteractionsSalto de línea Salto de línea School is supposed to be a fabric of integration for the descendents of immigrant families. The aim of this paper is to find out how this integration takes place in school everyday life. For this purpose, a network analysis was used to deal with issues such as whether native and non native pupils share the same cooperation and friendship networks or not; whether there are bridging strategies to be observed or not;or whether endogamy or exogamy push interaction towards social inclusion or exclusion or not.Network concepts and analysis have been widely used in several fields of current social sciences, although –exception made of very simple sociometric tools generally used in class-group dynamics– they have been very rarely applied within the field of intercultural education sociology.Salto de línea This paper stands from the idea that integration patterns of native and non-native pupils can be better understood by learning how they interact and what kind of networks they establish in their daily life.The network approach makes possible to understand to what extent and in which cases certain racial and ethnic assumptions may regulate the possibilities of intercultural contact at school daily life. Conclusions point to the fact that native and non-native students show different sociometric positions and patterns of endogamy/ exogamy.

Keywords

Intercultural contact, inclusion-exclusion, endogamy-exogamy, interaction networks.