Complicit Practices, Entangled Supports: How Education Policies Miss the Mark at Critical Junctures

• In Event: Reclaiming the Methodological Grounds of Neoliberal Education Policy Research

Abstract

In the Netherlands, despite an ostensibly tolerant public discourse, anxieties about immigrants and Islam, and a desire to preserve “Dutchness” (Essed, 2009; Prins, 2010) have resulted in repressive policies focused on Muslim youth and their families. These neo-liberal policies aimed at social cohesion, integration, and anti-radicalization efforts have resulted in reactionary practices that target the behaviors of Muslim youth (Roes, 2008). Informed by these policies, state funding initiatives have led to the development of youth programs intended to address the needs of the Muslim second generation (specifically those of Moroccan and Turkish origin), a population labeled as “at risk” (Turkenberg & Gijsbert, 2007 cited in de Valk & Crul, 2008, p. 67).
This presentation explores the experiences of Dutch-born Muslim youth (ages 11 to 18) who attended these youth programs in search of educational support at the intersection of national policies and local realities. The study raises significant questions about multicultural policies that appear progressive and attempt to build social cohesion, but may in fact further alienate and oppress Muslim youth.
Based on a one-year qualitative study conducted in Amsterdam, this presentation is grounded in critical multi-disciplinary literature originating in the Netherlands and Europe (Cherribi, 2011; Fekete, 2008; Goldberg, 2006). Epistemologically, this study positions youth participants as narrators of their own experience. Youths’ narratives are triangulated (Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña, 2014) with the accounts of adult youth workers to disclose the entanglement of policy and practice at the local level, and the ways in which these practices fall short of providing Muslim youth with what they need. Analyses are based on multiple data sources including focus groups with 25 Dutch-born Muslim youth, interviews with 25 adult youth workers, and 21 participant observations conducted within six youth programs.
Findings point to a drop-off in support during critical transitions when young people need it most. All of the youth participants reported that they wished they had more support during the transition from primary school to secondary school. Supports they specifically named included preparing for the standardized test required at age 12, navigating their academic track assignment, and choosing an appropriate middle school. Lack of support at these transitions lead to what Rice (2001) described as “institutional discontinuities” that can further disadvantage young people already at risk of exclusion and marginalization. Theoretically, these transitions, which I call critical junctures, can become fractures when the educational needs of young people are not met.
The policy implications for this study point to large, structural stress points. Practices within the Dutch government that condone ethnic profiling, for instance, contradict integration policies and efforts at creating a cohesive multicultural society. The dominant attitudes and ideologies within the macro system of Dutch society are reflected and reproduced within the meso-systems of youth-serving institutions. As a result of funding constraints, youth programs become an extension of the state fulfilling its aims and promoting its hegemonic agenda yet not serving youth.

Author

• Mayida Zaal, Montclair State University