The Education Committee of a district municipality in your capital realizes that more and more migrant children enrol in schools in the district. There are also more and more parents who seek help from the district’s child welfare service centre, and ask for support in the process of enrolling their children in school.
The child welfare service centre arranges a meeting with all relevant institutions and representatives of the municipality responsible for education.
The goal of the meeting is to take into consideration the different perspectives of different actors, and to create an education concept for migrant children; to create mechanisms that support the school integration of migrant children, ensure a base to implement the appropriate supporting interventions.
The following participants are present at the meeting: the mayor, the chair of the Education Committee, directors from every public school in the district (united institution and two member schools), from a private school aiming to upgrade underprivileged children, from the local Waldorf (alternative) school, and from the local church school.
Roles:
Mayor: he is conservative, he thinks it is important to not have any conflicts with voters, it is better to have peace.
Chair of the Education Committee: he was an old-school teacher and he became a politician in his elderly age. He does not like challenges, but he is socially sensitive.
Chair of the merged institution: he is new in the leadership position, he has a management approach, it is important to him that schools apply to tenders. He is loyal to the mayor.
Chair of member school 1.: she has been the chair of the school for years, her husband is from Vietnam. She likes to take part in projects concerning migrant children.
Chair of member school 2.: because of new family homes being built in her precinct, more and more middle-class families enrol to her school. She wants to get rid of the underprivileged (mainly Roma) children of her precinct.
Chair of the private school upgrading underprivileged children: she is a human rights activist. Because of shrinking financial support, less and less children can go to her school, although there is an ever higher demand. She thinks that migrant children have a bigger disadvantage in school than Roma children.
Chair of the church school: he thinks that migrant children first have to learn the language, he is open to accepting migrant children who are catholic.
Chair of the Waldorf (alternative) school: he thinks that diversity is important in a school, however he is sceptical about the chances of integration for Muslim families. He is open to accept anyone who can identify with Steiner’s mentality (alternative pedagogy).
Chair of a tradition reservation organization (with consultation status): National tradition and folklore is very important for him.
Volunteer of an organization working on multicultural education (as an observer): as a university student majoring in pedagogy, he writes his thesis about the education of migrant children.
