Swann (1985)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Membership, Contents, Introduction

Part I: Setting the scene
Chapter 1 The nature of society
Chapter 2 Racism: theory and practice
Chapter 3 Achievement and underachievement
Chapter 3 continued

Part II: Education for all
Chapter 4 Ethnic minorities and education: historical perspective
Chapter 5 Multicultural education: further studies
Chapter 5 continued
Chapter 6 'Education for all': a new approach

Part III: Major areas of concern
Chapter 7 Language and language education
Chapter 8 Religion and the role of the school
Chapter 9 Teacher education; employment of ethnic minority teachers
Chapter 9 continued

Part IV: 'Other' ethnic minority groups
Introduction
Chapter 10 Chinese children
Chapter 11 Cypriot children
Chapter 12 Italian children
Chapter 13 Ukranian children
Chapter 14 Vietnamese children
Chapter 15 'Liverpool Blacks'
Chapter 16 Travellers' children
Reflections and conclusions

Part V:
Main conclusions and recommendations

Appendices

Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Children from Ethnic Minority Groups

Chairman: Lord Swann

Cmnd. 9453

London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1985
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

Chapter 12 The educational needs of children of Italian origin
[pages 695 - 709]

Background

1. The Italian community in this country, which today numbers in the region of 200,000, is probably one of the longest established and generally accepted of our ethnic minority communities: 'Italians' having been coming to this country in fact ever since the Roman invasion! Little attention has however tended to be given to this community in any discussion on 'immigrants', and the educational needs of children of Italian origin have only recently come to be considered in the context of 'multicultural' education. The reasons for this general lack of attention to Italians have been summarised thus, by Dr Russell King (1):

'There are a number of reasons why so little attention has been spotlighted on the Italians. Most obvious is their lack of conspicuousness, the fact that along with other, smaller groups of south Europeans - Spaniards, Portuguese, Cypriots, Maltese etc - they constitute what has been termed the "invisible immigrants". But there are other, more subtle reasons too. The long period of Italian immigration has gained the community wide acceptance through a gradual build-up of the Italian presence, particularly in the nineteenth century. There has been no obviously threatening mass influx. A long-established presence has given the community a balanced internal structure which differs from the age, occupational and residential concentrations of more recent migrants to this country. The Italians as a group are also characterised by considerable socio-economic mobility. Yet although stable, the Italian community is also marginal to British society, and this also explains why so little attention is paid to the Italians.'

Immigration

2. Apart from the Roman influence, Italian immigration to this country can be seen as a virtually continuous process falling into three distinct phases: firstly the arrival of poets, artists, artisans, bankers, merchants and scholars through the late Middle Ages and in Elizabethan times; secondly the arrival of 'more humble' settlers mainly from Northern Italy, during the nineteenth century, involved in various food trades (this period marked the beginning of the long Italian tradition of involvement in the catering trade in this country); and more recently the post-war influx of unskilled workers, especially from southern Italy, recruited for work in particular industries. According to Census data, the Italian population in Britain in 1901 numbered 20,332. Numbers remained relatively static during the first half of this century with the more restrictive immigration policy, and with the Italian fascist government's virtual ban on emigration. During the Second World War, many Italians in this country were of course interned and had their property confiscated and, as Dr King again has observed:

'The fall in status from an accepted minority before 1940 to ipso facto aliens during the war and "suspected" aliens for a time afterwards was undoubtedly the Italian community's greatest trauma.'

'... in the 1970s repatriation has greatly exceeded immigration. In 1972 Britain sustained a net loss of 5,000 Italian citizens.'

3. The history and nature of Italian immigration to Britain has to a large extent determined the distribution of the Italian community in this country. It is estimated that probably a third of the total community live in Greater London but apart from other traditional centres such as Manchester and of course Bedford - where it is estimated that there are between 6-8,000 Italians (including the British born children of Italian parents) - the community is otherwise very widely dispersed, as a result of its involvement in the restaurant and catering trade, to most parts of the country. (Very similar in fact to the pattern of Chinese settlement).

Ethnic identity

4. As with the other ethnic minority communities whom we have considered, the Italian community has retained very close links with its 'home' country and there is a strong sense of 'being Italian' even amongst youngsters who have been born in this country. The emphasis is however very much on ties to the particular region of origin in Italy rather than to the country as a whole and such regional loyalties are generally stronger than straightforward national ties and are maintained by regular visits 'home'. The 'myth of return' noted with other ethnic minority communities is also strong amongst the Italians and many of the original immigrants certainly came with the intention of returning to Italy eventually. Whilst there is some actual 'return', in general the practical and economic arguments against returning to areas of Italy which offer little hope of employment, and where children who have been born in this country may find it difficult to integrate, have meant that returning to Italy is on the whole no longer viewed as a realistic option. The Italian community in this country has received a remarkable amount of support from its 'home' government in maintaining itself and its identity - for example there has been an Italian Vice-Consulate in Bedford since 1954, which provides help and advice to the community, and, as we discuss below, there are also arrangements for the teaching of the Italian language, supported directly by the Italian government, which help the community to retain its distinctive character. The vast majority of the Italian community in this country is of course Roman Catholic and the church also plays a major part in maintaining a cohesive community through the organisation of social and welfare activities and also language teaching.

Home background

5. Family ties are very strong within the Italian community and there is a marked tendency to see individuals as part of an overall family unit rather than as separate individuals, as illustrated by the following extract from a report of discussions with Italian youngsters in Bedford, quoted in the Open University coursebook 'Bedford: Portrait of a Multi-Ethnic Town' (3):

'Time and again it was pointed out ... that family possessions are "shared", and the very concept of an individual family member considering something belonged to him alone seemed to be absent. A young man who has commenced employment as an apprentice car mechanic illustrated this by saying, "If Dad buys a car, it isn't his car, it's our car; I will expect to use it just the same as him when I pass my test".'

'There is no doubt that a great number of Italian parents in Bedford are considerably stricter than English parents but there are two main psychological reasons: fear and ignorance. Fear because they have had to settle in a land alien to their own culture, traditions and language and ignorance for they are unaware of the great changes in their home towns, changes which must come in order to adapt to and keep pace with modern western society. There are also more deeply rooted causes behind this apparent rigidity. One is the belief that to shelter and seclude the daughter who is approaching the marrying age will subsequently make her more respected, appreciated and inevitably sought after. In most cases, this no longer applies and Italian boys are gradually becoming more aware of more important and fundamental values to be found in the woman they choose to marry, rather than the outdated traditions of chastity and strict upbringing. The Italians are well-known for their great sense of family unity, yet very often parental authority and a child's duty is often masked as respect.'

Socio-economic status

6. In economic terms the Italian community can generally be seen as successful. Despite the decline of some of their traditional types of occupation - for example the ice cream business has declined with the spread of home freezers - the majority of Italian-owned businesses, chiefly in the catering field, are thriving and some 8 per cent of the community are self-employed. The heaviest and most badly-paid jobs in the brickworks in Bedford are no longer dominated by Italians, some of whom have moved on to the lighter, 'managerial' jobs, with their places having been taken by later immigrants, chiefly Asians and West Indians. The level of home ownership within the Italian community is also high.

Education

7. The two major educational issues in relation to Italian children are language-related: the teaching of English as a second language, and arrangements for the maintenance and teaching of the 'mother tongue' language. Before considering these specific issues in detail however, it is worth noting some of the more general educational points which were made in evidence to us. The Association of Teachers of Italian highlighted the following aspects of 'home background' which could have a bearing on an Italian child's education:

Home/school conflict

'1. Conflict between the home culture and the English culture assimilated by the child in school and through his English contemporaries;

2. Parents, whilst being ambitious for their children, are often alienated from the school and its teachers through:

  a. communication difficulties caused by their limited knowledge of English,

  b. little understanding of the educational system and supporting systems from which advice may be sought,

  c. the system's failure to conform to the school of their own experience,

  d. their own limited education and background.'

Achievement

8. Whilst it appears to be generally felt that Italian pupils achieve 'reasonably well' in academic terms, there was a widespread belief amongst the teachers, parents and indeed pupils whom we met that the ability of some Italian children might be underestimated by schools because of a lack of appreciation of their language needs, and they might therefore be mistakenly placed in remedial streams and thus fail to achieve their full potential - as one group put it to us, 'be penalised for life for lack of English'.

The teaching of English

9. Turning to the specific linguistic issues which were raised with us, we received a considerable amount of evidence from teachers about the need of Italian children, including those who have been born in this country, for continuing help and support with mastering English. Some Italian children were said to be still entering school with only a very limited knowledge of English - to them, in the words of one teacher:

' the school presents an alien linguistic environment.'

'a. Vocabulary can be extended across the curriculum; and

b. The structural patterns of the language can be mastered.'

'It would seem ... that we are in grave danger of overestimating the degree of second language learning that our Italians will achieve simply by being amongst English children. This particularly applies to the junior school where the "finer points" of language have been reached, and to all intents and purposes, and as far as the other children are concerned, they can speak English ... If an English child and an Italian choose one another to talk to, to discuss things with, to share experiences and pool ideas then this can be linguistically invaluable. But ... it is only in a small minority of cases that they do choose one another.'

'Mother tongue' provision

10. We also received a considerable amount of evidence relating to the arrangements for maintaining and teaching their 'mother tongue' language to children of Italian origin. We have of course already set out, in Chapter Seven, our own views on various forms of 'mother tongue' provision. There are however several particular factors relating to the Italian community which we feel it is important to mention here. It may be worth recalling first of all that, unlike the languages of most of the ethnic minority communities whom we have considered, Italian has of course for some time been offered in some schools as a modern language quite irrespective of the presence of 'mother tongue' speakers of the language in this country. It has in fact been suggested that Italian is less likely to be offered as a subject for study in those schools which may have Italian pupils. Nevertheless, although the offering of Italian in these circumstances cannot therefore be regarded as 'mother tongue' provision, it is a fact that some mainstream secondary schools do include Italian in their normal curriculum and pupils are able to study for public examinations in the language (4). It is worth noting however that several of the Italian teachers whom we met in fact expressed concern about the appropriateness of the existing O and A Level examinations in Italian for 'mother tongue' speakers of the language since it was felt that they called for an unnecessarily high level of English, rather than concentrating on a pupil's knowledge of Italian.

11. As with many other ethnic minority communities, the teaching of their 'mother tongue' to their children, especially those born in this country, is seen by many Italian parents as a key factor in preserving the community's 'identity' and as a means of strengthening family ties with relations still living in their country of origin and facilitating visits 'home'. As part of our evidence gathering in relation to the Italian community we were fortunate in obtaining the cooperation of the Italian Vice-Consulate in Bedford in organising a forum for parents and young people from the Italian community, and the issue which dominated much of the discussion on this occasion was 'mother tongue' provision. Several community representatives and Italian teachers with whom we discussed this issue, stressed that they regarded some form of 'mother tongue support' as an integral part of any plan for 'multicultural' education since they saw language and culture as 'inextricably entwined'.

Italian government support

12. A unique factor with the Italian community is the extent to which the 'home' government offers direct support, in the form of teachers and resources, for the teaching of Italian in this country. The provision of Italian classes for the children of Italian emigrants was instituted by the Italian government in 1971, with the aim of maintaining the Italian language and culture among emigrant communities in order to facilitate their possible return to Italy. These classes - known as 'corsi integrativi' - are organised on a regional basis and currently involve some 150 teachers, recruited in Italy and employed by the Italian authorities. They take place in a range of contexts: after school (known as 'doposcuola'), on Saturday mornings, or in some cases as part of the normal school day, where the Italian government-sponsored teachers are attached to a school and pupils are withdrawn from other subjects for teaching (known as 'corsi inseriti'). The Association of Teachers of Italian commented thus, in their evidence to us, on these various arrangements for the teaching of Italian:

'The provision of such classes would seem to help to counteract the problem of developing awareness of a personal cultural identity. Great benefit has been seen to be drawn from the integration of classes in schools, but the system generally is fraught with problems which affect all involved - the children, the Italian authorities and teachers, and the English authorities if they are involved or aware of this activity. The after-school classes have poor support and results as children often have difficulty in maintaining regular attendance, and often regard attendance at classes as an intrusion on their free time and a form of segregation from their contemporaries of other nationalities. The teachers frequently experience problems in finding suitable accommodation for the classes, and consequently their teaching style is severely limited. There is a general lack of continuity, and as the time available is very limited progress is slow. The regional organisers appointed from Italy often have little support from the British authorities, and frequently little knowledge of the British education system. One county language adviser has reported that a regional organiser who approached him for help knew little or no English and that he himself was unaware of this field of language learning activity in his area until this approach was made. Another language adviser reports coming across Italian taught in a school in his area in Corsi Inseriti completely by chance. Corsi Inseriti seem to be the best form of provision by the Italian authorities and function better when the classes are considered part of the language curriculum in the school and are open to all pupils - as well as children of Italian parentage.'

i. the response of schools to them depended on how the school staff regarded the teaching of Italian. The teachers generally felt 'the same' as other teachers but they admitted that they had some problems because they were peripatetic and so were not in any school long enough to build up close links with other teachers, pupils or parents. They felt that they would welcome the opportunity of meeting the other teachers - at present if they taught after-school they might never meet the rest of the staff and were not therefore able to discuss a child's work in relation to his or her progress in other subjects. The teachers did not feel it mattered whether they were employed by the Authority or not; their success depended chiefly on the attitudes of the Head and staff in a school. They admitted however that some problems did arise because of administrative difficulties in Italy. (A number of the teachers were waiting for their contracts to be renewed before they could begin teaching).

ii. The teachers felt strongly that Italian should be taught during the school day. They felt there were noticeable differences in the response of children whom they taught during the day and those they taught after school - the former were 'mentally prepared' to work, whereas the latter saw it as an 'imposition' on their time. Some English children studied Italian - in some cases only those who were considered academically successful were able to do so, which enhanced its status. All the pupils wanted to take an examination in the subject if they could.

iii. The teachers got some feedback from Italian parents but unfortunately many parents did not have much contact with the schools at all because their English was limited and they did not want to 'cause ripples'. The teachers saw it as part of their role to improve home/school links with Italian families if they could.

iv. The teachers thought that Italian-origin pupils 'felt different' even if they had been born in this country, especially the girls, because of the constraints their parents placed upon them. Although they might mix with other pupils when they were younger, after the age of about 13, when the differences between ethnic groups became clearer, they tended to keep together.

v. Several of the teachers felt that Italian children tended to fail to realise their full potential at school, at least partly because their possible language difficulties were not fully understood or recognised, and they were therefore likely to be wrongly classed as 'remedial'.

14. Some concern was expressed to us by head teachers and community representatives about the different teaching styles adopted by some of the Italian government-sponsored teachers, who were unfamiliar with the accepted teaching methods and overall approach of the British education system. The majority of these teachers were in fact not qualified in Italy as language teachers which meant that their approach to language teaching differed from, for example, that of mainstream French teachers. (It was in an effort to exchange information about teaching skills and overcome such difficulties, that one authority had, as mentioned above, arranged a series of 'in-service' sessions for its Italian teachers.) It is worth noting that only Italian-born teachers are accepted for employment by the Italian government within this programme and British-born Italians, who would of course be more familiar with our education system as well as more fluent in English, are excluded. Another relevant point worth considering was raised in a submission we received from a British teacher of Italian who complained about the difficulty for teachers like herself in finding jobs, since the Italian teachers were available to Authorities - at little or no direct cost.

15. As far as the attitudes of mainstream teachers towards the teaching of Italian are concerned, there was a general feeling amongst the community representatives whom we met that all 'mother tongue' languages, including Italian, were seen as of 'low status'. It was felt that many teachers still believed that the teaching of English to ethnic minority children was of paramount importance and they consequently regarded any 'mother tongue' provision as 'back pedalling' in educational terms. There was also felt to be a minority of overtly racist teachers who simply felt that all 'foreign' children must conform now that they were in this country.

EC sponsored 'Mother tongue and culture' pilot project

16. Another particular dimension to the 'mother tongue' debate with regard to Italian children, which it is also worth mentioning, is the experience gained during the EC sponsored 'Mother Tongue and Culture Pilot Project' which was undertaken in Bedfordshire LEA between 1976 and 1980. A broad outline of the work of this project in relation to Italian children is attached as an Annex to this Chapter. During our consideration of the Italian community we met a number of people who had been directly involved with the work of the project, as well as visiting one of the schools which had participated in it. The former coordinator of the project, Dr Arturo Tosi, in giving evidence to us, raised a number of interesting points particularly concerning the attitudes of the Italian community towards the project and its work. For example the Italian parents' differing attitudes towards Standard Italian and the dialect Italian which was actually their 'mother tongue', and which was significantly different from Standard Italian, were especially interesting. All the parents wanted their children to be taught Standard Italian since they regarded their own language form as a 'corruption' of 'proper' Italian. In fact however, because Italy was only united as a country relatively recently, the Standard form of the language has less of a 'pedigree' than the dialect forms which have a far longer history of developing from the original Latin and the various language forms in Italy have thus evolved separately rather than, as is often assumed, the dialect forms developing later. Some doubts have in fact been expressed about the project having focused on teaching Standard Italian to children to whom it was in effect a third language and not strictly speaking a 'mother tongue' - an aspect of the 'mother tongue' debate on which we commented in Chapter Seven. Dr Tosi had looked at the differences in attitude between the Italian children involved in the project and those in other schools who learnt Italian in out of school classes. Where Italian had been offered within the school curriculum as part of the project, the children saw it as a normal school activity whereas if they had to study it outside school, they sensed the negative connotations and wondered why it was not thought 'good enough' for schools to teach, quite apart from the additional burden of having to attend classes in the evenings and at weekends. Other teachers involved with the project referred to the range of attitudes towards their work amongst the rest of the schools' staffs, varying from those who had seen the project as a positive development, to those who had regarded it as potentially detrimental to the children's education. In one school which had participated in the project - and which had since continued with 'mother tongue' maintenance and some bilingual education for its Punjabi-speaking pupils, as well as having a visiting Italian government sponsored teacher to work with its Italian pupils - the head teacher felt that the reactions of the other children to the project had been generally positive, with requests for example from them to be allowed to join the Italian classes as well. When asked why they wanted to do this, the children had replied 'because you're clever if you can speak another language'. There had been some joint activities within the project such as plays and bilingual story-telling so the other children became more aware that the Italian children were not 'strange and different' but had some extra abilities. As far as the Italian children were concerned, she felt the project had given them an increased awareness of their own identity as people with 'something of value' and had sought, perhaps overtly, to foster their appreciation of their language and culture. The children had not seen it as strange to be taught in their mother tongue and had been quite happy to tell other pupils and teachers what they were doing. Great importance had been attached to involving the parents in the project and the team had visited homes to follow up the children's linguistic backgrounds. This had led to some close contacts with parents who had increasingly then begun to attend school open evenings, sports days etc. Several of the teachers concerned with the project criticised the general lack of interest which the DES had shown during the project's lifetime and also regretted the lack of any follow-up work building on the progress which they felt had been made.

Racism

17. It may surprise many of our readers, as indeed it surprised us initially, that we should need to refer to racism in the context of the Italian community, which most people would probably regard as 'fully accepted' in this country. Nevertheless several of the teachers whom we met who worked with Italian pupils referred to instances, albeit rare, of what was often termed 'racial antagonism' between these pupils and their 'English' peers, and in one secondary school we visited, a group of Italian (British-born) fifth and sixth-formers explained to us how they felt the need to 'group together' in school in the face of name-calling and taunts of 'Go home' from the other pupils. Also, at the meeting of Italian parents, to which we have already referred, one parent complained that his children had been 'discriminated' against and 'called names' at school until he had complained to the school about this.

18. As far as their relationship with other ethnic minority groups is concerned, there is a tendency amongst some of the Italian community to regard themselves very much as 'elite' immigrants and thus to disassociate themselves from more recently arrived groups. Some studies of the changing patterns of settlement of Italian communities in particular cities have created a clear impression that as other, mainly 'coloured', immigrants have moved into an area, the Italians have tended to move out - as one researcher put it, they have 'fled' the new arrivals. One specialist teacher, who worked very closely with the Italian community, suggested to us that this 'resistance and resentment' of other ethnic minority groups, especially Asians, had even in her experience led to Italian youngsters becoming involved in 'Paki-bashing' alongside their 'English' peers.

Conclusion

19. We believe that a number of interesting points emerge from this brief consideration of the educational needs of Italian children. Once again we were struck by the strong sense of 'ethnic identity' of the community, further reinforced in this case by very close ties with a particular region of the 'home' country. The 'mother tongue' language is clearly again regarded as a key factor in maintaining the community's identity and we were particularly interested in the efforts made by the Italian government to assist with 'mother tongue' teaching and in the comments made to us in the light of the experience gained from the EC sponsored project in Bedford. Some anxiety was again expressed about provision for E2L teaching, particularly in relation to 'second stage needs' - an issue which we of course took up in Chapter Seven. The references which were made to the attitude of some mainstream teachers to 'mother tongue' teaching - for example seeing it as 'back-pedalling' in educational terms and, in any case, regarding Italian as of 'low status', also echo concerns expressed by other groups. The points raised in relation to the differing perceptions of dialect forms of Italian and the Standard form of the language also provide an interesting comparison with the similar misunderstandings which surround the issue of West Indian dialect. The comments which were made to us about the Italian community's experience of racism, surprising as we found them, perhaps serve to illustrate the extent to which such antagonism towards ethnic minority groups can cross 'barriers' of colour, and bear on groups who might have been thought to be 'acceptable' to the majority community.

Annex: Outline of the EC sponsored project 'Mother tongue and culture in Bedfordshire' (5)
[page 709]

The Project involves six schools, four primary, one middle and one upper, 127 pupils and parents of those pupils, four project teachers, twenty-four classroom teachers, six heads, three LEA personnel and two/three representatives from the EEC. Two languages are taught - Punjabi and Italian. There are six groups of pupils. Four groups are Punjabi speaking children and are drawn from three schools. Two groups from one school have 11 and 13 respectively in each. The second school has a group of 22 children and the third a group of 20 making a total of 66 Punjabi children.

There are two groups of Italian children, one of 15 children from one school, the other of 19 children from two schools totalling 34 Italian children. Taken together, the number of Punjabi and Italian children of age 5-8 involved in the Mother Tongue and Culture Project totals 100. (15 pupils in the middle school and 12 in the upper school make up the total cited earlier of 127.)

Each group of children has approximately five hours of timetabled teaching of their mother tongue each week; each project teacher has approximately ten hours of teaching in addition to their other responsibilities for liaison with schools and parents and preparation of materials.

Aims of the project

In the description of the Project sent out by the Bedfordshire Education Service the aims were stated thus;

a. an enhancement of the self-image of the immigrant concerned;

b. a carefully controlled integration into the English educational system;

c. an increase in esteem for the immigrants on the part of the indigenous children in the school;

d. a greater understanding on the part of the immigrants of the host country's language, culture and education;

e. general education interest on the part of both indigenous and immigrant groups;

f. an opportunity to found in Bedford a resources bank for Italian language and culture which is likely to be of interest to other authorities as well as Bedfordshire.

References

(1) 'Italians in Britain: an idiosyncratic immigration'. Article in the Journal of the Association of Teachers of Italian. Number 29. Autumn 1979.

(2) 'The Italians: Patterns of Migration to London'. Chapter in 'Between Two Cultures.' Ed. J Watson. 1977.

(3) 'Bedford: portrait of a Multi-Ethnic Town'. Open University Coursebook. E354. Block 1. Unit 1. 1982.

(4) According to the Joint DES/Welsh Office Consultative Paper 'Foreign Languages in the School Curriculum' (May 1983), in the Summer 1981 examinations (English and Welsh Boards) there were a total of 679 CSE entries in Italian, 2,962 O Level entries in Italian and 652 A Level entries in Italian.

(5) Drawn from the second external evaluation report of the project prepared by the Cambridge Institute of Education. September 1978 - September 1979.