ECOLES PROJECT
MULTICULTURALITY IN SCHOOL
DATA FROM A SURVEY:
IMMIGRANT STUDENTS
Escola Secundária Daniel Sampaio
Sobreda-Portugal March 2008
The sample was mainly chosen for its diversity and was composed by:
• 30 pupils aged between 15-18, living in Portugal for a period between 9 months and 13 years
• no declared religious background, but with Christian Catholic or Ortodox or Muslim family background
• immigrants from Portuguese speaking countries (Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique)
• immigrants from Eastern Europe (Ukrania, Moldavia, Rumania)
• sons/daughters of former Portuguese emigrants that lived childhood in other EU countries
• one student from Equador
Sam
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General conclusion: Immigrant sudents combine Portuguese features with family background features
• students celebrate the same events as regular Portuguese, plus some from their own original culture and religion.
• it was not detected any different pattern from parents’ type of job or unemployment rate among the sample
• there’s a similar level of housewife mothers
• there’s no perceived difference on parental rules on going out at night during school days or limitation of time for watching TV
• 5 students out of 30 said they had limits to watch TV
• 17 students said they had some limits on going out during school days
• 2 students answered their parents had never come to school to attend parents’ meetings
• 20 students claim they feel better among friends/sports team; 15 prefer to stay at home with the family (8 choose both) and 2 prefer to be alone
Edu
catio
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xpec
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duca
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Exp
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tions
General conclusions:
• everyone expects, at least, finishing High School
• a large majority expects reaching college level
IMMIGRANT SAMPLE
13%
3%
84%
Finish High School
Vocational/Business
University
PE
RS
ON
AL
VA
LUE
SP
ER
SO
NA
L V
ALU
ES
IMMIGRANT SAMPLE
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
love
friendship
health
hapiness
honesty
w ealth
w ork
peace
religion
tolerance
OT
HE
R IS
SU
ES
OT
HE
R IS
SU
ES
Leisure and musical preferences• musical preferences mentioned the most are: hip hop, pop, rock and the most referred hobbies are using internet, sports, going out with friends, computer games.
Language issues:• only the students from Portuguese speaking countries speak Portuguese at home, all the others speak their parents’ original language
• there’s a correlation on the oral and written skills on Portuguese language with the years living in the country rather than the country/culture of origin
• all the students, except one, claimed they speak/understand/write Portuguese well or very well
Experience of Segregation:• 6 out of 30 immigrant students claimed they had felt badly treated or even insulted by other students just because of being immigrants or sons of immigrants