ALGUNAS CONSIDERACIONES RESPECTO AL CONTENIDO

In the two case study schools, two orientations to ethnic minorities and immigrants were evident as mostly determined by the individual dispositions of Ms Sacco and Ms Felice, respectively, and their ‘translation’ of the dominant discourses. For Ms Felice from the Patri Said State School who takes the policy texts’ definition of diversity and multiculturalism to mean the celebrating of different cultures rather than equality or a hard form of respect and recognition, even the tokenism of the celebratory culture is seen to generate problems to do with ‘smallness’. Having had a Language Day and an Awareness Day which “includes a lot of languages”, she feels she cannot keep repeating this yet she has “dreams” in her mind.

Or we could have a Language Day, and gather everyone. … Or flags. The flags of the coun- tries. And celebrate. And we would respect each other more because we would know who they are. Not as if they are hidden amongst us. I have a new girl here, I have … So I have all these dreams in my mind, these thoughts.

The “dreams” are however only dreams; Ms Felice thinks it would be an excessive strain to have celebrations for every group of immigrants in school.

How can we have, for example, Africa Day, came to mind. Or Russia Day, because we have a lot of children from Russia. And would be doing anything wrong? Because sometimes you have to consider, do you understand? Because if you have one [national] day, how will you have the time to have others for each nationality?

A similar attitude is adopted regarding the question of RE. Asked whether she thinks that a faith education could be provided for non-Catholic children, she replies that the demands on a small state may be too large to bear, especially when each school only has very small numbers of different minority faiths in school.

I think it will be a big strain on the state to provide for everyone. Because everyone would want their own [RE]. If I provide for this one, for this nationality, I would have to provide for all. How, how? Imagine how more complex school would become, life at school. At the same time, I also feel that I am welcoming these children [Catholics] and not welcoming those children [religious minority].

Colleagues are even less tolerant than Ms Felice; the comment of one regarding Muslims upsets her and she can see the intolerance of it. Yet, abandoned as she is and lacking the back-up of national policies, she finds it hard to articulate a discourse with which to counter these objections.

There are some people who say ‘Let them go to their own schools’. We have, we have a [Is- lamic] school here. He [a colleague] said to me ‘Why don’t they go there?’ But it’s not free. They have to pay to go there. … There are those who take this stand, give it straight ‘We have no need for foreigners here. They should leave’.

According to her, ‘her’ teachers do not want to consider accommodation and are hardly in favour of toleration, citing the Constitutional ‘obligations’ they have to run a ‘Catholic’ school to absolve them of any duty toward ethnic minority or immigrant children, ‘there [in the Constitution] it is entrenched’.

Ms Felice’s own ambiguity regarding toleration is captured in the narrative of how she dealt with a request from the Muslim community to hold a celebration at the end of Ramadan in the school courtyard. Lacking clear policies on who should be included in the concept of ‘the school as a community’, Ms Felice asked superiors for guidance. Initially, she appeared disappointed with the negative reply received.

Firstly, I always request permission from my superiors, and I say because the school is not mine, I say, understand? And then I came to the … imagine the parish priest wants to organise a pilgrimage and asks for the school premises? Now should I say ‘Yes’ to him? And I said to Mr Borg [her superior] and he said ‘No, no, no, no!’ He said ‘No’ [regarding the Muslim request]. And I sent this Muslim to him, and it was a ‘No’. But now if the parish priest comes to ask, I will say ‘No’. Now I will say ‘No’.

Ms Felice goes on to argue that to “be fair” she will also refuse any requests from the parish priest. However, this is not a rights- or equality-based approach because it lacks accommodation. In contrast to the Muslim community, the parish priest is unlikely to require school premises for religious activities given the Church resources available in the locality.

I will use the same measure. I will say ‘No’ because for these [religious] activities the school will not be used. Because otherwise it is not fair.

Ultimately, this school principal recognises that the present situation in which she has more discretion and less guidance than she wants leaves her unable (and alone) to deal with the “challenge” of having a new population of minority ethnic and im- migrant children in school.

We have to have a ‘phasing in’ regarding how we can deal with these new realities. We need direction. We need direction. Because sometimes you cannot get a direction on your own. This requires expertise, expertise, not me [alone]. How are we going to deal with the challenge? Ms Sacco of the Vassalli State School is more ready to use her discretion to move from tolerance toward accommodation, but she too is constrained by the policy context. What prevents the embracing of egalitarian tolerance is the education system which gives her the power to tolerate but not the duty to accommodate.

I take this as a challenge. In the sense that obviously, if those leading a country are of one faith, they have to tolerate those who are of another faith. I do not have the mentality of those, who if you are like this or if you aren’t like that, you are bad, you are damned30_{, or} whatever. You must tolerate and you must cooperate. You have to provide facilities and you have to provide certain times [for prayer, language support etc.]. You have to give help. Ms Sacco spoke with some regret about not having a quiet room where Muslims and other minority faith children could have a space for prayer “if only I had at least a room, even just have the size of this one, a quiet room”. She feels that having minority faith prayer in school would be of benefit to majority children too as “they would appreciate what the others are doing”. She has received requests for minority faith children to be excused from school to attend religious services or celebrations elsewhere. These included requests to do with Ramadan or the Orthodox New Year. She always acceded to these as long as the parents sent a note explaining why the child would not be in school. She would then “take responsibility myself, but I need to be covered”. There are some limits to her willingness to ‘accommodate’ which demonstrate the limits of a discretion which is not founded in a national policy of accommodation. A parent has asked for her son to leave school early every Friday to attend Mosque. Ms Sacco thinks that this is maybe “taking it too far”. She would like a written request on the basis of which she would present the case to her superiors.

Similarly, she has told parents that they may send what food they wish to school, but they may not come and supervise the consumption of it themselves. During Parents’ meeting and other public functions she uses English as much as Maltese, hoping that most parents will be able to follow. She is in the process of asking em- bassies or other entities to provide the school with translations of school documents; this is also in keeping with the way she deals with parents of incoming immigrant children, even offering transport for them to come and see the school, to engage in a mutual exchange of information. Although she never had a request for this, she is upset when a superior tells her not to allow the wearing of the hijab in school. Most significantly, her understanding of toleration is that it requires a dispositional adjustment on behalf of the majority group. They need to be “educated” to be able to create a different social environment.

And you have to, not simply tolerate, you have to show and educate the public – the public. I mean the Maltese, through the media and so on. How one can tolerate, or how we can create a different environment that we can all aspire to? And it isn’t just about religion. After all, everyone has a right to his or her religion. But you have to help as well.

Ms Sacco’s idea of “help” was to offer by right and not by discretion those services which should pertain to ethnic minority and immigrant children and their parents, a policy shift which would require a shift in national identity regarding “how can we create a different environment that we can all aspire to?”