La Interfaz de GeoGebra

English, German and French languages are considered the ‘strong’ languages and cultures in the school while Italian, Dutch, Spanish and Danish are seen as the ‘weak’ languages and teachers of the languages in the first group are considered

privileged compared to the others:

English and French are the most representative cultures I would say yes. (Irena) Teachers of English, German and French languages (are privileged)…Those languages are privileged compared with others…There’s languages of E series and languages of B series.

(Roberto) Italian and Dutch teachers cannot teach history and geography in their home sections:

I don’t teach history which is one of my main areas in Italy; I cannot because only the Germans and English and French can teach history, whereas the other language teachers cannot teach history.

(Roberto) A teacher who belongs in the minor cultures thinks that the whole idea of privileging some languages at the cost of others, especially for subjects like history, which should convey a sense of national identity through the language in which it is taught, just to support Monnet’s theory of ‘side by side’ multicultural education is not fair either for the students or for the teachers who teach in those sections:

I believe that every language if he has to preserve some power its nationality should teach history, history is not a subject matter like chemistry…because history is a cultural subject matter that conveys a sense of identity, so the idea of privileging some languages is totally unfair I think and wrong.

(Roberto) The same teacher believes that the fact that subjects like history and geography are taught in the school by teachers who belong in major cultures undermines other languages and countries’ civilisation by influencing students’ knowledge or ideas about them:

history conveys a sense of identity and nationality so for example the fact that our students are taught history by an Irish teacher, means that they don’t learn anything about Italian history…the perspective being given about their past…is not shaped around a sense of belonging to a tradition, which is a national tradition, so for example they speak more about the Celts than they do about the Romans…and if you compare, I think that, with all the respect the Roman civilization was more meaningful, but anyway.

(Roberto) A representative of major cultures justifies the school policy by focusing on the message that the school conveys about certain subjects being taught in another language (L2), so that the student approaches these subjects from a different perspective, rather than on the allowances that the schools makes for certain ‘strong’ cultures to teach more subjects than others:

The more idealistic notion is this whole idea of the philosophy of the Euromulti schools, coming out of the second world war, that these children are being educated – as you know in the sort of original mission statement – ‘side by side’, ‘free of prejudice’…And if you take that view, I’m sure there were the movers and shakers who thought, ‘well what better way of reinforcing this idea than actually teaching students certain subjects in another language’…deliberately so they would be getting that ‘alternative’ cultural view of a subject. And in that sense, I think geography and history are rather good choices, you could argue...well, what a good idea that a German student gets a completely fresh, non-German view of history, be it the second world war or whatever else it might be. The same with geography, the idea that someone is going to give you a rather different perspective.

(Owen) The same teacher, however, tries to understand what it probably feels like to be rejected as a nationality within a system, which favours only three languages and cultures out of the existing seven:

On the other hand, I do understand…that’s a very understandable reaction…Particularly perhaps if you feel you are in a small section and perhaps you’ve got a history or geography that you feel gets ignored by the wider Europe if you like, that you think, well, you know, these are Italians and I understand that and I want my Italian students to understand the history of their country, and you resent, I’m sure, the fact

that you look at the syllabus and think ‘well, where’s Italy or where’s Holland?

(Owen) The Dombey School system favours major cultures and sections as well as teachers who teach in them and this is not only shown in the curriculum. Minor sections tend to be smaller in student and staff population with a ‘weaker’ voice and a less healthy environment for students and teachers to socialise and learn:

from four to ten (students)…they’ re all small classes.

(Roberto) Small-sized classrooms are not always the ideal environment for teachers who eventually do not get the chance to regularly update their classroom practices:

What you get used to is teaching in small classes…although it may seem easy, in fact, it is not always that easy…in fact, I think you are more less teaching the same way if you have a small class.

(Kees) Teachers of minor cultures and languages agree on the teacher – student relationship difficulty in a small class environment:

because you can’t get cosy with pupils, you can get too close and you should avoid that because they can get fed up with you so you got to keep a distance.

(Kees) I don’t like it…because I don’t think it’s healthy…for the relationship…it’s not professional enough you cannot distantiate yourself enough…it’s too familiar, too intimate

(Roberto) On the other hand, teachers teaching in their home language sections feel they can have a more intimate relationship with students of their own culture without being misunderstood:

my relationship with the students is pretty informal; sometimes it might even go too far for someone’s sensibility, what I mean is that there is a more distant relationship that I should try to keep that’s more part of a tradition of an Anglo – Saxon school…but I am not accustomed to it.

(Roberto) Some teachers think that small sections are not healthy for the children who belong in them either:

they (the children) are not enough to develop a healthy relationship between them in the first place because they haven’t got many to choose from.

(Roberto) A teacher’s son had his section changed for the sake of a healthier classroom environment:

Conditions in the Dutch classroom are not ideal…socially it’s a very small class, it’s a very small group and we thought to give him an opportunity to be in a healthier atmosphere.

(Kees) On the other hand, teachers who teach in small sections are in a better position to facilitate student learning compared to big sections, which are terribly mixed and culturally mingled:

I have a year seven, English section, philosophy class, English section, eight students, and they are eight nationalities in the class…but they are all English section.

(Tab) A very small classroom has a negative part in the sense that there is not enough interaction, but very big classes are worse I think, at least the students they learn in these very small classes, they do a subject and they learn a lot during a period, from the point of view of learning the subject…I think the ideal number is twelve probably.

(Daniele) Teachers who teach in the small language sections seem to turn classroom

homogeneity to their advantage when it helps them avoiding teacher – student misunderstandings:

but luckily since most of the students belong to the same culture so they understand the things correctly and so they take it as what it is… and not as a harassment or for whatever it is…but I probably should be more careful…in what I say or do.

(Roberto) Although most classrooms are small-sized in Dombey School, minor sections tend to have smaller student numbers and are therefore easier for teachers to manage:

I have small classes, I have lovely kids…Eh my smallest class is I think five students...(and the biggest) it’s eight students…It’s incredibly small. (Carel) The only disadvantage is that because minor sections are extremely small, teachers of those sections need to teach more hours per week, compared to teachers in the big sections:

26 (periods I teach)…because Italian section has little classes and…for example if I have one period with an Italian class in which there are five pupils is the same of a 90 per cent of a French class, so they have to give less (periods) to a French or German teacher because they have a bigger class.

(Julia) Teachers in minor sections seem to be flexible and aware of the fact that they will eventually have to go back as their sections are phased out and the school is gradually closing. British teachers are perceived to be less flexible because they will stop working ‘at home’:

if you come here and plan to stay here and everything and build a life, I guess (you will be sad) but people that are here are pretty, they are not, I mean except for the English that are English, everyone else is kind of flexible upon this kind of thing, because it is not really their country it is not really their place where they plan to live all their lives.

(Roberto) Although the big sections seem to be linguistically privileged within a school system of (relatively) limited cultural diversity, there is evidence in the next section that this school does not facilitate a possible sense of togetherness for teachers in them, despite their theoretically common characteristics; on the contrary, it seems to highlight cultural differences to a degree that facilitate competitive school attitudes, lack of collaboration and negative national stereotyping. All distinctive cultural groups in Dombey School seem to exist and function relatively professionally isolated from one another, with immediate consequences on teachers’ adaptation to the school and a barely united school culture.