Inclusive Properties of School Interactional Milieu: Implications for Identity Construction and Social Exclusion

Abstract

This study examined the inclusive properties of school interactional milieu that shape social identity and school participation of tribal children. Using phenomenological approach, the data were collected using in-depth interviews, key informant interviews and participant observation in a purposively selected 50 samples from Wayanad district in Kerala. Thematic analysis strategy was used for data analysis. The findings reveal that the structural-, familial- and personal-level factors considerably shape social interactional milieu within schools through complex interactions of its triadic actors such as teachers, tribal students and non-tribal students. The triadic interactions are characterized by social relations salience, namely, friendships, support, integration, conflicts, disconnections, distance, sense of otherness, rejections and dominance. These social relationships salience lead to identity threat perceptions, identification of self with others, and consolidating self and social images consistent with one’s own ethnic group. This invokes two potential coping responses, namely, personal meaning making and avoiding distress and anxiety. This avoidance coping relates with increased school abstinence and dropouts, whereas personal meaning making relates with consolidation of ethnic identity in tribal children.