The social mediation of learning in multiethnic schools: Introduction

Abstract

The ethnic diversity within schools is a major challenge for education in most European countries. The diversity of cultural backgrounds of students and parents leads to new transitions, enables new forms of participation, and demands the creation of new concepts, values and practices. Processes of mediation have a vital place in the required developments. The contributions to this issue study the relationship between learning and social mediation on three levels: (1) the mediating role of cultural tools, in particular language and the curriculum, (2) the role of peers and teachers in the appropriation of cultural tools by minority students, and (3) the mediating role of social representations in the shaping of students’ identities at school.