Diversity as a value

1) Is the presence of foreign students always an obstacle to school performance?

The relationship between the presence of socially disadvantaged students in a class and students’ performance is not linear. Several studies have found diverse evidence depending on the socio-economic composition of the school, the features of the territory in which the school is embedded, the school pedagogical offer and the organization of the educational system. The threshold at which the presence of disadvantaged students or students belonging to ethnic minorities become an issue in terms of school performance changes among cities and depends on the residential segregation as well, but it is usually higher than the threshold perceived as problematic from native families, who take this characteristic in consideration for their choice. The high presence of ethnic minority students’ in certain school has a negative impact on the performance of minority students themselves, affecting much less or not at to native students. In addition, it has to be noticed the difference between first or second generation foreign students. Students arrived from another school system entail higher learning difficulties and may have a higher impact on school performance than second generation foreign students..

2) In which way a diverse environment would help children in acquiring useful skills?

Current society is diverse by definition, not only as the ethnic origin is concerned, but also in terms of gender orientation, religious belief, systems of values, lifestyle and so on. Confronting and managing diversity every day at school would help children and young people to navigate and integrate themselves as future citizens in the wider society, which shows significant levels of complexity. Socializing in diverse and complex environment becomes an asset for social and labour integration in the future.

3) Which kind of skills diversity provides?

Diversity, or living in a diverse environment, provides tangible skills that have been started to be recognized and appreciate as requirements for a professional career. Capabilities such as cross-cultural communication, mitigating conflicts, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic understanding and inclusive management can be very appreciated and useful in a work-place and they can be acquired in a diverse school environment. The increasing relevance of these skills is proven by the flourishing of courses on “diversity” among universities, organizations and firms (i.e University of Gottingen).