Educated For Migration: TunisianMigrant Identities in Context

Aziz FatnassiPh.D Student Anthropology

Ed.D Student LCLE

Origins 

Embarking Upon a New Heading: Education and MigrationThree Levels of Discourse

The Three Sources

Macro: tensions between the local and global

Micro: conceptions of personal and familial expectations

Meso: structures imposed by the constraints of language planning policy

Macro: voice of Habib Bourgiba

Micro: voice of informants and their families

Meso: narrative provided by Tunisian language educators

Navigating the Waters Toward ‘Identity’: The Bourgiban Tunisia

“I have always felt that the fault lies not with men, but with their education, their way of looking at things, their mental framework—and these can be changed for the better by

dint of intelligent and persistent effort” (Bourguiba, The Tunisian Way, 1966, p. 1)

Choosing the Right Heading: Students and Political Opportunity Structure

Political Opportunity Structure “It’s like there are no

more jobs for people here [Tunisia and France]. I mean, yes, I can work and do something to keep my time, but I don’t make anything from it…I feel it is a waste, to get this education here. I have this degree and I cannot do anything with it.”

-EH 24, Bardo

Changing Headings: English Language and the Shift Toward North America

Reconceptualizing Migration: Anthropology’s Role in Education and Migration “our social identities, we are coming to learn,

may always be in the act of becoming, more fluid and composed through ever evolving affiliations of our lives…educational reforms typically do not take into account those histories of inequality that constrain students… this top-down paradigm…ironically renders pedagogically irrelevant the complexities and the promise of multiculturalism and literacy” (Campano, 2007, pp. 2-4)

Endings

Questions?

Aziz Fatnassi Ph.D Student Anthropology

Ed.D Student LCLE