Inclusion and Exclusion in Ethnic Education: Case Study of the Ethnic School in Izhevsk

Abstract

The idea of schools for national, cultural, religious or ethnic minorities is not universally accepted across the developed world but remains part of educational policies aimed at social inclusion. This article identifies the inclusive and exclusive characteristics of ethnic education, which in Russia has taken on the terminology of ‘national schools’; those schools who serve the ethno-cultural needs of a separate indigenous regional national group than ‘Russian’. The study concerns a school in the city of Izhevsk that has an extensive program of Udmurt language and culture. This school is exceptional in the sense that it is one of the few to have obligatory classes in Udmurt language and culture. The research is based on unstructured observations of interactions between students, teachers and the school administration, as well as in-depth interviews with school staff. The data indicates the problems and contradictions that teachers and students of ethnic schools and classes face. On the one hand, this ethnic school has the benefits of high quality educational levels, which are provided by extensive state, financial and community financing support, mainly on the republican level. This allows the school to attract some of the best teachers available to work there. On the other hand, there are social barriers associated with the mechanisms of selection of students, as well as structural and organizational constraints from the side of educational institutions. The article draws the conditions under which the exclusion of ethnic groups can be overcome and transformed into practice, increasing the life chances for the graduates of ethnic schools. It must be underlined that the school being considered in this study is not representative in many ways and must be seen as a special case. More comparative work must be undertaken to consider the more general state of ethnic schools in the Russian Federation.