Multiplicity in the making: Examining ethnically diverse educational settings in Finland and Australia.

This paper examines educational practices that can open up for versus constrain students from developing multiple subject locations in terms of positive ethnic identity construction. It draws on case studies, using video recordings and interview data, in ethnically diversifying educational settings in Finland and regional Australia. Both locations have experienced a shift from an ethnically homogeneous to an increasingly heterogeneous student population with consequent implications for a range of stakeholders in the school settings. The discussion has its starting point in the view of identity as co-constructed, within a social constructivist perspective on learning. Furthermore, the paper utilizes Schatzki’s (2002) sayings, doings and relatings (Kemmis & Grootenboer, 2008) as a key conceptual framework in which to explore how different participants such as teachers and students orient to issues of ethnic identity construction within the two school settings. This includes what is not said and the way things are taken for granted. In the analysis we explore enabling spaces within the sites that open up the possibilities for multiplicity, including focus on student agency, thus discovering and describing what can enable an inclusive practice, discussed as praxis, i.e. conscious and value-based action (see e.g. Kemmis & Smith, 2008). References Kemmis, S. & Grootenboer, P. (2008). Kemmis, S. & Smith, T. (Eds.) (2008). Enabling Praxis: Challenges for Education. Rotterdam: Sense.