Case Studies

Name of the teacher

Marie Carlier

Email:

Country:

France

Subject taught:

History and Geography

Years of experience:

19

Name of the School:

Lycée Robespierre

School Typology:

Upper Secondary School

Country:

France

City:

Arras

Web site:

Background and Context:

The school is a general and technical high school preparing its students for baccalaureates in Literature / Economics and Social Science / Science / Management and Administration. It also offers several science preparatory classes. About 1300 students attend the school, including 200 students in the preparatory classes.

The school is located in the city center and welcomes students from the neighboring villages who have a rather privileged background, and generally good family supervision and requirements from their parents. There is a very limited proportion of migrant students (a few per class), with some students coming from recent immigration (Syrian refugees).

Factual Description:

There aren't many visible discrimination issues in the school. It has quite a privileged environment and most students are pushed and encouraged by their parents ; being a successful student remains the norm. The relationships between national students and migrant students are average. And apart from a few teachers annoyed by the choice of clothing of some parents (headscarfs for example), the relationship between the educational staff and the national or migrant parents are also average, or indifferent.

In her class, Mrs. Carlier gives her students articles on the migrants crisis to read in order to put an end to indifference, to generate reactions and raise awareness. This is part of the History-Geography and Civil and Moral Education curriculum. There is no taboo subject. Curiously, it was an student born in Iran who reflected critically on the condition of refugees (according to him, refugees are given priority when arriving at the CAOs, Reception and Observation Centers).

The project of a collection for the migrants was the result of Mrs. Carlier's visit to the Calais Jungle, in the end of August 2016, where she was accompanied by Mrs. Maya Conforti, a volunteer of the Auberge des Migrants (Migrants' Inn) charity organization. This organization helps migrants with material assistance as well as social and legal support.
She realized that was she was teaching (Republican values, tolerance, the History of migration, the border issues...) took a very tangible form only 100 kilometers away from the school, in its own department. Therefore, she drafted a project which she presented to the Principal before the start of the school year. The Principal approved and the project, which was then presented during the plenary meeting of the pre-back-to-school day.
Mrs. Carlier talked about her visit in the Calais Jungle to all of her colleagues and the high school staff, and introduced her project for collecting clothes, shoes, food and other goods for the migrants.

Activities carried out:

The collection lasted 9 days: it started on September 26th and ended on November 4th after the All Saints holiday. The goal was to bring the donations to Calais on November 8th.
During these weeks, the students would volunteer and sign in on a time schedule available at the school administration office, in order to run the information and collection stand, and participate in the sorting of the donated items before they were packed in boxes.
As the Calais Jungle had been dismantled at the end of October 2016, Mrs. Carlier and her students could not go there directly to meet young migrants. However, they delivered the donations by bus, paid by the school, to the charity l'Auberge des Migrants ; for this, Mrs. Carlier had chosen the most dedicated and involved students since the beginning of the project (about 20 students), whether they were in her class or not. There was a majority of girls.
Mrs Carlier and her students were welcomed by Mr François Guennoc, the vice-president of the charity organization. The students had an opportunity to discuss the situation of refugees in Calais, the dismantling of the Jungle, the help provided by organizations, etc... at length. Then they helped sort out the donations in the warehouse.

At school, the students were more involved than the teachers (most of whom are middle-aged). Some level of indifference was observed: many people approved of the project but did not help at collecting or sorting out the donations.

Assessment and lesson learnt:

After the day in Calais, some students did a presentation on it in the classes. Other students have started their own projects, such as articles, charity work... The students regularly follow the news of the migrants' journeys thanks to the Arte website "Jungle News" (http://jungle-news.arte.tv/fr/)

The collection generated a lot of talk in the families. There was no feedback from hostile parents since only motivated and involved students came to Calais. The parents of these students were very approving of the project. Family values account for much in the students' commitment.

There were a few mocking or hostile reactions during the presentation of the project (including from some teachers who frankly disapproved, judging that the action was too sensitive and controversial). Some racists leaflets were also put on the posters of the project.
However, 3 other schools were inspired by this project and organized "Jungle Actions": the lower secondary school Bodel and the upper secondary school Gambetta Carnot in Arras also collected donations, while the upper secondary school Guy Mollet organized a meeting with its students and young migrants from the Center for Asylum-seekers of Arras.
The project was covered by the press (two pages in the regional daily newspaper La Voix du Nord), at a time when the media talked a lot about the dismantling of the Jungle and the hostility of the inhabitants of the villages where the refugees would be sent.

The management of this project gave Mrs Carlier an opportunity to learn a lot about logistics, networking, information...
She thinks that it is important to be convinced, determined and humane in order to carry out a project like this, because it is not easy. Most high school Principals may find this type of action too sensitive, and for many people, everything that has to do with migrants is political and controversial.
However, Mrs Carlier assures that she is very happy of having organized this collection and that she will continue this type of awareness-raising efforts in the future.

Description of the Case Study in National Language: