The Conditions for School Success by Aina Tarabini

Author:Aina Tarabini
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030025236
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

5.2 Grouping Students: Paradoxes, Omissions, and Contradictions

As indicated in previous sections, the Spanish education system is formally comprehensive from the ages of six through sixteen, meaning that the law does not formally allow for the possibility of grouping students according to their abilities . However, the still small body of research conducted in Spain in this area shows that in Catalonia —the specific region where the fieldwork for this study was conducted—there is a general practice of student segregation by level in schools , meaning that one in three lower secondary schools group students according to their ability (Aymerich et al. 2011; Ferrer 2011; Castejón 2017). In fact, according to the 2009 PISA report, only 11% of Catalan students are enrolled in schools that do not apply ability grouping , while the rest are grouped in some or in all subjects. These data, in addition, contrast with the Spanish and the OECD averages, where respectively 39.9 and 31.9% of students in the PISA sample are not grouped by ability in any subject.

Thus, ability grouping is one of the most common organisational solutions in Catalan schools for managing student heterogeneity . This topic however has not always been subject to public debate and has often been confined to within school walls, to within the teaching staff. The manner in which students are grouped together, with the consequences that follow, is one of the main concerns of many school teams and also often becomes one of the main sources of conflict between teachers . That is why schools’ grouping practices and procedures need to be publicly debated by ‘opening up the inside life of schools to democratic scrutiny and public challenge’ (Lynch and Baker 2005: 140). This opening should not be mistaken for an occasion for public scorn, blame, or shame, but should rather focus on the need to relieve teachers of the daily debates and tensions surrounding this topic and especially on the importance of reducing the enormous reproduction of social inequalities that they produce.

In fact, both national and international research on this issue have made clear that ability grouping holds great explanatory power when considering the possibilities for student failure and success , including dropping out and ESL (Oakes 1985; Boaler et al. 2000; Gibson et al. 2013). Besides ‘low attainment’ groups containing a disproportionate number of students of migrant origin and low socioeconomic and cultural status —a fact that casts doubt on claims that their composition is based solely on ability and performance criteria—being grouped in them also has highly negative effects on students’ motivation, performance, and educational expectations . Pàmies and Castejón (2015) contend that students in the lowest ability groups are subject to lower teacher expectations , receive less stimuli for learning , and are exposed more to repetitive methodologies as well as to infantilising activities and relationships with teachers revolving around behavioural control and punishment. The segregation of students into ability groups, therefore, polarises the system’s educational outcomes , which undermines the principles of equity and social cohesion that must feature in all education systems .

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