“He Was as If on the Moon”. The Relevance of Narratives Told by Teachers in the Understanding of Transnational Experiences Lived by Children

Abstract

In the last decades, some students with a migration background, included in Italian schools, have lived experiences of temporal return trips to their or their parent’s countries of departure. These journeys can take place during summer holidays or in the school year. The relationships with multiple places that children maintain through these visits feed reflections upon the role of children in social processes, highlighting their deep involvement in global and transnational dynamics. However, when taking place in the school year, these journeys are frequently interpreted by teachers as ruptures within the school system. This paper, based on interviews realized with teachers in two primary schools and one first-grade secondary school, aims to present narratives of teachers on transnational experiences of students and shed light on the social changes the school faces. The purpose is to analyze the meanings that transnational mobility acquires in these interviews. The main narrative of discontinuity associated with these journeys is analyzed in its connection to concepts such as culture and identity, to reflect on how the educational system deals with unexpected elements that introduce additional complexity to its structure and the link these meanings have with the reproduction of established interpretations of culture.