Selective Inclusion in Education – the example of Berlin Schools

by Birgit zur Nieden

Berlin schools have fixed catchment areas that are supposed to guarantee a specifically determined “social mix” of children. This “social mix” resembles the composition of the neighbourhood, and as a result schools become very much segregated. Some schools even create separate classes for kids with so-called German and classes for children with non-German backgrounds. My input will look at the mechanisms and differentiations, which allows separating pupils from each other, in accordance with the tradition of institutionalised extra-school classes for ‘foreign’ children in West Germany. I will discuss how different mechanisms and discourses lead to boundary drawings in highly diverse spaces that can be envisioned with a concept of conviviality.