Using narratives to study the impact of social networks on the educational paths of immigrant students

Abstract

This paper presents the qualitative data collection process aimed at the study of the impact social relations and networks have on educational paths of immigrant students. In the framework of a R & D longitudinal study funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (2012-2014), the research team tracked the path of 87 immigrant students, from whom only 17 successfully achieved the transition through the first and second year of Post-16 Education. A vast range of literature notes that relationships are an important part of migration process and social integration analysis, as well as school history in terms of success or failure. Through the fieldwork researchers collect the personal networks of all immigrant students from 3 high schools who were at that time attending last course of compulsory school. The network structure influences their social capital and therefore determines the resources, goods and types of support individuals can access. All these aspects are influential elements in the configuration and development of academic trajectories of immigrant students. At the end of the second year of Post-16 Education (two years later), the study captures personal networks of these students again, analyses and discusses their evolution and influence on their paths through qualitative interviews. Such interviews facilitated the discussion of their relationships while providing interesting narratives that are presented in the text. In order to do so, the biographical interpretive narrative method of interviewing is implemented.