The Contradictions of Compensation: Compensatory Education Enactments in Secondary Education
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doi:10.5477/cis/reis.169.143
The Contradictions of Compensation:
Compensatory Education Enactments in
Secondary Education
Las contradicciones de la compensación:
apropiaciones del programa de educación compensatoria en ESO
Javier Rujas Martínez-Novillo
Key words Abstract
Compensatory This study examines the role of the compensatory education program
Education on the construction and management of educational failure in
• Academic Failure compulsory lower secondary education. Drawing on ethnographic
• Student Diversity fieldwork, it reveals the everyday struggles regarding how to deal with
• Remedial Programs “difficult” students, as determined by educational ideologies, resources,
• Education Policy teachers’ schemes of perception and professional logics. The program
• Sociology of is stigmatized and associated with “disruptive” students and hard
Education pedagogic work, with negative effects on students’ and teachers’
experiences and expectations and reveals a limited capacity to
compensate for pupils’ disadvantages. Rather than compensating social
inequalities, it manages pupils’ social heterogeneity through segregation
and exclusion from the inside.
Palabras clave Resumen
Educación Este artículo estudia el papel del programa de educación compensatoria
compensatoria en la construcción y gestión del fracaso escolar en educación
• Fracaso escolar secundaria obligatoria. Basándose en un trabajo etnográfico, revela las
• Heterogeneidad luchas alrededor de los alumnos considerados “difíciles”,
social condicionadas por ideologías pedagógicas, recursos, esquemas de
• Medidas de atención percepción docentes y lógicas profesionales. El dispositivo,
a la diversidad estigmatizado y asociado a alumnos “disruptivos” y a un trabajo
• Políticas educativas pedagógico duro, incide negativamente en las expectativas y vivencias
• Sociología de la de docentes y estudiantes, y muestra una escasa capacidad para
educación compensar las desventajas escolares. Más que compensar
desigualdades sociales, gestiona la heterogeneidad social por medio de
la segregación y la exclusión interior.
Citation
Rujas Martínez-Novillo, Javier (2020). “The Contradictions of Compensation: Compensatory Education
Enactments in Secondary Education”. Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 169: 143-
158. (http://dx.doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.169.143)
Javier Rujas Martínez-Novillo: University of Burgos, Department of Private Law, Division of Sociology | jrujas@ubu.es
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 169, January - March 2020, pp. 143-158144 The Contradictions of Compensation: Compensatory Education Enactments in Secondary Education
Introduction1 effects on their educational results, experi-
ences or trajectories. And despite the signif-
During the second half of the 20th century, icant budget cuts of recent years, it contin-
educational systems included the search for ues to be one of the main remedial programs
equal opportunities within their main objec- for students at risk of “school failure”, being
tives. With school system expansion and the of particular interest due to its focus on so-
universalization of basic education, baseline cio-economic and cultural inequalities, its
inequalities between students from different longevity and redefinition and its presence
social origins became evident, giving rise to across Spain (mainly in public schools but
the idea that compensation for these ine- also in some state-funded private schools
qualities was necessary. And so, a series of —colegios concertados—) and in various ed-
support initiatives and programs were devel- ucational stages (primary and secondary).
oped, directed at children coming from dis-
This text analyzes the role of the compen-
advantaged social groups, based on the
satory education program in the construction
concept of compensatory education.
and management of school failure in second-
This movement, beginning in the US in ary education. It draws on ethnographic
the 1950s and 60s (Bernstein, 1986), didn’t fieldwork conducted in 2012-2013 in a public
arrive in Spain until a later date (Grañeras et school located in a working-class district of
al., 1998; Escudero, 2003). The concept of Madrid, supported by a previous socio-his-
compensatory education was introduced in torical analysis. In this paper, we analyze the
the 70s, but it wasn’t until 1983 when specific enactment and implementation of the pro-
legislation was developed (RD 1174/1983) gram in the school’s everyday life, focusing
and the first measures were implemented: on the following aspects: the classification of
scholarships, support services and resource students in the program; its configuration as
centers, literacy, courses for school drop- a stigmatized program; the re-organization of
outs, projects in schools, rural area attention, its modalities in the school, revealing the dai-
support to cultural minorities and “itinerant” ly strategies and struggles concerning the
populations. In the 90s, within a context of attention to “difficult” students; and the ten-
proliferation of measures to fight academic sions and ambivalences present in teachers’
failure (Escudero and Martínez, 2012), com-
work with students assigned to the program.
pensatory education was redefined as a
measure of “attention to diversity” —an edu-
cational adaptation—, with different “organi-
Studying a compensatory
zational models” aimed at students experi-
education policy
encing a “curricular delay” of at least two
school years, due to social, economic, cul- Background and absences
tural, geographic or ethnic factors (RD
Although sometimes used in a broader
299/1996).
sense, the term “compensatory education”
Despite the fact that this program has in Spanish schools is mostly associated with
been a part of the educational field for dec- the specific program having this name. Virtu-
ades now, almost no data or studies exist on ally no data is available on this measure, de-
students passing through the program, or its spite the fact that it dates back some three
decades. The Ministry of Education does not
offer any statistics on its development, mo-
1 This work is part of a doctoral thesis carried out thanks dalities, students or results. Only limited data
to the Spanish Ministry of Education University Teacher
Training program. A prior version was presented at the is available from the 1980s, at a time when
XII Spanish Congress of Sociology (Gijón, 2016). the program’s current modalities had not yet
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 169, January - March 2020, pp. 143-158Javier Rujas Martínez-Novillo 145
been developed (CIDE, 1992; 1999), and, for ni, 2015, among others) or on the develop-
Madrid, on some modalities for certain years ment and assessment of alternative means
in the autonomous community (CAM School of educational inclusion. Similarly, interna-
Council, 2014) and on the different compen- tional studies on the ways of managing stu-
satory modalities during the 2004-2005 dents’ social heterogeneity, focusing on in-
school year in the capital (Education Inspec- ternational comparison with PISA data
torate, 2007). (which do not provide detail on the diversity
In general, official data in Spain are in- of the Spanish programs), classify the Span-
sufficient and fragmented (Escudero and ish educational system into the so-called
Martínez, 2012) and fail to offer longitudinal “uniform integration model”. This model is
information on the students’ passage through characterized by a common basic curricu-
the education system (Bernardi and Cebol- lum that is followed until the end of the man-
la, 2014). Specifically, they do not allow for datory education period, an intensive use of
connecting the students’ passage through grade retention —especially in lower sec-
the different measures of educational sup- ondary education—, using it as a parameter
port available in compulsory education with to group students and organize support,
their social origin or their results and subse- and a low capacity for improving the perfor-
quent trajectories2. Therefore, quantitative mance of underachieving students (Dupriez
works on social origin and inequality of ed- et al., 2008). However, this classification
ucational opportunities take into account does not reflect some of the differentiation
certain elements of the formal structure of mechanisms existing within the Spanish ed-
the school system (Fernández Mellizo-Soto, ucation system, based on school groupings
2014; Fernández-Mellizo and Martínez-Gar- and curriculum adaptations (separation
cía, 2017), but do not provide information on based on performance levels and more or
the incidence of programs directed at stu- less intense separation of students with dif-
dents with difficulties that operate within ficulties using different “attention to diversi-
compulsory education. ty” measures), with differential impact on
educational opportunities (Pàmies and
And few studies have analyzed the role
Castejón, 2015; Rujas, 20173). These forms
of the compensatory education program
of differentiation increased greatly with the
during the mandatory education period, a
“democratization” of the education system
trend that has been reinforced by reductions
and the expansion of the comprehensive
caused by the budgetary cutbacks of the
school, creating forms of exclusion from the
economic crisis period. Recently, works on
inside based on relegation to devalued itin-
programs and policies for students with dif-
eraries or courses associated with lower
ficulties have tended to focus on subse-
chances of academic success (Bourdieu
quent programs (curricular diversification,
and Champagne, 1992), which segmented
social guarantee and initial professional
the compulsory education.
qualification programs; Escudero et al.,
2009; Escudero and Martínez, 2012; Tarabi- Over recent decades, the multiplication of
compensatory programs due to educational
2 In Spain, education is comprehensive and compulsory
from the age of 6 until the age of 16, comprising primary 3 To these forms of differentiation, the LOMCE (Educa-
education (ages 6 to 11) and lower secondary education tion Act passed in 2013) has added the separation into
(ages 12 to 16). In this paper, we will be focusing on the two tracks during the fourth and last year of compulsory
latter, which is divided in two cycles: the first, between secondary education: an “academic” track, geared
the ages of 12 and 14, and the second, between the towards the Baccalaureate, and an “applied” track,
ages of 14 and 16. geared towards vocational training.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 169, January - March 2020, pp. 143-158146 The Contradictions of Compensation: Compensatory Education Enactments in Secondary Education
decentralization barely had any impact on tions, interpretations and adaptations —as
graduation rates in compulsory and post-com- well as resistance— by different actors take
pulsory secondary education, given other fac- place at different levels and locations within
tors such as education level of the population, the school organization. First, the initial in-
public spending on education or the level of terpretation by the school’s management
youth unemployment (Rambla and Bonal, team must decode the administration’s reg-
2007). Despite this, the compensatory educa- ulations and instructions, adapting them to
tion measures based on school groupings and its specific context. Next, the other school
curricular adaptations are considered by the agents, holding different positions within
public schools, within their limited room for the organization, and showing different de-
maneuver regarding its intake, to be one of the grees of engagement with the policy to be
main forms of managing “diversity” and fight- enacted, translate it and deal with it in daily
ing against school failure and dropout, which life, sometimes in diverse and contradictory
especially affects the working class (Fernández ways (Ball et al., 2012).
Enguita et al., 2010; Bernardi and Cebolla, In order to understand the enactment of
2014; Fernández-Mellizo and Martínez-García, an educational policy —in this case, a pro-
2017). In the specific case of the compensato- gram directed at disadvantaged students—
ry education program, it has been suggested and its implications for educational pro-
that, despite detecting students with difficul- cesses, experiences and trajectories, it is
ties, the program fails to significantly improve insufficient to only consider its discursive
their performance and retain them in the sys- aspect (strongly emphasized by Bernstein;
tem (Fernández Enguita et al., 2010: 120–1224). 1990). It is also necessary to consider the
materiality of the educational practice, tak-
From paper to practice: enactment and ing the context into account (resources,
recontextualisation of school policies school location, social composition of fam-
If, however, we are to analyze the program ilies and students, Ball et al., 2012; position
only in terms of effectiveness (measured of the school in the local education market
quantitatively by a higher or lower degree of and in the school field, André and Hilgers,
school failure by participating students), we 2014), the “micropolitics” of schools (filled
will fail to consider the how; that is, the pro- with conflicts and tensions; Ball, 1987) and
cesses leading to these results. In order to educational dynamics (marked by strategies
grasp them, we must go beyond the per- and negotiations of the professionals and
spective of public policy implementation (lin- students; Woods, 1979; Martín Criado,
ear, focused on efficiency and results) to ex- 2010). Similarly, the trajectory of the educa-
amine how these policies are actually tional policy or program may include trans-
enacted in practice (Ball et al., 2012). formations from the time of its formulation
until and through its enactment and even
The enactment of educational policies
various re-definitions throughout the history
implies a recontextualisation process (Bern-
of a particular school, having effects on its
stein, 1990; Bonal and Rambla, 1999): a
institutional configuration and its practices,
separation from the context of its creation
and in the construction of unequal educa-
and a relocation within a new context (the
tional opportunities (Ball, 1993). So, by ex-
schools). In this process, various transla-
amining the translation of the compensatory
education program from paper to practice,
we can determine its complex role in the
4 This conclusion is based on the quantitative analysis
of a non-representative sample of secondary school stu- management of educational failure and stu-
dent files. dent heterogeneity.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 169, January - March 2020, pp. 143-158Javier Rujas Martínez-Novillo 147
Methodology Two groups were followed: one in the first
year and another in the second year of lower
The ethnographic method is the most appro- secondary education, including the so-called
priate method to grasp the ordinary appropi- “compensatory students”. Observations
ations and enactments of educational poli- were carried out in the classroom (comparing
cies in the everyday life of the schools. It ordinary classes with the compensatory, di-
permits us to understand the practical logic vided group classes), in the school staffroom
of the programs aimed at students with diffi- and in the assessment boards. Some thirty
culties, beyond the legal provisions, revealing in-depth interviews were conducted with
their complex insertion within the institutional teachers, members of the management
fabric of the schools, their overlaps and ten- team, the guidance and counselling depart-
sions with other educational devices and rou- ment and students (classified and not classi-
tines, their internal contradictions and per- fied in “attention to diversity” measures;
verse effects. Ethnographic fieldwork reveals among the latter, students classified as com-
how students are identified and assigned to pensatory, assigned or not to special meas-
the program, the social meanings associat- ures). In this paper, we focus on the function-
ed with the program and the pupils assigned ing of the compensatory program at the time
to it, and how this affects the pedagogical of the study, while also analyzing its history
work, as well as the construction of teach- and variations, accessed through interviews
ers’ judgments and students’ experiences (using also other interviews conducted in
and trajectories. 2008-2009 at the same school) and through
The ethnography was carried out in a school documents.
public secondary school located in a work- The ethnographic work that is presented
ing-class district in the south of Madrid dur- here was combined with a socio-historical
ing the 2012-2013 school year. Although a analysis of measures used to fight against
small percentage of students came from school failure in Spain (based on legislation,
middle-class families, the majority were books, articles, reports and the press) and
working-class, with some being of foreign with the use of official statistics. Although
origin and Romany (the Spanish “gypsy” eth- this study focuses on a single secondary
nicity). The school had a good reputation in school, opting for an intensive study (one
the district given its focus on the Baccalau- case), instead of an extensive one (compari-
reate, its relatively low presence of minori- son of various cases), the results provide val-
ties, its “progressive” and “inclusive” institu- uable information on the processes that may
tional narrative (Ball et al., 2012), and its be found, with variations and specificities
progressive improvement in attaining lower depending on contexts, in other heterogene-
secondary graduation rates (from 40% at its ous public schools using the compensatory
onset to 63%, still quite a concerning figure
education program.
that remained stagnant with the crisis). The
school opted for measures of attention to di-
versity, although these changed depending
Classification of the
material and administrative constraints, the
“compensatory student”
predominant pedagogical ideology in the
school and the evaluation of their results by The program is directed at students with a
the staff. Of these, the compensatory educa- curricular delay of two or more years and
tion program was one of the principal pro- who are considered to be socially disadvan-
grams and it was applied during the first cycle taged (due to economic, geographic, ethnic
of lower secondary education. or cultural factors). These criteria, legally de-
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 169, January - March 2020, pp. 143-158148 The Contradictions of Compensation: Compensatory Education Enactments in Secondary Education
fined, are appropriated and translated by the the criterion is based on a curricular delay of two
schools and teachers, who adopt the official or more years in some of the instrumental sub-
definition of the profile and the legal jargon jects: mathematics, language arts, English (is also
with its ambiguous variations (“social”, “so- usually included). And this delay must be mainly
cio-educational”, “socio-familiar”, etc.), al- caused by social origin, right? And from here,
though its use is occasional and formal. But, there is a very long list, sometimes a bit absurd,
how are these two criteria made operational but anyway: ethnic minorities —gypsies—, immi-
in practice? grants. […] There are very well-situated immi-
grants having a very high cultural level and, yet,
How is the “gap” determined? Students
being an immigrant comes with a label, that if a
progress at variable rhythms and obtain di-
child is an immigrant and at the same time has a
verse results, depending on the courses,
delay, then they are compensatory, right? Single
topics and skills demanded by the curricu-
parent families, children of separated parents…
lum. Yet every day, teachers judge the stu-
They are in a situation of social disadvantage,
dents’ “level” drawing on their immediate
even if they are Spanish and not gypsies, but for
knowledge, making an overall judgement of
economic reasons or for reasons related to hous-
the individual (Bourdieu and Saint Martin,
ing or due to illnesses or… The idea is that if there
1975) and defining this level as a clear, uni-
is a family-based disadvantage for the child and
fied and homogenous measure. In practice,
he/she has a delay, we consider the child to be
if the student, (1) is perceived as having a
compensatory (Director).
“deficient” kowledge of the curriculum con-
tents previous to his/her current “level” or Therefore, the disadvantage criterion is
grade, and (2) is defined as having a “delay” less associated with social class than it is with
in the primary school report or in the as- ethnicity or the immigrant condition, given
sessment board, the teaching staff under- the ethnitization of the program (in Madrid,
stands that he/she has a “curricular delay”. most are assigned to it due to their being an
Furthermore, as in the case of most schools “ethnic or cultural minority”; School Inspec-
in Madrid (School Inspection Service, 2007), tion Service, 2007). But it is also associated
this gap of approximately 2 years is consid- with the ambiguous and confusing notion of
ered in the “instrumental” subjects (mathe- belonging to a “dysfunctional family” or with
matics or language arts), and not in all of the a situation of economic and material need.
curriculum.
This is, therefore, the first translation
The teaching staff associates the “social made by the management team, which ap-
disadvantage” criterion with heterogeneous plies —or rather, enacts— these criteria as it
situations: family composition, ethnicity or compiles the list of “compensatory” students
nationality, household economic situation for the educational administration. These
(and resulting problems such as evictions or students appear later labelled as such in the
poor housing): teachers’ class lists.
The management team decides on the
So, first there is the criteria to determine which student lists, applies the label, but later, in
child is compensatory and which isn’t. Because, the formation of classes or groups, it decides
in addition, we are forced to send a list to the Area which of the labelled students will have ac-
Directorate and the Director General of Secondary cess to the specific measures. This second
Studies with the children that we have declared as translation is made by the departments, which
being compensatory. […] there is no thermometer decide if they will organize divided compen-
that tells you that as of this point it is compensa- satory groups, which students will go to
tory and up until here, no. So, it isn’t so easy. But these divided groups and which will remain
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 169, January - March 2020, pp. 143-158Javier Rujas Martínez-Novillo 149
in the ordinary groups5. In the school at hand, “The biggest troublemakers
the “compensatory students” could not all went”: a stigmatized program
receive special support given the existing re-
sources: a certain “profile” was selected from A third translation adds to the previous ones,
the list, differentiating between the “compen- which is enacted by the teachers. During the
satory students” who were considered to be ethnography, the program was found to be
most poorly performing or more delayed, the most stigmatized of all compulsory sec-
who received support in the compensatory ondary education, identified by the teachers
divided groups, and those that were some- as being the one in which the most “compli-
what better off, who remained in the “ordi- cated” or “difficult” students were grouped.
nary” class. First, in the everyday discourse, the name of
the program was transferred to the pupils
—“compensatory students”—, defining a
So, the list that we have is very long, of primary and
specific category of students. Second, the
secondary students who are compensatory, but
teachers and counselors gave an additional
don’t go to her [the compensatory teacher] for sup-
meaning to this category, beyond the official
port, because otherwise, it would be the biggest
definition: “compensatory students” were
group of mathematics, precisely. Then, there are
typically represented as being “difficult”,
those that I think the teachers detect within this
“disruptive”, having a “bad attitude” and
compensatory group, those having the lowest level.
“bad behavior”.
And those that, well, maybe they have a two-year
curricular delay, but more or less they can follow the This image was based on one part of the
class, since they can handle the basic operations whole —the least valued program students in
[…], these are in class with the teachers (Director). terms of behavior— and it appeared implic-
itly —due to its non-official nature, although
This process implies selection. On the evident to teachers, it tended to remain un-
one hand, mismatches are created between spoken—. Even when the staff tried to dis-
those who are believed to require compensa- tance from this association, it continued to
tory attention and those that receive it, as appear forcefully.
well as those that have it to a lesser degree
(support in the “ordinary” classroom) and Because often, many compensatory students are
those that receive it to a larger degree of in- associated with the profile of being disruptive, of
tensity and segregation (support in the divid- being bothersome in class, etc., right? […] And for
ed or “specific” groups). On the other hand, a teacher who spends many hours with a group of
students assigned to these groups belong to these, if the group is also very complicated from a
precarious fractions of the working classes point of view… well this, the disruption and all, it
(parents holding jobs that are unskilled, in- is a problem (Director).
stable or unemployed, with basic education
or less), to immigrant and Romany families, These students are also highly associated
that is, a group defined as “difficult” and ed- with a significant “delay”, “demotivation”, “a
ucationally stigmatized. lack of work habits”. Some of their “deficits”
are attributed to social factors but without
necessarily accepting them as an “excuse”
5 In the Spanish school system, secondary schools or- for their results and behavior. The bureau-
ganize teaching according to different pedagogic de- cratic criteria linked to social origin is thereby
partments (language, arts, mathematics, english, geo- diluted within the traditional categories of
graphy and history, etc.) formed by the teachers of each
speciality. There is also a specific guidance department scholastic judgment, since in the education-
headed by a school counsellor. al interaction, other frames are activated,
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 169, January - March 2020, pp. 143-158150 The Contradictions of Compensation: Compensatory Education Enactments in Secondary Education
which tend to attribute performance and be- student” status —one that is less capable or
havior to will and capacity: “These kids have that is a “troublemaker”—; leading to disen-
a delay, but […] the delay comes for three gagement from the academic game:
years of not making any effort at all. That is
the delay. Because really, they do have the When they put me there, well… I had even less in-
ability” (Teacher, compensatory). terest in studying. Because I said: “Why can’t I be
This vision was shared in part by the stu- in my class?”, you know? They stuck me there as
dents. Not using the “compensatory” label, if… You know, you go there but, why? Yes, you can
they oscillated between a certain identifica- study, they haven’t asked if you can … or see if you
tion of these groups as additional education- can, or your performance or anything, and yet they
al support and, mainly, their representation stick you there […] Aren’t I quieter in my class than
as a grouping of pupils with a bad attitude I am here? You’ve seen it. Here I tend to talk. There
towards school: are a lot of people here who get into a lot of trouble
[…] almost everyone does badly (student, working
We went to a group and they gave us more sup- class, Rumanian, repeat student, 2nd year of lower
port. We did the same things as the class but…not secondary education).
so…you know? More support. Maybe we did the
Natural Sciences plan but maybe there were some On the other hand, the teachers’ expec-
things that we didn’t do or did in a different way. tations were low for the “compensatory stu-
[…] The biggest troublemakers went. But it was dents”: it was considered almost impossible
good. […] I went from failing seven to four (stu- for them to finish mandatory secondary edu-
dent, working class family, Ecuadorian, repeat stu- cation, or, at the most, with some chances of
dent, 1st year of compulsory secondary education). entering the curricular diversification pro-
gram in the third year. This expectation tend-
The students’ reactions to their assign- ed to materialize: most of the students from
ment to the compensatory groups also con- the second year compensatory divided group
firms the stigmatization of the program and that we followed were externalized to PCPI,
its recipients. In some cases, they assumed a few were relegated to diversification pro-
the “troublemaker” identity naturally and in- grams and others dropped out.
differently, or with an ironic distance:
From multiplied segregation
“But do you behave or are you a troublemaker like
to a difficult “integration”:
us?”, Sonia asks a new student. She quickly turns
the reorganization of the
around and asks me why I came to this class with
compensatory modalities
them. I tell her that I am doing a study on school
life. She asks me if I am doing it about them, “the The regulation of compensatory education
bad ones” […] (observation, compensatory math- establishes that compensatory support must
ematics program, 2nd year of lower secondary ed- be carried out “as a general rule” within the
ucation). “ordinary” groups (Order from 22 July 1999),
but also permits the creation of “flexible
In other cases, they perceive their juxta- groupings” (reduced groups of students
position with the “troublemakers” as a sym- meeting outside of their reference groups for
bolic degradation and they reject it. The clas- a few hours every week) and, exceptionally,
sification in compensatory groups was “specific groups” with a maximum of fifteen
experienced as an implicit attribution of a students, receiving segregated instruction in
devalued identity (Goffman, 2001), of a “bad the main subjects. These exceptions wound
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 169, January - March 2020, pp. 143-158Javier Rujas Martínez-Novillo 151
up becoming the norm in Madrid, with a pre- (Woods, 1979: 140–169; Martín Criado, 2010:
dominance of “flexible” groups and a signifi- 310)—, making them more likely to make crit-
cant expansion —to a lesser extent— of the icism and self-criticism:
“specific groups” (School Inspection Service,
2007). To these modalities, the Madrid com- It is a “total adaptation”, given that these are stu-
munity added the “special specific groups” dents who “have seen it all” and therefore, the
(grupo específico singular; separated from special compensatory is a “last resource”: they are
the ordinary groups, directed at students the ones that don’t “fit in anywhere”. […] “it
with “serious maladjustment to the educa- doesn't work well”. Since they don’t have an ordi-
tional setting”; Resolution from 21 July 2006). nary reference group from which they leave for a
In 2008-2009, the school had support in few hours, as in the case of the specific groups,
the ordinary groups, “flexible” groups (divid- the “negative behavior is reinforced […] there is no
ed groups), specific groups and a “special” integration”, it becomes a “vicious cycle”. […] She
specific group. This latter group disappeared recognizes that the “system” benefits the rest of
in 2010. Budgetary cuts led to a reduction in the classrooms, but it creates “a sort of ghetto”:
the number of compensatory teachers in “there is no integration there”. The problem of
secondary schools. Furthermore, recruitment changing this lie in the “other teachers”, with few
of program teachers changed: since it was being willing to do so in their classrooms, and giv-
required that they be secondary school en the incompatibility of schedules (teacher, spe-
teachers, the two teachers who had held this cial specific group, unrecorded interview, 2008)
position for years were forced to leave it. In
2012, the “specific” groups modality was The group was very difficult to handle,
also eliminated due to the cuts and reassess- given the level of conflict, and posed practi-
ment of the measure by the team. cal and ethical dilemmas to the management
team. Believing in an “inclusive” pedagogical
ideology, the team was conflicted, wishing to
The most segregated modality
adapt to the students’ difficulties without
The special specific group was the most seg- completely excluding them but also wishing
regated group. It was considered to be the to ensure a “satisfactory” pedagogy in most
most “difficult” group in the school, since the of the groups, preserving them from the indi-
“compensatory students” at which it was di- viduals seen as a source of tensions and al-
rected were those referred to as the most “dis- terations of the pace of the class.
ruptive” and academically “lagging” group. It The specific compensatory groups, on
was composed of seven or eight students with the other hand, were considered to be the
high absenteeism rates, coming from precari- central modality of the program and a “strong
ous and at risk of exclusion fractions of the segregation”. Students assigned to these
working class, some of them being of the groups, already included in the program dur-
Romany ethnicity. The group’s classroom was ing primary school, came from mainly work-
isolated from the others. The curriculum was ing-class families, some being Romany and
reduced to “basics”, emphasizing the “practi- of migrant origin. They were depicted as
cal” with gardening activities, and had to be “very disruptive” and “falling behind”, and
adapted to the situation, given the high degree ethnic and class differences were reduced to
of rejection and the unpredictability of their be- a lack of “work habits” (not being accus-
havior. This situation led to psychological tomed to working with the regularity that is
stress in the teachers —the teaching practice required at the school; not knowing how to
requires affective implication and protective study), to be compensated for using peda-
strategies of the professional self-esteem gogical means:
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 169, January - March 2020, pp. 143-158152 The Contradictions of Compensation: Compensatory Education Enactments in Secondary Education
It is necessary to work with more flexibility. They on the day that they did come they demanded a
work with the same books, but they focus on rein- lot of attention… all for them and just them (tutor,
forcing work habits, on “working every day”. She 1st year of compulsory secondary education).
gives an example from her social sciences class:
they work on the corresponding topic, make a Underlying the negociations concerning
summary and do the exercises in class, all togeth- the organization of the compensatory modal-
er. She insists that it is necessary to “teach them ities was the question of who is dealing with
to study”, because most of them have “fallen be- the “difficult” students. This struggle to define
hind” (one student told her that he hadn’t studied a legitimate means of educating these stu-
since third grade in primary school) (teacher, spe- dents appears in strategies and negotiations
cific group, unrecorded interview, 2008). at various levels of the school organization.
Among these, there are diverse forms of
Although it was argued that some stu- grouping the students in each class, where
dents “go forward” thanks to this measure, the departments and their internal negotia-
the subsequent trajectories were described tions play an important role. The compensa-
negatively by their teachers: some dropped tory modalities, reduced to divided groups
out, others went to a Compensatory Educa- (mathematics) and support in ordinary class-
tion Classroom upon turning fifteen6. rooms (technology), contrasted with the het-
erogeneous divided groups carried out in
Spreading out the “difficult ones” language arts and the advanced groups for
students with a higher level in English.
In 2012, the high school reorganized the
The divided mathematics groups were
compensatory modalities. Although its insti- formed by the management team, since a
tutional narrative highlighted ideological rea- compensatory teacher was available, with
sons (pro-heterogeneity) and efficiency, it student selection remaining in the hands of
was mainly the teacher cuts that led to the the department. The compensatory teachers
restructuring of the groups, which were al- do the dirty work (Hughes, 1971), the most
ready partly questioned for grouping togeth- undervalued work with the least valued stu-
er “disruptive” and underachieving students, dents, and do so with pupils selected by the
with barely any of them graduating. There- other teachers, freeing them from the fol-
fore, the “compensatory students” were low-up, marking and control tasks. These
spread out amongst the ordinary groups, divided groups were justified by the sup-
avoiding their concentration. This reorganiza- posed benefit for the students and for the
tion was considered a source of added diffi- ordinary classes from which they are sepa-
culties to the everyday work of the teachers, rated: “it is beneficial for two reasons. First,
who were used to the previous situation: for the class, since they do not bother in their
class. And second, I think that these kids, in
[…] when the compensatory group disappeared isolated groups, do more than they would
and we had to incorporate them into the regular in a big group” (teacher, compensatory).
class, well... it was an out of control situation, On the other hand, the heterogeneous
since they came one day and missed three. And divided groups in language arts consisted of
a division of the regular group into two small-
er ones, distributing the “complicated” stu-
6 A measure used for students aged fifteen to sixteen dents in an equal proportion. Since there was
having “significant curricular delay”, high levels of scho- no compensatory teacher, no teacher from
lastic rejection and “serious adaptation difficulties”, with
a one-year duration, focused on practical learning and the department wished to take on a group
behavior rules through profesional workshops. seen as a “powder keg” (sic) with all the “dif-
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 169, January - March 2020, pp. 143-158Javier Rujas Martínez-Novillo 153
ficult” students, a compromise had to be The fact of “getting rid” of “difficult” stu-
reached based on the available teachers, the dents may be judged negatively by both the
ideal heterogeneity and the attempt to re- colleagues and the individual himself. This
duce the difficulty of the teaching job: generates tensions between the strategies
used to avoid “difficult” students in order to
We make the divided group into more reduced reduce teaching difficulties and strategies of
groups […] with one or two exceptions out of the self-presentation (Goffman, 1959), care of
ten teachers in the department, we support heter- peer relationships and self-image protection.
ogeneity. We believe in it, right? […] if the person
leading the compensatory group were to be com-
pensated in some way by, maybe having fewer Tensions in support to
on-call periods or something like that, they would compensatory students
be very willing. But otherwise, it can be very hard
Teaching compensatory students, a work de-
(teacher, language arts).
fined by teachers as “difficult”, leads to ten-
sions and contradictions in educational inter-
[…] at the start of the school year, the teachers, we
actions and dynamics. This occurs both in
get together, and make a sort of academic diag-
ordinary groups as well as in the divided
nosis, and … we also have kind of a diagnosis on
groups, although with different characteristics.
behavior, and based on this, we made the groups.
To distribute, so that it wasn’t like… “I got all of the In the ordinary group, the presence of
good ones”, “I got all of the bad ones” (teacher, “compensatory students” was experienced
language arts). by teachers as a tension between looking
after these students and caring for the rest of
This agreement was an attempt to prevent the class: the distance between these pupils
some teachers from having too many “good” and the ideal or the average student teachers
students while others had too many “bad” use as a reference model to design their
ones (and more difficulty in their work), which classes makes them appear as a “minority”
would be perceived as a comparative griev- requiring more attention and individualized
ance. Although this organization may be jus- suport, as opposed to a “majority” theoreti-
tified as benefitting the students, it leads to cally following the path of the class. There-
tensions and negotiations regarding the dis- fore, the “inclusive” ideal clashes with the
tribution of work amongst the teachers. conventional definition of teaching (transmit-
Along with these, other tensions aroused due ting the knowledge defined by the curricu-
to the asymmetry between the main teacher lum), resulting in feelings of frustration:
(in charge of the subject for the ordinary
class), who selects the students for each di- […] always, what I ask myself with this type of
vided group, and the supporting teacher that groups and with this type of school where there is
receives them. an interesting mix, is whether this kind of student
is not detrimental for the others. And, clearly, there
You have colleagues who, you are sure, try to be is a disservice, in the sense that there are tense or
fair: “Listen, if I have three conflictive students and difficult moments in the classroom […] they place
I am going to send you a third of my students, well, themselves in a position of boredom that... On a
I send him one of these”. And then you have col- personal level, since you have to be attentive to
leagues, well, you think: “Wow, I get the impres- your teaching, you have to advance and carry on
sion that they have gotten rid of all of the compli- with the lessons, to work with the other pupils, there
cated ones, sending them to me”, right? (teacher, is a time when it can be a bit difficult with them
language arts). (tutor, 2nd year of compulsory secondary education).
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 169, January - March 2020, pp. 143-158154 The Contradictions of Compensation: Compensatory Education Enactments in Secondary Education
Giving attention to “delayed” students is dents] forget it, they are doing work from primary
perceived as detrimental for the class as a school. […] they don’t know how to divide; they
whole, and as an uncertain option that would don’t know the multiplication tables! (teacher,
require changes in the way of working and compensatory).
additional time in a context of restricted tem-
porality. The contradiction tends to be re- This also translates into pedagogical prac-
solved in favor of the “majority”. tices: group work is based on the succession
The success of the “majority”, satisfying and repetition of exercises, reducing theoret-
the requirements of the corresponding grade, ical explanations to a minimum; the two most
and the perception that the “failure” of the “delayed” students do exercises separately.
This curricular reduction implies the modula-
“complicated” minority is generalized and is
tion of assessment practices, wich are based
not due to the teaching itself, but rather, to
on what is taught, on the perceived “level”
the students, allows the teachers to legiti-
of the student: “those working at a third or
mize this decision: “the large majority will
fourth grade [primary school] level will pass
achieve the basic content objectives and
at their level, those at a first year level will
will pass […] this kind of kids won’t, but I will
pass their level, and those that don’t work,
tell you, it isn’t an exclusive or unique situa-
well, they don’t work” (teacher, compensatory).
tion specific to my class” (tutor, 2nd year of
compulsory secondary education). This organization of the pedagogical in-
teraction does not, however, prevent the
In the ordinary groups, heterogeneity
continuous resistances by many of the stu-
makes the students more distanced from the
dents to join the scholastic game: interrup-
educational norm even more visible and the
tions, jokes, direct questioning of the useful-
attention they receive is perceived as detri-
ness of school knowledge, not doing exercises
mental for the rest of the class. In the divided
in class or at home, handing in blank tests,
compensatory groups, where they are all
etc. All of this creates frustration in teachers
“doing poorly”, this reference to the other
who may even come to question their teach-
students not to be prejudicial to disappears
ing abilities:
and, along with it, limitations to adapt the
content to the students’ “delay”, thereby
The truth is, this is a group that is very hard for me,
freeing the teacher from the weight of the
you know. Because I see such carelessness in
curricular pace.
them… While I’m teaching, I think: “But, who am I
The adaptation uses the grade’s legally speaking to…?”. What… It is the hardest group of
established minimum content objectives as all that I have, you know? Because I see no inter-
a reference, although the diversity of the est in working, such a lack of interest, so… I don’t
student “delays” and “gaps” occasionally know how to win them over […] I don’t know who
leads to a division of groups within the I can save. And it is so depressing that out of a
classroom: group of fifteen or twelve students, none can be
saved… It even makes you question yourself, you
I got the minimums of second year and I have know? You think: “I am doing something wrong, if
tried to teach the minimums. […] They ask you to I can’t get these kids involved” (teacher, compen-
“Find the area of the circle”. Well, they don’t satory).
know the formula. So, I have tried to teach them
everything they didn’t knew. So, what happens Professional self-esteem tends to be pro-
then? We go very slowly, and the slowness due tected by transferring the problem to the stu-
to their deficits adds to the slowness due to their dents’ deficits, attributing them either to their
lack of work […] Maribel and Thais [Romany stu- poor “work habits” or to their “lack of will”:
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 169, January - March 2020, pp. 143-158Javier Rujas Martínez-Novillo 155
But hey, I think the main problem is they are chil- It is harder than teaching a regular class. Much
dren with no work habits. So, being there for six harder. Uh, but sometimes, when you save a stu-
hours, expecting they’ll behave without working, dent, it motivates you more than in the normal
well, it is impossible. Either they work or they get class. Because the normal class follows its course
into trouble. Since they don’t work, they get into and they save themselves. And here, well, it isn’t
trouble. It’s a circle: they don’t work at home, they that you save them, but you do have the power to
don’t work here, they cause trouble and get kicked say: “I’m going to try with him and see if I can do
out, they go home, they do nothing, they come it”. You manage to save one while seven others
here, they have been expelled for two days, they sink. But that one that you manage to save, well,
get into trouble again… […] The feeling that I have it is really gratifying. Because you know that in the
this year is that it is very difficult to teach someone regular group he would have been lost. […] out of
who doesn’t want to be taught (teacher, compen- ten you may save four, six are lost because this is
satory). the statistic, or worse […] you free the rest and you
save maybe 30%. Well, it was worth the effort
Students’ difficulties, sometimes invisible (teacher, compensatory).
to teachers as they are immersed in the im-
mediacy and urgency of practice, are there- However, the limited effectiveness of the
by translated into an issue of individual will: measure is also revealed by the fact that
“delays” that prevent from catching-up with “the large majority are in the program from
the “level” of a class or that do not compen- start to end” (Director), without ever having
sate for the “delays” in the other subjetcs, the possibility of returning to the “ordinary”
leading to educational disengagement and groups or of making up for their curricular
the assumption of failure; families’ lack of “delays”:
time and cultural resources to tackle the ac-
ademic difficulties of their children and to “If these students worked, well maybe not in one
engage in the tasks of support and control year, but in two, they could reach a level so that
school expects from them, reinforced by a they could make it to a diversification group. May-
dynamic of school failure that tends to de- be not to a normal third or fourth year class. The
crease family expectations and educational problem is, I think that I don’t know who is going
investment strategies; poor behavior that to pass, right?” (teacher, compensatory).
hides a trajectory of school mismatches and
a distance from the dispositions required by The “delay” seems to be so great that
school (self-control, self-discipline, asceti- the possibilities of compensating for it
cism; a certain relationship with knowledge, would be quite minimal, especially when the
with one’s body, with time; Millet and Thin, delay accumulates from one educational
2003). stage on to next one placing the students as
“irredeemable” in teachers’s view. This im-
Being a compensatory teacher demands
potence expresses the impossibility of es-
adapting to a more difficult job, generating an
caping from the temporal frame established
ambivalence between the constant frustra-
by the curriculum.
tion in the pedagogical work and its compen-
sation putting forward the program’s function
for the rest of the classes (“freeing” them
from the “worst”) and the small victories (very
Conclusions
limited, yet gratifying results). This way, the The problem of social origin’s weight on ac-
questioning of one’s ability and of the useful- ademic performance and of reproduction of
ness of the program is prevented. inequalities through education was in Spain
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 169, January - March 2020, pp. 143-158156 The Contradictions of Compensation: Compensatory Education Enactments in Secondary Education
translated into a specific legislation and an fundamentally on different grouping practic-
institutional device: the compensatory edu- es and curriculum reductions, with insuffi-
cation program. Its enactment, as seen, in- cient intensity to overcome the students’
volves a re-contextualization process in “delay”, with barely any possibility of return-
which participants interpret and translate the ing to the ordinary educational pathway and
official requirements into their own schemes obtaining the minimum diploma, are highly
of perception and action, related to their dai- inefficient and require major rethinking. In-
ly practice. stead of compensating for social inequalities,
This specific enactment of the compen- they may in fact be reinforcing them.
satory program leads to several translations: Material constraints have a special influ-
the management team interprets and enacts ence in the enactment of the program. The
the official criteria in the process of making availability of compensatory teachers condi-
the list of students for the program; depart- tions the creation of groups and the distribu-
ments decide which students will receive tion of “hard” work amongst the teachers
support and which will not, as well as the (teaching the “difficult” ones): when there are
type of support to be offered; teachers as- compensatory teachers available, students
sociate the “compensatory students” with a are delegated to them, with the resulting ten-
general negative image, in which attitude sions; when there aren’t, students’ support
and behavior displace the original criteria of depends upon negociations concerning the
social disadvantage, thereby affecting distribution of “difficult” pupils. In the case
teaching expectations and practices. at hand, with a limited conceptualization of
Some of the students who may have had integration as the distribution of these stu-
access to these measures may remain out- dents between the groups in equal propor-
side of their reach, while among the ones tions, attempting to reduce the difficulty of
who enter the program very few manage to the teaching work, the tensions and the
improve their academic situation, which comparative grievances arising between
sometimes even worsens. In lower second- teachers. Would additional resources help to
ary education, the compensatory education fulfill the program’s objective of compensat-
program brings together pupils who are the ing for the disadvantaged students’ “de-
furthest from meeting the image of the “ide- lays”? A larger number of compensatory
al” student, and whose educational (attitude, teachers implies more possibilities for sup-
behavior, performance) and social (class, port to a larger number of students, but in
ethnicity) characteristics function as a stigma practice, as we have seen, this may not lead
(Goffman, 2001). This results in a stigmatized to improved results, but rather, to more di-
program, involving a labelling process (Rist, verse and refined means of segregation of
1991; Río, 2015) which often reinforces edu- students with difficulties.
cational disengagement. Being assigned to Budget cuts, paradoxically, created the
the program is experienced as the attribution conditions for the dismantling of the school’s
of a devalued identity, leading to resistance most segregated compensatory groups,
against the academic support measure. This breaking with the inertia that kept them going
may have perverse effects: the program’s despite their limited effectiveness. However,
potentially positive effect on the student’s integration of the “compensatory” students
educational trajectory is neutralized, reinforc- into ordinary groups generated new tensions
ing his/her distancing from the institution. in the teacher’s work and led to conflicts re-
These measures are legitimated by the argu- garding the definition of the legitimate agents
ment that “some are saved”. However, this and means of dealing with “difficult” stu-
study suggests that these measures, based dents. The ways of dealing with diversity are
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 169, January - March 2020, pp. 143-158You can also read
