From Marseille to Brussels. sound encounters with high school students
By Lamia Mellal
In May 2023, I had the pleasure of travelling with twenty high school students from Marseille to the Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles. We spent five days in Brussels to present a podcast that we had created and produced together in collaboration with Samir Akacha (a podcast producer from Marseille), as part of my participatory research with the students.
In the post-attack context (2015), surveillance measures targeting Muslim students living in disadvantaged neighborhoods have led to increased self-censorship among these students. The aim of my PhD research was to conduct an ethnography of the educational institution from the students' point of view. I organized a sound creation workshop (atelier de création sonore) with students throughout the school year (2022-2023) in two high schools in the northern districts of Marseille. By proposing these workshops within the school itself, I wanted to create a space where students could talk freely about their individual and collective experiences. These sound workshops took place every Thursday afternoon as part of the course on moral and civic education (enseignement moral et civique, EMC). These workshops made it possible to legitimise a voice that was too often considered illegitimate. These exchanges were made possible because we gradually built up a relationship of trust with the students, who felt increasingly free and legitimate to express themselves and take part in the research. In fact, I wanted to do participatory research with the students, working not 'on them' but 'with them' to interrogate their everyday experiences of school and to understand how this context affects the formation of their subjectivity. I decided not to talk about the subject of my research in order to avoid imposing a particular theme or influencing them. So, I simply explained that I was conducting a survey at their high school for a year and that I would like to work with them.
We co-constructed a research question and then conducted the survey together before producing five podcast episodes. My role was mainly to share with them tools such as social science survey methods, i.e. how to construct an interview guide, how to conduct interviews, or how to analyse data. I also introduced them to various sound recording and editing techniques thanks to a collaboration with Samir Akacha, a podcast producer from Marseille and a former student of the high school. It was very clear that the subject that the students wanted to raise was related to issues of ethno-racial discrimination at school. This made me realize that the experience of racialization is a taboo, even though this experience structures the relationship between the students and the educational institution. Using the tools of research and sound production, the students were able to conduct interviews with the different actors in their school, including the headmaster, teachers, and students.
The first episode is about the 'boundaries' that exist within the school, for example between 'outside' and 'inside' the school. The students talk about how they deal with these boundaries in their daily lives. It was interesting to hear them explain how they experienced the various measures taken to 'secure school infrastructure' in the post-2015 context, especially in working class neighbourhoods where schools are 'sanctuaries' from an outside world that is perceived as potentially hostile.
The students also questioned the boundaries between students from low-income, majority non-white neighborhoods and white students who are mainly in the applied arts programme and come from more socio-economically privileged neighborhoods. In this episode, the students examine the architecture of their school and the different ways in which they engage with these spaces. The second episode is dedicated to ethno-racial discrimination in the school and how this issue is treated by the administration. The students examine a case of racism that marked the beginning of the school year, when art students made a racist video that was widely shared on social networks and picked up by local and national media. The students investigate this event, how it was handled by the school and what it says about racism in school. A third episode looks at the dress restrictions that have been imposed on girls at school, particularly those wearing headscarves. This work allowed many young girls to express their views in a context of growing stigmatisation and national controversy over the wearing of the "abayas" at school. In this episode, several girls talk about their daily lives at school. A fourth episode talks about the lack of spaces for discussion at school, yet highlights the need to create such spaces in order to become aware of the individual and collective experiences of students. Finally, the last episode takes a utopian and humorous look at what the ideal school would be for students.
Thanks to a partnership between the Deradicalizing the city project and the Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, we were able to bring the students to Brussels to present this project as part of the experimental school organized by Camille Louis and Léa Drouet at the Théâtre National on May 20, 2023. During the week-end, the students also presented their work and exchanged ideas with members of Ras El Hanout. They were able to attend the performance of Présumé(e)s coupables and a scene taken from a play performed by members of Ras el Hanout about the relationship between young students' from Molenbeek and the educational institution in Belgium.