Opvoednetwerken van migranten: Een blauwdruk voor de pedagogische omgeving van de 21ste eeuw?

Abstract

How can educative communities -initiatives of citizens to organize collective support for child raising- be optimized given the changing social fabric of the 21st century? Using the idea of networked individualism as a prototype of how support is organized in our current era, the question is raised how collective arrangements for child raising can be conceived when autonomy and individualism in parenting still gain importance. An empirical study of support networks of immigrant parents is used to point to the variety of ways in which individual parents seek to build new networks post-migration. Turning their back to old collectivities, these parents build individual networks of peers and professionals to gain new and specialized expertise according to their specific needs. It is argued that their network strategies can be a source of inspiration for how to conceive of educative communities in the 21st century given their ability to seek out new connections and expertise, their awareness of the importance of peer learning, and ability to connect the sometimes contradictory knowledge in order to make it work for their parenting.