Dis-alliances in Early Childhood Education and Care Services: An Intersectional and Postcolonial Reinterpretation of Research Data on the Relationship with Families with a Migrant Background

Abstract

This article discusses selected findings from a broader qualitative study conducted in a city in Northern Italy on contemporary families’ needs and educational partnership in early childhood education and care services. It focuses on educators’ representations of relationships with families with a migrant background. The article re-reads data from 12 focus groups conducted in ECEC services through an intersectional and postcolonial lens, with particular attention to communicative, linguistic, and cultural difficulties coded as factors of dis-alliance. The analysis shows that these are intertwined with assimilative expectations, infantilizing attitudes, and cultural stereotyping of migrant families, sometimes taking forms close to femonationalism. The article also highlights how organizational shortcomings, especially in the field of linguistic and cultural mediation, contribute to inequalities within educational services. In conclusion, it argues for the need to strengthen both research on implicit forms of racialization in educational contexts and the initial and in-service training of educational staff from a critical intercultural, postcolonial, and intersectional perspective.