Producing pathways: The production of change for ethnic minority socially marginalized families

In an educational system, oriented towards ensuring heightened educational performativity, there is an increased focus on reducing discontinuities between home and educational contexts for ethnic minority children. This article argues, that this is done in a number of more or less standardized ways that attempt to allow for parents and children to transcend their marginalized positions. The article critiques these standardized strategies and introduces the notion of “pathways” as a way of analyzing the concrete and situated ways in which professionals, parents and children wrestle with discontinuities and negotiate new ways of moving forward in the socio-material conditions afforded by the particular practices.