School gentrification: if Barcelona changes, do classrooms change?

BarcelonaRents with soaring prices, traditional shops replaced by hipster-style ones and, now, transformed schools. Gentrification is a reality affecting the city of Barcelona and altering its urban space, and educational centers are not left out of this urban change. This is indicated by a new study led by the GEPS research group at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), with researchers from the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Institut Metròpoli, which warns that gentrification processes are also redefining the city's educational communities.

The article, prepared within the framework of the GENTRED project, analyzes for the first time and systematically the phenomenon of "school gentrification" in Barcelona: a newly coined concept that defines the process in which families with high cultural and economic capital – often migrated from high-income countries, but also Catalans or from Spain – enter schools that until then had only enrolled students from working-class backgrounds.

The study proposes a central idea, which is that urban and educational inequalities feed each other, and warns of a need: public policies are needed that connect urban planning and educational equity. Based on the analysis of neighborhoods and educational centers in Barcelona, the research identifies that school gentrification – little explored outside the Anglo-Saxon sphere – may be impacting the Catalan capital. "Barcelona represents an especially singular case," points out Marcel Pagès, a researcher at the University of Barcelona and co-author of the study. For some years now, the city has been exposed to intense processes of touristification, transnational migration – 31.3% of the population living in the city was born abroad — and transformations in the housing market.

In this regard, the study points out that, just as when new populations with high income levels arrive in traditionally impoverished neighborhoods the urban environment can improve aesthetically and there can be displacement processes, something similar ends up happening in the school dimension. Pagès explains that potential effects are observed that can be contradictory: while this change brings in non-vulnerable student profiles and improves school diversity – some historically stigmatized schools improve their reputation and are no longer perceived as ghettos –, at the same time it can cause displacement or loss of centrality for the most vulnerable families within the school. The study emphasizes that this phenomenon does not necessarily imply the physical expulsion of other families, but it does include profound transformations in the school's culture, participation dynamics, and social reputation.

"Where there are students like them"

Researchers deny that all schools in a gentrified neighborhood change in the same way and, to understand how school gentrification develops in Barcelona, GENTRED identifies several mechanisms that incentivize it. One of these is the competition dynamic of schools. "The centers see that, suddenly, they can reverse their dynamic and attract a different population profile," highlights Pagès. The expert says that, even if there is no will for exclusion, the center's reaction is to want to attract the new profile of families through pedagogical practices that adjust to their preferences.

At the same time, the families in question tend to look for the neighborhood school that convinces them the most. "It's the idea of taking the child to the neighborhood school, but not just any school, but one where there are also students like him," specifies Pagès, who explains that this is what causes not all schools in a gentrified area to be gentrified. Often, these are daily and apparently individual decisions –choosing a school recommended by other families, valuing a specific pedagogical project, or avoiding centers perceived as \u201 complex”– which, when combined or accumulated over time, end up reinforcing new forms of segregation. Furthermore, some families may cease to feel represented within the educational community.

With the aim of not reinforcing educational and territorial inequalities, the study insists on not addressing school gentrification in isolation, but rather on developing public policies to ensure equity. "Some of those that need to be addressed are related to school planning, that is, seeing how supply and oversupply are regulated based on geographic and urban changes," points out Pagès. Among the educational recommendations proposed, the need to review zoning systems and reinforce proximity criteria to favor a more balanced distribution of students also stands out. Furthermore, it is proposed to promote policies that foster cohesion within educational centers and encourage the participation of the entire educational community from an inclusive and equitable perspective. Finally, it is proposed to develop pedagogical strategies that help improve coexistence, cohesion, and integration among students, going beyond simple coexistence within the school.