This is a ground-breaking research study on Black immigrant identities in South African schools. It is the first major book on racial integration and immigrant children in South African schools. The overall aim of this study is to investigate how immigrant students negotiate and mediate their identity within the South African schooling context. This study set out to explain this complex phenomenon, guided by the following research objectives: One, to describe how immigrant student identities are framed, challenged, asserted and negotiated within the institutional cultures of schools. Two, to evaluate the extent to which the ethos of these schools has been transformed towards integration in the truest sense and to determine how immigrant students perceive this in practice? Three, to explore the `transnational social fields' in terms of social networks and cross-border linkages of immigrant students and how this impacts on their identity formation. Four, to determine if there are any new forms of immigrant student self-identities that are beginning to emerge? Five, to determine the extent to which racial desegregation has been accompanied by social integration between immigrant and local students. Six, to determine the impact of the South African social/schooling context on immigrant student identity formation. And seven, to identify critical lessons and `good practice' that could be learnt and used to accelerate the racial desegregation and social integration of immigrant students in South African schools.

This is a ground-breaking research study on Black immigrant identities in South African schools. It is the first major book on racial integration and immigrant children in South African schools. The overall aim of this study is to investigate how immigrant students negotiate and mediate their identity within the South African schooling context. This study set out to explain this complex phenomenon, guided by the following research objectives: One, to describe how immigrant student identities are framed, challenged, asserted and negotiated within the institutional cultures of schools. Two, to evaluate the extent to which the ethos of these schools has been transformed towards integration in the truest sense and to determine how immigrant students perceive this in practice? Three, to explore the `transnational social fields' in terms of social networks and cross-border linkages of immigrant students and how this impacts on their identity formation. Four, to determine if there are any new forms of immigrant student self-identities that are beginning to emerge? Five, to determine the extent to which racial desegregation has been accompanied by social integration between immigrant and local students. Six, to determine the impact of the South African social/schooling context on immigrant student identity formation. And seven, to identify critical lessons and `good practice' that could be learnt and used to accelerate the racial desegregation and social integration of immigrant students in South African schools.

Diversity High offers special insight into school change and social transition in racially divided communities. It underlines the obvious notion that change is difficult and confirms that leadership in an academic environment matters in changing schools. Vandeyar and Jansen provide a thorough investigation allowing readers to distinguish second-order changes (changes to curriculum, staffing, culture, and leadership), from first-order changes, (changes in student complexion in de-racializing schools). The study demonstrates the non-linearity of reforms by capturing the dynamism of change in powerful photographic records ranging from origins to change (demonstrated through black and white to color pictures). Conveying complexity through the ways in which race, class and culture intersect to produce unintended consequences; this book is concise and expertly researched. Ultimately, Vandeyar and Jansen celebrate human agency over determinist structures at the center of change through their in-depth analysis of a white South African high school that pursued transformation against the grain of its own racial biography.

One of the daunting challenges facing South Africa in the contemporary period is that of achieving social cohesion. Educational institutions should be at the cutting edge of the project to weave a common identity whilst promoting respect for difference. It was this challenge that motivated us to convene colloquia in 2003 and 2006 to discuss the current state of school desegregation and innovative ways to forge ahead in the complex processes of dismantling the legacies of the past and creating inclusive paradigms for our classrooms. This monograph represents an attempt to record what could be regarded as nascent events in a few schools that have the potential to grow into models of best practice in managing diversity. These fledgling efforts always co-exist with powerful contrary traditions that may retard their fruition, and to witness their growth in slow motion is both enlightening and instructive. A small survey of stakeholders' perceptions about what constitutes 'best practice' in a desegregated school environment, supported by classroom observation, interviews and focus groups form the basis for this analysis of emergent patterns in the practices which foster healthy identities in our learners, both as individuals and as members of South African society. Concise and written in an accessible style, the study is important reading for educationists at every level, policymakers and all involved in teacher education.