Between superdiversity and doing diversity: School-based parent cafés as places of parent education

Abstract Critics often point out that parental education programmes primarily reach (formally) educated middle-class parents. Even in superdiverse urban neighbourhoods in Germany, schools struggle to cater to parents on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum. This qualitative study showcases school-based parent cafés in Hamburg, aiming to find out how their agenda and implementation correspond regarding the anticipated superdiversity of the target groups and the perceived diversity of the participants. The author draws on a concept triad of “superdiversity”, “diversity” and “doing diversity” to illustrate how socio-spatial developments and the resulting superdiversity among parents (macro level) are taken up in schools (meso level) and realised at the micro level in the sense of doing diversity. The study’s main finding is that while the composition of café participants is diverse, it is not yet representative enough to reflect the superdiversity of parents in schools’ catchment areas. Implementing diversity programmes often goes hand in hand with biased and inaccurate assumptions about the target groups’ living circumstances. At the micro level, dynamic grouping processes take place, including reciprocal “othering” as a side-effect. If the threat of exclusion is kept in mind, school-based parent cafés can potentially become a tool for establishing more superdiversity-responsive spaces in and for school–parent cooperation.