## Street culture

Manifestations of street culture are becoming increasingly common in schools. To decide whether specific behaviours can be described as alarming, or whether they may just be part of the student’s street culture, it is important to know what that culture entails.

#### Street culture versus school culture​

Street culture is a youth subculture or counterculture in which young people identify with norms and values, behaviour and habits that tend not to correspond with the norms, values and expectations of school culture. More and more of these young people are entering higher education. Street culture is not by definition disrespectful, but certain ways in which young people express themselves and build relationships are not what we’re used to at school.

Young people who are part of street culture will only accept correction or admonishment from someone they have a bond with. What a teacher might regard as antisocial or strange behaviour might be quite normal within street culture. In such cases, the students concerned need to learn that the way they interact with their peers outside school is different from the way they are expected to interact at school.

#### Mutual incomprehension​

Read the following passage:

A student at a school for secondary vocational education in Almere flew into a rage when she thought that the departmental secretary had looked at her too intently and for too long. ‘Why are you staring at me?’ she screamed across the corridor. The situation got so out of hand that the secretary, who had no idea what she had done wrong, went to talk to the course manager because she felt threatened. Then the student’s mother got involved and made a series of threatening phone calls to the course manager, claiming her daughter had been treated unfairly. The manager’s observation that the student wouldn’t be able to behave like this when she started work made no impression whatsoever. She had been treated unjustly, full stop. Eventually the secretary and the student were able to talk over and resolve their differences, and the girl realised that relationships at school were different from those on the street.

Source: Margalith Kleijwegt, 2 werelden, 2 werkelijkheden (2 worlds, 2 realities), published by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.