Doing welfare in German secondary schools—How students’ welfare receipt becomes visible in teacher-student interactions and how teachers perceive these students

Abstract Welfare recipients (e.g., “Bürgergeld”) generally are subject to negative stereotyping, but it is unclear whether students’ welfare receipt plays a role in teacher-student interactions, and if so, what. We conducted eight focus groups with 27 teachers and analyzed them using grounded theory to investigate how teachers characterize welfare-related teacher-student interactions. In addition, we examined how teachers perceive these students and the role of stereotypes in these perceptions. Welfare receipt becomes apparent mostly in bureaucratic care interactions in which teachers support corresponding students in financing school participation possibilities. The familial financial situation meets the school’s participation requirements in these teacher-student interactions. Teachers’ feeling of responsibility for this support varies. Most teachers perceive poverty-related shame among students in these interactions, while others do not. Accordingly, the need for a sensitive approach in these interactions is assessed differently. Teachers mentioned hardly any perspectives on the students themselves but on parents receiving welfare (e.g., low educational responsibility) and assumed parents pass on this behavior to their children. In some cases, this leads to negative educational expectations toward corresponding students, which could implicitly influence teaching-related teacher-student interactions. The results provide initial indications for subsequent negative self-perceptions of students on welfare about their social situation at school.