Photo: Katja Kirscher (Mostphotos=

The initiator of the conference is Anna Lund, professor at the Department of Sociology. Anna Lund works within the project "Teaching that matters for migrant students" (TEAMS). Among other things, she has looked at two schools from different areas in one of Sweden's largest cities and investigated how they work with integration and school success. Teachers from these schools were the main audience of the conference.

Photo: Signe Lund

“I think it is very important to give something back to the schools that have participated in the research”, says Anna Lund and continues:

“For me, it is also central to highlight social science research that shows other, and more positive parts of the multicultural school than the troubling perceptions we often encounter.”

Anna Lund began the conference by giving a description of the two parts of the project.

“Firstly, we want to understand how teachers and schools facilitate learning and feelings of belonging by studying how school staff collaborate with each other. And secondly, we want to help principals, teachers and decision-makers to create good conditions for an equal school.”

Multicultural environment positive for students

Anna Lund told us, together with her collaborator Natasa Pantic, professor at the University of Edinburgh, how they have studied multicultural incorporation. Among other things, they have seen that young people with a minority background negotiate their identity and belonging. At the same time, these young people want society to recognize their cultural background as a resource. One of the schools studied has a high proportion of students and teachers with varying backgrounds and this has been shown to contribute to the students' experience of feeling that they are a natural part of the school. The students feel that it reduces the risk of looks and claims that single them out as "the others" in society.

Denis Tajic, lecturer at the Department of Special Education, has investigated how the different structures that govern the school affect students who are new to Sweden. One of his conclusions is that young people are more likely to succeed in their studies at schools that consciously work to increase their sense of belonging.

“It can compensate for the deficiencies in the educational structure, especially when it comes to schools located in structurally disadvantaged areas”, said Denis Tajic.

The situation is better than usually percieved

Several other researchers working on similar issues spoke at the conference. One of them was Carina Mood, professor at the Institute for Social Research. Her results show that students who came to Sweden after the age of nine perform worse than others, but that the gap decreases if they are given more time. When these students reach the age of 25, they are as established in the labor market as other groups. Their situation is less stable, but they have an equally high employment rate.

Another thing that Carina Mood's research has shown is that students who have immigrated to Sweden have high ambitions and spend more time on their studies compared to those born in Sweden.

“The situation is better than it’s usually percieved. It's not about attitudes to studies, but about time and chances to catch up”, explained Carina Mood.

Frankseco Yorke, PhD student in demography at the Department of Sociology, has studied how Swedish-born children of refugees perform in school. His research shows that they generally have worse school results compared to children of Swedish-born parents. But compared with children born in Sweden who have similar conditions and live in similar areas, their school results are actually better.

Other speakers at the conference were Rebecca Brinch, university lecturer at the Department of Culture and Aesthetics, who talked about how Finland and Sweden have integrated Ukrainian students, as well as Xochitl Husted, who has a master's degree in sociology and has conducted an interview study with young adults about being non-white in a colorblind society. Comedian and writer Melody Farshin also gave a talk about her experiences as a minority in the cultural sector.

“The principals and teachers who came by and talked to me afterwards said that it was interesting, inspiring and exciting to get a look at their own business based on the research”, says Anna Lund.