Research project Against all Odds - successful schools in superdiverse educational contexts
The school in Sweden is supposed to be equal, but where children and young people live and which school they attend has become of decisive importance for their opportunities to reach the national knowledge requirements. Two schools that break this pattern piqued the researchers' curiosity.
Segregated schools in territorial stigmatized urban areas with a large majority of immigrant students with low socioeconomic status and poor study results are in public- and scientific discourse generally regarded as a schooling practice which foster social exclusion.
Simultaneously, there are successful schools, located in such areas with similar characteristics that are performing in par with average national school results.
In the research project Against all odds our main research questions are:
- Why are these schools successful and
- How can their success be explained and used as an inspiration for other schools with similar characteristics?
The multidisciplinary research team brings together competences of established researchers in the field of education and sociology that will investigate two primary schools located in a socially challenged area according to the police authorities. By using ethnographic methods, the research team will conduct an analysis that take cultural ideals and norms seriously, acknowledge a changing urban reality and the potentiality of openness through interaction and organizational solutions in order to investigate successful schools.
This analysis of what happens within successful schools, make it possible to highlight the inclusive potential of education and see sociability as a way of fostering non-alienating school achievement, instead of the dominant research focus on stigmatization and reproduction.
Project description
The aim of the project and rationale
At present there are two major steering systems that attempts to handle the negative effects of school segregation in Sweden. The compensatory strategy is directed towards underperforming schools with a large majority of students with low socio-economic recourses (SES). These schools receive extra state funding in order to reduce class sizes, increasing the number of teachers in the classrooms or strengthening the pedagogic competence of the school actors.
In many municipalities the compensatory strategies have failed. Thus, a number of municipalities have implemented another form of steering system. Namely, school desegregation policies that target segregated schools in territorial stigmatized areas with a large majority of immigrant students with low SES and poor study results. Such schools have become a significant sign of a schooling practice which, due to residential and school segregation, is regarded to foster social exclusion, unequal and unjust life-chances. Therefore, municipalities are closing or merging schools in order to change the composition of student body.
Simultaneously and apparently, there are schools, located in territorial stigmatized areas with low SES and with students that are newcomers to the Swedish school system that are performing in par with average national school results. We define such schools as successful. In the research project “Against all odds” our main research question is: Why are these schools successful and how can their success be explained and used as an inspiration for other schools with similar characteristics?
Previous research has to a high extent revealed the structural and social reasons behind school segregation and underperforming schools but we lack knowledge of the organization and everyday pedagogical practice of successful schools in stigmatized areas that perform in line with the average Swedish school. Against all odds will fill this gap in Swedish educational research by taking the presence of a local school effect seriously. The project will answer our main research question by addressing the following dimensions:
- Social interaction: in what ways are school actors collaborating with each other, students, their guardians and external actors? Analytically the focus is on communication, feelings of belonging and schooling as a meaningful endeavor.
- Organization: in what ways do the structures of schooling support school success? Analytically the focus is on resource allocation, time management, planning and content of teaching, extra curricula activities and home-school relations.
- School values: in what ways are the schools recognizing differences as equal variations of the sacred qualities of civility. Analytically the focus we will be directed towards cultural ideals and norms in the particular schools
Our point of departure is that these dimensions are interrelated and shape school culture which will be investigated in two successful and multiethnic schools in one territorial stigmatized area. In this sense, our contribution to the field of school segregation is to focus on the culture and practice of school success instead of the dominant research focus on stigmatization and reproduction of school inequality. This will enable theoretical and empirical knowledge on non-alienating schooling experiences. In addition, the dissemination of the results has the potential to improve school equality, social mobility and cohesion. Thus, the project can shed light on how school culture and practice can counteract further school inequality.
Methods
In this proposed study we will use an ethnographic method. The method is used to collect a variety of data, through observation, interviews, local policy documents, municipality register data of students grades in order to shed light on interaction, organization and values, i.e. successful school cultures and practices.
In this study we will select two schools in Stockholm municipality that fulfill the following criteria:
- Schools located in a stigmatized area
- High percentage of students of immigrant background
- In average low social and cultural capital
- Perform in line with the average Swedish school
In this context we have already identified and contacted the schools. The two schools are located in a socially challenged area according to the police authorities. Hence these schools have similar social structures, student composition and socioeconomic status in comparison to schools located in the same area that perform way below the national average. In addition, research has shown that schools’ geographical location is known to influence overall patterns of school choice strategies among parents and students. It is therefore an advantage that the participating schools in this study are located in the same area as this makes it possible to methodologically isolate the local school effect that are an analytical focus in this study.
Contributions
By answering the main research question - Why are these schools successful and how can their success be explained and used as an inspiration for other schools with similar characteristics?
The project will enable to reach a more nuanced understanding of school achievement in general and specifically for immigrant students who live in stigmatized areas and participate in segregated schools. In other words, the novelty in this study is to give insights into what works, rather than the deficiencies and limitations of the school system.
The knowledge acquired in this study will allow policy makers and other school actors like officials, headmasters or teachers to in depth understand what works at the local level, and consequently develop relevant school practices of how students can achieve academic success and experience a non-alienating school practice.
The significance and novelty of the project is also that it brings together research areas that almost never are brought together, namely students' successful schooling and multicultural incorporation.
Furthermore, we are addressing essential educational questions that also are highlighted in Swedish curricula and the Education Act’s main objectives. Namely describing and analyzing the ways in which schools in territorial stigmatized areas can to a higher degree meet national standards of equality, justice and social cohesion as well as higher academic achievements.
International and national collaboration
The project is supported by a long-term developed research collaboration with a research center at the Department of Sociology at Yale University in the United States where some of the world's leading cultural sociologists work. This center possesses cutting-edge expertise in research on understanding multicultural societies, incorporation, civil society and has in recent years begun be interested in the importance of the education system. Professor Jeffrey C. Alexander will be in the reference group and give support to planning and finalizing the project.
Associate professor Claire Schiff from Bordeaux University, Centre Emile Durkheim, l'Institut Convergences Migrations is also part of our reference group. Schiff has a background in anthropology and sociology from United States and France. She has published on issues relating to various aspects of the immigrant experience. Her particular area of expertise concerns the adaptation processes of migrant youth entering France, their relationship to and differing experiences from second generation minority youth.
Project members
Project managers
Carina Carlhed Ydhag
Professor/Head of department
Members
Anna Lund
Professor of Sociology, Deputy Head of Department
Stefan Lund
Professor
Ali Osman
Senior lecturer
Jeffrey C. Alexander
Professor
Claire Schiff
Associate professor
