THE SCHOOL AS A ARENA FOR INTEGRATION

This study concerns the role of education in managing social and ethnic diversity in a small municipality in the Region Västra Götaland. The overriding societal goals of Region Västra Götaland are to create social equity and sustainability. Equal access to education is central to achieving these goals.

This study examines how the school identifies and manages the needs of refugee and newly arrived children within the organization of the school, how the school creates inclusive learning environments, and how the school collaborates with the local community and other organizations to promote integration between different social groups. The point of departure is a cultural ecological perspective to schooling, human rights and social justice issues. A cultural ecological perspective to education concerns individual achievement in relation to structural, organizational, historical and community forces. The empirical data is produced through interviews with school leaders, teachers, students and other participants involved in voluntary community services and collaboration projects for migrants.

Denna studie handlar om skolans sätt att bemöta och hantera social och etnisk mångfald i en mindre kommun inom Västra Götalands Region. Den övergripande samhällsvisionen för Västra Götalands Region innebär social jämlikhet och hållbarhet. Jämlik tillgång till utbildning är en central del för att uppnå dessa mål. Denna studie undersöker hur skolan identifierar och hanterar nyanländas och asylsökandes behov inom ramen för skolans organisation, hur skolan skapar inkluderande lärandemiljöer, och hur skolan samarbetar med lokala aktörer i kommunen och andra organisationer för att främja integration mellan olika samhällsgrupper. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten är ett kulturellt ekologiskt perspektiv på frågor inom utbildning, mänskliga rättigheter och socialt rättvisa. Ett kulturellt ekologiskt perspektiv på utbildning innebär individens skolframgång i relation till strukturella, organisatoriska, historiska och samhällskrafter. Studiens empiriska data produceras genom intervjuer med skoledare, lärare, studenter och andra frivilliga aktörer inom olika verksamheter inriktad på samverkansformer för migranter.

Forskare ansvarig för projektet är:

Osa Lundberg employed at the Department of Education, Communication and Learning. I teach and supervise students in the pre-school teacher education program in Early Child Education at the undergraduate level.

I am a former a pre-school teacher with experience from the United States and Sweden. I completed my BA in Early Childhood Education at San Francisco State University before moving to Sweden in 1992 where I completed my masters in 2005 and a degree in teacher education in maths and science for grades 0-2.

In 2015 I completed my PhD with the title Mind the Gap - Ethnography about cultural reproduction of difference and disadvantage in urban education. Using Basin Bernsteins theory on sociology of knowledge, I used the concept pedagogical discourse to examine how difference and disadvantage are constructed through categorization and classification in the content and instruction in everyday schooling practices in grade 9. In conjunction to sociology of knowledge, I also applied critical race theory to examine how race and racism, as analytical constructs, are enacted and conveyed in the planning, construction and realization of school learning.