Interaction prerequisites for ethnic boundary crossing and school achievement:

A case study of a desegregated primary school

Abstract

Local policymakers in Sweden have recently become increasingly concerned about the negative effects of ethnic school segregation. They believe that this practice leads to poor language acquisition and unequal academic achievement among migrant children. Additionally, they argue that this segregation undermines the ability of schools to teach important civil values such as fairness, equality, and social cohesion, which are essential for preparing students to be democratic citizens (Lund 2021). As a result, several municipalities have taken steps to implement local desegregation policies to create more diverse student bodies and promote greater academic success and social integration within their communities.

In this article, we will be discussing a municipality that has implemented school mergers targeting elementary school children. As a result of the mergers, all elementary school students are moved to schools outside of their residential area. In particular, we will focus on the work of school leaders and teachers at North Elementary School, one of the two K-3 schools that now hosts students from three previously separate K-6 schools. At North Elementary, around 50% of the students are from a migrant background, meaning they were born outside of Sweden. These students include refugees from Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan, and newly arrived EU migrants. The remaining 50% of students were born in Sweden and have parents born in Sweden or elsewhere. Students without "own migration experience" are either native Swedes or have parents from former Yugoslavia and Finland. In this article, we will analyze these two groups of students: those with migrant backgrounds and those without their own migration experience.

Previous studies on local school desegregation policies in Sweden have mainly focused on children in grades 4-9 (Arneback & Jämte, 2023). Therefore, the purpose of this article is to examine an empirical research area that has not been explored before in the Swedish context (K-3 school). The aim of the study is to answer the following research questions: How do school leaders and teachers manage the new student composition organizational, social and pedagogical, and how does this affect the relationships between students and their academic performance?

The data for this study includes four weeks of school observations, semi-structured interviews with school leaders and teachers, municipality register data of national tests in Swedish and Swedish as a second language (the data covers the cohorts of students two years before and four years after the desegregation reform), and a sociogram where students were asked about their preferences for working together during lessons, playing together during breaks, and spending leisure time together.

The article utilizes a cultural sociological perspective and focuses on the concepts of multicultural incorporation (Alexander, 2006), super-diversity (Vertovec, 2019), and conviviality (Gilroy, 2004). The findings of our research show that there is extensive social interaction between the two groups of students. The study also demonstrates that students results at the national tests in Swedish and Swedish as a second language have significantly improved since the merging initiative. This can be attributed to the teacher's beliefs in a school for all, and actions taken towards the super-diverse student group forming interaction prerequisites; (i) facilitating interactions among students during breaks and lunchtime. This helps students socialize with classmates they don't usually talk to or play with. (ii) Newly arrived migrant students are integrated into regular teaching immediately, which has social and pedagogical benefits. (iii) Students with good language and subject knowledge are seen as resources for teaching and are encouraged to help other students. (iv) The school actors' pedagogical work largely involves developing a clear teaching structure that students can identify with. (v) The content of teaching places a clear focus on linguistic concepts that are deemed decisive for students' academic success. (vi) The school's two-teacher system allows for support structures that ensure that all students can follow the same teaching.

Our interpretation is that the beliefs and actions of school leaders and teachers are crucial for children's academic and social inclusion. In a super-diverse student group, they reaffirm their belief in an equal educational system for all. Despite being in a school-segregated system, change is possible. The Swedish welfare state, historically developed with a civil sphere based on solidarity and empathy, can be a starting point for the municipality's school desegregation reform and the beliefs and actions of school staff. By embracing cultural diversity in schools, we can promote ethnic boundary-crossing and improve academic achievement. As Alexander (2006) taught us, openness and solidarity are essential in our social lives. Therefore, teaching strategies cannot be separated from the school's social relations, and creating a school culture characterized by a multicultural mode of incorporation can promote civil repair.

Main references

Alexander, Jeffrey (2006). The Civil Sphere. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Arneback, Emma & Jämte, Jan (2023). En social samvaro för alla? Om betydelsen av omsorg, respekt och solidaritet i skolor präglade av mångfald, Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige (ahead of print). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15626/pfsvol.nr.artikelnr 

Gilroy, Paul (2004). After empire: Melancholia or convivial culture? Routledge.

Lund, Stefan (2021). Styrd skolintegration för ökad likvärdighet och social sammanhållning. Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige, 26, 54–80.

Lund, Stefan (2021). Styrd skolintegration för ökad likvärdighet och social sammanhållning. Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige. https://open.lnu.se/index.php/PFS/article/view/2627/2497

Vertovec, Steven 2019. Talking around super-diversity. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 42 (1), 125–139.