‘If the students don’t come, or if they don’t finish, we don’t get the money.’ Principals, immigration, and the organisational logic of school choice in Sweden

Strength through diversity’s Spotlight Report for Sweden

“…Bygren and Szulkin find that immigrant children who grow up in neighbourhoods with many young ethnic peers who have limited educational resources, obtain relatively low average grades from primary school, and on average, do not attain the same levels of education as do immigrant children who grow up elsewhere. For a minority of immigrant children who lived in neighbourhoods with educationally successful young co-ethnics, there is a positive effect of growing up in an ethnic enclave (Bygren and Szulkin, 2010 [82]). The concentration of students in certain location can be negative for student outcomes without high quality of service delivery.…”

The value of poverty: an ethnographic study of a school–community partnership

“…Research has revealed how processes of social categorisation of individuals and groups may result in stigma, in which stereotypical representations reduce those individuals or groups to the stigmatic characteristics thus articulated (Voyer 2018;Wacquant 2016;Bunar 2011;Hacking 2004). For example, studies show that educators at schools located in socially disadvantaged areas avoid engaging with the local community, as they do not want the school to be associated with the problems connected to the neighbourhood (Lunneblad and Johansson 2019).…”

“…In Sweden, the achievement gap between schools located in different areas has increased in recent decades (Voyer 2018;Gustafsson and Yang Hansen 2018;Beach and Sernhede 2011), and students' low achievements in socially disadvantaged areas have been presented as one of the main factors for the existing criminality among youth in those areas (Garrett 2017;Bunar 2011). School-community partnerships as a social invention have therefore been presented not only as a way of improving students' results but also as a way of ensuring social security and safety in the communities.…”

“…The fieldnotes show how the officials in Southfield are positioning the parents and local associationswith whom they are supposed to be engaging in cooperationas the problem rather than as part of the solution (Bacchi 2016). Studies focusing on the social welfare system have highlighted changes that have occurred in the measures aimed at young people in socially disadvantaged and ethnically segregated areas (Voyer 2018;Youdell and McGimpsey 2015;Ball 2007). For example, youths who were previously described as being in a risky situation are now described as being a risk to society (Garrett 2017).…”

“…Studies also show how school reputation affects how families choose education for their children (Voyer 2018). There is an obvious relationship between what is perceived to be a good school and what is perceived to be an attractive area to live in (Beach and Sernhede 2011).…”