By studying activities of educational support, the research to be presented has revealed power relations at play in these. During three semesters, policy and practice regarding educational support on micro and macro levels have been analyzed, with specific interest in the role of discourses and subjective positionings (Foucault 1972/2002). One of the findings is a racialization of the provision of educational support. 

A certain degree of racialization (Miles 1989) of educational support is inevitable. Understanding educational support as pedagogical or didactical efforts supplementing mainstream teaching, there is for instance a group of students in need of such based on them having migrated, until they learn the Swedish language. Nevertheless, this research reveals differences in provision of educational support in the form of e.g. special education or assessments that are difficult to explain pedagogically.

We find hints on educational support failing in terms of equity in educational statistics, as well as quantitative and qualitative research that for decades have revealed how children of migrated families in Sweden are worse off in school on accumulated group level (Behtoui et al 2019). One example is in the passing rates from lower to upper secondary. While being a crucial step in regards to future life opportunities (The Public Health Agency 2022), no one has yet hit the spot on how to improve the situation.

The presentation at the Nordic Conference on Racism and Education will discuss preliminary results regarding the racializing power dynamics revealed when researching provision of educational support in two lower secondary schools where ~30-40% of the students have migrant background. Adopting an ethnographic approach, daily life with class sessions and staff meetings have been observed and over 80 interviews been made with students, teachers and parents.

References

Behtoui, A., Hertzberg, F., Jonsson, R., Rosales, R. L., & Neergaard, A. (2019). Sweden: The otherization” of the Descendants of Immigrants (Vol. 2, pp. 999–1034). Palgrave Macmillan. 

Foucault, M. (2002). The archaeology of knowledge and the discourse on language. Routledge.

Miles, R. (1989). Racism. Routledge.

The Public Health Agency. (2022). Folkhälsans utveckling – årsrapport 2022. The Public Health Agency.