This article analyses problematisations of school failure and their implications for the provision of educational support. A study conducted over three semesters in two lower secondary schools in Sweden gathered empirical data including observations and interviews conducted with a total of 104 pupils, parents and school personnel. Four main problematisations of school failure were found: attitude, absence, migration and neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD). These amount to an overarching problematisation of school failure that relieves schools and their personnel of responsibility, attributing it mainly to pupils and their parents. As a result, micro policy is created contidioning provision of educational support, although the Education Act mandates unconditional and universal provision when a pupil is at risk of school failure. The micro policy evident in the findings imply limiting the provision of educational support to (for example) pupils with NDD-diagnoses, native parents and desired attitudes. While prioritising support might be understandable in contexts characterised by scarcity of time and resources, it is nevertheless defaulting from mandates of the Education Act and ultimately compromising educational equity. For this reason, the widespread acceptance of micro policy on defaulting is harder to understand and should prompt researchers and practitioners to address its risks and find ways to challenge it and to provide educational support when educational needs require it.

This dissertation builds on a study of provision of educational support in the Swedish education system, with a particular focus on lower secondary schools. The aim is to explore processes involved in the provision of educational support beyond pedagogical and didactical considerations. To this end, an initial analysis of the local use of a large-scale equity funding programme in nine Swedish municipalities was followed by a field study in lower secondary schools in two of them. Adopting an ethnographic approach over three semesters, classes and other domains of everyday life in the schools were observed. The study includes interviews with pupils, parents, teachers, special educators, and other school personnel, as well as administrators at local education agencies.

     Theoretically informed by Foucault, the concepts of problematisations, power, discourse, knowledge, and truths have been central to the inquiry. Adopting a critical approach aims to make visible the unseen and unexamined ways of thinking and the practices they render, in order to expand the limits of our thinking.

     The findings of the present study are contingent on historical processes in the Swedish education system and its relation to special education, within a continuum of categorising groups of pupils as responsible for their own school failure and rationalising the provision of educational support through medical diagnoses and moralising judgements. The findings are also understood in light of the Swedish welfare state’s striving for equity and its historical ambiguities. As this study shows, the provision of educational support is conditioned by far more than pupils’ educational needs, compromising educational equity.

     The concept of equity has been left open to interpretation in policy, practice, and thinking about educational support. Given this, and in a context in which school personnel experience time poverty and pressure to act within dynamics of accountability and against their professional judgement, the understanding of school failure is simplified. This enables the deferral of responsibility to pupils and their families and thwarts efforts to reverse school failure. While actors such as school personnel often act unintentionally or without awareness in the observed processes, these processes ultimately operate in ways that compromise equity in the education system. In the practical doing of equity through the organisation and provision of educational support, professionals in the education system are also undoing equity.

Descripción general de la investigación 

La presente comunicación expone los hallazgos de un estudio etnográfico que analiza cómo se problematiza el fracaso escolar en el contexto educativo sueco contemporáneo y qué respuestas se derivan de estas problematizaciones. Partiendo del concepto de problematización propuesto por Foucault (1988: 257), entendido como un entramado de prácticas discursivas y no discursivas, se identifican cuatro núcleos principales en torno a los cuales se construye el entendimiento del fracaso escolar: la actitud del alumnado, el absentismo escolar, la migración y el neurodesarrollo. Estas configuraciones confluyen en una problematización general del fracaso escolar que, lejos de generar respuestas adecuadas, produce una tendencia a evitar responsabilizarse por parte de la escuela y sus profesionales.Asimismo, los resultados muestran la intersección entre las problematizaciones, las dinámicas relacionadas con la rendición de cuentas (Hopmann, 2008) y la escasez de recursos. En el marco del llamado New Public Management, estas intersecciones generan dinámicas de poder en las que la lógica organizacional de satisfacer los requisitos burocráticos tiende a imponerse sobre la lógica profesional centrada en la búsqueda de la equidad y la excelencia educativa (Evetts, 2006). 

Metodología

La investigación se ha desarrollado desde un enfoque etnográfico inspirado en Hammersley y Atkinson (2019), con trabajo de campo llevado a cabo durante tres semestres escolares en dos centros de educación secundaria inferior, ambos situados en contextos donde más de la mitad del alumnado presenta niveles socioeconómicos inferiores a la media. La producción empírica se ha basado en observaciones en clases y en reuniones del personal de la escuela, al igual que notas de campo y entrevistas con alumnos, familias, maestras y otros profesionales del ámbito escolar.

Resultados y conclusiones

Durante la presentación en SEPCON se compartirán hallazgos aún no publicados. Se defenderá que el amplio abanico de dinámicas implicadas en las distintas problematizaciones del fracaso escolar constituye una invitación explícita a repensar, desde una perspectiva crítica, los marcos interpretativos desde los que académicos y profesionales abordan este fenómeno en diversos contextos. Se pretende abrir un espacio de reflexión sobre posibles formas de respuesta más allá de las opciones dominantes en el actual momento histórico. Sobre todo, por el impacto que las dinámicas analizadas parecen tener en el debilitamiento de los esfuerzos orientados a alcanzar la equidad dentro del sistema educativo.

Bibliografía

Evetts, J. (2006). Introduction: Trust and Professionalism: Challenges and Occupational Changes. Current Sociology, 54(4), 515–531. 

Foucault, M. (1988). Politics, Philosophy, Culture (L. Kritzman, Ed.). Routledge.

Hammersley, M., & Atkinson, P. (2019). Ethnography: Principles in practice. Routledge.

Hopmann, S. T. (2008). No child, no school, no state left behind: Schooling in the age of accountability 1. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 40(4), 417–456.

Vad är ett strukturellt missgynnat område? Och hur påverkar det skolans ledare, lärare, elever och vårdnadshavare att vara lokaliserade i ett strukturellt missgynnat område? Som sociolog inom specialpedagogisk forskning intresserar jag mig för hur samhället påverkar skolans arbete med de elever som är i behov av stödinsatser. Jag har tillbringat tre terminer på två högstadieskolorför att försöka förstå hur samhällets olika processer påverkar de stödinsatser som skolpersonalen väljer att arbeta med. Jag har också studerat kommunala förvaltningars syn på problemen med likvärdighet och jämlikhet i barns och ungas livssituationer, där jag bland annat tittat särskilt på hur skolchefer fattar beslut kring fördelning av resurser och av det statligabidraget för likvärdig skola. I det här kapitlet beskriver jag utifrån min och andras forskning vad det innebär att vara ett strukturellt missgynnat område och vad det innebär att vara skola i ett sådant.

This article explores how provision of educational support is influenced by tensions between organisational and professional logics in two Swedish lower secondary schools. Based on extensive fieldwork over three academic semesters, including interviews and observations, findings make visible how the dominance of organisational logics hinder equitable provision of educational support. Findings are analysed with the theoretical framework of organisational and professional logics, using the concepts of time poverty, ethical stress, and empaperment to highlight the implications of the tensions between organisational and professional logics. Documentation is made instrumental for purposes of accountability rather than enhanced teaching, leading teachers to spend time on reporting tasks they have a hard time making meaningful. In response, school staff simplify or defer tasks, which can result in illusional support – support that is documented but not meaningfully enacted. This aggravates ethical stress and time poverty at the same time as it undermines equitable access to educational support, particularly disadvantaging pupils from migrated families. The concluding discussion addresses that the dominance of organisational logics compromises both educational equity and professional practice, and that the domination of organisational logics – if persistent – can mitigate efforts or reforms intended to improve the situation for teachers and pupils in schools.

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.

By studying activities of educational support, the research to be presented makes visible how these are conditioned by policy processes involving major actors on different levels of the educational system. One of the findings is the recurring intersection of dynamics related to accountability (Hopmann 2008) when problems are conceived and constructed, as well as on the subsequent provision of measures of educational support intended to serve as solutions.

Policy and practice regarding educational support on micro and macro levels have been analyzed, with specific interest in the role of discourses, subjective positionings and problematizations (Foucault 1972/2002; 1988: 257). The theoretical approach is operationalized in the research design with Critical Policy Sociology (Ozga 2021) through content analysis of nine LEA’s plans, 100+ interviews and three semesters of field work at two schools. 

Findings from the study reveal how the strive for inclusive education through systematic and equal provision of educational support based on students’ needs is corrupted by both explicit and implicit policy on the micro level. To give three examples: Students experiencing problems due to neurodevelopmental disorders seem to get more appropriate provision of educational support when having active and engaged parents, as well as students whose problems are understood to require a quick fix rather than a longer engagement from the teacher. A third example is how the provision of educational support is racialized (Miles 1989) from the macro to the micro level of the educational system, resulting in less inclusion and less educational support provided to students whose families have migrated to Sweden.

The presentation at AARE will discuss preliminary results regarding the problematizing and power dynamics revealed when researching provision of educational support in two lower secondary schools where there are 50% above average share of students with low socio-economic status. 

References

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

Foucault, M. (1988). Politics, Philosophy, Culture (L. Kritzman, Ed.). Routledge.

Hopmann, S. T. (2008). No child, no school, no state left behind: Schooling in the age of accountability. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 40(4), 417–456.

Miles, R. (1989). Racism. Routledge.Ozga, J. (2021). Problematising policy: The development of (critical) policy sociology. Critical Studies in Education, 62(3), 290–305.

Ozga, J. (2021). Problematising policy: The development of (critical) policy sociology. Critical Studies in Education, 62(3), 290–305.

The research contributes to the field of school development and specifically inclusion and equity in the field of education, intending to reveal structural and social processes that condition the provision of educational support in schools located in disadvantaged neighborhoods. 

Increasing rates of school failure that moreover are concentrated among already disadvantaged groups, is distancing the Swedish school system from its utopian ambitions on universality and equity. When introduced in policies through both text and discourse half a century ago, the school for all was supposed to compensate for pupils varying starting positions and provide equal opportunities regardless of social backgrounds, families or life circumstances. It seems to have fallen short. Researchers from different disciplines have shed light on how political restructuration of the school system in the spirit of neo-liberalism and marketization since then have increased segregation and polarization in the field of education socially, economically and in the end academically. As of today, schools with long lasting failure rates are often located in structurally disadvantaged neighborhoods that house more families with lower socioeconomic status and more migrants relatively to the city or municipality as a whole. Moreover, there is a tendency in public and political debate as well as within the schools, to place the responsibility for school failures on individual, social or structural circumstances attributed to the neighborhoods, rather than attributing the responsibility to the school and its organization. 

This research project widens the scope and intends to provide new knowledge on how a greater array of structural and social processes impact and condition policies and practices of educational support on macro, meso and micro levels. Focus is on policies and practices of educational support, understood as a key to improved school success. The study adopts the approach of critical policy sociology (Ozga 2021) and starts digging in national and local policy texts, through the discourses of heads of schools and principals in nine municipalities to end up in the power dynamics and positionings in two classrooms in lower secondary schools. 

The symposium at NERA will discuss results from the first and second study of the research project, in which nine municipalities with schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods are subject to research. First through a content analysis of plans and policies for educational support and second in an interview study with principals and heads of school. Special attention is given to the use of a unique Swedish governmental subsidy in the order of 600 million euro that every municipality receive automatically based on their children’s registered SES, with a minimum of direction and control mechanisms, more than the request of improving their capacity to provide “equity in school” (likvärdig skola).

Even though Sweden has well over half a century’s experience with migration, recently strengthened master narratives of migration and migrants as social problems are generating an impact on policies and practices at the local level. Previous research has identified how narratives of migration and migrants impact policy making and interventions related to migration, integration and accommodation of migrants. This study widens the scope as it identifies how narratives of migration and migrants impact policies and practices in general.

Adopting a theoretical framework based on racialisation, decision making and narrative theory, 17 interviews with local government administrators and police officers from a district in Stockholm are analysed. The results show how narratives of migration and migrants are embedded in the causal argumentation of present problems in the district. When practically every problem is argued to have migration as a root cause, policy and practices for solving them tend to target migrants. The article describes how this takes place and the final discussion addresses several risks that follow.

First, the quality and efficiency of policy and interventions is at risk when the causality behind a problem is simplified and inaccurate. Second, targeting migrants when addressing the districts’ problems also risk omitting those natives impacted by a problem from benefiting from the solution or relief provided by the local government. Third, there is a risk that the local government strengthens the master narrative of migration and migrants as causing society’s problems.

Given the results, an ending theoretical contribution is provided, arguing that a local government is a racialising bureaucracy. Not only is it racialised in its structure, as previous theory has stated, it also actively contributes to the reproduction and development of racialised structures in society at large.