The School Makes a Difference. Ethnicity and Institutional Practice

Abstract

The study, which is a dissertation study, examines how ethnicity is turned into a central category for the social organisation of the school and used to emphasise differences, whereby students are categorised as Swedes and immigrants. Interest is also levelled at how ethnicity constructions are bound up with social complexity and interact with other relations, especially gender and class.
The study is based on ethnographical field studies in a comprehensive secondary school, primarily consisting of participant observations of classroom situations, staff meetings and informal discussions where teachers talk about their work and students.
The study shows that the differences that are generated and sustained through the school personnels actions, argumentation and interactions with the students are complex, varied and closely bound up with the school context. This means that individual students are not only and alternately identified as immigrants or Swedes, but are dependent on contexts also understood in a variety of ways. For example, students who are successful in their schoolwork are, to a lesser extent, identified as immigrants.
One important observation is that the school personnels everyday work and contact with the students are ambitious when it comes to justice and tolerance, but that these intentions are seldom combined with insights into the power aspects associated with social relations. Daily practices are instead overshadowed by the need to accomplish certain teaching elements, where attention is focused on the classroom situation in preference to highlighting or discussing students individual experiences and living conditions. The school personnels intentions and possibilities of working towards equality and against discrimination are thus transformed so that the school instead produces and sustains relations of inequality.

Keywords:

Description

Constructions of difference, with an emphasis on how ethnicity is turned
into a basic category for the social organisation of the school, are the main
focus of this study. Interest is also focused on how constructions of ethnicity
are bound up with social complexity and how they interact with other
relations, especially gender and class.
The study is based on one year of ethnographical field studies in a comprehensive
secondary school; the objective being to study how, for example,
ideas of culture and national background were assigned significance in the
school personnels speech, actions and interactions with pupils. The field
work primarily consists of participant observations of classroom situations,
different types of staff meetings and informal discussions where teachers talk
about their work and pupils. This has been complemented with interviews.
During the field study I also undertook some teaching duties.
The choice of a school in a medium-sized town with a broad social and
ethnic composition as subject for the field study, reflects an ambition to pay
particular attention to a school category that is seldom highlighted in ethnicity-
related studies. Such attention is usually reserved for schools in the suburbs
of large cities.
The study takes its departure in an understanding of ethnicity as being socially
constructed and as generating processes whereby people are divided
into different groups or communities on the basis of, for example, language,
religion, culture, appearance and geographical origin. The analysis is inspired
by a critique that many scholars of racism have raised towards the
ethnicity concept, particularly with regard to its indistinct association with
what not very long ago was defined as racial difference. This critique underlines
that ethnicity is always a product of its social and historical context,
and highlights the significance of power relations for constructions of ethnicity
as well as other social formations. From this starting point, an interrelated
viewpoint is applied which means that constructions of ethnicity are
analysed as being intertwined with other categories and social relations.
In the study the school is not only constituted as an arena where the ethnic
organisation of society can be studied. Constructions of ethnicity also
come to particular expression in the institutional context of a school. Furthermore,
the school practice is highly institutionalised, which means that
the staffs actions, reasoning and argumentation often are taken for
granted and manifested in a common-sense knowledge that is not always
accessible for reflection.
The book consists of eight chapters; the first two devoted to what has
been outlined above. Five empirical chapters then follow, of which the
first, Chapter 3, Everyday Life at Centrum School [Vardag och villkor i
Centrumskolan], describes the context of the school personnels conversations
and actions. In examining the restructuring of the Swedish school
system, and how these reforms have affected local work, it becomes clear
as to how ethnicity as a category has been woven into the remodelling of
the school, has led to changes in governance and now frames the everyday
life of the school.
Today the Swedish school is influenced by the idea of competition, in
which the schools reputation, number of pupils and grade statistics are important.
In this context, two pupil categories in particular stand out as central:
"Swedish" pupils and "immigrant pupils". The former student category
is regarded as highly desirable by the schools staff and is seen as a guarantee
for the upkeep of its good reputation. The latter category, on the other
hand, is regarded as a cause for concern in that "Swedish" pupils are not attracted
to the school if the number of "immigrant pupils" is too high.
School personnel deal with this by developing strategies for how they
speak about and categorise their school in different situations. When it
comes to requesting money for activities, the designation "large number of
immigrants" is considered suitable, as this immediately gives the impression
that the school has a number of problems in relation to these pupils
and is therefore in need of extra resources. The term "international
school", on the other hand, comes across as something positive, where one
imagines exciting and future-oriented activities taking place. Such a concept
thus appears in information brochures designed to market schools
and attract potential pupils and parents. This different ways of talking
about and describing the school has been developed into a routine and obvious
way of presenting ones own school in order to meet different needs,
and illustrates how the schools practices are institutionalised. The tension
that arises revolves around the school being confronted with the need for
"Swedish" (middle-class) pupils in order to retain its good reputation, at
the same time as "immigrant pupils" provide the school with more teaching
resources.
The four subsequent chapters are devoted to an examination of how differences
are created and recreated in the schools everyday life through focusing
on four differentiating practices.
Chapter 4, Differences that Divide [Skillnaden som tudelar], examines
how differences are created with the aid of culture and how the schools
students and personnel are differentiated as "Swedes", "immigrants" and
"Romany" on the basis of perceptions about different cultures and national
backgrounds.
"Culture" is also assigned different and varying meanings that change in
relation to different contexts. In one sense "culture" is turned into a resource
and asset that is ascribed to non-Swedish pupils, which in the frame
of the schools multicultural ambitions is portrayed as the organisation of
"multicultural" theme days. "Multicultural" in this context is turned into
something that "immigrant pupils" have, but not "Swedish" pupils. However,
"Swedish" pupils and teachers are supposed to learn something
about "other cultures" through specific events. Another side of "culture"
is thus apparent here, namely, that cultures are turned into something that
ought to be addressed.
If "multicultural theme days" give expression to a definite ambition to focus
on "immigrant pupils cultures", it would seem to be considerably much
more difficult to highlight these pupils experiences in the everyday life of
the school. Multicultural thus becomes an extra subject matter that is difficult
to fit into the ordinary curriculum. Instead, much of the responsibility
for such perspectives and issues are handed over to those teachers to whom
a certain confidence and trust is ascribed when it comes to taking care of
"immigrant pupils" and being well-informed about "their culture".
The fact that certain teachers are assigned as "immigrant pupil experts"
exposes a work programme where certain tasks are regarded as "normal"
and others as "ethnic". This dynamic becomes even more obvious when
the school appoints "Romany" teaching assistants to take charge of the
schools "Romany" pupils because they are experienced as constituting a
particular problem in the school. These teaching assistants are solely available
for pupils identified as Romany.
The division between "Swedish" pupils and "immigrant pupils" becomes
most obvious and extreme in connection with the direction of multicultural
ambitions in terms of its focus on cultural difference.
Ideas about the importance of class and residential districts in the
schools differentiating practices are mapped out in Chapter 5, Culture and
Class as Differentitiator [Kultur och klass som särskiljare]. In the school
personnels understanding of the pupils and their behaviour, two central
interpretations are crystallised in order to explain the pupils performances
in school. Middle-class background is associated with successful schoolwork,
whereas (another) culture explains the resulting problems. Moreover,
only "Swedish" pupils are associated with a middle-class background.
This background is even understood as having made them a bit
too perfect. "Immigrant pupils" on the other hand are not discussed in
terms of class. When these pupils are spoken of as being
genuine, lively and spontaneous, it is mainly "their culture" that is regarded
as having contributed to this.
While differences related to culture are readily discussed by the schools
personnel, discussions about the differences related to class are rare, which
raises questions about how "Swedish" pupils with non middle-class backgrounds
are both seen and dealt with.
In Chapter 6, In the Shadow of Friendly Tolerance [I skuggan av en välmenande
tolerans], the reproduction of differences in terms of a wellmeaning
tolerance are investigated. The focus here is on how the schools
ambitions of tolerance generate an engagement around those who should
be tolerated. At the same time the "we" who tolerate remains some
what unproblematised. The hierarchial relations between "Swedes" that
tolerate and "immigrants" who are tolerated are thereby sustained.
Ambitions to place "immigrant pupils" and "Swedish" pupils side-by-side
in the classroom, or forming "mixed" class compositions, are examples of
actions imbued with the idea of tolerance towards that which is understood
as being different and deviating. This tolerance also reflects a deeply anchored
perception among those working in the school. In turn this also creates
a strong self-image of the schools personnel as being obviously tolerant;
which tends to shadow reflections about ones own actions and instead
directs attention to making the pupils into tolerant individuals.
Examining who and what is made an object of tolerance does not only
illustrate that tolerance has its limitations, but also shows that the limits of
tolerance are closely linked with the schools institutional commission to
carry out education. Therefore, it also seems difficult to establish tolerance
for the cultural difference ascribed to "Romany" pupils, since they, more
than any other pupils, are regarded as challenging the schools basic order:
coming to school on time, doing their homework and taking their schoolwork
seriously. Instead "Romany" pupils are perceived as contributing to
their own vulnerability by not adapting to the system.
The final empirical chapter, Chapter 7, The Intertwining of Ethnicity
and Gender [Etnicitet och kön tvinnas samman], investigates how ethnicity
also embraces ideas about gender and how this generates a number of pupil
categories that are assigned different positions in everyday school life.
The category "immigrant lads" is on the one hand perceived as a challenge
to the schools rules and norms and turned into a discipline problem
that is expected to be dealt with in a particular way. On the other hand
these pupils are regarded as charmers, pranksters and with a kind of excitement
that adds spice to school life and is esteemed by female teachers.
None of these positions appears to have any connection with how these
pupils develop in terms of their schoolwork.
In contrast to the intensive interest that the schools personnel level at
"immigrant boys", "immigrant girls" not only seem to be invisible but
also absent in the ideas and reasoning of the schools personnel apart,
that is, from those contexts that touch upon gender relations and matters
of equality where they are positioned in the centre.
A third category is that of "Romany" girls, who are not positioned as
either visible or invisible, or present or absent in terms of the attention that
the schools personnel level at them. They are usually made more visible in
terms of what is experienced as a provocative difference, which to some
degree coincides with the visibility that surrounds "immigrant boys".
The schools personnel tend to lock both "immigrant boys" and "Romany"
girls in positions of cultural difference and as being problematic,
whereas the position "immigrant girl" rather points to a potential for
change that is mainly to do with becoming "Swedish" and "equal".
In Chapter 8, Immigrants and Swedes in Varying Degrees [Olika mycket
invandrare och svensk], the books final chapter, some of the results are
summarised and developed. Taking the discussion of how differences are
made and when they are injected with meaning as the point of departure,
the variation shown in the practice of differentiating pupils is discussed,
with particular focus on how these are related to the pupils performances
in school. Here the difficulties associated with the school personnels actions
often being reduced to a classroom perspective that has to do with
dealing with what is most immediate, direct and acute, are also highlighted.
The studied differentiating practices are also discussed in relation
to a pluralistic and assimilating approach associated with different policies
that both guide and have guided the schools multicultural work. Finally, I
argue that the studied constructions of difference can be interpreted as an
expression of everyday racism.
The school creates difference in a variety of ways; to some extent the
aim being to create change through awareness and knowledge. The study
shows that, in addition, a number of different types of differences are constructed
in the school; differences that have been described in terms of ethnic
constructions that are based on creating difference. It is also apparent
from the study that ethnic constructions are intimately linked with ideas of
gender and class differences.

Publications

Gruber, Sabine (2007). Skolan gör skillnad. Etnicitet och institutionell praktik. Linköping: Linköpings universitet

Gruber, Sabine (2008). När skolan gör skillnad. Skola, etnicitet och institutionell praktik. Stockholm: Liber