The
multiple causes of school failure among
minority students in Sweden
Dr:
Abdullahi Mohamed Ahmed
Gothenburg - Sweden
abdullahimohamed_ahmed@hotmail.com
Why
students succeed or fail in school has
been the subject of much debate
particularly for students who are
ethnic, linguistic, or social class
backgrounds different from the dominant
group (swedish).
In this
article, I will consider the constant
and complex interplay and interactions
among several factors in exploring the
success or failure of minority students
in swedish schools. The main factors
which shape the success or failure among
students in swedish schools,
particularly to minority students, are
the following:
-
Racism and discrimination
-
Structural factors in schools
-
Cultural and other differences such
as ethnicity
-
Linguistic diversity in classrooms
-
Parent involvement
Racism and discrimination
Schools
are institutions that respond to and
reflect the larger society. It is not
therefore not surprising that racism and
discrimination find their way into
schools in much the same way that they
find their way into other institutions
such as housing, employment, political
parties and the criminal justice system.
Masoud
Kamals report shows clearly how swedish
institutions discriminates to the ethnic
groups in swedish society. In his
report, he explains that racism and
other forms of discrimination ,
particularly classism, ethnocentrism,
and linguisticism, have a long history
in swedish schools.
Recent
studies shows that the minority children
are ten times more likely than swedish
children to be placed in classes for the
educable mentally retarded students,
specially children from single mother
parents. They suppose that single
mothers cannot defend their human rights
, they cannot speak swedish language
fluently and they have no idea how the
system works in this country. Many
minority students drop out of school at
higher rate than swedish students. Small
number of these students graduates and
goes to the secondary schools or even to
the universities.
If this
indicators of educational failure were
caused only students background and
social characteristics, it would be
difficult to explain why students with
such characteristics are successful in
some schools and not in others.
Therefore, I believe that the role of
racism and discrimination in this
underachievement cannot be discounted.
Definitions of racism and discrimination
Let me
begin by briefly reviewing the meaning
of racism in order to understand how to
it operates in the schools. There are
levels of racism:individual, cultural
and institutional. Individual racism is
a personal belief that people of one
group inferior to people of another
because of physical traits.
Cultural racism is the belief in the
inferiority of the culture of a group of
people or even the belief that they have
have no real culture. Institutional
racism is manifested through established
laws, customs, and practices that
reflects and produce racial inequalities
in societies.
Individual and cultural racism are
belief that are acted on in the personal
and individual spheres, whereas
institutional racism is demonstrated
primarily through the policies and
practices of institutions.
We need
to understand the important role that
power plays in institutional racism. It
is primarily through the power of the
people who control these institutions
that racist policies and practices are
reinforced and legitimized. Furthermore,
When we understand racism as a
institutional problem and not only as
individual dislike for a particular
group of people, we can better
understand the negative and destructive
effects it can have.
Manifestation of racism and
discrimination
Here ,
I will highlight some of the ways in
which racism and other forms of
discrimination are manifested daily in
schools. School practices and policies
continue to discriminate against
children from ethnic groups in very
concrete ways. Studies shows that most
students from ethnic groups in Sweden
are found in predominately in minority
schools, like Hammarkullen, Bergsjön,
Sjumilan, Rinkyskolan, Rosengård,
Gottsunda och Fittjaskolan.
Nevertheless, white flight and housing
pattern have been successful in
resegregating many schools.
And
segregation inevitability results in
school system that are separate and
unequal , providing differential school
experiences for students based on thier
social class, race and ethnicity.
For
example, schools that serve students of
minority groups to provide curricula
that are watered down and a lower level
those that serve primarily swedish
students. In addition, The teachers of
these schools tends to have less
experience and less education than
colleagues who teach in schools that
serve primarily swedish students. Thus,
desegregating schools does not guarantee
equity for all students.
Teachers are not believe that minority
students are capable of academically
demanding work; and finally , teachers
tend to avoid interaction, including eye
contact and phyical contact, with their
minority students more often than
swedish students.
A
number of studies have documented that
teachers tend to pay more attention to
their swedish students than to their
minority students. Teachers praise their
swedish students more, direct more
questions specifically at them, have
more cognitively demanding expectations
of them, and offer more explicit
encouragement.
Although according to objective
linguistic measures, minority students
equaled or exceeded their swedish
age-mates in language development,
subjective measures by teachers rated
the same children of minority as
inferior. It has also been found that
stereotypes by teachers is based on
ethnic and social class variation.
Another
way in which racism and other forms of
discrimination are manifested daily in
schools are schooling reflects social
class differences rather than eradicate
them. They compared the number of years
of schooling of students with the
socioeconomic status of their parents
and found that those students whose
parents were in the highest
socioeconomic group tended to complete
the most years of schooling. Thus,
schooling maintains and solidifies
ethnic and class division.
Most
practices and policies on school failure
, however have focused primarily om
inadequacy of the students home
environment or culture. Minority
students school failure attempted to
explain it by blaming the children's
poorly developed language; an adequate
mother; too little stimulation in the
home; too much stimulation in the home (
their home were too chaotic and dis
organized).
I
conclude this article that racism and
their forms of discrimination play a key
in setting up and maintaining
inappropriate learning environment to
many students, specially minority
students.
I hope
you like this article and will follow
the coming articles in order to empower
yourself and help your own children of
getting good education. And education is
the only mean that can make
differences.
Dr:
Abdullahi Mohamed Ahmed
Gothenburg - Sweden
abdullahimohamed_ahmed@hotmail.com