Municipality Strategies for Integrated Schools: Imposed desegregation of schools for transformative social change.

A critical mass of studies in Sweden show that residential segregation in combination with school choice policeslead to increased school segregation. This trend is seen most vividly in large and mid-sized cities.

However, asan unintended and unplanned outcome of the ‘2015 migration crisis,’ school segregation in Sweden is no longersolely an urban phenomenon.

Given the growing national concern over school segregation, smaller municipalitieshave begun to implement desegregation policies in order to meet the goals of equality put forth by the SwedishSchool Law.

The project studies two municipalities where desegregation policies target children in public primaryschools through bussing and school mergers.

The aim is to investigate the barriers to and effects ofdesegregation from different vantage points, in particular, the interrelation between political motives, pedagogy,parents’ (re)actions, children’s interaction, and school achievements.

The study adopts a cultural sociologicalperspective where the notion of symbolic inclusion is critical in making sense of the policy and its consequencesfor the stakeholders in the process of desegregation.

The project will use diverse qualitative and quantitativemethods, including document analysis, ethnographic observations and interviews, in addition to a surveytargeting the parents to advance our knowledge of the possibilities for transformative social change and potentialrisks associated with school desegregation.