School Segregation in Sweden: Challenges, Opportunities and Intervention (SIS)

Swedish education system has become uniquely market-driven with a high degree of choice and student mobility after the school reforms in the past decades. Coupled with the societal changes, Swedish schools have become increasingly segregated, manifested by the increasing gaps in educational resources and teaching quality, and staffing challenges along social and spatial lines and across school types. This has led the compensatory function of schools for individual life prospects and social cohesion to deteriorate, resulting in a complex interplay between family, school, region, and system-level features, which has yet to be adequately studied.

The research program SIS aims to investigate the mechanisms and long-term consequences of segregation in all stages of schooling and the transition to the labour market. Nine researchers united from education, sociology, child and youth studies and human geography disciplines will dedicate their expertise in four under-researched areas: social sorting of student over school stages and spaces, teacher sorting and mobility, segregation’s long-term consequences, qualitative experiences and social dynamics in educational choices and school segregation. Relying on a mixed-methods approach, and register and interview data, the project aims to contribute knowledge regarding school segregation, provide evidence-based recommendations to counteract school and societal segregation, in turn, enhance social sustainability and integration in Sweden.

Project start

2025

Funding

Riksbankens Jubileumsfond

Researchers

Kajsa Yang Hansen, University of Gothenburg
Anna-Maria Fjellman, University of Gothenburg
Stefan Johansson, University of Gothenburg
Leah Glassow, University of Gothenburg
Nils Hammarén, University of Gothenburg
Jonas Lindbäck, University of Gothenburg
Johannes Lunneblad, University of Gothenburg
Andreas Alm Fjellborg, IBF
Håkan Forsberg, Uppsala University