Swedish primary school pupils’ inter‐ethnic relationships

Abstract

The aim of the Swedish educational policy is educional participation and academic achievement for all children, irrespective of ethnic backgroud. Majority lauguage instruction is an imortant tool used to achieve this goal. We argue that taking lessons in Swedish‐as‐a‐second‐lanuage (S2) sets children apart in their class and limits their possibilities to interact with Swedish children and the immigrant children, who do not receive S2‐lessons. In accordance with the contact hypothesis, we assumed that this limitation would have a negative impact on peer evaluation of these pupils’ social competence. 394 children in ethnically mixed classes (grades 4–6) participated in the study reported in this article. As hypothesized, S2‐children’s sociability was evaluated significantly lower than that of Swedish children. Immigrant children, who do not have S‐2 lessons, do not have significantly lower scores. These findings were confirmed, using teachers’ evaluations of children’s social competence. It is suggested that more research is needed to investigate whether communicative skills, academic competence, or, perhaps, the organizational consequences of extra language lessons play a role in children’s assessments of peer social competence.

Links between local language competence and peer relations among Swiss and immigrant children: The mediating role of social behavior

“…In another sample of children who were learning English as their second language, Gertner, Rice, and Hadley (1994) found that immigrant children's English proficiency was directly related to how well liked they were by peers. Similarly, a Swedish study showed that children's social position was not related to their immigrant background per se but rather to their proficiency in Swedish (Vedder & O'Dowd, 1999); that is, immigrant children with low competence in Swedish scored lower on sociability and leadership compared to other children.…”

Acculturation and theschool

“…Studies using other measures of social competence more convincingly showed that ethnicity is a group defining characteristic leading to ethnicity based in-group preferences (cf. Hamm, 2000;Schofield & Whitley, 1983;Vedder & O'Dowd, 1999). A few studies in the last decade that used a peer nomination procedure in ethnically mixed classes confirm this ingroup preference, whereas at the same time these studies showed a stronger influence of gender than of ethnicity (Graham & Cohen, 1997;Kupersmidt, DeRosier, & Patterson, 1995;Rican, 1996).…”

“…Language competence is essential for social participation in all kinds of social settings. It may be a marker of difference that determines the quality of interethnic relationships in a community (Vedder & O'Dowd, 1999). Language carries information and is an instrument for structuring thinking processes.…”

Social Interactions among Multi-Ethnic Students

“…Usually the school is the first place where individuals from various cultural backgrounds, will meet and play, a role which exposes the student to socialization (Vedder & O'Dowd, 1999;Mior Khairul Azrin, 2011;Sarafidou, Govaris & Loumakou, 2013). Based on the functional theory, since the school is the first place where students meet, the students need to play their role in accordance with the demands of their school and society, socializing and cooperating with peers to maintain harmony.…”