Eleven som konsument, skola som företag och utbildning som vara - fria skolvalet utifrån elever boende i förorten

Abstract

Since the early 1990s, the Swedish school system has gone through overall structural changes. One of the most affecting and controversial reforms has been the marketization of the education system. This has enabled private actors to run independent schools and allows them to make a profit out of the voucher system. It also leaves students as responsible of making educational choices. At the same time, the gap between students who fail to achieve the national goals and students who are qualified for upper secondary school are increasing. Dealing with these questions, one must also remember that relations and spaces are affected and hierarchized by the fact that schools are placed in an urban structure that is comprised by a deep economic, social and cultural segregation. Against this background, on what basis do students make their educational choices how do they experience their choice of school? What effects does the marketization have on a social reproduction and transformation? To answer these questions, interviews have been made with students who are structurally subjugated in the school system – students living in the suburbs. Results show that students from suburb areas attend to inner city independent schools with a quest for better structural conditions but face a hard time living up to the norms and expectations. Students who on the other hand have chosen to stay at the municipal suburb school, worry about their educational quality and are in different ways affected by the lack of resources. With a strong disidentification with both types of schools, the two student groups find “their” suburb and friends to be representing the recognition and inclusion which the schools fail to offer. In a wider context, the school’s competition and insecure status has led to a sorting of students based on their ability to be independent and self-responsible and thereby a social reproduction based on class and ethnicity.