Nedskärningar eller anpassningar? Nyanlända elevers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to illustrate how cuts as a result of the economic crisis in 2008-2013 affected the newcomers' situation and the possibilities to reach the requirements for knowledge, based on the area manager, principals' and teachers' perspectives. The material we used for the study was made up of semi-structured interviews. We interviewed a psychologist, an area manager, principals and teachers. Most of the interviews were face to face and were recorded on a Dictaphone which we later transcribed and analyzed. During the process, we focused on the following aspects: acceptance and introduction support for new pupils, local opportunities and work material opportunities, school organization and employment structure, and reaction in the form of protests and demonstrations on restructuring the affected schools as a result of the cuts. The result that has emerged is that the teachers' main problem was the large increase in workload. The supervisors took no account whatsoever of protests and demonstrations organized in the affected area. It is in this study that we revealed the management did not want to talk about the cuts; they preferred to call it adaptation. They explained the differences, also that there was still as much money per student but schools lost substantial revenue when many students went to independent businesses and stood still with the same fixed costs which in reality meant less money left to spend on students. It was entirely up to the principals to solve the problem, but the conditions were changed all the time. The result shows that the cuts in some selected schools in their immigrant populations in western Sweden during the period 2008-2013 greatly influenced newcomers' situation. Hopefully, this work can lead to a greater understanding between the professional groups concerned. Förord Detta arbete kunde aldrig ha genomförts utan det ovärderliga stöd av vår handledare Zahra Bayati, som med hennes stora tålamod hjälpte oss genom sina synpunkter och kommentarer. Vi vill även tacka våra ”modiga” informanter för spännande intervjuer, utan vars medverkan denna undersökning inte kunde ha genomförts. Vidare tackar vi våra familjer för deras stöd och förståelse. Vi tillägnar denna uppsats till de två speciella personer som omedvetet uppmuntrade oss till detta avsevärda arbete.