Immigrant Students and the Swedish National Test in History

Fredrik Alvén

doi:10.3389/feduc.2021.774900

Abstract

In Sweden, immigrant students with a non-European background perform worse in school than students from the majority group. Research has so far focused on language problems, and political investments have been concentrated around developing immigrant student’s language because it is hard to manage school without a functional language. However, social science in school also rests on cultural understanding, which is difficult if you are not a part of the culture. This is certainly true for the subject of history, which has a strong tradition of fostering a historical nationalistic canon. By analyzing the items in the national test in history relative to how the immigrant students perform, this study investigates whether there are certain types of items that, on the one hand, discriminate against them and, on the other hand, work to their advantage. This is important knowledge if we want to be able to make fair and just assessments.

Highlights

2020 about two millions in Sweden were born in another country or both of their parents were born in another country, that is 19,7 per cent of the total population (SCB 2020a)
This study investigates whether there is something in the national test items themselves that can help us understand the connection between assessment, bias, and immigrant student’s performances in history
For most of the analysis categories, there are no obvious similarities between the items

Summary

Introduction

2020 about two millions in Sweden were born in another country or both of their parents were born in another country, that is 19,7 per cent of the total population (SCB 2020a). Sweden has for many decades received adolescents from countries outside Europe, and the biggest groups of migrants today come from Syria and Iraq. Migrant students are those students that are born outside Sweden or students with both their parents born outside Sweden (SCB 2020c). Teachers have low expectations of what immigrant students can learn and develop in school, and this, by extension, leads to a decreased motivation to do school work among immigrant students (Bunar, 2010) Their school results are getting worse (Grönqvist and Niknami, 2020)

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