Brendan Munhall Foto: Sören Andersson

1. What is your research about?

My research covers a number of interrelated topics regarding upper secondary school choice. At the end of compulsory school, Swedish year nine students choose an upper secondary school to continue their education. In metropolitan Stockholm, this requires that students decide between hundreds of different academic programs and schools. This type of decision would be challenging enough but is made more difficult by the competitive nature of the Swedish school system. Upper secondary schools aggressively market to students, giving information that is difficult to compare and is skewed to benefit their own recruitment efforts.

Students are further informed by educators, their families and peers to build an understanding of the choice process and build upper secondary school preferences. This system of support, as well as other factors relating to the students’ background, have a profound effect on how they engage with the process of upper secondary school choice.

I address this topic by exploring the experiences of a particular group of students, those that are newly arrived to Sweden. These students have been in Sweden for less than four years and have the right to attend primary and upper secondary school. For these students their recent arrival in Sweden has a substantial impact on how they are able to choose an upper secondary school. This dissertation puts these newly students’ experiences at the centre to better understand their needs and provide a novel perspective on the Swedish education system as a whole.

2. What is the most important thing you come up with?

The main finding was that a large proportion of the upper secondary schools in Stockholm were not available to the newly arrived students. They were limited by how the education system is structured to incorporate them and their own preferences that are shaped by the migrant experience. Upper secondary school marketing, in the absence of other guidance, had a significant effect on what upper secondary schools the newly arrived students aspired to go to.

The students’ limited resources and in some cases limited guidance that they received was a reflection of their recent migration and a lack of recognition of their particular needs.

The consequence of this finding is that there is a significant stratification of educational opportunity for the newly arrived students. However, an encouraging result was also identified that suggests that with sufficient resources and training educators can have a positive effect on how newly arrives students engage with upper secondary school choice.

3. Why is your research important?

It's important for a number of reasons. It explores the experiences of newly arrived students, whose voices are often unheard and without influence. Additionally, they are often treated a homogenous group, despite their diverse educational backgrounds and schooling needs. Giving these students’ voices attention creates the possibility for their needs to be addressed more effectively.

The findings of this dissertation give an opportunity to address inequalities for newly arrived students as well as highlighting more general characteristics of the Swedish education system. It explores the school system as an essential service in our society, showing that in this particular case the marketized school choice system can generate inequality rather than reducing it.

4. What do you hope your results will be used for?

This research aligns with the broader subject of educational choice, drawing insights from prior studies spanning various educational levels and international contexts. My aim is to enrich this discourse in the same way that existing research has informed my own work and help further develop the field of educational choosing and related topics.

Outside of the academic community, I see value in this research toward training educators to work with newly arrived students. I also hope that this research can inform the general public about the functioning of the school system that is part of many families life.

Finally, I hope this dissertation serves as a source of inspiration for policymakers, encouraging them to reflect deeply on the nature of the market-driven education system and pursue policy that fosters equity across society. In that way, I hope that the results can spur conversation, debate and even legislation that recognizes the challenges that newly arrived students face.

5. Why did you became interested in researching this topic?

My interest in this subject was motivated by my history as a primary school teacher. I’ve learned the importance of listening to students and meeting them at their developmental level to encourage their success in the classroom. I believe these lessons can be extended to incorporating newly arrived students into society. I have also learned the challenges of accomplishing these aims due to the limited resources inherent to the teacher role in a competitive educational system.

6. What's next for you? Will you continue with new research?

The first thing for me is parental leave! I haven’t spent as much time with my daughter as I would like and I’m looking forward to having a lot of lattes and playing with her throughout the spring. But yes, I enthusiastically want to continue with research. I enjoyed the challenge of deeply exploring a research topic. I am very interested the phenomena discussed in this thesis and already have a number of ideas branching out in other directions. I have also appreciated the collaborative nature of the research profession. For me the best ideas and collaborations have come from informal discussions that have come from being part of an academic institution. Given the opportunity, I would love to continue what I see as the beginning of an inquiry, not the end.