Nihad Bunar

Professor and Deputy Head of Department

Department of Special Pedagogy

My primary research area lies at the intersection of migration, education, special education, and urban development. At present, I am working on an externally funded research project on children and young people with a migration background in Accomodated compulsory school. The project is funded through grants from the Swedish Research Council.

I worked as a professor at the Department of Child and Youth Studies, Stockholm University, between 2011 and 2019. Among other roles, I served as Director of Studies for the department’s two doctoral programs (2011–2014) and as Deputy Head of Department (2014–2017).

In April 2018, I was appointed by the Government through the Ministry of Education as Special Investigator (Dir. 2018:38) to map the need for measures regarding mother tongue instruction and study guidance in the mother tongue in compulsory school and equivalent school forms. The report “For Multilingualism, Knowledge Development and Inclusion – Mother Tongue Instruction and Study Guidance” (SOU 2019:18) was submitted on May 3, 2019.

I worked part-time as a lecturer at the Police Academy in Stockholm between 2003 and 2016.

In 2008, I was a Research Fellow at Northeastern University, Boston, USA.

According to Google Scholar (as of November 21, 2025), the overall impact of my research output in English and Swedish is as follows:

Citations: 4,359

h-index: 29

i10-index: 50

Some of my latest publications:

Iamroz, O. & Bunar, N. (2025). Extended Basic Education Program for Newly Arrived Migrant Students in Norway -Between contextual constraints, discursive constructions and policy enactment. Education Inquiry (published, online first). https://doi.org/10.1080/20004508.2025.2550111

Bunar, N. (2025). “Culturalization” of the referral process in policy discourses - migration background, intellectual disability and a separate institutional space in Sweden. European Journal of Disability Research. 19(4), 9-29.

Bunar, N. (2024). ”Vi behöver fler akutskolor för elever som inte kan uppföra sig som folk”. Om diskursiva och policykonstruktioner av den disciplinära åtgärden akutskola. Educare, (3), 30–62.  https://doi.org/10.24834/educare.2024.3.1193

Bunar, N. (2024). Sustainable education for quality and equity - understanding and addressing differences in education systems. The journal of El-Ryssala for studies and research in humanities. 9(2), 11-29.

Pinson, H., Bunar, N. & Devine, D. (2023). Handbook of research on migration and education. London: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Bunar, N. (2023). Inclusion of newly arrived migrant students in Swedish schools - organizational models and support measures. In Pinson, H., Bunar, N. & Devine, D. (eds.). Handbook of research on migration and education. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Adams Lyngbäck, L., Bunar, N. & Paul, E. (2023). School(s) for all?: Inclusion, special education and multilingualism at the intersection of disability and migration in Sweden. In Hanssen, N.B., Harju-Luukkainen, H., Sundqvist, C. Inclusion & Special Needs Education for Immigrant Students: A Nordic Perspective. Routledge.

Bunar, N. (2022). Urban Inequalities in Swedish Schools. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.128

Britse, E. & Bunar, N. (2022). Mångfald, olikhet och likvärdighet. Om hur skolpersonal uppfattar och förhåller sig till mångfald bland elever. Utbildning & Demokrati, 31(3), 57–78.

Bunar, N. (2022). Integration och utbildning – en forskningsöversikt. Stockholm: Vetenskapsrådet.

Bunar, N. & Juvonen, P. (2021). Not (yet) ready for the mainstream’ – newly arrived migrant students in a separate educational program. Journal of Education Policy. doi: 10.1080/02680939.2021.1947527

Bunar, N., Hagström, M. & Rojas, C. (2021). Barn och ungdomar i stadens olikheter. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur.

Bunar. N. (2021) (red.). Inkludering och skolframgång för nyanlända elever. Stockholm: Natur & Kultur.

Bunar. N. (2021). Studiehandledning på modersmål – en av de viktigaste möjlighetsstrukturerna för nyanlända elever. I N. Bunar. (red.) Inkludering och skolframgång för nyanlända elever. Stockholm: Natur & Kultur.

Dávila, L.T. & N. Bunar. (2020). Cross-District Analysis of the Roles of Multilingual Classroom Assistants in Sweden. European Journal of Applied Linguistics. 8(1), 1–20.

Tajic, D. & Bunar, N. (2020). Do both ´get it right´? Inclusion of newly arrived migrant students in Swedish primary schools. International Journal of Inclusive Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2020.1841838

Bunar, N. (2019). Promoting Effective Integration of Migrants and Refugees in Education: Experiences from Spain, Serbia and Belgium (90 pages). Brussels: Education International Research.

Bunar, N. (2019). Education of Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Children. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.118

Crul, M., Frans L., Özge B., Bunar, N., Keskiner, E., Kokkali, I., Schneider, J. & Shuayb, M. (2018). How school system differences affect the incorporation of refugee children in education in Europe, the Middle East and Turkey. Comparative Migration Studies. 7(10). doi.org/10.1186/s40878-018-0110-6

Bunar, N. (2018) (Ed.). Hope for newcomers in Europe. Brussels: Education International Research.