Stockholm university

Research project Children with Migration Background in Schools for Students with Intellectual Disability (MAID)

The project investigates how the language, ethnic, cultural and migration-status diversity is made visible or invisible, negotiated and (re)constructed in processes that shape the patterns of assessment and placement in schools.

Barn med migrationsbakgrund i anpassad skola
Foto: Mostphotos

The aim of the project is to critically investigate how the language, ethnic, cultural and migration-status diversity is made visible or invisible, negotiated and (re)constructed in processes that shape the patterns of assessment and placement in schools for students with intellectual disability (SSID, anpassad grundskola), and in daily life in schools, through multifarious relations, teaching, support and learning practices. Critical Disability Studies in Education perspectives, which employ the concepts of ableism and linguicism, will be used to interrogate access to quality education and lifelong learning. Institutional ethnographic methodology will be used to generate and organize the empirical material including data collected in a number of SSIDs in the Stockholm region.

Project description

The project Children with Migration Background in Schools for Students with Intellectual Disability, addresses the educational and social needs and rights of students with diverse backgrounds – in respect to first language (other than Swedish), ethnicity, culture and migration-status – enrolled in schools for students with intellectual disability (SSID, anpassad grundskola). The aim of the project is to critically investigate how the language, ethnic, cultural and migration-status diversity is made visible or invisible, negotiated and (re)constructed in processes that shape the patterns of assessment and placement in schools for students with intellectual disability, and in daily life in schools, through multifarious relations, teaching, support and learning practices.

This has not previously been studied systematically in Sweden’s school system. Doing so, the project will fill a knowledge gap with empirical findings and develop the methodology required, which lays the groundwork for the emerging research field at the intersection between migration, education and disability. The project runs over a four-year period. Institutional ethnographic methodology will be used to generate and organize the data together with data collected in a number of SSIDs in the Stockholm region. Critical Disability Studies in Education perspectives, which employ the concepts of ableism and linguicism, will be used to interrogate access to quality education and lifelong learning.

Project members

Project managers

Nihad Bunar

Professor

Department of Special Education
Nihad Bunar. Foto: Eva Dalin.

Members

Nihad Bunar

Professor

Department of Special Education
Nihad Bunar. Foto: Eva Dalin.

Elizabeth Adams Lyngbäck

Universitetslektor

Department of Special Education
Universitetslektor Liz Adams Lyngbäck

Enni Paul

Senior lecturer

Department of Education
Enni Paul

Christina Hedman

Professor

Department of Teaching and Learning
Christina Hedman

More about this project

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