Swedish Primary School Pupils' Inter-ethnic Relationships
(1999) In Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 40(3). p.221-228- Abstract
- The aim of the Swedish educational policy is educational participation and academic achieivement for all children, irrespective of ethnic background. Majority language instruction is an important tool used to achieve this goal. We argue that taking lessons in Swedish-as-a-second-language (S2) sets children apart in their class and limits their possibilities to interact with Swedish children and the immigrant children, who do not receive S2-lessons. In accordance with the contact hypothesis, we assumed that this limitation would have a negative impact on peer evaluation of these pupils' social competence. 394 children in ethnically mixed classes (grades 4-6) participated in the study reported in this article. As hypothesized, S2-children's... (More)
- The aim of the Swedish educational policy is educational participation and academic achieivement for all children, irrespective of ethnic background. Majority language instruction is an important tool used to achieve this goal. We argue that taking lessons in Swedish-as-a-second-language (S2) sets children apart in their class and limits their possibilities to interact with Swedish children and the immigrant children, who do not receive S2-lessons. In accordance with the contact hypothesis, we assumed that this limitation would have a negative impact on peer evaluation of these pupils' social competence. 394 children in ethnically mixed classes (grades 4-6) participated in the study reported in this article. As hypothesized, S2-children's sociability was evaluated significantly lower than that of Swedish children. Immigrant children, who do not have S2-lessions, do not have significantly lower scores. These findings were confirmed, using teachers' evaluations of children's social competence, or, perhaps, the organizational consequences of extra language lessons plays a role in children's assessments of peer competence. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/620171
- author
- O'Dowd, Mina LU and Vedder, Paul
- publishing date
- 1999
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Sweden, elementary school, immigrant children, social competence, language proficiency
- in
- Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
- volume
- 40
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 221 - 228
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:0346338416
- ISSN
- 1467-9450
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- cc4500be-2106-4f42-9137-b2a0e8beb1d8 (old id 620171)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 16:46:44
- date last changed
- 2022-01-28 22:06:47
@article{cc4500be-2106-4f42-9137-b2a0e8beb1d8,
abstract = {{The aim of the Swedish educational policy is educational participation and academic achieivement for all children, irrespective of ethnic background. Majority language instruction is an important tool used to achieve this goal. We argue that taking lessons in Swedish-as-a-second-language (S2) sets children apart in their class and limits their possibilities to interact with Swedish children and the immigrant children, who do not receive S2-lessons. In accordance with the contact hypothesis, we assumed that this limitation would have a negative impact on peer evaluation of these pupils' social competence. 394 children in ethnically mixed classes (grades 4-6) participated in the study reported in this article. As hypothesized, S2-children's sociability was evaluated significantly lower than that of Swedish children. Immigrant children, who do not have S2-lessions, do not have significantly lower scores. These findings were confirmed, using teachers' evaluations of children's social competence, or, perhaps, the organizational consequences of extra language lessons plays a role in children's assessments of peer competence.}},
author = {{O'Dowd, Mina and Vedder, Paul}},
issn = {{1467-9450}},
keywords = {{Sweden; elementary school; immigrant children; social competence; language proficiency}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{221--228}},
publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
series = {{Scandinavian Journal of Psychology}},
title = {{Swedish Primary School Pupils' Inter-ethnic Relationships}},
volume = {{40}},
year = {{1999}},
}