Olika barn leka bäst? En fallstudie om social elevsortering, prestationsklyftor och skolsegregation i Malmö

Sammanfattning: This thesis aim to increase the understanding of educational divide in the urban environment. The study takes place in Malmö, in many ways a divided city and so even within the school system. Several political decisions were implemented in the early 90s in Sweden to make the educational system more equal and adjusted to individual needs of students. A free-choice of school, private- school-establishments and decentralization was implemented with the motivation of overcoming school segregation and performance gaps. However, some state that the decisions rather increased the school segregation and sorted students by socioeconomic background in different geographical locations. This study try to increase the understanding of segregation within the educational system and explain differences in students life chances due to geographical concentrations of different socioeconomic groups. The importance of geographical location for students achievements plays an important role for their future life-preconditions whereas a covariance of social and geographical distance is seen. This study is researching the relationship between five schools located in two different areas (Rosengård and Limhamn-Bunkeflo) to present similarities, differences and patterns within the different schools and what consequences this potentially could lead to. With help of the theoretical concepts of neighborhoodeffects, Bourdieu’s capital theories and peer effects, this study points out that students located in Rosengård are experiencing continued and comprehensive disadvantages in life chances due to the neighborhood itself, less inherited cultural capital and a homogeneous socioeconomic combination of students. The opposite tendencies are mapped for students in Limhamn-Bunkeflo which overall are benefitting within all researched levels and can thereby strengthen their position in society. The educational system in Malmö does to some extent fail to compensate for students preconditions whereas social positions are produced and reproduced instead of equalized, which generates continued urban inequalities between different socioeconomic groups.