Improving Educational Outcomes in Low-Performing Schools in Urban and Rural Areas

In marginalised areas, schools with low academic achievement challenge the Swedish education system´s goal of high-quality education for all.

This project concerns top-down politically initiated measures for increased equality and botom-up local initiatives to strengthen the compensatory capacity of schools in marginalised areas of large cities and in rural areas.

We aim to study and compare initiatives for improvement in schools with low academic achievement, examining how they are initiated and implemented and the extent to which they both contribute to students´ knowledge development and create conditions for more-equal life opportunities.

At present, there is little systematic knowledge about the effects of the different types of initiative and how they are designed and adapted to the contexts that constitute large cities and rural areas.

The project uses a mixed-method approach combining i) a survey with staff members at a selection of schools from across the country in large cities and rural areas; and ii) ethnographic methods by which we study three schools in marginalised metropolitan areas and three rural schools that have improved their results over the past five years.

A key contribution is the project´s ability to show how financial, organisational, social and educational initiatives can work together to create favourable conditions for learning.