Neither Blonde nor Blue-Eyed: Depiction of "New" Swedes in Swedish Educational Brochures

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Discourse Analyses of Market-Based Education Reforms

Abstract

This paper explores the response of Swedish schools to recently immigrated, ethnically diverse Swedes and school competition in a novel manner – by looking at how these schools seek to advertise themselves through the marketing materials they distribute primarily at a high school fair and their individual open houses. The research questions that drives this exploration is how are diverse, “new” Swedes (non-white immigrants typically from outside the Nordic region) numerically depicted in the competitive marketplace of school choice? Initial findings from this content analysis of images from Sweden's highly-competitive, market-oriented schools show that many schools in the sample engage in a "first-pages diversity", (in line with Hartley and Morphew, 2016) “racial capitalism” (Leong, 2012).

Author

• Paul S. Myers, University of Illinois