What are the characteristics of educational intervention programmes that appear more successful in attempting to address social inequalities? This chapter reflects on the conclusions and recommendations of a study made by a seven-country team that in 2006–2009 investigated policies relating to different kinds of inequality and disadvantage in 14 states, locating them within the educational cultures, structures and policy discourses in each state. This chapter examines changes over the last decade in four particular areas: socioeconomic disadvantage, gender, migration and ethnicity, together with the intersectionalities between these. We then review changes in the policy discourse in three of these states: Greece, Sweden and the United Kingdom. We identify particular organisational approaches and perspectives that appear to correlate with more positive and lasting outcomes. This chapter offers some significant analysis of what might be understood by ‘the public good’ with reference to educational policies, and prioritises equity over efficiencies.

An interdisciplinary team of lectures at the Teacher Education, Malmö University, are currently developing a new course on intercultural understanding, citizenship and sustainable development. Teacher students training for secondary and upper secondary school will take the compulsory course Global challenges in a subject context, 9 ECTS, during their third year, with start in the autumn 2013. All our teacher training programs, pre-school to upper-secondary school, integrate subject area studies and teacher education. ESD is also integrated in all programs as the Swedish Act on Higher Education claims: Institutions of higher education shall promote sustainable development in their activities … (Chapter 5 §). The students, a mixture of students from all subjects given in the two teacher training programs, will mainly focus on the areas of intercultural understanding, citizenship and sustainability in the context of the student’s subject area during in the course. The learning activities will be among others participatory and inquire based learning. Student written articles in a web magazine and student presentations in a Conference at Malmö University will be the assessments. The new course concept is challenging current paradigms in Swedish teacher training. The participatory approaches and other challenges in developing the course will be presented.

I boken diskuterar och problematiserar författare från olika vetenskapliga discipliner medborgerlig bildning ur olika perspektiv. De ställer frågor om vad som krävs av barn och ungdomar för att de ska utvecklas till kompetenta, kritiska, reflekterande och aktiva medborgare i ett hållbart samhälle där alla ges möjlighet att på olika sätt ta ansvar.

The article describes early school leaving in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland, using examples to show a complex representation of early school leaving and its consequences for young people´s susequent access to the labour market. We show how measures taken by governments and school authorities in the respective countries have resulted in improvements for students transition from school to work. However, we also show that an educational system per se can create problems for both individuals and groups. Early school leaving increases the risk of unemployment, and if when permenent, about two years are spent out of school unemployment between the ages 16-20 this, increases the risk of the young people being marginalised and having health and social problems later in life.

I boken belyser orättvisor i utbildning. De exempel som ges behandlar framförallt länder inom europeiska unionen. Författarna diskuterar att man i europeisk utbildningspolicy för framtiden säger sig vilja närma sig strukturella missgynnanden på ett mer systematiskt sätt.

This book is about inequities in education, primarily in the countries of Europe. We can see that the countries of Europe through the European Union, are beginning to address issues of educational disadvantage on a more systematic, continent-wide basis. The authors discuss the reproduction of existing social patterns and the replication of social inequities but also the potential to challenge inequalities.

Denna rapport har utarbetats på uppdrag av Malmö stadskontor. Forskningsöversikten gör inte anspråk på att vara heltäckande. Uppdraget har varit att söka forskningsstöd för olika former av huvudmannaskap för socialarbetare med placering i skolan. Ytterligare fokus har varit att närmare undersöka forskningsstöd för Socialt nätverksarbete i skolan, Elevcoach i skolan och Familjeklass. I uppdraget ingick även att översiktligt söka forskningsstöd för vad som beskrivs som goda metoder, internationellt och nationellt, för socialt arbete i skolan. Studien har genomförts av fil dr Margareta Cederberg, fil dr Ingegerd Ericsson och fil dr Nanny Hartsmar, Malmö högskola och fil dr Lars B. Ohlsson, Lunds universitet. I rapporten svarar forskarna självständigt för innehåll och slutsatser. Varje kapitel avslutas med en sammanfattning. I slutet av rapporten finns en avslutande kommentar där även evidensproblematiken lyfts fram. Rapporten vänder sig till tjänstemän, personal inom socialtjänst och skola, forskare, forskarstuderande, samt till studerande vid socionom- och lärarutbildningar. Det är vår förhoppning att rapporten kan stimulera till fortsatt forskning och diskussioner om socialt arbete i skolan och om samverkan skola och socialtjänst. Uppdraget har finansierats av Malmö stad och genomförts under hösten 2010.