Project information
Project name
Communities and Boundaries – An Ethnography of Participation and Belonging in a Multicultural Lower Secondary School
Doctoral student
Anneli Marceteau
Supervisor
Kristina Holmberg
Assistant supervisor
Henrik Nilsson
Timetable
Autumn semester 2022–autumn semester 2026
Subject
Pedagogy (Department of Pedagogy, Faculty of Social Sciences)
More about the project
In a multicultural school, questions of participation, belonging, and identity are central. Students and teachers navigate the school’s social and cultural environments, contributing to the formation and negotiation of boundaries between different groups.
At Rosenlund School, a multicultural lower secondary school in a rural municipality, these boundaries are created through school routines and norms, as well as through students’ social interactions.
The dissertation examines how institutional, social, and linguistic practices at Rosenlund School shape meaning and belonging for students and teachers. By analyzing both teaching practices and student communities, the study highlights how the school’s norms can function as both barriers and opportunities for inclusion. Particular emphasis is placed on how participation in different communities of practice shapes individuals’ experiences of inclusion and exclusion, as well as on the role of brokers, who mediate between different perspectives.
This study contributes to knowledge about the complex dynamics that characterize multicultural school environments and highlights the school’s everyday life as a space where social categories, boundaries, and communities are continuously shaped and reshaped.
