Equal Treatment or Just Treatment : An Example Study of the Experience of Equal Treatment in a Swedish School

Equal treatment in school is an on-going debate in the Swedish society. At the same time teachers around the country struggles to make ends meet because of a heavy workload. Voices have been raised that teachers no longer have the time to actually be teachers since they get piled up with paper work and other administrative tasks. However, schools are bound by law to take action against harassments and discrimination of any kind. There is also an overall policy in the Swedish national curriculum that every school must embrace diversity and actively teach students about solidarity and respect. Because of that the Swedish school ministry forces schools to have a written plan for how they work with equal treatment. The study will, using one randomly selected Swedish compulsory school, investigate how students as well as personnel perceive this work and see how the plan translated from theory to practice. As a theoretical framework the study uses intersectionality and anti oppressive pedagogy as they give a functional perspective on how the work for equal treatment can be addressed. The study shows that the investigated school have both bright and dark sections in their work for equal treatment. Their plan is recently updated and therefore much of what is said there has not yet reached the daily activities. Even so, the interviewed students say that they feel safe at school and that they appreciate the work their teachers do to make everyone feel comfortable. Alongside with this all interviewed students acknowledges that issues about diversity and respect are not brought up in class accept for when something directly connected to the group has happened. This, together with the fact that the students have been completely left out of the process of making the equal treatment plan conflicts with both the national advices and the investigated schools own plan. The adults interviewed are aware of the problem and have suggestions for change. However, the fact that the students can, and have been left out shows a hierarchy of power used by the adults. The study also shows that the complex term anti oppressive pedagogy is used in the investigated plan but that what it is, and how it should be used in the school differs a lot among the adults interviewed. It is also problematic that the school claims to be using an anti oppressive approach and the students confirm that critical issues never gets highlighted unless a conflict occurs. The school has, however, high hopes for their equal treatment plan. They want to proceed and improve their work. To do so they need to include the students more in the work for equal treatment as well as clearing out and implementing the anti oppressive approach on a wider scale across its employees.