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Making teaching relevant: toward an understandingof students' experiences in a culturally ‘different’SwedenCarl E. James aa York University , Toronto, CanadaPublished online: 19 Dec 2006.

To cite this article: Carl E. James (2001) Making teaching relevant: toward an understanding of students' experiences in aculturally ‘different’ Sweden, Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 9:3, 407-426, DOI: 10.1080/14681360100200121

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Pedagogy, Culture and Society, Volume 9, Number 3, 2001

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Making Teaching Relevant: toward an understanding of students’ experiences in a culturally ‘different’ Sweden

CARL E. JAMES York University, Toronto, Canada

ABSTRACT This article is based on the author’s experience facilitating a course with a group of recent teacher graduates in Sweden. Coming from a different cultural context, a pedagogical approach was used that enabled the author to engage participants in dialogues with participants through which they would come to develop an understanding of the interrelationships between education, and the political, cultural and social context of the society. The author draws upon participants’ personal narratives of their experiences in relation to race, ethnicity, nationality, racism and discrimination noting the correlations they make between their own experiences, and those of immigrants and minorities in Sweden. The narratives reveal a paradox between these new teachers’ stated desires to accommodate the diversity and differences among their students and their ideology of integration. This ideology reflects a preference for maintaining a culturally homogenous Sweden, so that they might avoid the ethical dilemmas, problems and conflicts of diversity.

About 3 years ago, I was invited to facilitate a 2-week session of a 1- semester course entitled: ‘The Classroom – A Social and Cultural Rendezvous’ at the Department of Teacher Training at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. The aim of the course, among others, was to work with participants to develop a ‘deeper understanding’ of schooling in a multicultural society, to study the concept of culture and language development in a multicultural context, and to study issues of migration, racism and discrimination. In my section, I was to explore the concept of culture using a critical or anti-racism framework that would both explain and address the issues of cultural diversity in relation to ethnicity, race,

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racism and xenophobia that seem to result from the increase in the immigrant and refugee population in Sweden. Furthermore, in light of the participants’ identified needs and concerns, I was to explore possible approaches that they might employ in their work, while working diverse classrooms.

From my experience of teaching in Canada, I have observed that many students, usually majority group members, tend to come to courses that deal with issues of cultural diversity, expecting to learn about the ‘Other’ – about ‘their’ values, habits, and practices, in short, about ‘their culture’ (see James, 1999). In cases where such courses are taught by minority educators, students often perceive these educators as ‘outsiders’ (meaning non-Canadians and by extension non-Europeans) who because of their experience with racism and discrimination (whether they admit to having such experience or not) are likely to construct everything as revolving around race and racism. Such essentialist perceptions sometimes instill a fear in students of being accused of racism and of being trapped into believing that their practices are just as discriminatory as those who are considered to be the ‘real racists.’ On this basis, as a number of racial minority scholars have pointed out, students often claim that these educators are biased and as a result question their efficacy and the integrity of what they teach (see Srivastava, 1997; Essed, 2000; James, 2001).

In an attempt to foreclose engagement in a process of ‘othering’ and ‘exotification’, and to counter essentialist perceptions of bias on my part, I have approached teaching such courses, including this assignment in Sweden, in ways that would have participants take themselves, in particular their experiences and perceptions, as the starting point. My approach is not to have participants study the ‘victims’ of racism and xenophobia, but rather, to begin to analyse their ideas and experiences as majority or minority group members of their society with a view toward understanding the extent to which colonialism, and inequalities of power and privilege inform social structures, and in turn human relationships, practices and attitudes (James, 1999; see also Norquay, 2000). In this pedagogical practice, to borrow Graveline’s (1998, p. 67) premise of Aboriginal pedagogy, I seek to reinforce ‘Self-In-Relation, the interweaving of the individual in the community, in the ... history and in the geographic context.’ Underlying this notion is that knowledge is gained, not only through learning about the experiences of others, but largely through the experiences, stories and voices of Self, and the use of ‘our own bodies and senses to learn’ (Graveline, 1998, p. 60). Furthermore, through experiential learning, individuals give meaning to their actions and their thinking, for these ‘are not separate entities. Meaning is not “out there”; we are part of that meaning and we can therefore convey it personally’ (Weiler et al, 1989, p. xx).

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As a pedagogical practice, the teacher-as-researcher approach, which takes into account the limits of my knowledge, also enables me through class assignments, to generate relevant information or knowledge (data) of class participants (see Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993; Anderson et al, 1994), and of the overt and discrete features of the communities and society from which they come. In this way, I come to ‘know’ about the experiences of class participants, and about the understandings and expectations they bring to class on which I could build a syllabus. In terms of my work in Sweden in particular, the teacher-as-researcher approach enabled me to build on my scant knowledge of the Swedish cultural, social and educational context,[1] while working in partnership with the class participants to co-develop a course of study that was relevant and responsive to their interests and needs (Kanze, 1995).

In the tradition of critical pedagogy, I seek to engage participants in dialogues through which they would come to develop a critical understanding of ‘their relationships with the historical and cultural world in and with which they exist’ (Nemcroff, 1992, p. 57). Through the dialogic approach, the experiences of participants, as articulated in the class assignments and conversations, are engaged in an effort to have participants critically reflect on their reality, and in doing so, reveal the hidden dimensions of the dominant ideology upon which their lives are constructed and lived. As Nemcroff (1992) points out with reference to Paulo Freire’s work, the best learning process is ‘one in which the learners situate themselves within the social context through a process of critical questioning ... [and] come to a critical consciousness of their own through “their own being in the world”’ (p. 58).

My aim in this article is to explore how and in what ways participants locate themselves in the social, cultural and political contexts they navigate. Particularly, my interest is to examine participants’ articulation of their experiences in relation to race, ethnicity, nationality, racism and discrimination, and the correlations or links they make between their own experiences, and those of immigrants and minorities in Sweden and elsewhere. Furthermore, I examine participants’ readings of the social, cultural and political context of Sweden in which immigrants and refugees are settling, and accordingly their expectations of these new residents, particularly in terms of their education and schooling needs. In doing so, I draw upon, with their permission, the participants’ initial assignment, which helped to set the context for the course, and formed the basis for the syllabus and curriculum content. That assignment asked participants to write an introductory letter to me describing:

how their ethnicity, religion, social class, race and other factors have informed their behaviour, ideas and aspirations – in short, shaped the individuals they are today;

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an incident which illustrates their own experience (or that of someone they know) with prejudice and discrimination based on ethnic, racial, or religious differences;

their perception of the experiences and situation of immigrants and refugees in Sweden.

Reflecting on their experiences in relation to ethnicity, race and other factors, allows participants to examine, interrogate and begin to understand their role in the marginalisation of immigrants and minorities, their construction of ‘difference,’ and the privileges they are afforded by their locations and identification (Norquay, 1993). The narratives that emerge exemplify the concept of ‘memory work’ in which individuals ‘use reconstructions of the past as a resource for better understandings of the present, and thereby creating new possibilities for the future’ (Norquay, 1993, p. 245). Errante (2000, p. 16) reminds us that ‘all narratives, whether oral or written, personal or collective, official or subaltern, are ‘narratives of identity’ ... [and] are representations of reality in which narrators communicate how they see themselves and wish others to see them.’ In their narratives individuals indicate their alignments with and disassociation from individuals, groups, society, values, ideas and symbols based on their affection, positive feelings and desire for affiliation.

The personal narrative approach, as Dunlop (1999, p. 65) argues, is a useful and valuable way ‘to begin dialogue and build classroom community’. In this regard, personal narratives, particularly in cross-cultural settings, become an interpretative device or a framework, which alerts us to the complex ways in which narrators understand, navigate and negotiate the cultural and social structures in the society. Through this process of reflection individuals come to evaluate explicitly the significance of the social and political forces, events and contexts that shape their attitudes, values and behaviour, and how these, in turn, operate in their construction of the images they hold of people they consider different. As Rousmaniere (2000, p. 89) asserts, the process of telling one’s autobiography ‘allows us to review and interpret our memories as part of a larger history ... and inevitably engage in a form of critique’.

Furthermore, as individuals remember the emotional significance of their own experiences, it is envisioned that they will begin to question their ideas of and behaviour towards those who are considered ‘different’ or ‘other’ – immigrants, refugees, racial, ethnic and religious minorities, and come to recognise the implications of their actions. According to Dunlop (1999, p. 61) through personal narratives, ‘we are forced to interrogate our own subjective positions, or biases our privileges and our assumptions about the other, within cultures, and across differences and similarities. This involves a process of ‘self-othering’, or to resist the pervasive dichotomising tendency, a diologic process of recognising the

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other in self and the self from the position of the other as a prerequisite to developing a transformed relation to difference’.

Insofar as dialogues with participants are best facilitated through shared knowledge and understanding of each other, I verbally shared during the first class the following personal narrative. (Other stories were shared during other discussions.) I was born in the Caribbean and immigrated to Toronto, Canada after high school some 25 years ago. For the first 10 years of my life in Canada, I was enrolled full-time in post-secondary educational institutions. Upon leaving graduate school with a degree in sociology, I taught part-time at a number of post-secondary institutions in the Toronto area, before obtaining a full-time appointment at a community college. In 1993, I began teaching in the Faculty of Education at York University. My teaching and research interests have been in the areas of social inequity as related to culture, race, ethnicity, social class and gender. Apart from visits to a number of Caribbean islands, and European cities, my travels have also included Tanzania, where I worked periodically over a 4-year period (1989-92). While I insist on being recognised as a Canadian, especially when I consider that I have lived in Canada longer than in the Caribbean, my blackness and African-Caribbean background (including my ‘accent’) often elicit questions about my Canadian identity (see James, 2001). Evidently, my background and experiences inform the approach to the issues I explore in courses and my writings. The anti-racism conceptual framework or, more generally, my critical conceptual approach to the teaching/learning process takes into account students’ locations based not only on representation within the classroom, but also in the society in general.

In proceeding, I present a profile of the participants, followed by an examination of their stories of incidents, which illustrate their experiences with difference and racism, and their perceptions of the social, political and educational problems, and resulting ethical dilemmas faced by Swedes and the migrant population. I conclude with the idea that personal narratives are useful, not only as a pedagogical approach, but as a way of coming to ‘know’ about the interrelationship of self, others and society.

The Participants

The 11 females and four males who participated in the course all held university degrees and had completed their teacher education in Spring of 1996. The course was taken out of interest and largely as an additional qualification that would enhance their chances of gaining employment in the growing diverse classrooms of Sweden, particularly those in the larger cities (see Daun et al, 1992). Most of these recent graduates were trained to teach in primary grades (up to age 12 years). Those who had specialty subjects most often indicated that their subjects were Swedish

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and English, followed by French, social studies, art geography, history, civics and religion. Participants were between the ages of 24 and 32 years, with an average age of 25 years (11 were between the ages of 23 and 25 years), an indication that most of them went directly from high school to university and onto teacher training.[2] While all of the participants were born and raised in Sweden, one had parents who were born in Estonia.

Five of them grew up in Uppsala, Sweden’s third largest city, and the others, for the most part, grew up in the country areas and small towns. As Janis (all names are pseudonyms) pointed out, the ‘typical Swedish countryside community is very homogeneous’. However, as she further wrote ‘I remember that a boy adopted from Columbia started in grade 5 when I was in grade 6 in the village school. All the children thought that he looked funny because he was brown, but he was a nice boy so he soon got friends.’ Two persons indicated that they grew up near the Finnish border and, hence, had early interactions with Finnish people early in their lives.

Almost all of the participants grew up in two-parent families with brothers and sisters. Of those who were explicit about their social class backgrounds, four said that they were from middle class and three said that they were from working class families. They identified their parents’ occupations as teachers, musicians, doctors and farmers. With reference to social class, Annette wrote that class differences are not significant since ‘we do not have a very accentuated class system in Sweden’. While three persons referred to their own and their parents’ religious affiliation, only one person, Karin, identified herself as a Christian. Her comments are instructive:

Sweden is a very secular country. In the village, and surrounding areas where I grew up, the church still has some impact on people as it worked like an assembly point with family festivities ... The school was also linked to the church, literally, as it was situated just on the other side of the road ... and we often visited the church with the class. But most people are not Christians, if you visited the church on a Sunday, you would find only a handful of old souls ... By the church I mean the Swedish Lutheran Church ... I think that it is important to know the religious situation, as I do think that it might affect how Swedish people look upon people from other cultures where religion has a totally different [significance] and often is an important part of the culture ...

Most of the participants indicated that many of their earlier experiences with non-Swedes came through their travels and, in some cases, work in Europe (mostly England, France, Northern Ireland), Australia, the United States and Africa (particularly Tanzania). However, changes in the Swedish population in recent years, largely due to the influx of refugees and to a lesser extent, immigrants, have meant that they must now come

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to terms with the inherent consequences and dilemmas of racial and cultural diversity in the country that has been, as one person put it, ‘the center of the world ... [where] I most feel “at home”’.[3] In commenting on the changes in the population, Per asserted that ‘The number of immigrants is increasing in Sweden. And along with it racism. This has, of course, an impact on the society and everyone’s life.’ Albeit, all of the participants felt that schools have a role to play in the ‘integration’ and ‘adjustment’ of immigrant and refugee students by addressing their particular needs and issues. In addition, participants saw their contributions to these processes coming through their role as teachers in the Swedish education system.

‘I Felt Very Strange’: experiences with race, nationality and differences

I am not aware of exactly how and to what extent religion, race, profession, family, society, etc., have affected my life. (Monica)

Recall that the initial assignment asked participants to tell me in a letter about how factors of ethnicity, race, religion and so on have been featured in their experiences and interactions in life. Interestingly, while they were able to identify the role that religion, gender and to a less extent class played in their lived experiences, they all claimed, as Monica above did, that in the Swedish context, race was never a factor in their self-identification and interactions with people. Jan offered the following explanation of why this was so. She wrote, ‘When I was growing up no one talked about ethnicity or racism because there was no problem concerning that issue. The problems have occurred quite recently in connection with the declining Swedish economy and the increasing numbers of refugees entering Sweden.’

It is not surprising that most of the Swedish participants suggested and, in some cases, denied that race was a factor in their experiences in Sweden or was something that informed their worldview. This view parallels much of what I have heard from many white Canadian students; and like Jan, many would contend that race and concomitantly racism only became part of social discourses when there were problems resulting from the increase in the racial minority population due mainly to immigration (see James, 1999). These notions of race are, in part, reflective of individuals’ reluctance to see themselves as racial people, for to do so would mean talking about whiteness (Britzman, 1993; Weis & Fine, 1996). As Rosenberg (1997, p. 80) points out, ‘whites see whiteness as an ‘empty cultural space’ and their identity as white people only [takes] shape in relation to others’. James (1999, p. 24) writes that this ‘dominant and normalised white cultural identity, within the context of

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the hegemonic relations in Western societies, can only be understood in relation to the discursively constructed “others”.’

Rosenberg (1997) found that pre-service teacher candidates with whom she worked tended to be uncomfortable talking openly about whiteness and white privilege, particularly in the classroom, and when they do they often conducted such conversations in hushed tones. Other scholars have noted that on the basis of their life experiences and vested interests, white individuals construct race in terms that render them raceless or lacking in racial identity (Sleeter, 1993: Phoenix, 1997).[4] The discomfort that whites experience when talk of race is about them and their whiteness, and their tendency to disregard their own racial identification (while racialised or minority individuals will construct and talk about themselves in racial terms), might be explained by several factors. Notably, their unwillingness to acknowledge their power and privilege, their failure as members of dominant or colonised groups to reflect on issues of dominance, and their lack of recognition of historical, political and colonial relationships. Also, they do so as a way of suppressing the negative and stereotypical images of racial minority groups (Roman, 1993; Sleeter, 1993; Dei, 1998).

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, for most of these Swedes, travels to other countries tended to bring into their consciousness, if not make them permanently recognise, the extent to which race, language, nationality and religion were, indeed, factors in their lives. Take, for example, Tomas who, with 12 other Swedish students (three of whom were also participating in the course), went to northern Tanzania the previous summer to teach for three weeks in a school. Tomas explained that:

... Those months taught me a lot about myself, how I regard myself and how I regard other people in terms of race, nationality and religion. It felt very strange and sometimes scary to be surrounded by people who did not speak my mother tongue and who had a different religion than me. There were not many white people in Tanzania and I often felt that everyone was looking at me. I felt that I was different from the rest. The Tanzanian people are very friendly and I never encountered any problems during my stay but I often felt lonely and afraid. The Tanzanian people called us ‘Wazungu’ which means man from Europe or white man. I remember that it felt very strange to be called wazungu. I was called the same thing as everyone from Italy, Russia, Ireland and other countries in Europe. The cultures are so different in Europe. But then I realised that it is exactly the same situation in Sweden. We often say ‘African’ though the countries in Africa are very different from each other, perhaps even more different than the European countries ...

Similarly, Erik wrote:

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The only incident related to my skin colour that I have experienced took place when I was in Tanzania last autumn. In the village I lived in, the children were not very used to seeing white people so they called us wazungu which means ‘strange thing.’ They did not mean anything bad with that but it made me think about how a person from another country feels when people stare at them in Sweden. Most people do not think they look very strange but some think they act strangely if they do not follow the Swedish’ pattern. In Tanzania this did not bother me because they were never hostile to me.

Tomas’s and Erik’s comments indicate that being in a strange, unfamiliar setting generated feelings of difference in terms of race, nationality, language and religion. A noteworthy point for them is how their whiteness was taken up and constructed by the Tanzanians. While Tomas did admit to being scared at times, both indicated that they were not offended or insulted by the term ‘wazungus.’ However, implicit in their suggestion that they experienced Tanzanians as friendly, rather than hostile people, seems to be a desire to underscore the positive things about the Tanzanians, rather than any negative or stereotypical images they might have of them as black or colonised people. Furthermore, that Tomas and Erik experienced Tanzanians as friendly, might have to do with the privileges they enjoyed and the power they were able to exercise because of their whiteness. One positive learning that they identified as coming out of their experience is how Europeans, including themselves, refer to Africa and Africans as if the region, and the people were homogeneous. Here, we see an instance where Tomas and Erik’s personal narratives occasion opportunities for them to draw parallels or weave connections between their own experiences and those of others in similar situations.

Apart from their narrative of whiteness in the Tanzanian context, Tomas and Erik said nothing of any raced experience in Sweden. This ‘lack’ of any raced experience in Sweden seems to support the argument that having constructed themselves as raceless, and as part of the ‘dominant normalised’ white cultural group in the Swedish society, then the absence of ‘racialised Others’ means that race is never an issue (see Britzman, 1993; Weis & Fine, 1996; Rosenberg, 1997; James, 1999). So while in their travels to other countries individuals like Tomas, Erik and, as will be seen later, Mariann, might find themselves in minority situations where they may feel scared or frightened, they have the privilege of knowing that such situations are temporary and in time they will return to their familiar white context, even, as in the case of Mariann, without returning home to Sweden.

Mariann, who also did not relate any raced experiences in Sweden, told of an incident in the United States in 1993 when she was travelling through the southern states with a friend. She wrote:

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We were going to New York from New Orleans by train. The whole trip was 30 hours. It was a really long train with lots of people but we immediately noticed that not many white people seemed to be travelling by train. Actually, we were almost the only ones. At first we didn’t really react to it or consider it a problem ... We soon noticed that getting on that train made us invisible. No one took any notice of us, spoke to us or even looked at us. The best evidence of how invisible we were was when we went to get food at the restaurant car. We were standing in line waiting for our turn but it never came. The clerk served everyone else waiting and then he closed up. When we left he opened up again. We went back twice ... and the same thing happened . You would think that someone, or at least ourselves, should have said something but no one did. We didn’t even get angry. It was such a surreal situation and we couldn’t believe that it was happening. We only felt shocked and helpless. The only thing making us feel better was that we knew things would get back to ‘normal’ as soon as we got off the train. But by then we knew how the ‘normal’ situation could feel to others.

Like Tomas and Erik, Mariann makes a connection between her ‘surreal situation,’ not naming it as discrimination, and her experience as a ‘minority.’ While she admitted to feeling ‘shocked and helpless,’ she ‘didn’t even get angry’ for she understood that in time she would return to a ‘normal situation’ – a situation in which even as a visitor to the United States she enjoyed skin colour privilege, which was not to be the case for the people on the train including the clerk who did not serve them. So, indeed, there was no need for her to get angry because in a short time the racial structures would take care of things.

One participant who talked of race in the Swedish context was Janis. She told of her experience, while walking around by herself in a neighbourhood in Uppsala one spring evening ‘while it was still light.’ She stated:

I noticed a group of teenagers walking towards me. They were 18 or 19 years old, about 6 of them, both boys and girls. They wore boots, skinjackets and jeans and were all blond. When I saw them I thought of skinheads and their appearance scared me. I didn’t know what to do but I kept on walking, looking far away, not at them. They just went past me, ignoring me. I wondered why I was scared. I think it might have been that I was alone ... There were no other people but me and the teenagers on the street. But even if they were skinheads they wouldn’t have noticed me because I’m blond and blue-eyed, just like the people they want to have in Sweden. If I had been a Chinese or an African, they would probably have said something. Another thought I’ve had, is that these teenagers maybe weren’t skinheads. They

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looked a bit like what I think skinheads look like, but I will never know because I never asked them.

Is Janis being inappropriate with her unfounded assumptions about the youth merely because of the markers – their clothing and skin colour? Is her speculation pertinent with regard to what their reactions would be had she been ‘a Chinese or an African?’ Janis’s critical reflections demonstrated her awareness and interpretation of the extent to which skin colour and other markers must be read in accordance to the social, cultural and political context of a society for in doing so we come to fully understand the realities, limits, privileges and possibilities of individuals’ existence.

Some participants’ narratives also indicated a sense of nationalism and belonging, and their need to affiliate with people ‘like them’. Christina illustrates this with reference to her 1-year stay in Paris, France where she worked as an au pair. She wrote that while in Paris, her sense of nationalism compelled her ‘to deal with the fact that [she] was Swedish’ and with ‘Swedish girls ... reputation abroad’. She continued to say that, ‘it was difficult but I had to do it and I felt very proud to be a Swedish girl. I also took the opportunity to tell people where Volvo, Saab and IKEA came from. I must have sounded like a PR woman for the Tourism Department.’ Christina also indicated that her sense of nationalism was also maintained and supported by her affiliation with the Swedish Church in Paris where she would meet ‘all the other Swedish au pair girls’. This was significant, insofar as before then she only attended church for occasions such as marriages, funerals and christenings. She explained: ‘My contact with the church had been very sporadic during my childhood as no one in my family is a believer. As I do not believe in God I was a bit worried when I came to the church for the first time ... The Swedish church was a place where you could read Swedish newspaper, talk to the priest if you had problems, listen to concerts, read books in the library etcetera. It was a safe island for all kinds of people’. As in other cases, Christina has used her travels to illustrate how she came to an awareness of herself as different with particular cultural needs and values, and she seemed to imply, when she stated that she has ‘learned to listen and respect people from other cultures’, that she was able to understand the needs and issues of immigrants and refugees who are living in Sweden.

Using religion and religious beliefs to make links with the experiences and situations of immigrants and refugees in Sweden was not only done when participants discussed their lives in foreign countries but also with reference to their experiences in Sweden. For example, after identifying herself as a Christian and a member of the Swedish Lutheran Church, Karin went on to say that the church played a key role in the lives of the people in the village where she grew up.[5] ‘But most people were not Christians’ and only ‘a handful of old souls’ attended church on Sunday. Karin observed that ‘This is still the situation today. Only about

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2-3 percent of the Swedish population are visiting the church regularly’. She mentioned that one reason for this is the fact that ‘Sweden is a very secularised country’, so as a Christian who attended church regularly, she ‘belong to a minority’. Attempting to establish a connection between her experience as a ‘minority’ and those of other religious people coming to Sweden, she stated: ‘Sometimes, I feel that in some ways, I have more in common with a person from another country who has a similar background to mine – the little village and small town – more than, for instance, a Swedish 32 year old woman who has grown up in a suburb of Stockholm or Gothenburg.’

However, while admitting that it is important to acknowledge the religious situation in Sweden since it is likely to ‘affect how Swedish people look upon people from other cultures where religion has a totally different [meaning] and often is an important part of the culture,’ Karin ended by saying, ‘I must say though that I feel [Swedes] respect beliefs although many of my friends think that it is a bit strange, and some are very prejudiced and expect to me to behave in a certain way.’ To suggest that Swedes respect religious beliefs and the same time tell us that her friends are prejudiced toward her, expect her to behave in particular ways, and consider her beliefs ‘a bit strange’ indicates a contradiction. So while trying to make links between her own experiences and those of other religious people, what emerges is Karin’s tension between her affection for the members of her society whom she regarded as tolerant and accepting of others (a form of nationalism) and her desire to demonstrate her Christian values of respect for migrants and their religious practices. Indeed, research indicates that the experiences of Christian and Muslim migrants are far more problematic compared to those of Karin (see von Hirsch, 1996). So, while Karin might be considered a ‘minority’, she is after all a Swede, and not an immigrant with ‘strange’ Christian beliefs and practices.

Compared to Karin and others, Lolita’s narrative probably best illustrates how reflecting on past events can lead to thinking of new possibilities. Lolita reported that in a conversation late one night with two Iranian Muslim young men, she used the opportunity to question them about their ‘cultural and religious difference.’ She said that they talked ‘about, for example, Muslim women’s situation, the Koran, wars between different Muslim groups, and the situation of Muslims in Sweden.’ Their discussion soon led to arguments with the ‘two boys getting more and more upset and angry about my questioning’. The interaction ended with the boys leaving, but before doing so, they questioned Lolita’s reasons for being ‘out alone in the middle of the night.’ She conceded: ‘I know that I was very inquisitive and maybe a bit provoking in the way I discussed things with them ... It could have been an opportunity to understand and learn something from each other. Instead, we argued about all the differences between us and the way we

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live. And we left each other with, I think, more prejudiced about each other than before we met. This was about four years ago, and if the same situation would come up today, I know I would act differently.’

‘Sweden ... Has Changed a Lot’: insights into the societal and personal problems and dilemmas

Sweden is a country that has changed a lot in the past ten years ... Immigrants and refugees are very easy targets for those who are discontent. (Katariina)

The biggest problem according to me is the segregated living areas. It’s not as bad as in the U.S. for example, but it does exist. (Mariann)[6]

Although I think that it is good that we in Sweden have the policy of accepting political refugees and refugees from countries at war, I think that before we accept any more we need to know how to treat the ones that are already here. (Annette)

In relating their perceptions of the experiences and situation of the migrants, participants revealed their expectations of these newcomers to Sweden and in the process identified some of the consequences, problems, dilemmas and challenges of life in a changing Sweden – a Sweden where the immigrants and refugees were not residing in Stockholm only (see also von Hirsch, 1996; Sjögen, 1997; James & Spowe, 2000), but also in the small towns and villages which has meant, as Karin remarked, that ‘the small town and country people had to accept that their world was changing and that it would never be the same again’. She said that while she could understand that these ‘common people’ were largely ‘frightened’ by the immigrants’ ‘different religions, different norms and values and cultures’, she was unwilling to accept when people expressed their ‘feelings’ towards migrants ‘in hostile and/or violent actions.’ Karin also noted that the urban ‘intellectual middle class’ would talk about the enrichment that immigrants brought to the country, and would often go on to ‘ridicule the country people and described them as prejudiced, ignorant, racist and/or just stupid. In my opinion, this did not make things easy and it did not solve any problems, but [it] just widened the gap between immigrants and Swedes.’ Karin’s comments, and those of other participants like her, not only reveal the social class and urban/rural differences and divide among Swedes,[7] but also their association with the rural, working class people with whom they identify. While they do not condone hostile actions to migrants, they wish that others would understand the rural people’s feelings of fear and not construct them (read us) as ignorant or racist.

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For the most part, discussions of the situation of migrants reflected participants’ attempts to project their own positive qualities or values of sympathy and understanding of the complexity of the problems that migrants experience in Sweden. While attempting to show that these qualities are also shared by many Swedes, particularly teachers, and aware of the xenophobia and discriminatory practices toward migrants, participants’ observations illustrate their own ethical dilemmas as well as those of the society – a society that they believe wishes to ‘integrate’ the migrants. Take, for example, participants’ discussions of segregation and language.

According to Karin, ‘A problem is segregation. Immigrants tend to live in the same places, near people from their own culture, that is of course understandable but the segregation is, in many people’s opinion, a worrying fact that has to be dealt with.’ Janis concurs and also makes the point that while migrants first stay in ‘refugee camps,’ once they are allowed to:

stay they are placed somewhere else in Sweden, often in places where other immigrants live. They are also free to move so if they have relatives somewhere they usually move there. I can understand that because if I were to move to another country I would also like to live with Swedes nearby. At the same time it might be hard for them to join the Swedish community as they almost live in their own world. I am not saying that all immigrants live like this but I think some do. In one area in Stockholm where many immigrants live a new Swedish dialect, rinkebysvenska has been created.

These comments demonstrate that participants understand that segregation is a product of people’s desire to reside with others with whom they have things in common. However, as Andreas said, ‘Living only with fellow countrymen does not aid in the integration of immigrants’. In Erik’s words ‘This is not a good environment to learn about the Swedish society or the Swedish culture.’ So the ‘worrying fact’ is that the residency pattern of immigrants negate the Swedish policy of integration, a principle to which these participants evidently subscribe. Also evident in participants’ comments are a number of paradoxes and ethical dilemmas. For instance, on the one hand, they seem to agree that migrants should be free to live wherever they choose, but positioned against the need for migrants ‘to join the Swedish community’, and even within the context of xenophobia and discrimination, most participants were unequivocal in their view for integration/assimilation. As Andreas put it, ‘I believe that it is important that immigrants and Swedes live together so that they can get to know each other. Today we live in different worlds.’

Language was most often identified as an ‘obstacle’ or ‘the biggest problem’ to the adjustment and integration of migrants, particularly in

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terms of the schooling and educational achievement of the children (see also Spowe, 2000). Andreas argued that ‘Surveys show that schools consisting of almost only immigrants show poor results in the Swedish language. Obviously, a poor grasp of the Swedish language [can] prove to be a serious obstacle.’ Hence, like Spowe (2000), they maintained that teachers have the responsibility to ensure that migrant children get the necessary help and opportunities to learn the Swedish language and about Sweden. Such education and information, Inga surmised, ‘will hopefully help them to understand Sweden and the Swedes better. Information and education are, of course, needed the other way around as well. Swedes need to know more about the people that are entering our country and our society, and to understand and help them better.’ Having expressed similar sentiments, Erik went further. ‘The schools’, he said, ‘have the task and possibility to change the situation for these people. The schools have to give all people the qualities they need to make it in the society. The problem now is how the school system should solve this problem. With less money and more pupils it is hard to give pupils what they need. I think it is difficult but we have to try if Sweden is to be competitive in the future.’ Katariina presented another reason why migrant children should ‘get the support they need.’ She suggested that ‘we should see immigrants and refugees as a resource, not as a burden ... [Furthermore], when these children are left behind they also lose a safe position in society, [and] they might get desperate and turn to crime.’

Clearly, participants showed an awareness of the complex and difficult situation which migrants, teachers, including themselves, the government and Swedes generally must deal with. While they indicated that much of the responsibility to address the problems of adjustment and integration, as well as the ‘rights’ of migrants, rests with the government, they remained doubtful of how best this might be accomplished knowing that both migrants and Swedes have different needs and aspirations (James & Spowe, 2000). So, while ‘schools should care for each and every pupil’s individual needs’, Annette wrote, migrant students’ need for ‘home language education, Swedish as a second language education and other special efforts that have to be made to integrate [them] into the Swedish society’ put ‘great strain’ on the limited financial resources of schools which are not growing according to the needs. Accordingly, she hypothesised: ‘If the care for the refugee take away too much resources from the regular education there may be problems with unhappy parents which in some cases has led to hostility towards immigrants. This is a difficult issue ...’

Evidently, the issues and debates about migrants have had some direct impact on participants’ lives and have contributed much to discord and ethical dilemmas. Christina, for instance, told of receiving a ‘lecture’ from a class teacher in response to a question she had asked about dealing with ‘some problems with a boy from Africa.’ The teacher’s

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response was to tell her to be careful of men ‘from countries south of the Alps.’ In her role as a substitute teacher, Christina felt powerless, so she merely listened, particularly because her early attempts to say that she did not agree with what was being said (the stereotypes) brought a response from the teacher that she was too young and naive to know better. The incident, Christina recalled, made her feel ‘uncomfortable’ and left her with ‘a lot of things to think about’. However, compared to Tomas, it was possible for Christina to distance herself from the teacher and any such individuals, but what do you do when it is family members? Tomas showed that there is no easy answer:

My grandparents often say things like all the immigrants in Sweden should be thrown out. They are all criminals and they only ruin the Swedish society. This often puts me in a strange position. I really love my grandparents and when I meet them, it is during family gatherings and I do not wish to argue with them, telling them that they are wrong etc. It is very hard when you have people that you love with totally different views on things like immigrants, religion, race etc. Many birthday parties have been ruined by discussions about racism that have ended in relatives being angry with each other.

Beyond the Personal Narratives

The postimperial migration of people around the world today poses profound challenges to what we once knew and assumed of the world. (Willinsky, cited in Norquay, 1998, p. 188)

In the introduction, I mentioned that, among other things, I expected to explore the concept of culture as part of assisting the class participants to develop a ‘deeper understanding’ of the emerging issues related to the increasing cultural diversity of the Swedish society. In class, we discussed the fact that culture is part of our everyday lives – we all live culture; and the values, norms and behaviour patterns that are part of culture are always in process. I referenced James’s (1999, p. 21) idea that ‘culture cannot be conceptualised in terms of unified systems of meanings, but rather as conflicting, contradictory, ambiguous, dynamic, and full of contending discourses, all which are mediated by power.’ In this regard, the personal narratives which participants related exemplify cultural experiences inside and outside of Sweden. Furthermore, such narratives help them learn and understand the dynamics of gender, ethnicity, race, class, nationality and what it means for them to be a visitor, foreigner, immigrant, refugee or Swede.

In deciding what to teach and how to teach it, I have found taking up individuals stories of how they have experienced ‘difference’ as related to race, ethnicity, religion and nationality, as very useful, particularly in contexts where I am, or might be perceived as, an outsider. Pedagogical

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strategy is quite relevant, and has the potential to enable participants to collaborate in co-developing the curriculum, recognise that they are part of, rather than external to, the culture, social and political structures that account for the experiences of the migrant population, and interrogate their ideas, practices, privileges and disadvantages as gendered, raced and ethnic individuals. Furthermore, through sharing their experiences, participants provide occasions for the educator to discuss similar or familiar events or places, thereby affording some connection with participants. For instance, I was able to talk about my experiences working and travelling in Tanzania as a ‘foreigner’ with the class, thus facilitating my connection with them. Essentially, my pedagogical approach, course content and expected outcomes are premised on the notion that schooling should provide opportunities to make us aware of ourselves in relation to the structures which maintain xenophobia, racism, discrimination which in turn operate to divide us (see also Norquay, 1998) – an approach the participants would bring to their diverse classrooms.

Surely, neither a one semester, nor a 2-week exploration of self-identification and interrogation of issues of xenophobia, racism and discrimination can lead to the changes in participants’ ideas and practices that will result in the desired goal of teachers who are advocates for a society that accepts differences and recognises the rights, needs, concerns and aspirations of the migrant population. Nevertheless, the course was an occasion for dialogue and reflection. It presented opportunities for participants to reconstruct and re-interpret their stories of past events, to interrogate their subjective positions, and to engage in critiques that can serve as a basis for their understandings of their own and other’s situation in Sweden and elsewhere. These exercises begin a process through which, it is hoped, participants will come to view the possibilities in their roles as teachers and citizens in a changing Swedish society. In their roles as teachers they will accept and accommodate diversity and differences in language, religion, ethnicity and race, and not teach seeking to assimilate or homogenise students. Doing otherwise would certainly reveal a paradox between these teachers’ stated desires to accommodate the diversity and differences among their students, and their uncritical or unexplored ideology of maintaining a culturally homogenous Sweden, so that they might avoid the ethical dilemmas, problems and conflicts that are all part of diversity.

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to the students who participated in the course and who have taught me much about myself and Sweden. Also, I thank Bengt Spowe who gave me the opportunity to participate in the programme,

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and Maxine Wood, Leanne Taylor, and the journal editors and reviewers for their editorial comments and suggestions.

Correspondence

Carl E. James, Faculty of Education, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada (cjames@edu.yorku.ca).

Notes

[1] The two previous summers, I made presentations to two groups of Swedish teachers who participated in a multicultural course arranged by the Swedish faculty member who invited me to participate in the course in Sweden.

[2] Those participants who were employed full-time before getting into teaching indicated that they had worked as cashier, receptionist, radio reporter, salesperson, secretary, au pair, teacher and in healthcare. Places of employment included hospital, supermarket, ‘a big hotel’ and schools. Two of the males ‘did military services’ for 10 months. They worked as medics and teachers.

[3] The following sources provide important overviews of the changing Swedish population: Spowe (2000), Kamali (1997), Sjögren (1997, pp. 43-68), Runfors (1997, pp. 103-114, von Hirsch (1996), Gustavsson & Runblom (1995), Daun et al (1992).

[4] In her study of young white people in London, United Kingdom, Phoenix (1997) found that they did not see themselves as having a white identity. Rather, many insisted on ‘the individualism of people just being people, whatever colour they have. However, at the same time, they re-inscribed essentialist accounts of black people as other’ (p. 188).

[5] Karin also pointed out that ‘the school was also linked to the church ..., it was situated just on the other side of the road ... and the church was engaged in activities arranged by the school.’

[6] Mariann had also mentioned that ‘In Sweden about 10% of the population are considered immigrants. That is almost 1 million people. Since most of the immigrants are in ages when they are having children almost a third of the children in Swedish schools, in the year 2010, will have an immigrant background. This, of course, will change, and has changed, the Swedish society and educational system.’

[7] Monica wrote that ‘the working class and the unemployed tend to be more negative towards immigrants than the rest of the population according to surveys. A reason could be that weaker groups in society feel more threatened by immigrants because they crave similar jobs.’ D

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