Problem eller tillgång? En studie om social och etnisk mångfald i högskolan

Abstract in English

The general problem I am addressing concerns the role of the university as an actor for increased equality and democracy. How does this role manifest itself in selecting and recruiting students to the university and how does it influence teaching? The aim of my empirical study is to describe and understand processes and contexts where ethnicity and class are important. The empirical material consists of interviews with students and teachers from the department of law at Uppsala University.

To analyze the consequence of ethnical and social diversity I have chosen theories which are founded in a feminist, emancipating and democratic pedagogy with a focus on connected teaching. Connected teaching is the opposite of banking education . In banking education the teacher deposits knowledge in the students. To analyse if the student can contribute with different perspectives on perception of knowledge and modes of learning I have studied the acting space and degrees of freedom given the students.

My investigation shows that the students thirst for being supplied with the right track to become jurists, and the teachers support this. Social and ethnical background is made invisible, at the same time as it can become an obstacle. Not every student has a voice in the seminar and most of them have not learnt to extend their space for action, but rather have a desire to be taught or just supplied with knowledge.

To strengthen the connection between teaching and the intentions in higher education the students should be encouraged, and the barriers against raising one s own critical voice must disappear. Furthermore, acting space for participation is needed to influence a democratic educational process. The governments means to counter uneven recruitment has mainly consisted in increasing the number of educational seats. With the current admission regulations (autumn 2008) higher education will continue to reflect class society on a structural level.