Jämnårigsocialisation i svensk skola

Abstract

Peer group socialization in Swedish schools. This study examines the significance of peers in the process of socialization in Swedish schools, that is to say, the mutual influence that children and young people exert on each other. It analyses how peer group socialization is apprehended and evaluated in curricula for Sweden’s comprehensive schools and in related research. Part One defines the object of study more precisely by relating it to socialization research. In this part of the thesis, research on the socialization of children and young people is reviewed and some central concepts that can serve to characterize peer group socialization are distinguished: friendship, peer group membership and youth socialization. In addition, the school is considered as a potential place of encounter for peers. Part Two consists of a systematic comparison of how different conceptions of peer group socialization have been expressed over time in curricula and in research on schooling. Three different periods with three more or less dominant conceptions of the significance of the peer group for socialization are identified: I. The potential of the school to create peer group community is formulated. II. The potential of peer group socialization is neglected. III. The potential of peer group socialization is rediscovered. During the first period, peer group socialization as a means of creating community is prominent in the 1962 comprehensive school curriculum (Lgr 62) and in the official studies and schools research preceding it. In the 1969 curriculum (Lgr 69), perceptions change. Researchers are more ambivalent to the peer group and there is somewhat less confidence in its positive potential to foster community. The second period is characterized by a neglect of the peer group’s potential to create community, first in the 1980 curriculum (Lgr 80) and later in that of 1994 (Lpo 94). In research on schools and youth, the peer group is represented primarily as a force that seeks to contest the culture of schools. In the third period, a tendency to rediscover peer group socialization can be observed in official studies carried out after Lpo 94. In schools research, attention is drawn to the possible contribution which the peer group can make to learning. Some youth researchers express confidence in the peer group’s potential as a positive, community-creating force, but at the same time there are those who see peer group socialization as risky and a source of problems. There may possibly be a positive community-creating force in peer group socialization that has been overlooked. All things considered, the author ventures to suggest that the community-creating potential of the peer group is an inadequately explored perspective in Swedish research on schooling, a perspective that could enable us to see the possibilities in schools, rather than the problems