Educating the Whole Child for the Whole World: The Ross School Model and Education for the Global Era

13Educating the WholeChild for the Whole World

| 171 13 Educating the Whole Child for the Whole World The Ross Model in Sweden Sally Booth with Michele Claeys Courtney Ross has left an indelible mark on contemporary conceptions of education. Her original vision of developing a model of education that nurtures curious, creative, and culturally and socially responsible students for the global era has blossomed into multiple schools, a growing support organization, and a vast network of like-minded educators, policy makers, scholars, and students. The Ross Institute is the umbrella organization that gives unity to the purpose and vision of the multiple projects— local, national, and international—developed by the Ross School and the Ross Institute Academy. All of these initiatives, which range from longitudinal research projects in partnership with universities, to mentorship and collaboration with scholars, artists, and community leaders, to professional development courses for schools interested in the Ross pedagogy and curricula , stem from Courtney Ross’s goals of expanding a successful educational model to students in many different social and cultural contexts. The Ross Institute Academy works with schools, educational leaders, and faculty members to disseminate the research and pedagogical practices that have been so successful in Ross Network Schools. The groundbreaking work of sharing the Ross approach with teachers in the Swedish public school system has become a model for working with schools locally and abroad. Postwar labor immigration followed by more recent admittance of large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers has transformed Sweden into one of Europe’s most multicultural societies. At present about 12 percent of the country’s nine million residents are foreign born (Caldwell 2005). In the capital city of Stockholm, more than 26 percent of the population is foreign born or the child of foreign-born residents, and in suburbs like Tensta, northwest of the central city, the figure is substantially higher. Considering these figures, 172 | Sally Booth with Michele Claeys how the second generation will be incorporated poses a great challenge—and opportunity—for Swedish society. In Sweden, as elsewhere, the prospects of the children of immigrants will be written especially in school. This chapter describes and assesses the introduction of innovative curriculum and pedagogical approaches from the Ross School into Tensta Gymnasium, a Swedish public high school (equivalent to grades 10 through 12 in the U.S. system) with a student population composed almost exclusively of children of immigrants , the vast majority of whom themselves are foreign born.1 The Context Residential segregation and discrimination make for an unsettling incorporation of foreigners into Swedish society. In Stockholm and other Swedish cities, most immigrants reside in suburbs. “The areas that we call ‘segregated’ are actually very mixed. The segregated part of the country is the Swedish part” (Masoud Kamali, quoted in Caldwell 2005, 23). Suburbs in Sweden have much the same negative association and low status as ghettos in the United States; the inner cities have retained a high-status position. The inner city is associated with ethnic Swedes, expensive real estate, elite schools, and neighborhood safety. “A person stuck in central Stockholm would find none of the clues of heavy minority presence that a visitor to central Amsterdam or Paris or London gets” (Caldwell 2005, 22). Tensta neighborhood, northwest of Stockholm’s city center, was about 40 percent Greek in the 1980s, although Kurdish Turks and Yugoslavians also lived there. By 2006, the population of the Tensta neighborhood was 85 percent immigrant. Many people now come from Iraq, Iran, Somalia, and Afghanistan. There are very few ethnically Swedish families with children living in the neighborhood. Many of the ethnic Swedes in the neighborhood are elderly and do not want to move. The isolation of immigrants influences the Swedish educational system. The scholar Mauricio Rojas explains: “In segregated areas schools are the key. Many Swedes think the areas are interesting to live in, and they’re right. But they won’t stay if they don’t think their kids are getting a Swedish education” (quoted in Caldwell 2006, 57). Rojas argues that “white flight” from the suburbs occurs when immigrants compose 20 percent of the population and the schools become associated with immigrant students. While Sweden’s policy toward immigrants and refugees has been generous and open relative to other receiving countries, the long-term approach to integration of immigrants and refugees has become increasingly problematic . In the press and among ethnic Swedes there is a general recognition that Educating the Whole Child | 173...