Inclusion of all students in a warm and welcoming school environment is a central goal of school districts and individual schools (Hilt, 2017). Moreover, as Fahey et al. (2019) point out, education is key to equity and inclusion in a diverse society of migration. In an Erasmus+-project, we investigated how primary and secondary schools in five European countries collaborated with other actors to support pupils with migration backgrounds. Focus is on inclusion and ensuring equivalence of opportunity for the migration background students. To succeed, schools cannot work in isolation, but requires the support of the local community, families, and professional networks (Ainscow, 2020). This paper aims to investigate what characterizes networks where leaders, teachers and other school professionals collaborate with external actors to support migrant students enrolled in introductory classes.  

Theoretically, the paper draws on institutional theory, more closely the ideas of intra- and interinstitutional collaboration. As claimed by for example Eisenberg et al. (2010), organizations exist in complex, dynamic, and relatively unstable environments. To make meaning of a phenomenon in question, in our case the inclusion of students with migration backgrounds, multiple actors cooperate within and between heterogenous, institutional boundaries (Thornton & Ocasio, 2008).  Through such dynamic forms of interaction, actors must moreover work together in both formal and informal meeting places, and through this both form and engage in various networks (Czarniawska, 2008).

In Norway, many young students in basic education coming from countries outside the EU arrive without their parents; often males aged 16-25 (Eide et al, 2017). In many cases, these migrants lack papers or documented formal education. To qualify for admission to main-stream upper-secondary programs or higher education, they must first acquire basic qualifications through a separate introductory program (“kombinasjonsklasser”), aimed at young, adult migrants. By law, all students are legally obliged to attend comprehensive school (Years 1-10); whilst most students complete upper-secondary education (Years 11-13/14), even though dropout rates are substantial (Education Act, 1998; Halvorsrud, 2017). To retain students, schools collaborate with a range of other public and private partners, such as healthcare facilities, youth clubs, local police authorities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as the Norwegian Red Cross. Such collaboration is focus of this report on the Norwegian case through zooming in on two separate networks.

Once young migrants arrive the country, and are granted e.g. asylum status, enrol into combination classes to acquire necessary basic education and Norwegian language skills. These classes are a collaboration between the county-run upper-secondary schools and the local, municipal authorities. Schools offering such programs were targeted in the case studies, since they handle most of the teaching and social-pedagogical work surrounding these students, in collaboration with other actors in their respective networks such as health services, social services, and the local police force.

Public upper-secondary schools are legally governed by one of the 11 counties, responsible for carrying out demands put forth in the Education Act (1998) and the National Core Curriculum (LK20). To oversee enactment of these responsibilities, County Governors’ Offices (CGOs) inspect schools on a regular basis. Official inspection reports are regularly published on CGOs’ websites (Author A, xxxx). In addition, each county must ensure that each school within their respective jurisdictions have a sound system for assessing and monitoring regulatory requirements in accordance with §13-10 in the Education Act (1998). Risk management is also an important part of such a quality system on the regional and school level.

In the study, two key questions are addressed; What characterizes collaborative processes in support of students with migration backgrounds, and what challenges do these actors experience?

As a first step, several promising networks were identified in various municipalities. Two upper-secondary case schools (S1, S2) in the south-eastern part of Norway were purposefully sampled (Patton, 2002). One of the schools has approximately 1.000 students and 200 staff members (S1), the other around 1.500 students and 250 staff members (S2). In both schools, approximately 30-40% of the student body are of minority and/or migrant background. As Flyvberg (2016) and others have argued, case studies offer in-depth knowledge of specific social settings, here being two upper-secondary schools. Characteristics and size of the two networks enabled interesting data collection and are both highly relevant to the case study, as well as comparative analyses in the overall project. The Norwegian project team held preparatory meetings with leadership at each of the participating schools, and presentations of the overall scope of the project, ethical guidelines and case study focus were held to fully inform the case schools. Informants were then recruited through use of snowball sampling, initially by contacting the schools’ leadership teams (Parker et al., 2019). The leadership teams proposed a list of relevant informants and members of the networks, including for example school leaders, teachers, support staff and psychiatric nurses. Online interviews were conducted in both networks, excessive field notes were made, and the interview data was securely uploaded and stored in a separate, secure server. In all, 13 interviews were completed the fall of 2021 in the two networks. Content analysis of the interview data was then done, and local and national policy documents served as secondary data.

In the data, several themes emerged; a. network actors and experienced challenges, b. goals and effects of networks, c. activities and measures, d. building and maintaining a network, e. level of support during the COVID pandemic. Based on analysis of qualitative interviews with key actors in the two cases, findings suggest that within schools, teachers and school leaders collaborate formally and informally with a range of other professionals, for example health personnel and support staff. Externally, the same schools form networks with local actors and agencies, e.g. police, youth clubs and municipal refugee offices. Through collaboration taking place in these networks, findings also demonstrate several tensions arising in the effort to improve conditions for the migrant students in focus. Such challenges may jeopardize the common goal of such collaborative networks; fully supporting migrant students in their academic development and making them feel valued and cared for. Finally, during the period between March 2020 and February 2022, schools in Norway (as other countries) were subject to lockdown due the pandemic situation. This was highly challenging for many actors in and around schools and their networks, also for all students who overnight had to shift from a classroom to a home-schooling setting. Among the diverse student body in the two case schools, students enrolled in introductory classes were especially vulnerable and of great concern to the informants.

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