"I go to teacher conferences, but I do not understand what the teacher is saying": Somali parents' perception of the Swedish school

Abstract

This study examines the encounter of Somali parents with their children's teachers and how these relations "affect" their possibility of supporting their children's attaining a successful school experience. The study is inspired by and combines the insight and concept of social capital developed by Coleman and Bourdieu. The parents realize that they lack the knowledge and expertise to support their children in their educational endeavor and have neither the material nor ideational support to compensate individual limitations to support their children in the encounter with the Swedish school.