Resilient and nonresilient students in Sweden and Norway-investigating the interplay between their self-beliefs and the school environment

Abstract

Using TIMSS 2015 data and a person-centred approach, the chapter focuses on academically resilient students in Norway and Sweden in grade eight. The self-belief profiles of academically resilient students compared with the nonresilient groups (i.e., low SES/low achievement, high SES/low achievement and high SES/high achievement) are investigated. Further, we evaluated the characteristics of the classroom environment for each of the profiles. After accounting for student SES and achievement, personal characteristics, advantages and disadvantages in the classroom and the school environment, we identified distinctive student profiles that might be more prone to risk. In the context of the equality-inequality paradigm, recognition of these profiles can strengthen the possibility to reduce the gap in battling different aspects of inequality across social groups. Concurrently, although we distinguish the same student groups across Sweden and Norway, their distribution within the countries differs. The latter results contribute to the ongoing debate on the dissolution/unification of the Nordic model, especially regarding particular trends within the Swedish education system.