Classifying pupils as ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ in the media – conceptions of diversity through the lens of social representations theory

Classifying pupils is one way of understanding and making sense of pupil diversity. ‘Weak pupil’ and ‘strong pupil’ are common ways of classifying pupils in several countries. The aim of this study is to develop a deeper understanding of how ‘weak pupil’ and ‘strong pupil’ as social representations are used to make sense of pupil diversity in opinion pieces published in Swedish news media. Although media plays an important role in attitude formation about pupils, media have been highlighted as an underused resource within educational research. Through the lens of social representations theory, this study provides a thematic analysis of how pupils have been classified as ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ in opinion pieces published in Swedish newspapers over a three-year period from 2019 to 2022. The thematic analysis produced themes that relate to an extended deficiency perspective, where pupils classified as ‘weak’ are viewed as an encumbrance to pupils classified as ‘strong’. The view of how pupils’ diversity should be handled seems to be based on mainly two positions – the logic of separation and the logic of togetherness. The findings demonstrate how ‘weak pupil’ and ‘strong pupil’ as social representations contribute to the construction of inclusion as a contested educational project.