Jenny Rosén

Shifting identity positions in the development of language education for immigrants: an analysis of discourses associated with ‘Swedish for immigrants’

The study presented in this paper focuses upon conceptualisations of language and identity in the institutionalised arena that emerged in the post-Second World War period with the specific intention of teaching Swedish to adult immigrants in the nation-state of Sweden. Our analysis focuses upon the development of the educational programme ‘Swedish for immigrants’ over time. Our specific interest relates to how categorisations are framed and what, if any, kinds of labels – pertaining to language and identity – emerge in national and local policy documents from the 1960s onwards. Taking a sociohistorical perspective as a point of departure, our analyses indicate discursive changes with regards to the categories and aims of the educational programme, making certain identity positions more accessible than others at specific times. Focusing upon categories from sociohistorical perspectives helps to reveal the social organisation and institutional means that enable society to process citizenship issues. The complex relationship between the empowerment of the immigrants, on the one hand, and the need for integration or assimilation into society on the other, becomes visible through the analysis of empirical data that spans half a century.

New Perspectives on Translanguaging and Education.

Agency and Affordance in Translanguaging for Learning : Case Studies from English-medium Instruction in Swedish SchoolsTranslanguaging space and spaces for translanguaging : A case study of a finnish-language pre-school in Sweden

Perspectives on translanguaging in education

Agency and Affordance in Translanguaging for Learning : Case Studies from English-medium Instruction in Swedish SchoolsTranslanguaging space and spaces for translanguaging : A case study of a finnish-language pre-school in Sweden

Same but different. Negotiating diversity in Swedish pre-school teacher training

ABSTRACT Due to migration, Swedish pre-schools are linguistically and culturally diverse settings where approximately one in five children is bi-/multilingual. Hence, pre-school teachers work in a diverse landscape in which they are expected to support the multilingual and multicultural development of the children. The aim of this article is to analyze the discourses of diversity in Swedish pre-school teacher training and, more specifically, how students are positioned and position themselves in relation to such discourses. The article takes its point of departure in an ethnographic four-year project that studied a group of students recruited to the pre-school teacher training by a municipality because of their migration background. The material analyzed consists of interviews and observations during the four years that the students participated in the program. Using the framework of nexus analysis, it reveals an ambivalence in attitudes in relation to diversity and in the positioning of certain students as other. Due to their historical bodies, the students are expected to add value to the pre-school teacher training program, but at the same time, they are expected to perform like everyone else in the program, reproducing a discourse of diversity as a positive asset.