Research topic

The aim of this paper is to describe and discuss discourses, and their transformation, in governmental steering documents dealing with education of newly arrived in Sweden between 2014 and 2022. During these years the legislation has been revised and publicly discussed, we therefore want to investigate which differences can be detected. Steering documents give a hint measuring inclusivity and cohesion of the educational system on the one hand, and a linkage to the societal discussion on the other. The paper is part of a pilot study within a project focusing on newly arrived students’ learning and assessment processes. We are analyzing transformations and differences over time and in organizational hierarchy from governmental objectives to municipality realizations. Previous research shows that newly arrived students in Swedish schools encounter structural obstacles, as teachers’ lower expectations, otherising, and a deficiency perspective. The success of young migrants’ education could be seen as a litmus test for an equal society, and intrinsic for the possibility for employment in the Swedish society. 

Theoretical framework and research design 

The empiric material of this study consists of a strategical sampling of steering documents; law documents, governmental inquires and bills, and agreements between governmental agencies, and municipalities. Our method is inspired by Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis and based on our theoretical frame on education which is imbedded in Bourdieu’s praxeology. We conceptualize the documents as specific historical discourses within fields of power, looking for intertextuality, and differences between different levels; governmental, municipality and public discourse on immigration and responsibilities of school education which would be interesting to compare to other countries further on. As a point of departure, we have applied content analysis continuing with coding of keywords which allow us to detect temporal changes in phrasing and articulation during 2014 and 2022. The keywords are highlighting the level of mandates and organization strategies, which allow us to compare differences of connotations on textual, text producing and societal level. 

Expected results/findings 

We expect to find explicitly different discourses on governmental and municipality level. Variations, we assume, are to be found on both the textual level, e.g., from newcomer to newly arrived, and the content level. Whereas the governmental objectives seemed to concentrate on integration in 2014, the focus moves to language education and organization questions later. The changes may show a somehow shifting educational discourse emphasizing assessment outcomes while at the same time organizational conditions concentrating on language impede the student’s success. It seems to evolve an increasing shortcoming, and towards 2021, a problem discourse. 

Relevance to Nordic educational research 

Despite similarities in models of welfare, the educational systems have diverged in the Nordic countries during the recent years due to changes in, among others, education politics. In all Nordic countries the education systems have been adjusted to newly arrived children as a result of global migration. Our paper contributes to the theme with updated material which would be very interesting for a comparison further on looking for impacts on education in the Nordic countries.