This article explores how a heterogenous group of first year university students perceive writing in general, academic writing in specific, as well as their own writing proficiency. A questionnaire (n 93) was created basing on theories on academic literacy and writing psychology. The results show varying attitudes among the students which highlight questions of the dimensions of writing, identity and group affiliations. Gender was of little importance, whereas age and self-stated writing skills correlated to some extent with the results. The small scale of the study does not permit far-reaching conclusions, but the results indicate attitudes that could have importance for the development of academic literacy. The study can be used as a start of departure for interventions that facilitate for groups with different backgrounds to participate in higher education. ©2020 Emilia Sturm Aldrin, Monica Eklund och Heike Peter.

The objective of this paper is to critically reflect about the results from a pilot study, in which Facebook was used as a co-learning community. A communicative tool or arena for discussing educational matters in order to facilitate for students with diverse backgrounds to reach better understanding on academic culture and knowledge production. In the pilot study we worked with a “consciousness-raising” pedagogy for encouraging and supporting students to cooperate with each other, and by the use of Facebook as a platform. The development of these pedagogical view and method can be seen as providing equal opportunities, by generating better results in higher education studies. The project is supposed to contribute to knowledge concerning more profound issues associated to ideas of democracy and empowerment connected to change and development in academic cultures. The central questions to be answered are: What means by “co-learning community” by Facebook? How does this tool stimulate students to be more confident and as a consequence, reach a better understanding about the ways into “break down” obstacles, in terms of academic cultural codes? How does it is expressed by the students in terms of benefit?

Students’ cultural capital plays a major role in their success in higher education. In Sweden today, many students come from diverse cultural, social and educational backgrounds. Knowledge of requirements in academic systems differs widely. Some students feel insecure about how to interpret academic codes, thus weakening these students’ opportunities for academic success. The major goal of this project was to lay the groundwork for a more equal educational system. Using social media, in this case conversations (e.g., chats) in a closed forum on Facebook monitored by a tutor, we aimed to improve student integration into academic culture. We differentiated two central themes related to student conversations on Facebook: (1) Access to academic habitus – cracking codes and (2) Emancipation by co-learning – extended academic codes. It was found that students participating in study groups created on Facebook learnt to better crack and extend the codes extant in university studies. © 2015 Taylor & Francis

A number of studies have been organised in Sweden, internationally on students ́ reading skills. IEA has organised the Six Subject Survey Study in 1970, the Reading Literacy Study in 1991 and PIRLS in 2001. The OECD has organised the PISA studies in 2000 and 2003.

There have also been a number of studies undertaken only in Sweden. The Swedish National Agency for Education has published evaluation reports, covering the years 1992, 1995 and 2003, in which reading skills have been included. Karin Taube has been the project leader for a number of studies in different Swedish municipalities. These projects include testing of reading skills of all students in grade 3 in Stockholm 1993 –1999 and in grade 8 in Stockholm 1997 –2000.

All these data some published and some not yet published, provide an opportunity to analyse questions related to students ́ reading. The data covers several years from 1970 to 2006 and concerns students in grades 2, 3, 4, 8 and 9. Some of the studies on reading allow comparisons over time. The studies organised within the framework of IEA make it possible to compare students’ reading skills in 1970, 1991 and 2001. The national assessments published by the Swedish National Agency for Education compare reading skills in 1989 (?), 1992, 1995 and 2003. The studies organised in Stockholm allows comparisons over the years 1993 to 1999 in grade 3 and 1997 to 2000 in grade 8. Also the PISA study may contribute, but only with two assessments in 2000 and 2003.

Is it possible to speak about general trends based on the information available from the different studies? What may be the directions of these trends? Have reading skills among children and young people improved or do they read worse now than they used to do? How may changes in reading skills relate to changes in education policy and general changes in society during these years?

The Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) have undergone substantial cultural and social changes due to increased migration from the 1970s onwards. While the Nordic region has become more multicultural in terms of demography, workforces and cultural practices, criticism of multicultural politics has increased. Despite different patterns of immigration in the Nordic countries, they all seem to share growing political tensions with regard to multiculturalism and migration. Many migrants have experiences of racism and discrimination (Eide & Nikunen, 2010:1). In all Nordic countries, right-wing conservative parties have strengthened their position. In Norway and Denmark, such parties have for some time been represented in the Parliament, and in Sweden, the Sweden Democrats came into the Parliament after the 2010 election. This party has on its agenda to reduce the costs for migration and dramatically change the national migration policy. They blame the government for being too permissive and generous. It is against this background the present report is written.

America’s foremost educational philosopher, John Dewey, addressed the question “Why do schools exist” in his seminal work “Democracy and Education”. The title of his book reveals his answer to that question for societies “nominally democratic” but hisexcellent argument takes this answer from the realm of the prerogative to what seems to us to be its social imperative. Dewey sees education as a necessity of social life. “Without this communication of ideas, hopes, expectations, standards, opinions, from those members of society who are passing out of the group life to those who are coming into it, social life could not survive” (Dewey, 1996/1916, p. 3).

Most of the education writers who have addressed the broad purposes for schooling have arrivedwith Dewey at the conclusion that “...democracy is the most important among all the possible philosophical and political sources from which public school purpose can be derived” (Raywid, Tesconi & Warren, 1987, p. 16). We are persuaded that the term democracy –though subject to varied definitions and perceptions –best embodies the collected concepts, beliefs, and values of modern western culture that should comprise the processes and content of compulsory public schooling. We wonder, however, how much ofthe imperative of schooling for democracy actually resides in the conscious deliberations and intentional activities of educational practitioners.

We are currently in the formative stages of an international research collaboration designed to observe schools in a number of European and North American communities to inquire into the perceives purposes and the actual practices of these schools in relation to democracy. We are interested in the convergence of the democratic intention and the practice of democracy in schools –society’s most important institution for social transmission. We have been encouraged by the Swedish curriculum for the compulsory school in which democratic assignment is a national objective. This goal embraces the importance of the practice of democracy in schools and classrooms and we think it encourages Swedish schools (municipalities are responsible for schools in Sweden) to go beyond teaching about democracy to become institutions of a fully participatory nature. We think this democratic assignment is crucially important to increased realization of participatory democracy in centuries old political democracies of North America and Western Europe and vital to the transition of former eastern bloc countries.

Our research project is conceived as a qualitative inquiry into the perceptions of educators (principally school leaders, classroom teachers and teacher students) relative to the ideals of the democratic assignment.

We will use both survey and interview methodologies in uncovering perceptions. In addition, we will use participant observation strategies in selected schools and classrooms to explore the application of stated principles to observed practices in schools and classrooms. We hope to conduct our research in severalcompulsory schools in different communities in each of the participating counties (United States, France, Sweden, United Kingdom and maybe also the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Romania).

Our intention is not to draw generalizable conclusions about schools or school systems in participant countries, but rather to better understand the relationship between intention and practice in selected environments. We hope our research will enable educators to look at their own schools in light of the democratic assignment in an effort to improve practices leading to more democratic schools and eventually more democratic, just, and peaceful societies.

In the Nordic countries and in most western democracies, including the United States, there is a long and strong tradition of teaching aboutdemocracy. The “democratic assignment” for teachers and school leaders in the Swedish schools goes further than teaching about democracy. The Swedish intension is to encourage schools to become democratic organizations with students, teachers, school leaders and others in the school as participating members. We are interested in the relationship between the intention for and experience of democracy in schools. Our theoretical framework is an historical one emphasizing the importance of participatory democracy in school. America’s foremost educational philosopher, John Dewey, sees education as a necessity of social life (Dewey, 1996/1916). Most of the education writers who have addressed the broad purposes for schooling have arrived with Dewey at the conclusion that “...democracy is the most important among all the possible philosophical and political sources from which public school purpose can be derived” (Raywid, Tesconi & Warren, 1987, p. 16). We are persuaded that the term democracy – though subject to varied definitions and perceptions – best embodies the collected concepts, beliefs, and values of modern western culture that should comprise the processes and content of compulsory public schooling. We wonder, however, how much of the imperative of schooling for democracy actually resides in the conscious deliberations and intentional activities of educational practitioners. Furthermore, we are interested in the day-to-day experiences of students and teachers in relation to “participatory democracy”. Our research project is a qualitative inquiry into the perceptions of educators (school leaders, classroom teachers, and students) relative to the ideals of participatory democracy and an ethnographic description of student and teacher class experiences in selected schools and classrooms in the U.S. and Sweden. We use interview methodologies to uncover perceptions and participant observation methods to explore classroom experiences. Our intention is not to draw general conclusions about or make specific comparisons among schools or school systems in participant countries, but rather to try to better understand the relationship between intention and experience in selected environments. We hope our research will enable educators to look at their own schools in light of the democratic assignment in an effort to improve practices leading to more democratic schools and eventually more democratic, just, and peaceful societies. We think our research is relevant today because developing the scientific knowledge base of education in the Nordic countries is not a process going on in isolation from researchers from other countries. We have found that the cooperation between one researcher from Sweden and another from the United States can bring improved perspectives and deeper understanding of schools, their purpose, and the experiences those schools provide for all their constituents.

Studenterna inom lärarutbildningen vid Högskolan i Halmstad skriver under sin sista termin ett examensarbete. Enligt de bedömningskriterier som tillämpas ska examensarbetet vara såväl vetenskapligt som skol- och yrkesrelevant. Examensarbetet bedöms av akademiska lärare och bedömningarna ligger till grund för betygsättningen av examensarbetena. Efter att examensarbetena betygsatts, kommenteras de godkända examensarbetena av personal inom för-, grund och gymnasieskolor, s.k. medreflektörer. I föreliggande paper undersöks ett 50-tal medreflektioner med utgångspunkt från tre frågeställningar: 1. Vad slags reflektioner förmedlas i medreflektörernas texter?; 2. Vilka likheter och skillnader finns mellan medreflektörernas kommentarer och de akademiska bedömningarna?; 3. Ger medreflektörernas verksamhet bidrag till kompetensutveckling och skolutveckling?

The objective of this paper is to describe and discuss the change of discourses in governmental steering documents dealing with the school education of newly arrived in Sweden, and their transformations between 2014 and 2022. This paper is a pilot study within a project focusing on newly arrived students’ learning and assessment processes. We wish to analyze transformations and differences over time and in organizational hierarchy from governmental objectives to municipality realizations. Focusing on steering documents, to begin with, we want to investigate how the parliament, government and governmental agencies did articulate the motivation of their objectives?

Sweden has always been a multicultural and multilingual society to some degree, but in the school's governing documents it was long assumed that Sweden was monocultural and monolingual (Eklund, 2003). Students with other cultural or linguistic backgrounds had to adapt to the students from the majority to achieve success in school. The possibility for pupils with mother tongues other than Swedish receive instruction in their respective languages ​​was introduced in 1966. The obligation for municipalities to offer mother tongue instruction was introduced with the home language reform in 1977. In 1996, the name was changed to mother tongue. The need for study guidance in the mother tongue became more and more articulated and more regulated, especially after 2010. Another adaptation of the school to a changed student composition was the introduction of Swedish as a foreign language, which 1995 changed its name to Swedish as a second language. As a country with a long tradition of immigration and a general reputation of a good standard of social justice and low degree of inequalities Sweden has also got the label of being ‘the consciousness of the world’ (Barry. & Yuill, 2016; Dance, 2006; Svanberg & Tydén, 2005). An educational sector influenced by marketization at least since the late 90-ties, may have changed the preconditions for equality though (Dovemark et al., 2018). Due to the influence of neoliberal policy and a shift from equity and social justice on the education the refugee, asulym-seeking and migrant students is particularly disadvantaged (Devine, 2013; Nilsson Folke, 2017; Pinson, 2020; Taylor, 2008). Previous Swedish research shows that newly arrived students in Swedish schools encounter structural obstacles, for instance teachers’ lower expectations, otherising, and a deficiency perspective. Overall, the difficulties and opportunities the current system entails seems to lead to greater exclusion (Bunar, 2010; Gruber, 2007; Nilsson Folke, 2017; Sharif, 2017).

A societal inclusion of migrants though is an important aspect shaping an equal society. Immigrant families and people with lower education have difficulties entering the labor market. 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 (Lindblad 2016; Pinson, 2020). 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.

During the years 2014-2022, the Swedish government has revised legislation aiming at strengthening newly arrived students’ possibilities to accomplish the objectives of the education.  Against this background we think it is of interest to investigate which differences can be detected between 2014 and 2022 in regard to newly arrived students’ success in the educational system.

Method: 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. As a starting 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. Guiding questions have been on concepts used for migrants and newly arrived students as well as the organization of their education. Questions asked are for instance: which kind of educational obstacles seemed to be identified as relevant and which kind of different solutions are presented during the years. The coding process is inspired by Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 1993, Fairclough 2013) and based on our theoretical frame on education which is imbedded in Bourdieu’s praxeology (Bourdieu 1998). 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.

Expected Outcomes: We expect following years being indicators for differences on the timeline: 2015 with the emigrant movement and about 70000 new students in Swedish schools in short notice; new legislation for newly arrived students in 2016 and 2018 followed by a new law on migration in 2021. We do also suppose different discourses on governmental and municipality level. The main differences, we assume, are to be found in different contexts which affect the term-level: whereas 2014 (Prop. 2014/15:45) the governmental intention seemed to center integration, later we perceive a greater focus on language training questions and organization. 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.

Mid Sweden University and Kalmar University have organised studies on reading skills among students in grade 8 in Ekerö, Härnösand, Kristianstad, Nacka, Sollentuna and Tyresö. These studies have included a reading test and a questionnaire where the students have been asked to give information about themselves, their schooling and their motivation. Some of the questions have dealt with the students feeling of well-being in relation to their schools, the school work and their class mates. This data is analysed from the perspective of how students’ well-being and reading test results relate to each other. The data is also further analysed from a perspective of gender, students’ mother tongue and ethnical background.

Researchers from Mid Sweden University and Kalmar University organised surveys on reading skills in Swedish municipalities. This paper will focus on the surveys made in four municipalities between 2002 and 2007. All students in grade 8 in these four municipalities participated in the surveys-in total 16, 287 students. These surveys included a reading test for the students and information about the students collected from the teachers, including participation in instruction in Swedish as a second language and in their mother tongues. Students of immigrant origin in Sweden are offered the possibility to participate in instruction in Swedish as a second language and in instruction in the student's mother tongue. No obvious trends over time in the participation in Swedish as a second language and mother tongue instruction were found in the four municipalities on the tests we gave, in spite of national trends. There was no difference in results on the reading tests in Swedish between those students who participated in mother tongue instruction and those who did not, but there was a difference in test results between those who participated in Swedish as a second language and those who did not. Those who did not participate (in Swedish as a second language instruction) did, on average, score higher on the test. When different language groups are compared, it can be noted that a majority in all groups of immigrant students neither participate in Swedish as a second language nor in mother tongue instruction. However, there are important differences between boys and girls and between language groups. Girls seemed to be more willing than boys to participate in voluntary mother tongue instruction, while boys more often than girls had to participate in compulsory lessons in Swedish as a second language.

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.

Today's youth spend a lot of time on the Internet where they meet a multimodal world. The focus in the present study has been on the skills and abilities needed for on-line reading. This study explores reading on the Internet, with pairs of Swedish students aged 10 and 15. The pairs completed tasks on the Internet and these sessions were video-taped. Five main categories of skills and abilities were found: traditional literacy, multimodal literacy, path-finding, IT abilities, and information abilities. The results support earlier research in the field at large, and also add to the literature on on-line reading, in areas such as the crucial need for the ability to spell and knowing web address conventions in English. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

This evaluation is a part of the project “Integrating Refugee and Asylum-seeking Children in the Educational Systems of EU Member States: Evaluation and Promotion of Current Best Practices” (INTEGRACE). The main objective of the INTEGRACE project is to promote the educational integration of refugee and asylum-seeking children (RASC) in the EU by developing common standards and sharing best practices in policies and programmes development and evaluation,   with a specific focus on the needs of vulnerable groups (e.g. children who have been victims of crime, unaccompanied children).

The main purpose of this evaluation of best practices concerning refugee and asylum-seeking children (RASC) will be “[...] to analyze to what extent and under what conditions, these practices could be replicated in a different context.” The principle aim of this evaluation and of the SIA to be conducted in Slovenia and Bulgaria will be to assess the possibility of replication and the social impacts of the eventual implementation of a practice which has already been identified and evaluated as a good one in some of the old member states of EU.

The aim of the conducted evaluation is to facilitate the transfer of knowledge from old to new EU member States, thereby allowing the latter to deal more effectively with the their new migration situation. Furthermore, the evaluation at hand will provide the grounds for developing a common EU framework to addressing the educational needs of RASC in the near future.

In the Swedish country report a number of so-called best practices aimed for RASC were described. Based on responses and discussions with the partner in Slovenia, a case was chosen on the implementation of the “General recommendations for newly arrived pupils” in three schools in Bollnäs, a municipality, located in the middle of Sweden.

This report, will therefore analyse in detail how these “General recommendations” are implemented into the Swedish school system in light of an evaluation conducted by the authority The Schools Inspectorate (SI), but also provide the reader with a short note on the reasons for the Swedish National Agency for Education to formulate these recommendations concerning education for newcomers.

The concept “newly arrived” refers, according to the “General recommendations”, to compulsory, special, upper secondary or special upper secondary school children or youth who arrive in Sweden near the beginning of or during a specific school year. They are not native speakers of Swedish and are as a rule unable to speak or understand Swedish; finding themselves in Sweden on different terms and under different circumstances. Many have a permanent residence permit already upon arrival. Others have obtained a residence permit after a long wait in a refugee camp or lodging with acquaintances. Some are asylum seekers. Of the latter group, most have arrived with their parents, whereas others are unaccompanied and have no legal guardian. Some arrive based on their connections to refugees with a residence permit. Others have come after a parent has married a Swedish citizen. Still others are in hiding in the hope of revision of a previously denied asylum application. Finally, some are so-called paperless children – children or youth present in Sweden who have not applied for a residence permit and who are, thus, not registered with the Migration Board. A child or an adolescent coming to school may, thus, have arrived directly from another country or may have been present in Sweden for a shorter or longer period of time. Thus, being “newly arrived” may mean being new to the school but previously present in Sweden, in some cases having learned Swedish to some extent.4 In other  words, behind the term “newly arrived” we find a vast range of children where refugee and asylumseeking children (RASC) are also included. 

Sedan 1993 har Karin Taube i samarbete med ett antal kommuner genomfört en rad läsundersökningsprojekt. Sådana undersökningar har bl.a. genomförts i Stockholms kommun, i kommunerna Täby, Sollentuna, Upplands Väsby, Tyresö samt Ekerö. Under hösten 2004 har en överenskommelse gjorts att genomföra en liknande undersökning under 2005 i skolår 8 i Härnösands kommun.

Läsning är en central färdighet av betydelse för elevernas fortsatta skolgång och för deras möjligheter att lyckas på arbetsmarknaden. Utifrån detta perspektiv har flera kommuner bedömt det som mycket viktigt att utvärdera och noggrant följa upp hur elevernas läsfärdigheter i kommunen utvecklas. De läsundersökningar som genomförts har gett de deltagande kommunerna en möjlighet att följa hur elevernas läsfärdighet ser ut i kommunen samtidigt som resultaten har kunnat jämföras med andra kommuner. Genom att de lästest som har använts i de olika undersökningarna bygger på det internationellt utprövade testet som användes i den stora internationella undersökningen IEA Reading Literacy 1991 har också en jämförelse kunnat göras med ett nationellt urval av elever som deltog i denna undersökning.

Insamlade data har också kunnat användas för vidare analyser. Utifrån de insamlade data har ett antal specialstudier genomförts kring läsning bland elever med invandrarbakgrund, åldersblandade klasser och användning av olika läsinlärningsmetoder. Planer finns på fler studier som bygger på insamlade data. På detta sätt har undersökningarna fyllt det dubbla syftet att både ge kommunerna kunskap om läsfärdigheter bland kommunens elever och att ge forskarna en möjlighet till fördjupade analyser kring läsning och därmed relaterade frågor.