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 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.

This thesis deals with the recent discourse about Hittite ritual and religion and assumes an alternative approach. It analyses how the most important researchers in the fields of Hittitology and History of Religions, who have been working with Hittite rituals and religion, describe and explain the rituals. Their implicit or explicit theories underlying the discourse are explored. The restraining effects of these theories on the treatment of the text material are discussed. The study examines the hypothesis that the evolutionistic approach to ritual and religion is still alive and that a different theoretical strategy showing the necessity to make theory explicit is needed. An historical anthropological view is applied based on Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice. This theory is used both to analyse the recent discourse and the Hittite text material. Three so-called “magic” rituals are presented and interpreted with the focus on the relationships between humans and gods. The Thesis elaborates on how the space is ritualised and relationships between all ritual figures, i.e. humans, animals, deities, and things, are shaped and hierarchized. By using the strategy of Historical Anthropology of Religions and by focusing on the interactions of human beings instead of the heavenly realm of gods, this thesis offers a perspective for clarifying the ritual dynamics.

Historical research, especially research without clear genealogical bonds to contemporary world religions seems to be on the way out of the national curricula in Sweden, both in secondary school and at the universities. The new national guidelines for the secondary school, decided by the government 2010, show this clearly. This situation diverges greatly from the curriculums just 30-40 years ago where the proportions have been nearly the opposite. This study aims to investigate this difference to “former times” more closely.

Material for this study is selected textbooks for the secondary school and the national curriculums from different époques. The method is both qualitative and quantitative. How much space takes the past compared to the present? Which past is represented, what are the main themes? Is there an argument for the selection? Are the past and the people of the past treated differently than present religions? The theoretical point of departure is inspired from anthropological research about race, ethnicity and religion, looking for implicit and explicit valuations of religions and peoples from former times, trying to outline the differences over time.

The analysis of the national curricula raises questions of education politics and the role of past religions within it. Have there been power-shifts of minority and majority groups? This would be interesting for further investigations both in comparison to other countries as to other objects like the department of history.

This paper aims to investigate the tensions between “religion at home”, local cults and Empire religion with a starting point of the cult of the matrons - figurines located both in domestic and public contexts. The material used are altar stone reliefs and terracotta figurines of the matrons from the northwestern Roman provinces during the Empire period focusing on terracotta figurines in order to illuminate the domestic contexts. The sources are connected to temples, roads and houses; most of them in urban regions; in spite of the multipresence in practice there is no evidence in any written literature though. Public altar stone reliefs are most often treated as dedications, sometimes as “do ut des- magic” with its problems of the old fashioned evolutionary approach. What about the domestic contexts? In what way may interpretations of the domestic ritual actions help us to reevaluate the complex and multifaceted cult of the matrons looking at sources as an entity? Connecting public and domestic acts of ritualization hopefully contributes to a more appropriate analysis both of the diversity and the consistency of the imaginative knowledge. Theories and methods of the paper are inspired by visual arts as part of a material culture highlighting socio-cultural dimensions of the Empire time trying to look beyond concepts of deities as the main matter of religious encounters.

This paper aims to investigate how nature in its widest sense is conceptualized and arranged in “crisis” rituals. There are basically two distinct groups of Hittite ritual texts, categorized by the sumerograms EZEN on the one hand and SISKUR on the other. EZEN, translated to feast or festival, are well elaborated rituals carried out during a couple of days and it is common that the royal family is involved in them. Integrated into these kinds of rituals are often myths, for example the myths of vanishing gods. The feast texts have been investigated as responses to natural disasters such as draught or stunted growth, or to the annual cycle of growing problems, within both the human and divine world. The role of nature has here been quite well observed and seems to be obvious. In contrast to the festivals are the SISKUR rituals, translated as “offering”, shorter, they request less personnel and appeared to be carried out for more occasional reasons like impotence or regulation of a quarrel and the themes of nature are not as frequent discussed in this context. These rituals handle some type of crises in its widest sense: something has happened and must be handled which is also the Hittite term for this ritual type, aniur, “a task”.  The presence of nature is not as evident as in the festivals, but the rituals are interesting because they reflect more everyday occurrences.  A textual analysis of typical examples of SISKUR will be the base for interpretation from a perspective of historical anthropology.  Which kind of nature is it ritualized? Which kind of metaphors, symbols and materializations are used and in which role are they enacted compared to “not nature”-objects? Which kind of discourses can be detected in ritual action? How is the cosmic, vegetative, terrestrial, and human nature combined? The aim is that the findings will contribute to a wider comprehension of the enacted nature within the Hittite society. 

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.

RE in Sweden is compulsory from the first to the last grade, focused on world-religions and ethics, and founded on the idea of progression. From grade 7-9 the concept of world religions is combined with life question and worldview-issues. We wonder if that changes the concept. In recent syllabuses changes for upper secondary classes, religion has explicitly to be related to gender, socioeconomic background, ethnicity and sexuality, which is formulated in a functional way. This puts the question of intersections of concepts on the edge. Teaching reality is confronted by oblivion and demotivation, perhaps because of progression and concept problems also recognizable in public debates revealing religious illiteracy. It is our ambition to question categories beginning with empirical material from religions not fitting in the world-religions-paradigm. Hereby we apply a perspective of historical anthropology of religion thus emphasizing theory in a critical way. This perspective aids to develop both the knowledge and competence of diversity that is seen as a fundamental value in the curricula as well as in the syllabus in RE. Furthermore, this is emphasized in formulations that students should act with responsibility in a nuanced way to religion in relation to themselves and the surrounding society. Also, this connects well to the concept of active citizenship that nowadays focus more often on the importance of citizens knowledge and that the students should develop a critically reflective citizenship and that they may actively participate in a democratic society. As we see it this is urgent to address since RE could be an important arena for discussions where education and knowledge intertwine.