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The aim of this article is to critically examine ideas about language and integration in a non-governmental integration programme targeting parents of small children in Sweden. Through ethnographic and netnographic fieldwork of parenting experiences it is revealed that monolingual ideologies conflate with iconic figures reproducing and reinforcing language norms. Some parents – i.e. non-white non-Swedish speaking – are made into ‘language projects’ when the white Swedish parents take on the role of the ‘integration teacher’ acting as language and parenting role models. The Others' multilingualism is celebrated from within Swedishness, with multilingualism treated as a commodity. This contrasts with the risk of loss - experience of multilingualism by parents with migration background. The inscription of the harms of segregated society on non-white, non-Swedish mothers shows the powerful mechanisms obscuring that integration initiatives operate from monolingual norms within a neoliberal workfare model which creates programs which have unintended effects.

This article explores educational support practices during workplace-based learning in upper secondary apprenticeship education in Sweden. Many students in need of educational support attend upper secondary VET, but how they are supported in relation to workplace-based learning has not been investigated in any extensive way. 15 semi-structured interviews with upper secondary VET-school personnel were conducted. Through the use of concepts from the theory of practice architectures three different support projects embedded within three practices were identified: a workplace socialization project; a qualification project; and a social-pedagogical project. These support practices were conditioned by how students were viewed; the allocation of resources at the local schools, and the schools’ possibilities to influence the workplaces. The study concludes that support for workplace-based learning is shaped as a one-sided responsibility falling on the schools. Although apprenticeship education might fit some students in need of support, many of them are left without any support during the workplace-based learning part.

At some upper secondary schools in Sweden, newly arrived migrant youths can attend vocational courses while studying in the language introduction programme. The teaching practices in relation to language learning for newly arrived migrant students in this kind of school-based VET and how these practices are conditioned are investigated in the article. Eight VET-teachers were interviewed, and the narratives were analyzed using concepts from the theory of practice architectures. Three teaching practices in relation to language learning were identified within the broader project of teaching newly arrived students in VET: i) Swedish language first, ii) second language learning-in-action, and iii) joint VET and second language teaching. These practices were in turn connected to three different approaches to language learning in VET: language learning understood as a) segregated skills instruction, b) as happening ‘naturally’ while participating in VET-practice, c) integrated in VET but requiring explicit instruction and daily interaction with Swedish-speaking students. A conclusion drawn from the study is that newly arrived migrant students are provided unequal opportunities for development of vocational knowing and language competences in Swedish upper secondary schools depending on local conditions. The results also show how economic resources and support from school-leaders provides conditions for re-shaping teaching practices.