Multilingual students in a monolingual student norm. This article examines how students of Swedish as a second language are constructed as a category and positioned as subjects in education policies. The aim of the article is to analyze the steering documents with a focus on discourses that emerge in the material which construct the category of students of Swedish as a second language in contrast to the students studying Swedish. The result shows that the category students of Swedish as a second language are constructed as students; with another origin, in need of a specific instruction, responsible for their inadequacy in Swedish and in need of the Swedish language. Students studying Swedish and students of Swedish as a second language are, as categories, constructed as opposites and dichotomies. The Swedish school subject and its’ students are constructions based on a homogenous monolingual norm to which the student of Swedish as a second language are compared and categorized as deviant with reference to culture, language and needs.

I denna artikel undersöks hur studenter på förskollärarutbildningen vid Göteborgs universitet beskriver sina förväntningar på och upplevelser av den akademiska utbildningen. Med bakgrund i skrivningar och riktlinjer kring breddad rekrytering och breddat deltagande är frågan om akademisk kultur och akademiskt innanförskap aktuell, mer sällan har dock ett studentperspektiv beaktats. Förskollärarprogrammet är en av de utbildningar där studenter kommer från studieovana hem, vilket innebär att de utgör en underrepresenterad grupp sett till hela sektorn högre utbildning. Artikeln bygger på en mindre intervjustudie med sju studenter som vid tillfället läste sin sista termin på förskollärarutbildningen. Resultaten visar att studenterna har haft yrkets praktiska delar som sin utgångspunkt vid valet till förskollärare och inte förväntat sig en så teoretisk utbildning. Studenterna beskriver de moment i utbildningen som förutsätter akademisk litteracitet, såsom att läsa vetenskaplig text och skriva akademiskt, som utmanande. Vidare beskriver studenterna att kraven från utbildningens sida är otydliga och skiljer sig åt mellan kurser. Studenterna positionerar sig främst som praktiker, både i relation till yrket och till utbildningen som förskollärare. ENGLISH ABSTRACT “I have better practical skills.” Pre-school teacher students’ perspective on the academic education This article examines how students in preschool teacher education at the University of Gothenburg describe their expectations and experiences of academic education. Based on guidelines and policies concerning widening recruitment and widening participation the question of academic culture and academic inclusion is relevant. However, in this respect, a student perspective has more rarely been considered. The preschool teacher education is one of the educations where the student group comes from homes unaccustomed to studying, which means that they are an under-represented group in relation to the entire higher education sector. The article is based on a small interview study with seven students who were currently studying their last semester of preschool teacher education. The results show that the students have had the practical parts of the profession as their starting point in the choice of becoming preschool teachers and did not expect such a theoretical education. The students describe the parts of the education that require academic literacy, such as reading scientific text and writing academically, as challenging. Furthermore, the students describe that the requirements from the education are unclear and differ between courses. The students position themselves primarily as practitioners, both in relation to the profession and to the education as preschool teachers.