The becoming of a Swedish preschool child? Migrant children and everyday nationalism

Abstract

The article examines how migrant children in Sweden are fostered to become 'Swedish' in a preschool setting aiming to integrate them and their families into the Swedish society. The analysis, where Bernstein's (1971Bernstein's ( , 2000 concepts of classification, framing, and reconceptualization are used, shows how the children are fostered against a background of everyday nationalism, produced in preschool curriculum, recontextualized in the talk of the educators and reproduced in everyday routines in the preschool setting. The analysis also shows how the image of the rich and competent child, emphasized in Swedish policy documents and the national child centred pedagogy, does not apply to children constructed as the 'other'. Instead, a controlled pedagogy aiming to compensate for something perceived as lacking in the children is legitimized.

Introductory classesfor newcomer primary school students in Sweden: Pedagogical principles and emotional understanding

“…Although the focus on Swedish language learning and the challenges of ICs are in line with previous research, the current findings form an inner logic of the pedagogic discourse and practice (Bernstein, 1990) that differs considerably from previous results. We find that the observed and recounted multilingual and emotional support -not previously reported on in studies on ICs for young students (e.g., Åkerblom & Harju, 2019;Cekaite & Björk-Willén, 2013;Cekaite & Evaldsson, 2008;Evaldsson & Cekaite, 2010) -was contingent upon the IC teachers' linguistic, pedagogical, emotional and collaborative competences, as well as their long-term experiences with teaching newcomer migrant students. In addition to these collaborative practice-specific multi-competences, the school's language ecology afforded the migrant students' opportunity to draw upon their linguistic resources with peers and teachers, and, importantly, with the support of school management (cf.…”

“…A previous project involving two introductory primary school settings (e.g., Cekaite & Björk-Willén, 2013;Cekaite & Evaldsson, 2008;Evaldsson & Cekaite, 2010), resulted, however, in detailed accounts of student interaction, displaying how these settings were guided by a monolingual Swedish language norm. This was also confirmed by a study from a preschool 3 setting (Åkerblom & Harju, 2019), which may be indicative of how educational institutions at large tend to be guided by a monolingual habitus (Gogolin, 1994;cf. Jaspers, 2015).…”

“…Jaspers, 2015). Åkerblom and Harju (2019) found that the migrant students were fostered 'to become "Swedish"' on the basis of 'an everyday nationalism ' (p. 1), and that the prevailing pedagogy was aiming to 'compensate for something perceived as lacking' (p. 1). Obondo's (2018) interview study of IC teachers in both primary and secondary schools provides additional examples from this pedagogical practice, where teachers reported a focus on teaching basic knowledge of Swedish language and culture.…”

“…As a first step, we believe it important for such studies to be based in educational settings with substantial experience with new migrant students, as such sites serve as the initial socialization in the context of education in the new country (cf. Åkerblom & Harju, 2019). Our conviction is that analyses of experienced teachers' practices in one diverse setting may be relevant in others, even outside of Sweden 2 .…”

Children’s education in ‘good’ nature: Perceptions of activities in nature spaces in mobile preschools

“…The results here, as well as from previous studies on mobile preschools (Gustafson et al, 2017), show that the purpose of the education seems to differ depending on who is to be educated and why. The compensatory ideas are especially vivid when it comes to migrant children who live in multi-ethnic neighbourhoods, which is line with other studies (Åkerblom and Harju, 2019;Jordt Jörgensen and Martiny-Bruun, 2019) that show that the image of the competent child brought forward in the Nordic countries, for example, in the preschool curriculum, clashes with views on what migrant children need. Education in nature aiming at freedom and agency seems thus more reserved for children who already have the right kind of cultural background and language, while the 'other' children seem to receive an education aiming to compensate for something perceived as missing -the 'right' kind of capital regarding 'nature'.…”