Åsa Wedin

Dalarna University · School of Languages and Media Studies

The aim of this study is to shed light on discourses in national assessment material for recently arrived students and discourses about students' knowledge as they emerge from teachers’ use of the national assessment material for newly arrived students. The empirical material consists of assessment material for five students, two with little or no...

This special issue draws attention to literacy and basic literacy education for adult and adolescent migrants with limited or no previous school background, who are learning a second language. This introduction addresses issues closely related to literacy education for this group of migrants, namely human mobility and immobility, including both hor...

In this article, we study space for multiliteracies in basic literacy education for adult second language learners of Swedish for Immigrants (SFI). The teaching observed was categorised as translanguaging pedagogy, and the study was part of an action research project with Linguistic Ethnography as the methodological framework. The material used com...

This article investigates discourses about basic literacy learning for adult second language learners in the program Swedish for Immigrants (SFI), study path one, which is for students with little or no prior schooling. The study has its theoretical basis in nexus analysis, which here means that literacy education is studied as a social act through...

In this article, the professional role of teachers in Swedish as a second language (SSL) is explored. The study builds on interviews with six highly qualified SSL teachers. The content analysis of data focuses on what SSL teachers say about their professional identity; what opportunities there are for them to develop agency; and what changes they b...

I denna artikel undersöks möjligheter och utmaningar vad gäller att utveckla kritisk litteracitet för vuxna som deltar i sfi, studieväg 1. Artikeln bygger på intervjuer av fyra sfi-lärare och observationer av deras undervisning, inom ramen för ett aktionsforskningsprojekt där fokus var på kritisk litteracitet. Luke och Freebodys skriftspråkliga pra...

This article sets out to examine teacher perceptions of letter learning in literacy programmes for L2-adults with limited earlier schooling, as demonstrated in their teaching. The theoretical frame is taken from New Literacy Studies, with literacy perceived as socially shared and organised. The study draws on occasions during lesson observations wh...

I denna artikel studeras användning av Skolverkets kartläggningsmaterial för nyanlända elever på Språkintroduktionsprogrammet. Studien bygger på innehållsanalys av material i form av kartläggningsdokument, individuella studieplaner (ISP) och betyg från en skola, med användning av det teoretiska begreppet funds of knowledge. Analysen bekräftar tidig...

The aim of this article is to study the space for multilingualism and multiliteracy in the development of literacy skills through critical literacy in Swedish for Immigrants. The focus is on adult second language learners (L2 learners) with low education and Hornberger’s continua of biliteracy is used for the analysis of material from classroom obs...

This article focuses on the role of the Swedish as a second language (SSL) teacher in the Language Introduction Programme (LIP) in secondary schools in Sweden. Policy analysis is used, with policy comprising of three closely intertwined layers: declared, perceived and practised. The material used consists of official documents, interviews with teac...

This Special Issue focuses on Swedish as a second language (SSL), which is the subject where second language students (L2 students) in Sweden, in primary and secondary school and in adult education, receive teaching in Swedish [...]

In this article, focus is on students’ oral production in two classrooms in Swedish for immigrants (SFI). The study focuses on practices with interaction patterns where students are involved in negotiation of meaning. Theoretical basis is the importance of interpersonal interaction for language development, with a focus on students’ use of varied s...

In this chapter focus is on writing in education for L2-students, with specific focus on the role of writing and on strategies that involve multilingual and multimodal resources. The chapter draws on material created through observations of lessons together with stimulated-recall interviews and analysed through Hornberger’s continua of biliteracy....

The aim of this paper is to trace students’ multilingualism and agency in the schoolscape of the Language Introduction Programme (LIP) in one Swedish upper secondary school. Through linguistic schoolscaping, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of LIP. The schoolscape is analysed as reconstructions of photographs of displayed images, obj...

Här riktas intresset mot villkor för en likvärdig utbildning på Språkintroduktionsprogrammet, vilket undersöks med fokus på rektorers och lärares aktörskap, kompetens och yrkesroller. Studien bygger på en innehållsanalys av nationell utbildningspolicy samt rektor- och lärarutbildning. Genom en policyanalys med fokus på process genom styrdokumentens...

This article investigates to what extent spaces created in the language introduction programme (LIP) in Upper Secondary School in Sweden close or open up for students’ varied linguistic resources, to create an understanding of the implementational spaces of the educational environments that the school represents, and of the ideological underpinning...

The aim of this article is to generate knowledge about language ideologies in teacher education in Sweden from a critical perspective. In order to achieve an equal education, we argue that it is important that teachers are able to develop an approach and pedagogy that can support all pupils despite their linguistic background to achieve the goals i...

Syftet med denna artikel är att skapa kunskap om litteracitetspraktiker hos elever med kort eller ingen tidigare skolbakgrund inom svenska för invandrare. Med utgångspunkt i New Literacy Studies studeras elevernas tal om händelser, färdigheter och strategier som aktualiseras för dem i deras vardagsliv. Nio elever deltog i intervjuer som utgick från...

This study aims to investigate how the educational and linguistic backgrounds of teachers affect how they are positioned and how they position themselves in relation to their profession in a language introduction programme at upper secondary school in Sweden. Material from two years of study at one school was used to conduct a nexus analysis. The m...

This article is aimed to demonstrate how language policy at the local school level may create space for translanguaging. Focus is on a Mother Tongue (MT) classroom for Somali in a primary school in Sweden by way of an analysis of layers of language policy, with focus on spatial aspects. The empirical material consists of policy documents, inte...

The aim for this article is to investigate how languaging in mathematics classrooms for recently arrived students may or may not support students’ development of mathematics language and thinking. The study builds on classroom observations with four teachers in upper secondary school in Sweden, and the analysis is based on languaging as a source of...

This article explores how recently arrived students are positioned and position themselves in the Language Introduction Programme in upper secondary school in Sweden using a combination of position theory with nexus analysis. The material used consists of official national documents and local school documents, observations, interviews and photograp...

This article analyses the knowledge about linguistic and cultural diversity that is delineated in the syllabi of teacher education programmes for pre-, primary and secondary schools at two Swedish universities. A quantitative search for 14 chosen keywords preceded a closer analysis of the concepts *language* and *cultur*, when using truncation, in...

The aim of this article is to generate knowledge about an MTT classroom in a Swedish elementary school and how MTT is positioned as a safe space for translanguaging. By studying a school context as a potential translanguaging space, our focus is mainly on two dimensions of space: the physical, including the material space of MTT, and the social, in...

Pipils in the Language Introduction programmes in upper secondary schools in Sweden are required to develop reading skills to be admitted to national programmes. This study focuses on perceptions of reading and reading instruction among teachers in Swedish as a second language. The empirical material consists of interviews with five teachers. The i...

I artikeln undersöks pedagogiska, språkliga och kulturella aspekter av studie-handledning på modersmålet för att uppmärksamma frågor om likvärdighet och social rättvisa i grundskolan. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten tas i Bhabhas begrepp tredje rummet samt i en dynamisk syn på flerspråkighet genom begreppet transspråkande. Artikeln bygger på intervju...

In this article images of and narratives about a specific homeland, heritage and culture in Mother Tongue Tuition (MTT) in Sweden are analyzed in order to discuss if and how the MTT classroom is constructed as a transnational space. In the Swedish context, MTT is a voluntary school subject with the aim to support students to develop knowledge in an...

This article draws on the case of the writing of one boy in grade four and five, to examine multilingual school policy in the classroom, in the form of attitudes and practices, which support students’ identities by affirming their diverse languages and offering spaces for identity negotiation. The case of Jirka negotiating different identities thro...

In this article focus is directed towards Study Guidance in the Mother Tongue (SGMT) and SGMT tutors’ professional roles in Swedish compulsory school. The aim is to study how SGMT tutors are positioned and position themselves in relation to official documents and other actors in school. Questions that are illuminated in the article deal with forms...

This article focuses on verbal interaction in whole class teaching in second language education for adults in Sweden. The article draws on theories treating language as multiple resources that are situated and embedded in material life, and including complex and diverse linguistic, semiotic, physical material and social resources. The material for...

This article highlights the use and co-construction of language learning strategies (LLS) in second language education for adults with short previous education. In a case study, we explore how LLS are used and co-constructed by one student and one teacher. The data for the article was created in an action research programme comprising two Swedish f...

In this article, relations between agency and literacy are analysed focussing on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children’s literacies. A dialogic perspective on agency is used, with agency defined as dynamic, and with attention paid to the parameters time, culture, semiotic resources, and physical space and position. The material used for the analysi...

Due to migration, Swedish pre-schools are linguistically and culturally diverse settings where approximately one in five children is bi-/multilingual. Hence, pre-school teachers work in a diverse landscape in which they are expected to support the multilingual and multicultural development of the children. The aim of this article is to analyze the...

In this article, language policy is analysed in relation to multilingual practices in primary school through an understanding of the policy on different levels – as management, perception and practice. The article is based on longitudinal ethnographic action research that was conducted parallel to local school development. Here we draw on material...

This article discusses teachers’ attitudes towards immigrant students in poor settings and the effect these attitudes have on organization of education on classroom level. It draws on results from two ethnographic studies where some primary school classes in Sweden were followed with participant observation and interviews as main research methods....

This chapter discusses effects of monolingual educational policies in a multilingual setting, with the case of Karagwe in rural Tanzania as an example. The discussion is based on an ethnographic study on literacy practices carried out between 2000 and 2003. The results show that the policy of Swahili-only in primary school favors the minority of th...

This paper aims to show how letters, as a genre of literacy, are used in Karagwe in Tanzania, in relation to authority and secrecy. It is shown that literacy, in the form of letters, plays an important role in the negotiation of authority. Authorities as well as ordinary people use letters according to official norms to claim or manifest authority,...

Increased immigration in Europe and worldwide has led to more pre- and primary school students being educated through the medium of a second language, and there is considerable research, much of it coming from Australia, to suggest that in order to cope with this situation, children will need to begin to acquire, from their earliest years in pre-sc...

This article is based on results from a baseline study for an intended intervention project in bilingual-intercultural education in the Municipality of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, in the Department of San Marcos, Guatemala. To a great extent the article deals with issues of bilingual education from the perspective of social justice. It analyses the vari...

The focus of this article is on relations between classroom interaction, curricular knowledge and student engagement in diverse classrooms. It is based on a study with ethnographic perspective in which two primary school classes in Sweden were followed for three years. The analysis draws on Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics. The results in...

This paper discusses interactional patterns in classrooms in primary school in rural Tanzania, based on an ethnographic study on literacy practices. The paper argues that the official policy of Swahili-only in primary school, together with the huge gap between high expectations on educational outcome and lack of resources, have resulted in the crea...

In this paper it is claimed that the relation between literacy and power is complex. What people do with literacy has effects on power relations but literacy is not democratic per se. Drawing from two cases from Tanzania and Rwanda it is argued that plans for adult education and literacy education should consider the perspectives of target groups....

PANA V Evaluation of a Literacy Project SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS This evaluation set out to explore the impact of the literacy work carried out through PANA V. It focussed on clarifying effects such as empowerment and poverty reduction in relation to the civil society. Two specific objectives were to evaluate the methodological approach and the dida...

Abstract In this article I argue that literacy, as an aspect of language, is closely related to power. With the example of Karagwe, I show that different literacy practices relate differently to power. In Karagwe dominant literacies, that are officially prescribed and standardised, have a main function to sort people and maintain authority. As they...

I denna artikel argumenterar jag för att etnografisk lingvistik erbjuder ett perspektiv att studera undervisning i sitt sociala och kulturella sammanhang. Med exempel från min skolforskning i Karagwe, Tanzania, visar jag hur ett fenomen i klassrumsinteraktionen har negativ effekt på elevernas inlärande genom att dölja deras verkliga kunskap, eller...

In this article I argue that language policies for education have effects on pupils’ educational possibilities. With the case of Karagwe district in Tanzania I have found that the case of “Swahili only” in primary school education favours the small minority of the children that live in a context where Swahili is used. This leads to inequality in pu...

Abstract LITERACY AND POWER IN TANZANIA AND SWEDEN In my research I focus on literacy as a socially and culturally situated practise. This perspective on literacy has been mainly developed within an ethnographic research framework, both to contest and to complement the more traditional psychological and cognitive approaches which have been prominen...

This study has investigated the question of relation between literacy practices in and out of school in rural Tanzania. By using the perspective of linguistic anthropology, literacy practices in five villages in Karagwe district in the northwest of Tanzania have been analysed. The outcome may be used as a basis for educational planning and literacy...

The most fundamental skill to be learnt in school is literacy. In my study I focus on literacy as a socially and culturally situated practise. This perspective on literacy has been mainly developed within an ethnographic research framework, both to contest and to complement the more traditional psychological and cognitive approaches which have been...