Debating the Practice of Separate Plurilingual Programs in Norwegian Schools From a Spatial Perspective (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Inclusive Education, 2014
This article offers an analysis of four Norwegian policy documents on inclusion of minority language pupils. The main concepts of this policy will be reconstructed and re-described, applying Niklas Luhmann's systems theory at different levels of the analysis. Luhmann's theory about society as a conglomerate of selfreferential social systems investigates how these systems construct meaning and what consequences these constructions have for inclusion and exclusion processes. This article will focus on the Norwegian educational policy towards minority language pupils, defined by the policy as pupils who have a different mother tongue than Norwegian and Sami language. It is argued that this inclusion policy is excluding in its social form, and that it exhibits an increased emphasis on education when it comes to inclusion in society. Re-descriptions based on logic of forms will show how binary distinctions such as 'inclusion/ exclusion', 'majority language pupil/minority language pupil' and 'early intervention/wait and see' emerge in the timespan of 2004-2012. Based on this, it is claimed that descriptions of inclusion and exclusion are mutually constituted in the policy, thus giving rise to the question of whether the policy goal-'full' inclusion in society-is realisable. A paradox will be uncovered: minority language pupils are being included as excluded as well as excluded as included in the documents, displaying how inclusion and exclusion are two sides of the same coin. The strategy early intervention is introduced to remedy exclusions, thus converting the problem of inclusion into a problem of time.
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Through a cross-national analysis of Iceland and Sweden, we investigate How are the two countries’ national and local educational systems ensuring access to education and social inclusion of immigrants and refugees? How do immigrant and refugee students talk about their agency in their classrooms, schools, and peer communities in rural contexts? Our analysis builds on fieldwork including classroom observations and interviews with immigrants (Iceland) and refugees (Sweden) aged 12–16 years, their teachers, and school principals, in four compulsory schools. The concept of ecology of equity is used to investigate power relations with regard to place and agency. The analysis also includes investigation of the politics of the teaching profession in response to students’ diversity. Findings show that although some students describe that they do not feel “othered,” the majority, especially refugee students in Sweden, do feel excluded from their peers. The Icelandic and Swedish rural school...
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International Journal of Inclusive Education, 2007
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Keys to inclusion: Newly arrived and experiences of different educational settings in Sweden
2019
This presentation deals with a contested topic in contemporary Swedish politics: i.e. putting stronger demands on migrants in learning the majority language. Such proposals are part of a wider repressive turn in politics taking place not only in Sweden, but also in a number of other countries. As illustrated, such proposals put the blame on migrants (as causing the problems of integration), while downplaying the problems in Swedish society at large. On the basis of ongoing research, it is concluded that such proposals further leave out the strong will to become included and part of society among migrants themselves, not least by learning the Swedish language. So, what is the problem, and how may it be dealt with?
2016
This dissertation is based on three studies that provide qualitative analyses of systemic inclusion and exclusion processes for the group labelled minority language students in Norwegian educational policy. The theoretical framework is systems-theory, as understood by Niklas Luhmann. Overall, the dissertation focuses on the systemic conditions for inclusion, especially the excluding side effects of expectations, requirements and categorisations that at the outset are regarded as inclusive. The dissertation contributes to the research field of inclusive education both empirically, by providing knowledge about the multiple barriers minority language students encounter in the educational system, and theoretically, by showing how Luhmann's systemstheory can prove useful in studies of educational inclusion and exclusion.
Policy Futures in Education, 2016
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Immigrant students in Nordic educational policy documents
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Research in political sciences asserts that the enactment of laws and regulations is but one element in the chain of forming and implementing educational policy. Nonetheless, the study of such steering documents can shed light on what the authorities consider as central values and goals to be promoted through education, what they see as new challenges in society and how theses should be met in the educational system. This chapter offers a comparative analysis of the treatment of children and students with an immigrant background in such documents from preschool to upper secondary school in all five Nordic countries. We ask how these children and students are defined and labelled in Education Acts and regulations, what general policy orientation can be identified in the documents and which particular provisions are put in place for this group. While the findings show some similarities across the countries, there are also striking differences, reflecting how controversies over immigration and integration spill over to the education system and echo political trends in recent years. A challenge to existing educational policy Due to immigration over the past few decades, the national composition of the student bodies in Nordic preschools and schools has changed. In most of these countries, there has long been national minority students, such as Sámi students in Finland, Norway and Sweden and German students in Denmark. However, with the recent influx of refugees and asylum seekers in addition to European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) citizens, the number of students with a background different from the majority has increased considerably. These students have varying school experiences, and they may have gaps in their education due to the unstable living conditions in the refugee camps and during relocation. In addition, their home languages and previous schooling languages are different from the languages in their new host countries.