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

ABSTRACT

Through the study of pedagogic discourse and practice in introductory classes (ICs) aimed at new migrant students at a linguistically diverse primary school in Sweden, we discuss pedagogic principles and power dynamics, drawing on Bernstein’s conceptual frame. Our ethnographic data consist of teacher interviews and observational fieldnotes. A compound set of pedagogic principles was found, where the acknowledgement of the students’ prior languages differs from previous research. Furthermore, the teachers’ accommodations to the students’ needs through a collaborative practice of care formed an important part of the inner logic of discourse and practice. We find this multilingual and emotional support to be contingent upon the IC teachers’ multilingual competencies and long-term experience with ICs, multilingualism and migration, and support from school management. We welcome interrelated discussions of underpinning logics based on research within different educational contexts comprising migrant students.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotional understanding
• interactional practices
• introductory class
• migration
• multilingualism
• teacher adaptation

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Wellander Foundation.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

The authors have contributed equally to the project and to the paper.

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. All names are pseudonyms.

2. IC should not be confounded with language introduction programme for newly arrived students aged 16–19 years who need to qualify for a national program in upper secondary school.

3. The preschool curriculum differs from the primary school curriculum, but both curricula provides ideological space for acknowledging the students’ multilingualism.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Erik Wellander Foundation [-].

Notes on contributors

Christina Hedman

Christina Hedman holds a Ph.D. in research on bilingualism and is a Professor in Swedish as a second language at the Department of Language Education, Stockholm University. Hedman’s recent research has focused on multilingual development from education and policy perspectives.

Ulrika Magnusson

Ulrika Magnusson holds a Ph.D. in Swedish as a second language and is a Senior lecturer and Associate Professor at the Department of Language Education, Stockholm University. Her research interests include education and learning from multilingual and second language perspectives.