To Örebro University

The study presented here draws upon the ongoing work in project-CIC, Categorization of Identities and Communication. Project-CIC is interested in both the social practices and the discourses that frame a tailored education for adult immigrants in Sweden. The Swedish Language Act from 2009, maintains that "Swedish is the principal language in Sweden", and that "all residents of Sweden are to be given the opportunity to learn, develop and use Swedish". The Act furthermore decrees that persons with "a different mother tongue" are to be "given the opportunity to develop and use their mother tongue". The balance between Swedish as the principle language on the one hand, and a recognition of many language varieties on the other, and which is reflected in such central policy documents, comes also alive in the language learning classroom. Research concerned with the language situation of adult immigrants in different European national contexts is not uncommonly founded upon an understanding of language varieties in terms of being standardized, static and with defined (often national) boundaries. The theoretical framework employed in the study that is presented here approaches language policies in terms of a dialectical relationship between policy and the learning that takes place in the language classroom, using the approach of nexus analysis developed by Scollon and Scollon, wherein the social action is placed into the intersection of discourses in place, interaction order and the collectively framed historical bodies of both participants and institutions. Our analysis sheds light upon how interaction at the micro level is constituted in and at the same time constitutes discourses on a macro level as well as the historical bodies of the participants in the interaction in institutional settings.

The empirically based study presented in this paper draws upon data from two large scale ethnographic studies at the CCD research group at Örebro University, Sweden where sociocultural and postcolonial framings have been employed. Taking the paucity of empirically informed research in the postcolonial literature as a point of departure, this study brings analytical rigor to understandings of human identity and spaces across time.

A central aim of this data driven study is to analyze how images of home(land), roots and background are deployed in the (co)constructions of identity positions in national educational policy documents across time in Sweden. Thus, the importance of geographical place of longing and belonging in the categorization of differences and common identity positions in national policies are highlighted. Empirical materials from two ethnographic research projects LISA 21, Languages and Identities in School Arenas in the 21st century and CIC, Categorization, Identity and Communication are critically analyzed. These empirical materials consist of policy documents such as national curricula and syllabus in Sweden from the 1960s to the present times and from the compulsory school years up to adult education. Policies for mainstream education, special education, Sami minority education and immigrant adult education are especially focused.

The preliminary results highlight the subtle but significant ways of othering, including those of locating the identity of "the targeted Other" both in the physical body of the Other, as well as (i) the physical spaces of educational settings and (ii) the geopolitical spaces of collective imagined (be)longings (compare Anderson 1991). The targeted Other (and the neutral majority norm) is formulated in and through "webs of understandings" (Bagga-Gupta 2004, 2012) in the languaging in policy texts where identity positions both highlight as well as naturalize specific identity positions to a specific or an original "place of authentic (be)longing". These identity positions include the "newly arrived immigrant" in a parallel educational setting, the "deaf pupil" in a segregated educational setting, the "white pupil with special needs" in a parallel educational setting, the "second generation immigrant pupil" in a mainstream setting, the "national minority Sami pupil" in a segregated educational setting, the adult "newcomer" in a transitory educational setting. The geopolitical spaces of imagined (be)longings include both regional/nation states from which some citizens in Sweden are positioned across time, as well as linguistic heritage bonding (as in the case of the Sami and the deaf). Based upon the juxtaposition of the findings from our data across educational policy settings and time, we argue that categorized as the targeted Other, longing and belonging to a specific (an)other space substantially reinforces the marginalization and exclusion of human beings from important societal arenas. Our findings indicate three central issues: the role of metaphors in conceptualizing otherness and selfhood, the position of language varieties in national discourses of home, homeland, longing and belonging, and shifts in framings of identity positions across time (and particularly in policies from the 1990’s).

The overall purpose of this thesis and the four independent studies it builds upon is to examine how categorizations and identity positions are constructed and negotiated in the educational program Swedish for immigrants (SFI) both historically and among participants in the program at the beginning of the 21th century. The analytical focus is on the discourses that frame the development of the SFI program with a specific interest in categorizations and identity in relation to gender, language and national belonging. The empirical material includes historical texts (curricula, commission reports, public inquiries, political propositions, laws) from 1965 to 2010, as well as approximately 95 hours of audio and video recorded data and ethnographic field notes from five SFI classrooms. The results are presented primarily in the four articles but partly also in the thesis itself.

Our analysis in the first study, that takes a sociohistorical perspective as a point of departure, indicates shifts in discourses with regards to the categories and aims of the educational program, thus, making certain identity positions more accessible than others at specific times. Using the approach of nexus analysis, the theoretical framework employed in the second study approaches language policies n terms of a dialectical elationship between policy and the learning that takes lace in the language focused classroom. Feminist and postcolonial frameworks re employed ore pecifically in the third and fourth studies. The historical nalysis presented in article three shows how the categories of “immigrant” and Swedes” ave been produced and negotiated in discourses on gender and gender quality in the SFI program since the early 1970s. The fourth study highlights he omplex relationship between gender equality and integration policies, as well as he perception of gender equality as a central part of Swedishness”, negotiated in he everyday conversations in the SFI classroom. Overall, the results illuminate he circulation of discourses both cross ime and between policy and classrooms. oreover, it contributes to a critical discussion about the intersection of language, ender and national elonging in the negotiation of boundaries between insiders and outsiders in Swedish society.