A pluricentric perspective on the teaching of Swedish in compulsory school in Finland and Sweden – Policies, ideologies and practices in increasingly heterogenous language educational contexts.(PluSwe)

Swedish is a pluricentric language, i.e. it is spoken in several countries. The project explores how Swedish is taught in Finland and Sweden in grades 1–9. In both countries several subjects are framed for heterogeneous student groups (e.g.

Swedish/Swedish as a second language, Sweden; Mother tongue Swedish and literature/Swedish as a second language and literature, A- and B-Swedish as the second national language, Finland). We investigate how the teaching is influenced by language policies, language ideologies and societies.

The aim is to compare and analyze the teaching of Swedish in Finland and Sweden and map explanatory reasons related to similar and different teaching practices.

The project is situated within policy theory and spaces for multilingualism to analyze how language management and ideology are realized as practice by teachers and schools.

Through surveys and group interviews with teachers patterns in the goals, priorities and pedagogic practices are revealed and their relevance for student use and mastery of Swedish. The framing of the teaching is explored in steering and policy documents and texts from the academic field.

Through discourse analysis, the goal is to document and identify common and national-specific teaching ideologies and practices in the teaching of a small pluricentric language. Two researchers from Finland and two from Sweden are involved. The results are disseminated in scientific publications and a teacher conference and -associations.