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Spaces for multilingual education : language orientations in the national curricula of Sweden and Finland

Paulsrud, Beth Anne ; Zilliacus, Harriet and Ekberg, Lena LU (2020) In International Multilingual Research Journal 14(4). p.304-318
Abstract

Both Sweden and Finland have education systems promoting equity and equality. However, recent societal and political changes linked to increased immigration have created new challenges in efforts to support linguistic diversity. This paper aims to explore how multilingualism is represented in the national compulsory school curricula in the two contexts, using the language orientation framework: language as problem, right, or resource. The analysis reveals differences. In Finland, an explicit discourse on multilingual education exists, with an aim of integrating multilingual perspectives into the whole curriculum. In Sweden, however, the discourse is less explicit; and multilingualism as a concept is limited to minority language... (More)

Both Sweden and Finland have education systems promoting equity and equality. However, recent societal and political changes linked to increased immigration have created new challenges in efforts to support linguistic diversity. This paper aims to explore how multilingualism is represented in the national compulsory school curricula in the two contexts, using the language orientation framework: language as problem, right, or resource. The analysis reveals differences. In Finland, an explicit discourse on multilingual education exists, with an aim of integrating multilingual perspectives into the whole curriculum. In Sweden, however, the discourse is less explicit; and multilingualism as a concept is limited to minority language students. Considering language orientations in the two curricula affords an understanding of the spaces for multilingual education that are key to our possibilities as educators to promote linguistic diversity and social justice in the schools of today’s global societies.

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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
compulsory school, Finland, language orientations, Multilingual education, national curriculum, Sweden
in
International Multilingual Research Journal
volume
14
issue
4
pages
15 pages
publisher
Routledge
external identifiers
  • scopus:85078450432
ISSN
1931-3152
DOI
10.1080/19313152.2020.1714158
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
ec57637f-0b4b-4e2c-897f-d7982bfe4fd1
date added to LUP
2020-02-06 12:53:11
date last changed
2022-11-23 03:40:20
@article{ec57637f-0b4b-4e2c-897f-d7982bfe4fd1,
  abstract     = {{<p>Both Sweden and Finland have education systems promoting equity and equality. However, recent societal and political changes linked to increased immigration have created new challenges in efforts to support linguistic diversity. This paper aims to explore how multilingualism is represented in the national compulsory school curricula in the two contexts, using the language orientation framework: language as problem, right, or resource. The analysis reveals differences. In Finland, an explicit discourse on multilingual education exists, with an aim of integrating multilingual perspectives into the whole curriculum. In Sweden, however, the discourse is less explicit; and multilingualism as a concept is limited to minority language students. Considering language orientations in the two curricula affords an understanding of the spaces for multilingual education that are key to our possibilities as educators to promote linguistic diversity and social justice in the schools of today’s global societies.</p>}},
  author       = {{Paulsrud, Beth Anne and Zilliacus, Harriet and Ekberg, Lena}},
  issn         = {{1931-3152}},
  keywords     = {{compulsory school; Finland; language orientations; Multilingual education; national curriculum; Sweden}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{01}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{304--318}},
  publisher    = {{Routledge}},
  series       = {{International Multilingual Research Journal}},
  title        = {{Spaces for multilingual education : language orientations in the national curricula of Sweden and Finland}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19313152.2020.1714158}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/19313152.2020.1714158}},
  volume       = {{14}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}