Språk, makt och delaktighet i förskolan – Diskurser i samverkan om barn med utländsk bakgrund

Abstract in English

The aim of this thesis is to explore discourses in and about Swedish preschool concerning children with a foreign background and their parents. The discourses are examined in policy documents and in the collaboration that takes place between preschool and home, as well as in how identity positions are negotiated in these contexts. In this way, the thesis contributes in-depth knowledge about collaboration between preschool teachers and parents with foreign backgrounds. The theoretical framework draws on a discourse-theoretical perspective, Bhabha’s theory of the third space, positioning theory and critical policy analysis. The methodological approach in the thesis is linguistic ethnographic inspired and consists of interviews and observations with eight preschool teachers and eight parents with foreign backgrounds.

The overarching findings indicate that the micro- and macro-levels concerning collaboration between parents with migrant backgrounds and preschool teachers are closely and mutually interconnected. The discourses and power structures that exist at the societal level, for example in policy documents, influence the conditions for collaboration in preschool but do not entirely determine what happens in everyday encounters. In these encounters between preschool teachers and parents/parents, norms concerning language, culture, migration, and belonging can both be reproduced and questioned. Preschool teachers and parents are therefore not merely recipients of societal norms but can also, in different ways, relate to, negotiate, and resist them.

The dissertation demonstrates that inclusion risks being understood as requiring parents with migrant backgrounds to adapt to already established norms concerning language, culture, and parenting. In this way, responsibility for inclusion and integration risks being placed to a large extent on parents, rather than being understood as a reciprocal process in which the preschool also changes through its encounters with diversity.

Equality and inclusion require organizational changes and not merely individual efforts by individual preschool teachers. The study demonstrates that good relationships between preschool teachers and parents can contribute to counteracting exclusionary norms. Respectful treatment, a warm welcome, and the valuing of linguistic diversity and different experiences can create better conditions for participation and recognition.

To create more equitable collaboration, it is necessary not only to change preschool teachers’ approaches but also preschool practices and the norms and structures that shape collaboration. This means that responsibility for inclusion needs to be shared by the preschool as a whole and not placed solely on individual preschool teachers. Policy documents and organizational conditions must also support ways of working that counteract rather than reinforce exclusionary norms.