Children who migrate to Sweden are usually introduced to the Swedish school through some kind of introduction programme in their new community. This study examines the experiences of newly arrived children participating in school introduction in the early school years, as well as the experiences of the teachers and principals working with the programme. In the community in which this study is situated, newly arrived children participate in a special school unit where the goal is to map their experiences and skills from former education, and where the teaching of Swedish as a second language is seen as an important part of the introduction.

Forty-two interviews (40 individual and 2 pairs) were conducted with principals, teachers and newly arrived children (ages appropriate for Years 2, 3, 4 and 5 in elementary school). Employing a social constructivist perspective, together with inspiration from Critical Discourse Analysis, the study aimed at outlining the discourses the participants draw on when speaking about the school introduction and how these discourses affect the participants’ positioning of themselves and other participants in the school practice. Fairclough’s theory of discourse (1992, 2001) provides an understanding of how participants experience being part of the school introduction as well as their own and other participants’ positions in the school practice due to ambient discourses.

The results indicate that four discourses dominate the practice and affect the participants’ view of each other and themselves as well as their possibilities to impact the practice and their own situation as being a part of it. The four discourses that were identified are described as 1) the Swedish language as a key to success in school, 2) the adjustment of behaviour as a key to success in school, 3) the substantial immigration as a challenge, and 4) heed.