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Scholars in feminist and postcolonial studies have shed light upon the complex relation between gender equality and integration policies, where in a Swedish context, the perception of gender equality as a central part of “Swedishness” resulted in a hierarchical division between Swedes and immigrants. In this paper, I focus on how gender equality is negotiated in relation to the Other in a specific arena, Swedish for immigrants (Sfi). A tailored education in the Swedish language for persons categorized as adult immigrants has developed since the mid 1960ies in Sweden. In a previous study (Rosén submitted), I analyzed policy documents related to the Sfi education during the period 1967-2011,  showing  how women born in other geographical spaces than Sweden are positioned as less equal, oppressed and/or as victims, thus, reproducing a discourse in which the categories of the Immigrants and the Swedes are negotiated in relation to certain understandings of gender equality. The aim of the study presented here, is to move beyond policy document using an ethnomethodology outlook in order to explore how certain understandings of gender equality and categorizations are constituted and oriented towards by participants in the Sfi-classroom in their everyday practices”.

The theoretical framework employed in the study builds upon the work of postcolonial and feminist research as well as in ethnomethodology. A number of scholars have examined the construction of gender equality as a central core of Swedish national identity or Swedishness. Several researchers in the feminist and postcolonial fields have brought light upon how certain understandings of gender equality (between men and women) and a feminist consciousness are constructed as a central part of Swedish (and Nordic) national identity (de los Reyes, Molina & Mulinari 2005; de los Reyes & Mulinari 2005; Eduards 2007; Carbin 2008; Honkanen 2008; Keskinen 2009; Magnusson, Rönnblom, & Silius 2008; Towns 2002; Tuori 2007). However, by using the ethnomethodological approach, I hope to avoid the implicit determinism often embedded in critical discourse analysis and, instead, to dissolve the polarity between macro and micro/ structure and agency. A central assumption in ethnomethodology is that structure and agency are constituted, oriented to and reproduced by members in social practices. In the study presented here, I analyze classroom interaction from two Sfi-classrooms, created during an ethnographically inspired study at a learning centre for Sfi. In the interaction material presented, I show how gender equality becomes a salient issue for the participants and related to questions of belonging and otherness Thus, the participants orient themselves towards different identity position tied to specific understandings of gender. Moreover, the study raises important questions regarding to methodology in postcolonial, feminist and intersectional studies often concerned with studies on a macro- or structural level.