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Linguistic diversity is a defining feature of Swedish schools, where a substantial proportion of pupils have amigration background, underscoring the need for teachers who can support pupils with diverse linguisticexperiences. Teacher education programmes have nevertheless been criticized for insufficiently preparingstudent teachers for multilingual classrooms. This study examines how teacher educators in primary schoolteacher education programmes at three Swedish universities conceptualise language and multilingualismwithin their disciplines and how they express critical multilingual awareness (CMLA) in their teaching. Thestudy is grounded in a critical and dynamic understanding of language(s), in which CMLA highlights thesocial, political, and economic conditions shaping linguistic diversity. The empirical material consists ofindividual interviews with 21 teacher educators. The findings show that although teacher educators generallyacknowledge the importance of linguistic diversity and often view multilingualism as a resource, their criticalawareness of the wider conditions influencing it remains limited. Multilingualism is frequently framed as achallenge linked to subject-specific linguistic demands, while broader social and political dimensions oflanguage are less visible. Overall, the findings indicate a need to strengthen critical perspectives on languagein teacher education to better support linguistic diversity in schools.

This article aims to explore current official discourses on equity, multilingualism and segregation in policy documents for Swedish preschool. Earlier research shows how issues of quality in preschool are linked to equity, segregation and multilingualism. The policy documents are analysed through critical policy analysis, using Bacchi’s What’s the problem represented to be? (WPR), which shows that problem representations may favour some yet disadvantage others. Preschool has the potential to contribute to social equity and to counteract segregation; however, in these policy documents, the official discourses on equity, multilingualism and segregation are conflicting and ambiguous, and thereby strengthen the monolingual norm previously found in preschool. In the documents, links between outcome and quality aspects in preschool are not considered, and immigrant background is positioned as the root problem. Using equity as the same for everyone and posing the problem as the Other may result in increased segregation. We conclude that policies that present immigrant background as a problem and that are based on monolinguistic norms have assimilationist implications and may hide xenophobic views. The state needs to take its responsibility for quality issues in preschool instead of making immigrant children and their parents their scapegoats.

The purpose of this article is to examine mother tongue education in Arabic in relation to Arabic diglossia, and to discuss equity and social justice. To study the diglossic situation in Arabic and the space provided by the steering documents for language use and translanguaging in Swedish mother tongue classrooms, we investigate language policy regarding ideology, and practices. In the study, we employ nexus analysis to explore relationships between different policy levels in the context of Arabic mother tongue education within the Swedish education system. Through nexus analysis, we examined aspects of equity and social justice and found traces of both Arabic educational traditions about diglossia and conflicts between monolingual ideologies and translanguaging. The study supports previous research on issues of equity and social justice in mother tongue education and specifically highlights the problem that the curriculum for mother tongue Arabic does not address issues of linguistic variation. The study suggests that, in the case of mother tongue Arabic, a translanguaging pedagogy could provide both teachers and students with space to use their various linguistic resources. Thus, the mother tongue classroom could become equitable and socially just compared to what was observed in the studied case.

This chapter is a meta-study of three earlier studies: two from the Karagwe District in Tanzania and one from Rwanda. In the chapter, contemporary uses of the concept translanguaging in the Global North are challenged by applying it to these two settings in the Global South, under the research question: In what ways are issues of power and status related to translanguaging practices in these contexts? The meta-study shows that people creatively make use of their linguistic resources, and one strategy found was group translation. Post-colonial ideologies manifest themselves in the perceived status of languages rather than in everyday practices and both media and context affect perceived status. An inconsistency in language use in Karagwe stands out and there the potential of students’ translanguaging strategies was not used in school settings. The critical and problematizing aspect of translanguaging calls for researchers’ engagement in language practices in everyday life to preserve the decolonializing potential of translanguaging. Experiences of grassroots and subversive elements are important to expand the notion of translanguaging to include southern perspectives. 

In this article, translanguaging as a concept is used to study the negotiation of meaning in Mother Tongue Instruction (MTI) in Arabic in a classroom. The case of Arabic makes translanguaging relevant to the diglossic situation between MSA and varieties of Arabic. The aim of this article is to study classroom interaction in MTI Arabic in relation to students’ space for their varied linguistic repertoires. The material used includes fieldnotes, audio recordings from classroom observations in MTI Arabic and one teacher interview. A seamless shuttling between Swedish and Arabic varieties appears. The diglossic situation in Arabic means that while all students need to learn Modern Standard Arabic, the challenges are greater for those students whose language variety differs most from the teacher’s. In this case, the teacher’s Levantine variety was closer to the variety of some students than of others. The critical and creative aspects inherent in translanguaging put issues of student engagement and participation in focus. In this case, the teacher took a central position and students were rather passive, answering questions and completing set tasks. We conclude that the syllabus and teacher education for MTI need to include issues of linguistic variation and, in the case of Arabic, implications of the diglossic situation.

This study explores oral interaction in work-related activities within adult second-language (L2) education in Sweden, specifically in the context of Swedish for Immigrants (SFI). Drawing on data from classroom instruction and placement interviews, the study investigates which speech functions and speaker roles are made available to students preparing for workplace language practice. Transcribed material from one lesson and four placement interviews was analyzed using speech act theory, with a focus on speech functions, speaker roles, and opportunities for extended talk. The findings show that while interaction was often regulated by teachers and recruiters, students actively contributed through humor, storytelling, meta-talk, and expressions of preference or reservation. Students assumed diverse speaker roles, including novice, knower, peer, and tension releaser, thereby engaging in pragmatically and socially relevant communication. These roles and functions are important for both general language development and workplace interaction. The study highlights the need to create space in L2 classrooms for less typical but crucial functions—such as turn-taking, declining, and expressing disagreement—often underrepresented in classroom discourse. It contributes to research on adult L2 education by demonstrating how structured interaction around work placements can support learners’ oral proficiency and pragmatic competence.