From subjects of knowledge to subjects of integration? Newly arrived students with limited schooling in Swedish education policy

Abstract

The education of newly arrived students is a debated global policy issue. Less attention has been paid to the sub-group of students with limited experience of schooling, referred to here as ‘newly arrived students with limited schooling’ (NALS). This article explores Swedish policy frameworks that inform the education of newly arrived students, comparing policy approaches from two time periods (1983–1996 and 2013–2016) during which the numbers of NALS were said to be increasing in Swedish compulsory schools. Framed within a poststructural approach to policy analysis and Foucault’s theorisation of heterotopian spaces, the analysis explores policies’ representation of separate teaching groups for newly arrived students, with a particular focus on what these spaces have to offer NALS. The findings indicate a shift between the two periods: from a focus on knowledge acquisition in policies of the 1980s and 1990s towards an emphasis on integration in those of the 2010s. This shift is particularly evident in relation to NALS, whose educational needs are discussed only to a limited extent in relation to subject knowledge in the 2010s policies. It is argued that this serves to homogenise the educational needs of the category newly arrived, thereby potentially obscuring the conception of NALS.