Teachers’ acts of legitimation in second language education in Swedish upper secondary schools

4Citations
Citations of this article
51Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

Drawing from an ethnographic project on the subject of Swedish as a second language (SSL 1) in three linguistically diverse upper secondary schools, the aim of this study was to investigate how three SSL teachers, one from each school, discursively constructed SSL, and whether and how they legitimated their role as SSL teachers, in relation to previously analyzed academic and public discourses on the subject (Hedman and Magnusson 2018). The teachers both co-constructed discourses motivating SSL and contested discourses on SSL as a low status and inferior subject compared to the “real” Swedish subject, through expert authority (van Leeuwen 2008), with regard to scaffolding of advanced literacy. In addition, a role model authority embedded in a democratic professionalism was claimed, linked to the construction of the students as unprivileged. The paper contributes new knowledge on how teacher discourse and its legitimizing functions can be scrutinized in greater detail in order to gain a deepened understanding of the complexity of educational policy, where it is important to account for what educational practice is being scrutinized. Such visibilization of practice and teacher voice strengthens a participative framing for teachers on issues concerning their own practices.

References Powered by Scopus

Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Analysis

1723Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Legitimation in discourse and communication

731Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Teacher professional identity: Competing discourses, competing outcomes

568Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Cited by Powered by Scopus

Teachers’ metacognitive understanding of teaching science in English as a medium of instruction classes

4Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Researching the complexities of the school subject swedish as a second language: A linguistic ethnographic project in four schools

4Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Teachers’ ideological dilemmas: lessons learned from a Language Introduction Program in Sweden

2Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Hedman, C., & Magnusson, U. (2020). Teachers’ acts of legitimation in second language education in Swedish upper secondary schools. Language and Education, 34(6), 535–552. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2020.1775245

Readers' Seniority

Tooltip

PhD / Post grad / Masters / Doc 22

67%

Researcher 7

21%

Professor / Associate Prof. 2

6%

Lecturer / Post doc 2

6%

Readers' Discipline

Tooltip

Social Sciences 11

34%

Engineering 11

34%

Linguistics 7

22%

Arts and Humanities 3

9%

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free