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

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.