Use of linguistic resources in Study Guidance in the Mother Tongue

Abstract

This article focuses on questions of equality and social justice in the Swedish compulsory school, through an analysis of Study Guidance in the Mother Tongue (SGMT) as a third space with focus on pedagogical, linguistic and cultural aspects. SGMT is a form of support that constitutes a temporal, pedagogic practice, which according to the Swedish School Ordinance aims to use what is referred to as the student’s mother tongue for subject learning. The study is theoretically grounded in Bhabha’s concept third space and in a dynamic view of multilingualism through the concept of translanguaging. The study builds on interviews with 19 SGMT assistants, and participant observations from SGMT practices from fives schools in three municipalities.

From the SGMT assistants it became visible how they use and adapt their linguistic resources in relation to the students, while simultaneously striving to direct students toward using standard Swedish norms. It also became clear that some assistants were used as extra resources in the schools, by being assigned to some students that they did not share a common language with. This may be interpreted as lack of social justice and social inclusion, as the assistant in that way is imposed excessive liability. It was also made visible that subject knowledge is not only linguistically but also culturally embedded and that epistemological issues were included in the assistants’ tasks. Thus the complexity in the pedagogic, linguistic and cultural practices that constitute SGMT was revealed, and also that SGMT may not only be perceived as a support through the student’s mother tongue, as may be understood through official documents, but rather as a translanguaging practice, beyond linguistic and cultural borders.

This strengthens the understanding of SGMT as a third space, which implies not only a third space between two cultures, two languages, two epistemological and two ontological perspectives, but a complex diversity. At the same time, the lack of equality that the third space position accentuates the weak role that SGMT assistants have been fund to have in earlier research. One result of this weak position is an insufficient collaboration with class and subject teachers, as well as tendencies to adapt to Swedish norms without opposition, as was fund in this study.

The low status that SGMT assistants have been observed to have may result in the loss of knowledge on the part of the student and the school. This knowledge could have the potential to widen their perspectives and stimulate their learning and critical thinking. For a school aiming at equality and social justice, it appears necessary to strengthen the position of the SGMT assistants as well as the co-operation with class and subject teachers.