Ellinor Skaremyr

This study deals with all children's possibilities of meeting the multilingual society and aims to explore the norms regarding language and culture that are reflected in picturebooks in preschools. Previous research has shown how picturebooks can be used to develop literacy skills and intercultural understandings among children. A postcolonial lens is used to identify social locations and thereby unfold hidden power relations and social positionings of who is to be included and who is not (Spivak, 1988; Yuval-Davis, 2006). 35 picturebooks collected from preschools in Iceland, Norway and Sweden have been analysed by frequency and qualitative content analysis, eleven of which were found to contain multilingualism and/or multiculturalism. The results show a) a prevailing monolingual norm in which solely artefacts carry multilingual trails; b) a strong monocultural norm, which places people of diversity in a marginalised position; c) the English language holds an advanced position compared to majority languages, which situates other minority languages as anomalous. The educational significance of the research implicates a need for multilingual and multicultural diversity to be more observable in picturebooks used in preschool, to help children develop languages, and their own linguistic and cultural identity/-ies and, thus, their sense of belonging to a multilingual society.

The aim of this dissertation is to contribute with knowledge about how speech communities are formed and maintained in Swedish preschools when minority language children participate. The dissertation is based on two empirical studies that are linked together by an ethnographical communication model. Case study I explores how newly arrived children communicate when they are newcomers in a Swedish preschool context. The empirical material consists of video recordings from observations of newly arrived children´s interactions with peers in preschool. Case study II studies a Finnish language revitalization program in Swedish preschools for children of Finnish minority descent. The empirical material consists of field notes from observations of the language revitalization program, transcripts from interviews with preschool teachers and bilingual practitioners, as well as documents with relation to the revitalization program. The dissertation gives a wider perspective on how speech commun...

This study explores Finnish language activities (FLA) and the engagement of children of Finnish descent in bilingual practices in the Swedish preschool context. Data were collected through observations and field notes, which were transcribed and analysed using the theoretical concept communicative event. The analysis shows that the FLAs are controlled by conditions, such as the timeframe for the FLA and by the fixed routines, meetings and excursions in preschools. Despite bilingual practitioners’ ability to use Finnish in different situations, children’s engagement in and the implementation of FLAs seem vulnerable to the prevailing conditions in preschools, and therefore the preschools’ democratic foundation will be discussed. I argue that the timeframe for the FLA is the dominating controlling condition influencing children’s engagement, and I call for clearer local policies. All preschool personnel need increased pedagogical knowledge in bilingualism if the statutory and democratic rights for children are to have real meaning.

ABSTRACT The Swedish preschools have evolved to be more diverse in terms of language and culture amongst the attending children. Previous research on newly arrived children in the Swedish preschools focusses on, amongst other things, how to provide for the best reception or education, but less is known about the newly arrived children’s own communicative ways when they start preschool. The aim of this paper is to explore how children entering a new linguistic environment are able to participate by using communicative tools in speech events at preschool. The analysis shows how the children participate by combining different communicative tools when they shadow, code-switch, invent language and make use of expressive body language. The study contributes with knowledge about preschool children’s various ways of approaching a new language and adjusting to a new cultural context and children’s social and informal learning practices in preschool.