The thesis focuses on mother tongue education in The Gambia, attempting to analyse factors affecting its implementation in public lower basic schools across the country. The work is based on a field study investigating the strategies and the controversies behind multilingual education, with reference to a project launched in 2015 and aimed at the introduction of the seven Gambian national languages beside English

Nästan en tredjedel av grundskolans elever har annat modersmål än svenska. De är berättigade en timmes undervisningstid på modersmålet per vecka trots att forskning visar att de tidiga språkfärdigheterna bör utvecklas på elevens starkaste språk. Syftet med föreliggande studie är att tillföra forskning genom semistrukturerade intervjuer om hur tre klasslärare och tre modersmålslärare beskriver sin undervisning och sin kommunikation sinsemellan för flerspråkiga elevers skrivutveckling. Sociokulturell teoribildning och transspråkande utgör studiens teoretiska ansats. Studiens resultat visar att klasslärarna beskrev skrivundervisning med fokus på semantiska och pragmatiska aspekter av språk medan modersmålslärarna fokuserade på fonologiska aspekter. Klasslärarna beskrev att flerspråkiga elever specifikt gynnas av att få samarbeta och få stöttning av klasskamrater. Fyra av deltagarna beskrev flerspråkighet som en resurs i lärandet och två av modersmålslärarna organiserar undervisning med flerspråkigt skrivande genom transspråkande. Modersmålslärarna var i högre grad nöjda med kommunikationen än klasslärarna. Klasslärarna önskade en förbättrad kommunikation och beskrev att kommunikationen påverkas av organisatoriska och tidsmässiga hinder. / Almost one third of elementary school students have a different mother tongue than Swedish. They are entitled to one hour of teaching time per week in the mother tongue, despite research showing that early language skills should be acquired in the student's strongest language. The aim of this study is to investigate through semi-structured interviews how three class teachers and three mother tongue teachers describe their teaching and their communication with each other for multilingual students' writing development. Sociocultural theory formation and translanguaging constitute the study's theoretical approach. The results of the study show that the class teachers described writing instruction with focus on semantic and pragmatic aspects of language while the mother tongue teachers focused on phonological aspects. The class teachers described that it is specifically beneficial for multilingual students to be able to collaborate and receive support from classmates. Four of the participants described multilingualism as a resource in learning and two of the mother tongue teachers organize instruction with multilingual writing through translanguaging. The mother tongue teachers were more satisfied with the communication than the class teachers. The class teachers wanted improved communication and described that communication is affected by organizational and time-related limitations.

The purpose of this examination is to study and have a deeper understanding about the different perceptions preschool teacher have regarding to the importance of the pedagogical environment, in relation to strengthening multilingual work and children's mother tongue. We also want to study preschool teachers' perceptions about the structure and organization of the indoor environment and how it can promote children's multilingualism.  The study used phenomenography as a methodological approach and the theory of variation as the theoretical starting point, based on semi-structured qualitative interviews. We have interviewed ten preschool teachers from three different municipal preschools and one special educator that works in one of the communes.  The results of our study show that there are different perceptions about the pedagogical environment in relation to multilingual work. The result high lighted a greater awareness from preschool teachers’ perceptions about the work with the pedagogical environment compared to the multilingual work. Experiences and knowledge about the pedagogical environment were also experienced more than the multilingual work, which the preschool teachers perceived as problematic as they have the majority of children who are multilingual in preschool.

Globalisation and fast evolution of technologies have driven people to immigrate and live outside their home country. The multicultural society is no longer extraordinary. This thesis project explores the role and form of technologies and interactive design in assisting the parents with an ethnic background to introduce their culture and language to their children, as well as in maintaining its application in their everyday lives. The primary focus group are parents whose originated from Indonesia and have been living in other countries for more than two years. This research has utilised the user-research method employed in the design research process. The result suggested that persistence, consistency and community support are primary in promoting the preservation of the parents’ cultural background and language. Therefore, technology and interactive design have a significant impact to support it. The design outcome is a physical prototype combined with digitalised media support such as a website and an application.

Mother tongue teaching (modersmålsundervisning) has started from the 1960s in Sweden and is open to the students with Chinese as mother tongue. Swedish Chinese mother tongue teaching is different from the overseas Chinese education considering of it is offered by the Swedish municipalities, for example, Stockholm municipality, Huddinge municipality and etc. One of the most fundamental aspects in Chinese teaching is Chinese characters teaching. How to teach Chinese characters is discussed heatedly not only in China but also overseas. With the previous research overview, it is found that there are numerous approved ways to teach Chinese characters but with very limited available information on the teaching methods used in mother tongue classes in Sweden and therefore I did the research about several selected methods to see which one is considered as most effective and preferred by both the students and teachers together with collecting brief background information of them.  The research is done among the Chinese mother tongue teachers and the students who take part in the Chinese mother tongue lessons. The teaching methods are specific to teach Chinese characters’ pronunciation, formation, meaning and usage. The main research methods are snowball sampling and questionnaire.  The results indicate that the majority of Chinese mother tongue teacher participants are with no teaching licenses in Sweden and lack of teacher professional education and not all the students use Chinese as the main home language. The language level can be varied. Additionally, although the most of the choices made by the teachers and students on the preferred teaching methods are overlapped but there are also different choices which draw the attention from the mother tongue teachers.

Given the perception that it lacks differentiated study for distinct linguistic varieties under the general discussion of mother tongue tuition, this study is devoted to the Chinese mother tongue education in Sweden. It aims to better understand the motivational issues in the Chinese mother tongue learning for Swedish-Chinese simultaneous bilinguals from the teachers’ perspective. Interview was chosen as the primary fieldwork method to solicit teachers’ understanding and experience on the subject. It is found out that the teachers experience motivation of target students as a multifaceted issue and their strategies stretch over a wide spectrum. The collected empirics are analyzed with the help of linguistic theories of the Chinese language and bilingualism, as well as motivational theories in language learning. It is concluded that the family plays a vital role in the development of bilingualism and that the multiplicity and the morphographic nature of the Chinese language impose extra challenge on Chinese mother tongue teachers and Swedish-Chinese simultaneous bilinguals, at the same time the current general curriculum for mother tongue teaching fails to provide sufficient and relevant guidance to Chinese mother tongue teaching.

Andelen flerspråkiga elever i svensk skola fortsätter att öka. Med detta behöver synen på flerspråkighet och hur lärare på bästa sätt arbetar med dessa barn förändras. Syftet med denna studie har varit att bidra med kunskaper om hur pedagoger i grundskolans tidigare år tillämpar transspråkande praktiskt i den dagliga undervisningen. Vi har genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex verksamma lärare i grundskolans tidigare år försökt ringa in hur lärarna arbetar samt vilka möjligheter och utmaningar de ser med den transspråkande praktiken. Resultatet som vi fått fram genom en tematisk analys, visar på många fördelar med den transspråkande praktiken. Lärarna vittnar om fördelar för kunskapsutveckling, språkutveckling och identitetsutveckling och förmedlar exempel på hur de arbetar med den transspråkande praktiken. Resultatet visar även på utmaningar som känslan av att förlora kontrollen om elever tillåts att använda sitt modersmål i undervisningen då läraren kanske inte kan det språk som talas.  De berättar också om bristen på utbildning i arbete med flerspråkiga elever. Vi lyfter även studiehandledaren som en nyckelperson för en transspråkande praktik och problematiserar tillgången till samt den bristande gemensamma planeringen för studiehandledare och undervisande pedagog.

Digital tools in the mother tongue education.The purpose of my work is to find out how digital tools can be used in the mother tongue education. As a teacher in different schools, I have seen how my teaching colleagues are using the computer as a tool in teaching. This has caused me to be inspired by my colleagues 'and students' interest in computers. My thought and my purpose with this work is to develop mother tongue education, thereby bringing it in to year 2016. I will find out what the difficulties and obstacles that modernization may face, and how it can be tackled and how we can overcome the difficulties.To answer this I will carry out a qualitative study in the form of semi-structured interviews. I'm not going to interview other teachers, but am using my educational capital to answer my questions but will, however, conduct interviews with my students who have mother tongue education. I analyzed the collected material from the interviews based on the motivation theory, but I also used and applied what previous research had said about digital tools in the education/mother tongue education. Based on the results from my interviews, as well as my analysis, I have come up with my development for my field that is a process that takes just five steps. Introduce compulsory mother tongue education for all students. Develop the mother tongue education and produce new, modern school textbooks and literature. Further educate mother tongue teachers. Using software like Fronter, SchoolSoft, Unikum, Google Drive and other school programs. Introduce a balanced, varied teaching with the help of Power Point, Smart Boards, the Internet and various Apps / learning games.

För att utforska pedagogernas uppfattningar och arbetsmetoder kring att främja flerspråkighet i förskolan genomfördes kvalitativa intervjuer med ett urval av pedagoger. Intervjuerna syftade till att få en djupare förståelse för deras uppfattningar och erfarenheter av att arbeta med flerspråkiga barn. Genom en diskursiv analys samt av intervjuerna kunde olika tolkningar och förståelser av förskolans läroplan lyftas fram. Det framkom att vissa pedagoger betonade vikten av att följa läroplanens riktlinjer noggrant, medan andra uttryckte att flexibilitet och anpassning var nödvändigt för att möta barnens individuella behov. Studiens resultat indikerar att det finns utmaningar i att främja flerspråkighet i förskolan, särskilt när det gäller att kommunicera och involvera vårdnadshavare. För att möta dessa utmaningar är det viktigt att pedagogerna har en positiv inställning och nyfikenhet gentemot barnens olika språk och kulturer. Stöttning från pedagogerna spelar också en viktig roll i barnens flerspråkiga utveckling. Sammanfattningsvis visar studien att pedagogernas uppfattningar och arbetsmetoder kring att främja flerspråkighet i förskolan är komplext, men att det finns en gemensam förståelse av värdet och betydelsen av detta arbete.  Det framhålls att detta arbete är viktigt för att stärka barnens självkänsla och identitet, vilket betonar vidare betydelsen av att inkludera och synliggöra alla språk och kulturer i förskolan. Det finns utmaningar i att kommunicera med vårdnadshavare och tolka förskolans läroplan, men pedagogernas inställning, nyfikenhet och stöttning spelar en viktig roll i att främja barnens flerspråkiga utveckling. Högläsning och musik är vanliga strategier som används för att integrera olika språk i förskolan. Denna studie bidrar med kunskap om pedagogers uppfattningar om flerspråkighet samt hur pedagogerna beskriver sitt arbete med flerspråkighet i förskolan. / To explore the pedagogues' perceptions and working methods regarding promoting multilingualism in preschool, qualitative interviews were conducted with a selection of pedagogues. The interviews aimed to gain a deeper understanding of their views and experiences of working with multilingual children. Through a discursive analysis of the interviews, different interpretations and understandings of the preschool curriculum could be highlighted. It emerged that some educators emphasized the importance of following curriculum guidelines closely, while others expressed that flexibility and adaptation were necessary to meet children's individual needs. The results of the study indicate that there are challenges in promoting multilingualism in preschool, especially when it comes to communicating and involving guardians. To meet these challenges, it is important that the educators have a positive attitude and curiosity towards the children's different languages and cultures. Support from the teachers also plays an important role in the children's multilingual development. In summary, the study shows that the teachers' perceptions and working methods regarding promoting multilingualism in preschool is complex, but that there is a common understanding of the value and importance of this work. It is emphasized that this work is important for strengthening the children's self-esteem and identity, which further emphasizes the importance of including and making all languages and cultures visible in the preschool. There are challenges in communicating with guardians and interpreting the preschool curriculum, but the teachers' attitude, curiosity, and support play an important role in promoting the children's multilingual development. Reading aloud and music are common strategies used to integrate different languages in preschool. This study shed light on discourses on multilingualism to the knowledge of how pedagogues can work to promote multilingualism in preschool.

This study investigates teacher attitudes about language and education. The purpose of the study is to help program designers develop professional development efforts that successfully address some of the major identified challenges teachers face when transitioning into Mother Tongue Based Multi-Lingual Education (MTBMLE), including negative attitudes. It also suggests protocols and issues that trainers should consider when designing professional development for MTBMLE teachers. The research question guiding this study is: 1. Do teachers' attitudes towards and knowledge about mother tongue-based instruction change after they participate in professional development that is consistent with good professional development practice? a. What were teachers' knowledge and attitudes about MTBMLE before the professional development program? b. Did teachers' knowledge and attitudes change after participating in the professional development program? c. Why did teachers hold particular attitudes towards MTBMLE prior to professional development and what factors influenced their change? I conducted this research during a three-month MTBMLE professional development program with a group of indigenous first grade teachers and their school principals in Save the Children's outreach areas in rural Mindanao in the Philippines. I used a Q sort methodology for initial interviews conducted with a subset of five first grade teachers followed by a second interview after the professional development program. The interview data showed that teachers came into the trainings with two distinct viewpoints; mother tongue supporters and one mother tongue resister. After the professional development program, however, teachers were all more positive about using the mother tongue as the language of instruction. Interviews revealed that teachers were more positive and confident in teaching the mother tongue when they had the opportunity to: 1) spend time learning about their own language, 2) create mother tongue teaching and learning materials, and 3) reflect on their early learning experiences and experience what it is like to learn in a language that is not familiar. This paper will discuss the research findings in depth and will provide a clearer picture of how to train and support teachers who are transitioning into MTBMLE.