Considering the homogeneity of the Swedish society, immigration and the resulting fusion of different cultures, criteria and idiosyncrasies, Sweden has experienced substantial changes with the incorporation of new languages along with the Swedish society reaction to this diversity. All these changes, have led to a reorganization in the infrastructure of the state, its institutions and consequently within the education sector. New features, tasks and challenges have been incorporated into the educational system, such as the teaching of the Swedish language as a second language and the teaching support of the mother tongue to children as well as adults in need of this assistance. Facing these structural changes the system that was previously accustomed to monolinguistic education has been slowly changing into a multi-cultural educational system. The objective of this work is to determine the obstacles that bilingualism suffers in society today, and to propose measures to fulfill the objectives of the Council of Education (Skolverket). The hypothesis of this study is that although the good intentions of the Council of Education are to support and develop bilingualism in the schools, the policies in place are insufficient to achieve those objectives such as collaboration and interactions between the interested parts to give bilingualism a more privileged advantage. The methodology followed: a) Analysis of the applicable materials for the study. b) Preparation of a survey that will result in indicators of the Swedish language as a second language and the teaching support of the mother tongue of the community of Växjö. c) Process of finding a qualitative selection of the basic educational spectrum in the community of Växjö. d) Selection of three languages significant in the context of the community. e) Surveys submitted to a representative group of directors of the basic schools, teachers of Swedish as a second language, teachers of mother tongue languages, parents and students. The broad analysis of the surveys indicates a number of shortcomings in the regional organization of the school system for the implementation of the curricula for mother tongue language and Swedish as a second language. These findings come as a result of the financial cuts affecting the curricula, the conduct of the directors and in the atmosphere of lowered expectations regarding mother tongue curriculum. The survey also shows the frustration of the educators of mother tongue languages as a group, who are subjected to an ambiguous work environment, defined as an endeavor appreciated only by the parents and the students. Likewise, there is a certain similarity of opinion from the teachers of Swedish as a second language that together indicates the need of a joint effort with teachers of mother tongue to achieve structural integration in the system geared to the benefit of bilingual students. Finally, reflected in the responses from parents and students, is a shared common identification with the educators reflecting the need for structural changes for the full incorporation of the mother tongue language into the Swedish educational system. Only with these measures can the Swedish system achieve the participatory integration of the pluralistic society that resides in Sweden today.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:vxu-786 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Guzman de Karlsson, Lucia |
| Publisher | Växjö universitet, Institutionen för humaniora |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Spanish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | LÄRARUTBILDNINGEN, ; GOX179 |
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