Flerspråkiga elever i en enspråkig elevnorm

Multilingual students in a monolingual student norm. This article examines how students of Swedish as a second language are constructed as a category and positioned as subjects in education policies. The aim of the article is to analyze the steering documents with a focus on discourses that emerge in the material which construct the category of students of Swedish as a second language in contrast to the students studying Swedish. The result shows that the category students of Swedish as a second language are constructed as students; with another origin, in need of a specific instruction, responsible for their inadequacy in Swedish and in need of the Swedish language. Students studying Swedish and students of Swedish as a second language are, as categories, constructed as opposites and dichotomies. The Swedish school subject and its’ students are constructions based on a homogenous monolingual norm to which the student of Swedish as a second language are compared and categorized as deviant with reference to culture, language and needs.