”Man känner sig otillräcklig” : En kvalitativ studie om fem lärares upplevelser av att undervisa nyanlända elever i ordinarie klasser

The purpose of this study was to examine how teachers in primary schools experience the situation of teaching newly arrived immigrant pupils in their regular classes and also how they plan their teaching for these pupils. The empirical study did intend to answer the following two questions; how do teachers experience the situation of teaching newly arrived immigrant pupils in their regular classes? How is teaching of newly arrived immigrant pupils in regular classes being formed? A qualitative method was used in the form of interviews with five primary school teachers from two different schools. The overall perspective I have assumed in this study is the sociocultural perspective, but I have also taken up a second language perspective and an intercultural perspective. All the teachers in the study have described their experiences of teaching newly arrived immigrant pupils in terms of difficult, tough and demanding at the beginning, but nowadays somewhat easier. They also expressed a sense of loneliness in handling this situation since they do not receive any support and help from the schools leadership. All the teachers in the study also experienced difficulties in keeping up with all the pupils in their class. Four of the teachers stated that they often felt inadequate and all of the teachers requested more resources. The teachers also described that they try to plan their teaching based on the newly arrived immigrant pupils’ abilities and needs but that these pupils sometimes had to follow the regular scheduled teaching. Every one of the teachers claimed that they work very concretely using body language and a lot of pictures in their teaching. Furthermore they expressed that the interaction between teacher and pupil, and pupil and pupil was an important component of the newly arrived pupils’ language development