Same but different. Negotiating diversity in Swedish pre-school teacher training

Due to migration, Swedish pre-schools are linguistically and culturally diverse settings where approximately one in five children is bi-/multilingual. Hence, pre-school teachers work in a diverse landscape in which they are expected to support the multilingual and multicultural development of the children. The aim of this article is to analyze the discourses of diversity in Swedish pre-school teacher training and, more specifically, how students are positioned and position themselves in relation to such discourses. The article takes its point of departure in an ethnographic four-year project that studied a group of students recruited to the pre-school teacher training by a municipality because of their migration background. The material analyzed consists of interviews and observations during the four years that the students participated in the program. Using the framework of nexus analysis, it reveals an ambivalence in attitudes in relation to diversity and in the positioning of certain students as other. Due to their historical bodies, the students are expected to add value to the pre-school teacher training program, but at the same time, they are expected to perform like everyone else in the program, reproducing a discourse of diversity as a positive asset.Taylor & Francis Open Access agreement with Bibsam