Undervisning på svenska och arabiska tar form i ett mångetniskt område

This article aims to examine the development of bilingual education in Swedishand Arabic, in a multicultural neighbourhood in Malmo, as seen from the perspectiveof some of the school leaders who were involved in the process. Whathave the school leaders experienced as positive or problematic in the years ofbilingual education? How were the various discourses on bilingual educationexpressed in school practice? In addition to interviews with responsible schoolleaders, the article analyses various policy documents and language syllabi thatprovide guidelines for school activities. Another aim is to examine differentdiscourses on language expressed in a media debate about bilingual educationin Swedish and Arabic that took place at the time of the project. This mediadebate had a noticeable impact on school practice. Even though the schoolleaders overall expressed positive attitudes towards bilingual education, theywere influenced by other discourses as well. For example, they mainly justifiedbilingual education by the argument that it would improve the pupils’ commandof Swedish and that they would hopefully achieve better marks and goalattainment. That the pupils would become bilingual was not put forward as amajor aim. Initially, the school leaders were highly positive to the results ofbilingual education, but slowly discovered that there were some obstacles.They were consequently obliged to gradually modify the bilingual model whichwas applied in their schools