Conference Agenda

Recently immigrated adolescents in upper secondary “Language Introduction Programmes” (Språkintroduktion, IMS) in Sweden represent a highly heterogeneous student group whose educational trajectories often diverge significantly from policy intentions. While IMS is designed as a compensatory and bridging programme enabling newly arrived students to acquire the linguistic and academic competences needed for entry into national upper secondary programmes, national reports consistently show that only around one third of students reach programme eligibility (Skolverket, 2018). Although diversity among students within IMS is considerable, a substantial proportion exhibit slow progression, with educational trajectories characterised by prolonged stays within IMS, limited access to academic subjects, and future educational transitions.

This study is part of an ongoing practice‑based research collaboration between an upper secondary school and one university department in Sweden. The overarching aim is to examine how local IMS practices enable or constrain educational trajectories for students with slow progression. The project responds to growing concerns about marginalisation, segregation and the institutional “waiting room” character of IMS, as described in previous research. Rather than focusing solely on individual background or prior schooling, this project foregrounds how institutional arrangements, interprofessional collaboration, and everyday routines shape students’ possibilities for learning and transition.

Theoretically, the project is grounded in Practice Architecture Theory (Kemmis et al., 2014; Mahon & Kemmis, 2017), which conceptualises educational practices as shaped by cultural‑discursive (sayings), material‑economic (doings), and social‑political (relatings) arrangements. Through this lens, we explore how teachers, counsellors, principals, and other actors understand students’ needs; how activities and routines are organised; and how relationships and collaboration patterns evolve.

To further analyse how educational trajectories are constrained and enabled within these practices, we draw on Biesta’s (2015) three educational functions: qualification, socialisation and subjectification. Integrating Biesta with the practice architecture framework enables us to identify not only how IMS practices are arranged, but also what they do educationally.

• Qualification is examined through how IMS practices provide (or limit) access to linguistic and academic knowledge needed for future transitions.
• Socialisation is analysed in terms of how routines, organisational structures and local norms position newly arrived students within the broader school community and within society.
• Subjectification helps us explore students’ opportunities to act with autonomy and agency, particularly how institutional narratives and relational dynamics shape their possibilities to imagine and pursue different futures.

The study addresses the following research questions:

1. Which educational trajectories are enabled or constrained by IMS practices for students with slow progression?
2. Which activities, understandings and relationships are central in shaping these trajectories?
3. What tensions or possibilities emerge in the collaboration between different professional groups involved in supporting the students?

By combining institutional and interprofessional and perspectives with Biesta’s educational functions, the project aims to generate nuanced insights into how an institution such as IMS fulfil its compensatory mandate and support students’ long‑term educational participation.

Overall, the project contributes to European and international discussions on equitable transitions, support for newly arrived students, and the role of compensatory programmes in stratified education systems. Insights from the study have relevance for contexts beyond Sweden where recently immigrated youth navigate similar institutional landscapes.

Owing to economic crises, political instability and natural disasters, an increasing number of families migrate, requiring their children to learn a new language in order to access the curriculum and integrate into the local community. Promoting equity and inclusion is a strategic priority of the European Education Area and, therefore, all European education systems have implemented a range of policies that require inclusive practices and/ or learning support for, among others, newly arrived immigrants, called newcomers (Eurydice Report, 2023). Inclusive practices are often student-centred and characterized by shared professional values, respect for linguistic and cultural diversity, and collaboration with parents (Smythe, 2022). Such practices may include pedagogical practices such as translanguaging, which leverage students’ entire semiotic repertoire for learning and increase their participation (Hamman-Ortiz et al., 2025). While inclusive environments are necessary to foster learning, they are still rare (Siarova, 2022). By contrast, learning support for newcomers frequently consists of structured language provision in the official language, with the aim of promoting academic and social inclusion. This approach may, however, contradict principles of inclusive education and has been shown neither to accelerate learning nor support social interaction and integration (Brubacher, 2023; Gitschhaler et al., 2024). Overall, the implementation of inclusive practices and support, which impacts newcomers’ learning, is shaped by the organisation of education systems, the availability of resources and professionals’ ideological orientations and language skills (Bilgili, 2019).

The present qualitative study examines language learning and the integration of newcomers in primary schools in Luxembourg from the perspective of children and education professionals. Luxembourg has three official languages (Luxembourgish, German, French) and hosts a wide range of locally, nationally, and transnationally interconnected communities. National statistics indicate that in 2025, the foreign population of 180 nationalities represented 47% of the total population and 31% of primary school children spoke Luxembourgish at home. The trilingual education system, in which Luxembourgish and German are instructional languages and children become literate in German and French, poses particularly challenges for children from migrant backgrounds and low socio-economic status who do not speak the school languages. Large-scale assessment studies show that these children tend to underachieve (Hornung et al, 2023). Newcomers, defined as children who arrived in Luxembourg less than two years ago and whose parents are born outside the country, are especially at risk. Accordingly, the present project focuses on newcomers and investigates the language use and support structures across different learning environments.

To promote integration, the Luxembourg Ministry of Education has implemented several measures. Firstly, newcomers are integrated into the mainstream classes while also attending so-called reception courses that provide additionallanguage support in one or both of the school language(s). Second, it has established after-school structures where educators offer homework assistance and promote Luxembourgish. These institutions aim to support children’s education, facilitate their integration, reduce social inequalities and strengthen social cohesion.

While language is central to children’s learning, participation and inclusion (Repo et al. 2024; Smythe, 2022), few studies have examined the role of multiple languages in newcomers’ integration and the support provided by teachers and educators across formal and non-formal education sectors. Therefore, the present case-study explores which home and instructional languages promote newcomers’ integration in Luxembourg and how instructional languages are taught and learned. The study aims to generate insights into the ways in which teachers and educators design (or not) inclusive learning environments and foster participation and learning. Its findings will deepen our understanding of the complex interrelationships of inclusive practices, language learning and participation and will help identify measures to enhance children’s opportunities for academic success and their sense of belonging (DeNicolo, 2019).

Literacy is closely linked to academic opportunities and is a central concern of educational equity across European nations (OECD, 2023). With increasing global migration, many newly arrived students are not only navigating multiple phases of adaptation but also learning to read, listen, and write in the language of their new home countries. Teachers often welcome students with diverse backgrounds, such as multilingual repertoires, school histories, socioeconomic resources, and varying preparedness for schooling (Bunar, 2019), all of which can influence students’ academic opportunities across disciplines (Arun et al., 2021). In this presentation, we focus on academic literacy development, which is essential for accessing disciplinary content in subjects such as science, mathematics, and history (Lea & Street, 2006; Tarnanen et al., 2025). The first months after arrival play a critical role in setting the course for students’ learning trajectories, including literacy in the new language (Suárez-Orozco et al, 2010), and students who arrive toward the end of compulsory schooling are especially vulnerable (Nilsson & Bunar, 2015). Understanding the diversity of developmental trajectories can therefore help schools better support students’ language and literacy learning from the early stages. Ideally, schools adapt reciprocally to new arrivals by creating inclusive learning environments that acknowledge diversity in students’ development and build on their backgrounds, histories, resources, and preparedness (Cummin, 2013; Gay, 2018).

In Finland, this study examined trajectory subgroups of academic literacy development in the new language among lower secondary school newly arrived migrant students (N = 450, aged 12–16) during their first year after arrival. At the time, the Finnish school system provided these students with one-year of preparatory education, the main purpose of which was to develop students’ literacy for both everyday and academic, disciplinary school contexts (EDUFI, 2015). Our study addresses two research questions: (1) What trajectory subgroups of academic literacy in the new language emerge during preparatory education? (2) To what extent is membership in these trajectory subgroups related to newly arrived students’ backgrounds, including gender, school history, number of books at home, school absences, and preparedness for schooling? These background variables were selected based on previous research on literacy learning among students with diverse backgrounds (Nag, 2023).

Theoretically, the study draws on a sociocultural, communicative approach to language and literacy learning (Barton et al., 2000; Lantolf & Thorne, 2006; Street, 1984). Academic literacy development was measured using communicative literacy tasks that simulated everyday and disciplinary school situations. The tasks allowed students to demonstrate their capacity to interpret and create a variety of texts through reading, listening, and writing (speaking was not included due to the data collection setting). The tasks were designed based on the view that the interpretation and creation of texts – both written and heard – are inseparable from their multimodal, socially, and culturally situated contexts (e.g., Li, 2022; Kern, 2000; Moje, 2015). For example, when students interpreted history texts with maps and historical images, extracted key information from teachers’ talk in science lessons, or responded to mathematical word problems, they drew not only on emerging reading, listening, and writing capacity but also on prior knowledge and strategies related to context and the relevant disciplines (Kern, 2000; Lea & Street, 2006). Academic literacy development was thus conceptualized as an increasing capacity to engage with and communicate across authentic disciplinary texts, which could include pictures, maps, numbers, illustrations, and graphs. To ensure relevance to the first months after arrival, the literacy tasks were designed in accordance with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR; Council of Europe, 2018), levels A1–B1.