International mobility in teacher education and educational settings is regarded as a key element in equipping students and teachers for working in today’s increasingly diverse and interconnected world. Experiences like student exchanges, study visits, teaching internships, and working with colleagues abroad are regarded to support intercultural understanding, professional development, and global citizenship. International mobility is a key aspect of education policy and programs around the world, especially in initiatives like Erasmus+ and other international exchanges (Boix Mansilla & Jackson 2023; Majewska 2022;). International mobility has been shown to positively influence skills relevant to the teaching profession, such as intercultural awareness and communication, as well as students’ perception of ‘good teaching’ (e.g., Berk 2017; Moorhouse 2022, 2024; Leutwyler & Lottenbach 2009).

This teff Position Paper first examines international mobility opportunities in teacher education programs and schools and subsequently offers recommendations on how to shape international mobility practices that are meaningful, inclusive, and support wider societal goals, both in the educational contexts of today, and, of the future. In addition to the manifold teff activities and events, most often including a mobility of various people, a small additional data set has been collected during fall 2025 through individual and group interviews with: 

12 teachers and 5 administrative staff from teff schools

16 teacher educators and 18 administrative staff from teff universities

33 student teachers from teff universities 

21 pupils from teff partner schools

Studiehandledning på modersmål ska ges till elever i den svenska grund- och gymnasieskolan om de behöver det. Studiehandledningen är tänkt att ge stöd och anpassning till nyanlända elever som ännu inte behärskar det svenska språket tillräckligt för att kunna tillgodogöra sig undervisningen. Utifrån studiehandledares berättelser om förutsättningar för att bedriva studiehandledning på modersmål för nyanlända analyseras i föreliggande kapitel vilka hinder och möjligheter som finns med studiehandledning på modersmål i grund- och gymnasieskola. Analysen visar att studiehandledarnas kompetens sällan tas till vara i arbetslagen och att de kan beskrivas som en lärargrupp i en utsatt yrkesposition. Studiehandledare betraktas inte som jämlika arbetskamrater av lärare, vilket försvårar det praktiska arbetet med att stödja nyanlända elevers lärande.

Students in Swedish primary and secondary school must be given study guidance in their mother tongue if they need it. The study guidance is intended to provide support and adjustments to newly arrived students who do not yet have sufficient command of the Swedish language to be able to benefit from the teaching. The present chapter analyzes the obstacles and opportunities of mother-tongue study guidance in primary and secondary schools, based on study supervisors' accounts of the conditions for conducting study guidance for new arrivals in their mother tongue. The analysis shows that study supervisors' competence is rarely utilized in the teams and that they can be described as a group of teachers in a vulnerable professional position. Study supervisors are not seen as equal peers by the teachers, which makes the practical work of supporting newly arrived students' learning difficult.

The aim of the present study is to attain new knowledge about interculturalism, ethnicity, and multilingualism in the upper secondary school context in conjunction with pedagogical work with students who are newly arrived in the country. The empirical material for the study was collected in the upper secondary context in Sweden and consists of documents, field notes, and qualitative interview. Analysis shows that a distance relationship is created and recreated in the interactive flow between the newly arrived students and the teachers' institution when ethnic social pedagogical monitoring and control are represented in writing by the institution (the upper secondary school) and verbally in the observed and recounted situations. Social pedagogical identities are produced and reproduced in the interactive dynamic, in which the newly arrived student is represented as a successful student, developing in the social pedagogical meaning. However, the newly arrived student also is represented as a humiliated, weary, excluded student who, through demonstration of moral dissolution, displays an ethnified victim student identity that is in opposition to the teachers and institution. This represented humiliation, weariness, and exclusion of the newly arrived student constructs and reconstructs the image of a disadvantaged student. The effect is likely a negative impact on the aims of the upper secondary school to include and integrate newly arrived students into the school community and society at large.

The aim of the present study is to attain new knowledge about interculturalism, ethnicity, and multilingualism in the upper secondary school context in conjunction with pedagogical work with students who are newly arrived in the country. The empirical material for the studies was collected in the upper secondary context in Sweden and consists of documents, field notes written up from fieldwork, and qualitative ethnographic interviews. Analysis shows that a distance relationship is created and recreated in the interactive flow between the newly arrived students and the teachers–institution when ethnic social pedagogical monitoring and control are represented in writing by the institution (the upper secondary school) and verbally in the observed and recounted situations. Social pedagogical identities are produced and reproduced in the interactive dynamic, in which the newly arrived student is represented as a successful student, developing in the social pedagogical meaning. However, the newly arrived student also is represented as a humiliated, weary, excluded student who, through demonstration of moral dissolution, displays an ethnified victim student identity that is in opposition to the teachers and institution (upper secondary school). This represented humiliation, weariness, and exclusion of the newly arrived student constructs and reconstructs the image of a disadvantaged student. The effect is likely a negative impact on the aims of the upper secondary school to include and integrate newly arrived students into the school community and society at large.

The purpose of the present study is to achieve a new level of knowledge of interculturality, ethnicity and multilingualism in conjunction with practical and organisational activities involving newly arrived migrant students in upper-secondary education. The analysis revolves around the following two research questions: (1) How do newly arrived migrant students produces interculturality, ethnicity and multilingualism in conjunction with practical activities in upper-secondary schools? (2) How do those involved produce newly arrived migrant students’ identity formation and reformation during teaching and learning activities in upper-secondary schools, and the significance of such processes to social integration? The empirical material used in the study consists of qualitative interviews, field notes and documents related to upper-secondary education obtained from a number of Swedish municipalities. Ten interviews have been conducted with newly arrived students attending different upper-secondary schools in Sweden. The dominant standard explanations of the category of newly arrived students (especially those who come from war zones) seem to focus on their psychiatric or medical needs. The common diagnoses that figure in the research include post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, recurring nightmares, emotional apathy, and flashbacks to traumatic events. Common explanations for absence in the school context include stomach aches, restlessness, anxiety, and depression, and competing explanations seem relatively de-emphasized. These may include (1) established inequalities in society and at school, (2) material and institutional difficulties in societal and school contexts, (3) bureaucratic hurdles in school and in the rest of society, (4) ethnic monitoring and social control in society and at school, (5) the humiliated identities of the actors in a societal and school context, (6) victimization in relation to the majority in the context; (7) demeaning ethnic categorizations in society and at school, and (8) discrimination in the school context and an overall societal context. Analysis of the collected empirical data in this study shows that the ethnic identities of newly arrived students are constructed and reconstructed during teaching and learning activities in upper-secondary schools. During these activities, an ethnified position of “us” and “them” is produced and reproduced between actors in the context of upper-secondary education. These positions are analysed in the present study as both an obstacle (“us” and “them” in the relationship between various ethnic categories of student and teacher, or as ethnified monitoring and social control in the school context) and an opportunity (a common ethnified “we” in the relationship between teacher and student). 

The purpose of the present study is to achieve a new level of knowledge of interculturality and multilingualism in conjunction with practical and organisational activities involving newly arrived migrant students in upper-secondary education. The analysis revolves around the following three research questions: (1) How do head teachers, teachers and other professionals working in upper-secondary schools describe interculturality and multilingualism in conjunction with practical and organisational activities involving newly arrived migrant students? (2) How do newly arrived migrant students describe interculturality and multilingualism in conjunction with practical activities in upper-secondary schools? (3) How do those involved describe newly arrived migrant students’ identity formation and reformation during teaching and learning activities in upper-secondary schools, and the significance of such processes to social integration? The empirical material used in the study consists of qualitative interviews, field notes and documents related to upper-secondary education obtained from a number of Swedish municipalities. In addition to newly arrived migrant students, the study’s informants are representatives of various professions working in upper-secondary education. Thirty interviews have been conducted with professionals working with newly arrived migrant students, as well as interviews with 10 newly arrived students attending different upper-secondary schools in Sweden. Analysis of the collected empirical data shows that the ethnic identities of both professionals and students are constructed and reconstructed during teaching and learning activities in upper-secondary schools. During these activities, an ethnified position of “us” and “them” is produced and reproduced between actors in the context of upper-secondary education. These positions are analysed in the present study as both an obstacle (“us” and “them” in the relationship between various ethnic categories of student and teacher, or as ethnified monitoring and social control in the school context) and an opportunity (a common ethnified “we” in the relationship between teacher and student). 

Studien syftar till att upptäcka, beskriva och analysera interaktiva mönster i mellanmänskliga möten i gymnasieskolkontext som påverkar lärarnas arbetssituation och förutsättningar för att skapa undervisning som främjar nyanländas integration och framgång i det svenska skolsystemet; framgångar och hinder i skolans organisering av arbetet med nyanlända elever; nyanlända elevernas identitetsskapande och återskapande under pedagogiska aktiviteter i skolan samt dessa processers betydelse för integration i samhället.

Studien utgår från ett interaktionistiskt och interkulturellt perspektiv, samt har inslag av etnometodologi och socialkonstruktionism. Den interkulturella pedagogiska forskningen utgår liksom etnometodologin från att samhället inte styrs uppifrån och att samhällets normaltillstånd inte kännetecknas av essentiell struktur och tydlig ordning. Social ordning uppnås inte normativt utan genom konstituerande regler och meningsskapande som kontinuerligt produceras av handlingar som är möjliga att återge, observera och dokumentera.

Studien är en kvalitativ studie som tar sin metodologiska utgångspunkt i etnografisk tradition, där huvudsyftet är att försöka förstå och beskriva människors komplexa livsvillkor och levda kultur. Studien har en fallstudiedesign där tre olika metoder för att samla in och analysera empiri har använts: intervju, observation och dokument i gymnasieskolkontext.

Resultatet visar hur arbetssituationen för olika professionella lärarkategorier, samverkan mellan olika yrkeskategorier, samt mellan olika yrkeskategorier och elever och vårdnadshavare kan vara både ett hinder och en möjlighet i det praktiska arbetet med nyanlända elever. Resultatet visar även att arbetssituationen för lärare och samverkan mellan olika kategorier påverkar produktion och reproduktion av elevernas identiteter under pedagogiska aktiviteter i skolan. Under dessa aktiviteter konstrueras och rekonstrueras en ”vi” och ”de” positionering mellan aktörer i gymnasieskolans kontext. Den positioneringen analyseras i föreliggande studie som både ett hinder(”vi” – ”de” i relation lärare – elev eller i relation modersmålslärare – andra kategorier av lärare) och en möjlighet (gemensamt ”vi” i relation lärare – elev eller i relation modersmålslärare – andra kategorier av lärare – elev). Studiens resultat visar dessutom upp betydelsen av gymnasieskolans kontextbundna diskurser, attityder, engagerat ledarskap och rätt kompetens av lärarna som viktiga dimensioner för framtida utvecklingsarbete i relation till professionella aktörer som praktiskt arbetar med nyanlända elever.