Det kompensatoriska uppdraget : En studie av sju lärares syn på en likvärdig skola för flerspråkiga elever

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this qualitative interview based study is to investigate how seven teachers in elementary school look at the compensatory assignment and the responsibility to provide an equal school in relation to multilingual pupils whose knowledge of Swedish is not yet fully developed. The study also intends to investigate and get to know what methods the teachers state that they use to provide multilingual students with the same conditions as those who have Swedish as their first language. In summary, the study shows that the teachers take an intercultural perspective with a positive attitude towards bilingualism, and make use of many concrete methods that seem to be compensatory. The teachers see the multilingual pupils from a resource perspective and focus on what the pupils manage and carry with them, instead of looking at them from a lacking perspective focusing on what they cannot yet manage. However, the teachers express a frustration about not having enough knowledge of second language learning and language and knowledge developing work methods, and they wish for further training in this. They also call for a greater educator density with mother tongue skills, as well as for more time for conversation and co-planning, and an increased support from the management.