''Vem är jag? Jag har upptäckt att jag inte tillhör!'' En diskursanalys av hur ungdomar och elever upplever och lever med mellanförskap i Sverige

Sammanfattning: Betweenship, or inbetweenness, is a complex state of mind. Numerous stories about it arecurrently being shared and more are piling up by the minute. Inbetweenness exist in all socialclasses all over the world.What is inbetweenness? Inbetweenness is a state of mind closely connected with theexperiences of children of immigrants, mixed races and transracial adoptees. What createdinbetweenness? Many scholars, like for example Tobias Hübinette, believe thatinbetweenness is a result of globalization. What inbetweeners all have in common is that theyidentify themselves as people of subculture, or people between cultures, because theyrepeatedly travel between different cultures and identities. In our research we found that thecommon aspiration and desire among inbetweeners is that their identities must not beexamined or questioned by other people, especially those who do not understandinbetweenness, and also that inbetweenness is the result of different power structures in thesociety.Patrik Bolling Ferell, co-founder of the Swedish foundation The Inbetweenship(Mellanförskapet), has said that “It’s on the airplane between my two home countries I feelhome at most.” These inbetween individuals already struggle with identity issues. Most ofthem don’t even know what (or where) to call “home”. What is interesting about the noun“home” is that it has multiple meanings, such as a shelter that is a person’s residence, and aplace where domestic affections are centered. The meaning is controversial, which is why thequote by Ferell is so fitting.Descendants of foreigners and inbetweeners all over the world claim that they arecurrently not treated with equality nor the respect that they deserve, which is the main reasonwhy we decided to write this bachelor essay about this subject.This essay focuses on collecting and analyzing research data from a number of individualsfrom different chosen cities who also answered a few questions in an inquiry about theinbetweenness situation in Sweden. To analyze this research data we decided to use thecritical discourse analysis theory by Norman Fairclough to study the bond between powerstructures and inbetweenness in Swedish society. We also question why the Swedish schoolsystem, its principals and teachers insist on not incorporating this subject when there clearlyis enough room for it in the curriculum and syllabus, according to our study. At the end of ourstudy, we give advice on how teachers can educate Swedish upper secondary school students about inbetweenness as a part of religious studies.Inbetweenness research indicated that there are great flaws in religious studies in Sweden.Results showed that there are no, or very few educational lessons about inbetweenness,multicultural, alienation and reconciliation education.This study, researched and written with brand new data about the subject, concludes thatthe majority of our survey participants have never even heard the word inbetweenness or anyof its variants, while the majority have experienced or continue to experience it. Results fromthe survey also show us that the participants also feel that the Swedish school system musttake its responsibility to its students and educate them better about this subject, as manyparticipants would have felt better and safer with their identities knowing that they are notalone in the world, and that what they are feeling is completely normal. Participants in thesurvey also answered that they would probably have gotten better grades if teachers andschoolmates understood what they have been going through.