Exploring integration in schools by using the lens of cultural diversity and multilingualism in policy documents from Finland, Scotland and Sweden

Abstract

Education policies are legally and societally significant for framing how schools are expected to promote the integration of pupils with migration backgrounds into school communities. Approaches to integration in education are embedded in policies that reflect wider general understandings of diversity and specific arrangements that aim to accommodate the increasing cultural and linguistic diversity of school populations. This article explores how the integration, cultural diversity and multilingualism of pupils with migration backgrounds are conceptualised in education policy documents in Finland, Sweden and Scotland. Based on thematic analysis of 19 policy documents, this study provides comparative insights into how migrant integration is conceptualised in policy documents across three similar but different national contexts. In the policy documents, pupils with migration backgrounds are implicitly identified as migrants because of their language backgrounds. In the documents of each country, it seems that integration has been scantly addressed or is even a hidden construct. At the same time, the cultural diversity of pupils has been recognised and considered favourable across the countries.