Reinterrogating Language Education in Adulthood through the Lens of Critical Sociolinguistics and Disability Studies

This project focuses on alternative language educational practices for migrant adults with Special Education Needs, such as deafness, hearing impairment, intellectual disability and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, in Swedish language courses at municipal adult education and folk high schools (folkhögskola).

These educational practices cater to students furthest away from the labor market.

The issue is that personal failure in mainstream language education is a prerequisite for accessing these alternative forms, resulting in wasted and devastating years in the mainstream system, or in unemployment.

The overall purpose is to contribute new knowledge on these under-researched and rare practices, in terms of justice, by conducting long-term fieldwork in three of these schools.

The specific aim is to critically examine if and how these educational provisions contribute to a more complex and nuanced understanding of notions like inclusion and integration in Sweden.

The guiding research questions are: (1) What characterizes these practices? (2) What is the significance of these practices for those most concerned, like students and teachers? and (3) How can these micro-perspectives be related to wider scales of power and education policy?This four-years-project is based in linguistic ethnography.

The combination of critical sociolinguistics and critical disability studies is new, and this combined theoretical lens will enable a reexamination of quality and justice in adult education.