The Swedish Preschool as an Integration Arena

The Swedish preschool is increasingly recognized as an important integration arena. In Swedish politics, it is assumed that merely enrolling migrant children in preschool will lead to integration. However, research on migrant children in Swedish preschools remains limited, leaving the actual potential of preschools to promote integration underexplored. This thesis investigates how integration is manifested in Swedish preschools and how specific practices and approaches support or hinder this process. The focus is on how preschools manage the initial steps of migrant families into the educational integration trajectory in settings where the vast majority of families and practitioners have a majority background. Integration is used as a theoretical concept that postulates migrants’ inclusion and active participation in society, while their cultural and linguistic backgrounds are acknowledged (Penninx, 2019). Through this investigation this thesis provides a valuable contribution to both academic research and political discourse on integration within early childhood education and care (ECEC). The study was conducted in two phases and includes four peer-reviewed articles, two associated with each research phase. Firstly, integration was explored from the perspective of preschool practitioners’ narratives, based on a licentiate study (Löthman, 2022), addressing their experiences of working with migrant parents (article I) and their children (article II). Secondly, integration was explored in situ based on observations of migrant children’s participation in teaching activities (article III) and peer play (article IV). The results show that integration does not occur automatically. According to the preschool practitioners, integration is manifested through a process of change within themselves, resulting in the capacity to acknowledge and respond to migrant families’ needs and perspectives. This process requires a dialogic stance and is accompanied by greater cultural reflexivity and practical flexibility. The analysis of observations of migrant children’s participation in preschool suggests that practitioners’ responsiveness largely manifests during care and routine activities, rather than during teaching activities and peer play, where constraints to integration exist. These constraints are primarily linked to insufficient attention to the crucial role of language in teaching and peer play, combined with a strong emphasis on child-centered pedagogy—enacted as a