Constructing success and hope among migrant students and families. A mother tongue teacher's didactic narratives

Focusing on the narrations of Omid – a Mother Tongue (MT) teacher of Arabic in a Swedish primary school – we analyze discursive constructions of Sweden, multilingualism and MT instruction in interview data and fieldnotes from parenting courses aimed at migrant parents. Omid constructed a performed role model – based in success stories – and a shared transnational identity with the function, we argue, of presenting an exemplum, and building trust and hope among parents in forced migration. This was evident in narrated alignment with the parents and claimed professional membership. The didactic narrations encompassed ideological space for multilingualism, and, we argue, both addressed and defused discourses on MT as a hindrance to integration through recurrent praise of Sweden and Swedish language learning. •Didactic stories in parenting courses aimed at migrant parents play a significant role.•The Mother Tongue teacher as narrator presents an exemplum and builds hope among the parents in forced migration.•The stories reflect ideological space for multilingualism and an equality-in-education agenda.•Through success stories, discourses on the Mother Tongue subject as a hindrance to integration are addressed and defused.