Inequality and inclusion in Swedish early childhood education and care: a policy analysis

At the intersection of education and policy, one of the most persistent problems is that of addressing inequalities through inclusive education. In line with efforts to address this problem, we present findings from a European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation project called Educational Common Spaces: Passing through enclosures and reversing inequalities. The project brought together a consortium of twelve universities from eight European countries to study the question of inequality and inclusion in a variety of educational settings across the continent. In the present article we report on findings we contributed to one of the project’s constituent studies: an analysis of Swedish policy and steering documents focused on inequality and inclusion in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). We draw on and extend recent policy analyses of inclusive education in Sweden to engage in an examination of how ideas about inequality and inclusion are actualized across levels (national and municipal) and time scales (established and ongoing discourses) in the context of the early years. Our analysis of Swedish ECEC policy documents reveals a dominant logic in which inequalities are addressed through an inclusive education that is compensatory in nature, , positioning the child as a re-producerre-producer of culture, knowledge, and values, now particularly those associated with the acquisition of Swedish language. In relation to previous policy analyses, what comes forward as a new phenomenon here is the third point – the focus on early acquisition of the national language. This represents an important shift in policies and in the concluding discussion of this article we draw up some possible critical and creative ways of addressing this shift.