Naming diversity – discursive strategies shaping young minds

Discourses surrounding children can have an impact on segregation and support the formation of inclusive societies by constructing powerful images of possible future identities and lifestyles that serve as role models at an early age. This project analyses how diversity is represented through linguistic and multimodal strategies in educational resources directed at 10-year-old children in Sweden. By covering data from a time span over a century, the project explores how changing attitudes regarding gender, youth and aging, immigration and diversity are mirrored by discursive patterns in the textbooks.

The project brings several new contributions: it develops a new methodological approach focusing on progressive discourse mechanisms, it brings insights of textbook representation in a seldom investigated age group, and it introduces an innovative focus on naming as a powerful discursive tool. During 2024, a research sabbatical will take place in order to finalize a monography on the project as well as to enable an international research visit to the University of Münster, Germany, in order to strengthen the international contextualisation of the project and develop forms for collaboration.