Policy and leadership discourses in Sweden’s Art and Music Schools: the inclusion of refugee children

Abstract

Sweden’s Art and Music Schools (SAMS) have assumed some responsibility for facilitating refugee children’s social inclusion. This article investigates how the inclusion of refugee children in SAMS is introduced by leaders as well as how the theme is constructed and addressed as a topic in policy documents (related to the national policy process for SAMS). Two data sets constitute the empirical base: (1) conversations with leaders and (2) policy documents. Policy and discourse theories constitute the analytical and theoretical framework. The analyses expose how problematisations occur on an overarching level and how they construct subjects and topics. Furthermore, some significant consequences of different choices of terminology are emphasised; the problematisations have implications for agency capacity. The article concludes that as society changes, SAMS must change to accommodate new cultures while maintaining their own cultures. The results call for a multicentric view of inclusion.