Mother Tongue Teachers and Multilingual Tutors: Invisible Contributors to the Development of Multilingual Literacies in Swedish Schools

Dr. Anne Reath Warren, Uppsala University, Sweden

Since the Home Language Reform in 1977, primary and secondary school students in Sweden who regularly use a language other than Swedish at home can apply to study that language through an elective subject called “Mother Tongue” (Reath Warren, 2022). In the academic year 2025/26, 28,9% of students in the compulsory school (Grades K-9) were eligible for “Mother Tongue” and approximately 187 languages were taught through the subject (Sweden’s official statistics, 2026a). In the same year, 5,550 mother tongue teachers were employed in schools or municipalities throughout Sweden (Sweden’s official statistics, 2026b). Approximately 1 hour per week is delegated to the study of “Mother Tongue”. This unique right to education in the mother tongue has been the subject of much research, debate and political jousting. The organizational and implementational challenges described by researchers and decried by politicians continue to hinder the subject reaching its full potential. Nonetheless, long-term enrollment has been correlated with improved skills in the language studied (hardly surprising!) and also with better results in Swedish (Ganuza & Hedman, 2019, The Swedish National Agency for Education, 2008).

Less well-known is the fact that many mother tongue teachers have dual roles in the Swedish school. Whilst often formally employed as language teachers, they can also be asked to work as multilingual tutors. In this form of temporary, multilingual, academic support, most often recommended for newcomers, multilingual tutors work through Swedish subject matter with students in the students’ mother tongues or strongest language of schooling. The aim is to support on-going development of subject knowledge whilst students learn Swedish as a second language. Multilingual tutoring is also available for other multilingual students who are at risk of failing school subjects due to low proficiency in Swedish. In the 2025/26 academic year, 2,2% of students in the compulsory school (Grades K-9) participated in multilingual tutoring and 3840 multilingual tutors were employed in schools or municipalities throughout Sweden (Sweden’s official statistics, 2026b, 2026c).  A review of the research on multilingual tutoring identifies it as one of the most important factors for school success for newcomers, as it addresses the single biggest challenge newcomers face, that is, lack of comprehension of the Swedish language and thereby of what is being taught at and provided through Swedish schools (Ministry of Education and Research, 2019, p. 299). Multilingual tutoring has also been identified as a unique space for translanguaging in the Swedish school; as a range of languages (the students’ mother tongue, other languages that students have been educated in, Swedish, and not infrequently English) are used together fluidly, to support understanding of written and spoken subject matter in Swedish (Reath Warren, 2017).

When the same person works as both a mother tongue teacher and a multilingual tutor, they thus work with two different forms of multilingual education, with divergent goals. In the role of “mother tongue teacher” their professional goal is principally to work with the development of students’ mother tongues (through the language subject of “Mother Tongue”). As language teachers, they plan, lead and assess students’ learning of their mother tongue, responsibilities mostly carried out independently[1] and in accordance with the syllabus for “Mother tongue” in the Swedish curriculum. In the role of “multilingual tutor” their professional goal is principally to work with the development of students’ academic knowledge in Swedish, using the mother tongue or other languages the student and tutor both know as a medium. As multilingual tutors, collaboration with subject teachers is essential (but in research, found to be lacking). While assessment for learning is crucial in multilingual tutoring, (formal) assessment of learning remains the responsibility of the subject teachers; tutors do not have the same responsibilities as teachers.

Both these roles are important, and moreover, complementary. Cummins proposed a theory of linguistic interdependence in 1979 and, since then, studies of translanguaging have challenged the notion that “best way” to learn a language, or subject matter taught through a new language, is though immersion or “submersion” (Cummins, 1979). Contemporary approaches to language and subject knowledge development promote leveraging what the students already know; languages, everyday and scientific knowledge and what arouses their curiosity. Mother tongue teachers and tutors have enormous potential to support learning among multilingual students and newcomers in Sweden. By supporting students in their development of the mother tongue (through the subject mother tongue) and by supporting students in leveraging their mother tongue to learn subject content (for newcomers, through multilingual tutoring, and for other multilingual students, through translanguaging), mother tongue teachers and tutors should indeed be considered key pedagogical staff in schools!

Unfortunately, their multilingual, intercultural, competences, remain largely unrecognized and unleveraged in many schools. As mother tongue teachers, they are frequently marginalized, teaching after-hours in different schools, in rooms not designed for language education and not being recognized by other staff (Reath Warren, 2017). As multilingual tutors, although usually working during regular school hours, they face the same problem of not being recognized, and moreover often not being able to collaborate with the subject teachers whose teaching they are employed to support (Ministry of Education and Research, 2019).  Moreover, mother tongue teachers and multilingual tutors in Sweden are exempt from the requirement to withhold formal teacher education, which impacts negatively both on their status and their sense of professionalism and agency. There are limited in-service courses and teacher education programmes for mother tongue teachers and multilingual tutors, restricting opportunities for qualification and professionalization.

In a world where multilingual literacies are ever more important (Warriner et al, 2023), Sweden’s 5,500 mother tongue teachers and 3840 multilingual tutors fly largely under the radar, in schools, in higher education and in research. In order to make visible and develop the work of mother tongue teachers and multilingual tutors, three major changes are needed. Schools must develop better approaches for organizing and implementing both mother tongue instruction and multilingual tutoring. Higher education must develop more pathways for professional development and qualification of teachers/tutors. Finally, knowledge about the roles and goals of mother tongue and multilingual tutoring should be incorporated into teacher education, and school leadership programmes. With structural support, higher education and collaboration mother tongue teachers and multilingual tutors can make a genuine and much-needed contribution to multilingual students’ and newcomers’ ongoing language and knowledge development.

[1] Depending on the form of employment (mother tongue teachers can be employed by schools or by municipalities), different forms of collegial support exist.

References

Cummins, J. (1979). Linguistic Interdependence and the Educational Development of Bilingual Children. Review of Educational Research, 49(2), 222–251. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543049002222 

Ganuza, N., & Hedman, C. (2019). The impact of mother tongue instruction on the development of biliteracy - evidence from Somali-Swedish bilinguals. Applied Linguistics, 40(1), 108–131. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amx010 

Ministry of Education and Research (2019:18). För flerspråkighet, kunskapsutveckling och inkludering. Modersmålsundervisning och studiehandledning på modersmål (SOU 2019:18)[For multilingualism, knowledge development and inclusion. Mother tongue and study guidance in the mother tongue [SOU 2019:18]. Government Offices of Sweden. https://www.gov.se/rattsliga-dokument/statens-offentliga-utredningar/2019/05/sou-201918/ 

Reath Warren, A. (2022, February 21). Heritage language education in Australia and Sweden. Language on the Move. https://languageonthemove.com/heritage-language-education-in-australia-and-sweden/

Reath Warren, A. (2017). Developing multilingual literacies in Sweden and Australia: Opportunities and challenges in mother tongue instruction and multilingual study guidance in Sweden and community language education in Australia. http://su.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1116085&dswid=8210

Sweden’s official statistics. (2026a). Grundskolan – Elever – Riksnivå. Tabell 8A, 8B [Compulsory school – Students – National level. Tables 8A, 8B]. Skolverket. https://www.skolverket.se/statistik-och-utvarderingar/statistik-om-forskola-och-skola/sok-statistik-om-forskola-skola-och-vuxenutbildning?sok=SokC&verkform=Grundskola +och+sameskola&omrade=Skolor+och+elever&lasar=2025%2F26&run=1 

Sweden’s official statistics. (2026b).  Grundskolan – Elever – Riksnivå. Tabell 9D. [Compulsory school – Students – National level. Table 9D].  Skolverket. https://www.skolverket.se/statistik-och-utvarderingar/statistik-om-forskola-och-skola/sok-statistik-om-forskola-skola-och vuxenutbildning?sok=SokC&verkform= Grundskola+och+ sameskola& omrade=Skolor+och+elever&lasar=2025%2F26&run=1 

Sweden’s official statistics. (2026c).  Samtliga skolformer – Personal – Riksnivå. Tabell 1D. [All school forms – Staff. Table 1D]. Skolverket. https://www.skolverket.se/statistik-och-utvarderingar/statistik-om- forskola-och-skola/sok-statistik-om-forskola-skola-och-vuxenutbildning?sok=SokC&verkform=Grundskola+och+sameskola&omrade=Personal&lasar=2025%2F26&run=1 

The Swedish National Agency for Education. (2008). With another mother tongue - a summary in English of the Swedish National Agency for Education’s report 321. Skolverket. https://www.skolverket.se/download/18.6bfaca41169863e6a658508/1553961809214/pdf2181.pdf 

Warriner, D. S., Griego, A., & Rajapakse, A. (2023). Multilingual literacies. The Routledge Handbook of Multilingualism, 508–520. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003214908-13/MULTILINGUAL-LITERACIES-DORIS-WARRINER-ANJANETTE-GRIEGO-AGRA-RAJAPAKSE 

Bio: Anne is an Associate Professor of education, with a focus on multilingualism and newcomers' learning. She teaches and does research on teacher education and professional development for mother tongue teachers, multilingual tutors and municipalities, to improve learning conditions for multilingual and newcomer students.