Lang Policy https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-018-9472-8 ORIGINAL PAPER Mother tongue instruction in Sweden and Denmark Language policy, cross-feld efects, and linguistic exchange rates Linus Salö1,2 · Natalia Ganuza2 · Christina Hedman3 · Martha Sif Karrebæk4 Received: 26 April 2017 / Accepted: 25 April 2018 © The Author(s) 2018 Abstract This article investigates mother tongue instruction (MTI) in Sweden and Denmark in a historical, comparative perspective, with a view to accounting for key diferences in language policy enacted in educational felds. Whereas in Sweden, MTI is ofered to linguistic minority children irrespective of their linguistic and eth- nic backgrounds, in Denmark the right to state-sponsored MTI has been abolished for children of non-European descent. Moreover, while the policies of both states devalue skills in mother tongues other than the legitimate language of each soci- ety, this position is more pronounced in the Danish context. The article explores the two state’s position on MTI, as expressed in policy as well as in discourse produced in the political and academic feld of each state. It subscribes to Pierre Bourdieu’s framework, within which state policy is conceived as the product of historical strug- gle and cross-feld efects. The analysis shows that the national diferences in MTI exist because of the difering ways in which agents from the academic vis-à-vis the * Linus Salö
[email protected] Natalia Ganuza
[email protected] Christina Hedman
[email protected] Martha Sif Karrebæk
[email protected] 1 Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden 2 Centre for Research on Bilingualism, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden 3 Department of Language Education, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden 4 Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen, Njalsgade 120, København S Building: 22.4.64, 2300 Copenhagen, Denmark 1 3 L.