| Summary: | This article aims to examine the development of bilingual education in Swedish and Arabic, in a multicultural neighbourhood in Malmö, as seen from the perspective of some of the school leaders who were involved in the process. What have the school leaders experienced as positive or problematic in the years of bilingual education? How were the various discourses on bilingual education expressed in school practice? In addition to interviews with responsible school leaders, the article analyses various policy documents and language syllabi that provide guidelines for school activities. Another aim is to examine different discourses on language expressed in a media debate about bilingual education in Swedish and Arabic that took place at the time of the project. This media debate had a noticeable impact on school practice. Even though the school leaders overall expressed positive attitudes towards bilingual education, they were influenced by other discourses as well. For example, they mainly justified bilingual education by the argument that it would improve the pupils’ command of Swedish and that they would hopefully achieve better marks and goal attainment. That the pupils would become bilingual was not put forward as a major aim. Initially, the school leaders were highly positive to the results of bilingual education, but slowly discovered that there were some obstacles. They were consequently obliged to gradually modify the bilingual model which was applied in their schools.
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