Naming diversity – discursive strategies shaping young minds
How are representations of cultural diversity developed and handled in interplay with societal changes? 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 analyzes 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. The aim of the sabbatical is to finalize a monography as well as to enable an international research visit in order to strengthen the international contextualization of the project and develop forms for collaboration.
Final report
Project Overview
The ten-month research sabbatical aimed to complete a monograph on how social diversity is represented through naming practices, language use, and visual elements in Swedish educational materials for 10-year-olds (in the subjects of mathematics, social science, and Swedish language) from the 1920s to the 2010s. While the research project had already been initiated, the extensive and multifaceted nature of the material required a focused effort to consolidate and deepen the analyses. The RJ-funded sabbatical enabled this work and successfully resulted in a finalized book manuscript. In addition, a two-month international research stay at the University of Münster, Germany, significantly enriched the project. The university’s and the country’s expertise in both critical textbook studies and onomastic research provided valuable inspiration, access to important printed studies rarely available in Sweden, opportunities for networking and critical discussion, and facilitated planning of future collaborations.
Research Findings
The project pursued two main objectives: 1) To explore how diversity is multimodally represented in textbook discourse aimed at young readers and 2) To determine how textbook representations interplay with societal changes in Sweden between the 1920’s and the 2010’s. Regarding the first objective, the project found that interplay between the use of names, language, and images significantly changed over time and sometimes showed internal contradictions. This was interpreted as a reflection of how different modes of meaning-making seemingly receive varying degrees of attention and function differently at various points in time. Inclusive perspectives appeared more frequently in areas supposedly shaped with greater awareness, which often excluded naming practices. Thus, the importance of including name analysis in critical textbook research was stressed. The project also resulted in the formulation of a theoretical model summarizing the functions of naming practices as meaning-making resources in textbooks. This model synthesized earlier theories and research from various fields (onomastics, pragmatics, and textbook studies). Key aspects of the model highlight names’ ability to provide readers with knowledge about referents and reference types, concretize content, engage readers, create (certain types of) relationships to individuals, signal status within the text, construct sociocultural identities and hierarchies, and reinforce the authority of the text producer.
In relation to the second objective, the project yielded rich results illustrating how both linguistic and multimodal meaning-making resources shape age, gender, and cultural identities in varying ways from the 1920’s to the 2010’s. Both the (referential) system for presenting individuals and the constructions of age, gender, and cultural identities displayed significant changes over the investigated period. Some societal shifts were quickly reflected in textbooks (e.g., the child-centered perspective of the 1950s), while others showed a delayed response (e.g., the limited inclusion of cultural diversity in the 2010s). Gender identities initially showed increasing equality but stagnated at an “almost equal” level from the 1980s onwards. Similarly, there was no notable increase in gender-neutrality between the 1980s and 2010s, and it continously remained linked to a culturally homogeneous norm. Age identities changed considerably, with a gradual shift toward increasing child focus, varying inclusion of youth identities, and altered family structures. However, elderly were consistently marginalized throughout the period. While representations of cultural diversity increased slightly over time, a predominantly homogeneous cultural depiction still dominated, especially in naming practices. In addition, when diversity was highlighted, it was mainly associated with boys/men. The inclusion of Swedish national minorities did not increase. Finally, the norms for referencing individuals in texts also changed significantly, with increased visualization and informalization, often correlating with age and gender norms.
The project employed a relatively new methodological approach focusing on potentially "progressive" mechanisms in textbooks that could establish positive role models for young readers. At each historical point of analysis, there were representations that reflected the dominant cultural context of the time, representations that appeared residual and retrospective (where traces of earlier social or cultural systems persist), and finally representations that appeared emergent and potentially progressive (supporting ongoing processes of societal change where new meanings, values, practices, or relationships are introduced). Four progressive mechanisms, in particular, were identified as recurring in the textbook texts: inclusion of a diversity of voices and amplification of voices from marginalized groups; enabling perspective shifts and reversal of stereotypes (including through norm-breaking name choices); highlighting empathetic playfulness (for example, through unexpected combinations of linguistic and visual attributes); and blurring of social boundaries (such as through gender-neutral names).
Publications and Dissemination
The project primarily resulted in a submitted book manuscript (Aldrin, forthcoming) to the scientific series Acta Academiae Regiae Gustavi Adolphi, which is published by the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy for Swedish Folk Culture and offers both printed and digital production (with open access). The manuscript, comprising approximately 300 pages, is currently under peer review and the plan is to complete it during autumn 2025.
Additionally, research findings have been published in a peer-reviewed article in the international journal Names (Aldrin, 2025) and are forthcoming in two Nordic conference volumes (Aldrin in press 2025a, b). Parts of the research have been presented and discussed at a number of academic venues. A keynote talk on the 11th Conference on Language, Gender, and Identity included gender-related findings from the project (October 2023). Other aspects were presented at the NORNA symposium on Names and Conflicts (Uppsala, November 2023). During the research stay in Münster, findings were shared with a German audience, including both researchers and students (lecture on July 3, 2024). At a Germanic symposium on Namen im Kontext, held at the Institute for Language and Folklore in Uppsala (April 2025), the project’s pragmatics-based findings on the functions of names were presented. Further dissemination is planned in conjunction with the publication of the book, including popular-science outreach.
Continued International Collaboration
As a result of the research visit to the University of Münster, continued international collaboration has been made possible. On June 12, 2025, a digital symposium titled Given Names in Different Countries: Similarities, Differences, Historical and Contemporary Developments will be co-hosted by Anna Balbach (Münster) and Emilia Aldrin (Halmstad). This event marks the reactivation of the International Network for Personal Names Research, previously coordinated from the UK, with the aim of fostering international projects and scholarly exchange. A joint digital teaching component in onomastics is also being planned to connect students from Münster and Halmstad through shared lectures and discussions, though it has not yet been implemented due to scheduling constraints.
The ten-month research sabbatical aimed to complete a monograph on how social diversity is represented through naming practices, language use, and visual elements in Swedish educational materials for 10-year-olds (in the subjects of mathematics, social science, and Swedish language) from the 1920s to the 2010s. While the research project had already been initiated, the extensive and multifaceted nature of the material required a focused effort to consolidate and deepen the analyses. The RJ-funded sabbatical enabled this work and successfully resulted in a finalized book manuscript. In addition, a two-month international research stay at the University of Münster, Germany, significantly enriched the project. The university’s and the country’s expertise in both critical textbook studies and onomastic research provided valuable inspiration, access to important printed studies rarely available in Sweden, opportunities for networking and critical discussion, and facilitated planning of future collaborations.
Research Findings
The project pursued two main objectives: 1) To explore how diversity is multimodally represented in textbook discourse aimed at young readers and 2) To determine how textbook representations interplay with societal changes in Sweden between the 1920’s and the 2010’s. Regarding the first objective, the project found that interplay between the use of names, language, and images significantly changed over time and sometimes showed internal contradictions. This was interpreted as a reflection of how different modes of meaning-making seemingly receive varying degrees of attention and function differently at various points in time. Inclusive perspectives appeared more frequently in areas supposedly shaped with greater awareness, which often excluded naming practices. Thus, the importance of including name analysis in critical textbook research was stressed. The project also resulted in the formulation of a theoretical model summarizing the functions of naming practices as meaning-making resources in textbooks. This model synthesized earlier theories and research from various fields (onomastics, pragmatics, and textbook studies). Key aspects of the model highlight names’ ability to provide readers with knowledge about referents and reference types, concretize content, engage readers, create (certain types of) relationships to individuals, signal status within the text, construct sociocultural identities and hierarchies, and reinforce the authority of the text producer.
In relation to the second objective, the project yielded rich results illustrating how both linguistic and multimodal meaning-making resources shape age, gender, and cultural identities in varying ways from the 1920’s to the 2010’s. Both the (referential) system for presenting individuals and the constructions of age, gender, and cultural identities displayed significant changes over the investigated period. Some societal shifts were quickly reflected in textbooks (e.g., the child-centered perspective of the 1950s), while others showed a delayed response (e.g., the limited inclusion of cultural diversity in the 2010s). Gender identities initially showed increasing equality but stagnated at an “almost equal” level from the 1980s onwards. Similarly, there was no notable increase in gender-neutrality between the 1980s and 2010s, and it continously remained linked to a culturally homogeneous norm. Age identities changed considerably, with a gradual shift toward increasing child focus, varying inclusion of youth identities, and altered family structures. However, elderly were consistently marginalized throughout the period. While representations of cultural diversity increased slightly over time, a predominantly homogeneous cultural depiction still dominated, especially in naming practices. In addition, when diversity was highlighted, it was mainly associated with boys/men. The inclusion of Swedish national minorities did not increase. Finally, the norms for referencing individuals in texts also changed significantly, with increased visualization and informalization, often correlating with age and gender norms.
The project employed a relatively new methodological approach focusing on potentially "progressive" mechanisms in textbooks that could establish positive role models for young readers. At each historical point of analysis, there were representations that reflected the dominant cultural context of the time, representations that appeared residual and retrospective (where traces of earlier social or cultural systems persist), and finally representations that appeared emergent and potentially progressive (supporting ongoing processes of societal change where new meanings, values, practices, or relationships are introduced). Four progressive mechanisms, in particular, were identified as recurring in the textbook texts: inclusion of a diversity of voices and amplification of voices from marginalized groups; enabling perspective shifts and reversal of stereotypes (including through norm-breaking name choices); highlighting empathetic playfulness (for example, through unexpected combinations of linguistic and visual attributes); and blurring of social boundaries (such as through gender-neutral names).
Publications and Dissemination
The project primarily resulted in a submitted book manuscript (Aldrin, forthcoming) to the scientific series Acta Academiae Regiae Gustavi Adolphi, which is published by the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy for Swedish Folk Culture and offers both printed and digital production (with open access). The manuscript, comprising approximately 300 pages, is currently under peer review and the plan is to complete it during autumn 2025.
Additionally, research findings have been published in a peer-reviewed article in the international journal Names (Aldrin, 2025) and are forthcoming in two Nordic conference volumes (Aldrin in press 2025a, b). Parts of the research have been presented and discussed at a number of academic venues. A keynote talk on the 11th Conference on Language, Gender, and Identity included gender-related findings from the project (October 2023). Other aspects were presented at the NORNA symposium on Names and Conflicts (Uppsala, November 2023). During the research stay in Münster, findings were shared with a German audience, including both researchers and students (lecture on July 3, 2024). At a Germanic symposium on Namen im Kontext, held at the Institute for Language and Folklore in Uppsala (April 2025), the project’s pragmatics-based findings on the functions of names were presented. Further dissemination is planned in conjunction with the publication of the book, including popular-science outreach.
Continued International Collaboration
As a result of the research visit to the University of Münster, continued international collaboration has been made possible. On June 12, 2025, a digital symposium titled Given Names in Different Countries: Similarities, Differences, Historical and Contemporary Developments will be co-hosted by Anna Balbach (Münster) and Emilia Aldrin (Halmstad). This event marks the reactivation of the International Network for Personal Names Research, previously coordinated from the UK, with the aim of fostering international projects and scholarly exchange. A joint digital teaching component in onomastics is also being planned to connect students from Münster and Halmstad through shared lectures and discussions, though it has not yet been implemented due to scheduling constraints.