In after-school programs, educators encounter students with diverse language and cultural backgrounds. Educators describe that this can involve challenges, particularly due to communication gaps between newly arrived students and students born in Sweden. Previous research also highlights how educators experience difficulties in teaching related to communicative barriers. At the same time, it is emphasized that these challenges can be addressed through various approaches and methods that educators implement in their teaching.

In our study, we have drawn on three theoretical perspectives which is literacy, the sociocultural theory, and the zone of proximal development which we have used to analyze our results. The aim of the study is to examine the language challenges that educators report experiencing, and how they work and handle students' different language cultures at the after-school programs. To conduct the study, a qualitative method was used in the form of structured interviews. In total, six interviews were conducted with educators working in after-school programs in a swedish metropolitan area.

The results of our study show that educators face several challenges in their teaching, both when working with newly arrived students and students born in Sweden. These challenges include misunderstandings, insufficient communication, and difficulties related to participation and inclusion due to communicative barriers. To address and reduce these challenges in practice, educators worked pedagogically using various methods and tools, such as visual supports, Google Translate, clear instructions, repetition and body language. These strategies also help facilitate communication, thereby reducing challenges and promoting students’ language development. In conclusion, educators play an important role in managing these challenges in order to create an inclusive and language-developing learning environment. Since experience may vary among educators, it is also important that future teachers receive education that provides sufficient knowledge in this area.