Institutionen för svenska språket Institutionen för språk
Educational Linguistics seminariedag Diskurser, ideologier och policy
Teleborgs slott, 15 september 2020
Zoom: https://lnu-se.zoom.us/j/65479919510
Program
8.30–9.00 Mingel och kaffe
9.00–9.15 Välkommen: Kristina Danielsson, Marie Källkvist, Sergej Ivanov 9.15–10.30 Kortare föredrag, Linnéuniversitetet
Gästprofessor Marie Källkvist: Discourses in Place in Language- Diverse Classrooms: A nexus analysis of an English teacher and his students
Gästlektor Annaliina Gynne: (Trans)languaging and language policing in upper secondary school’s language introduction programme in Sweden
10.30–10.45 Paus
10.45–12.00 EdLings medlemmar presenterar sina olika ideér, projekt m.m.
12.00–13.15 Lunch
13.15–15.00 HSS, professor Caroline Kerfoot, Stockholms universitet:
Towards epistemic justice: Constructing knowers in multilingual classrooms
15.00–15.30 Fika
15.30–16.00 Diskussion och summering av dagen
Institutionen för svenska språket Institutionen för språk
Sammandrag
09.15–10.30 Kortare föredrag, Linnéuniversitetet
Marie Källkvist: Discourses in place in language-diverse classrooms: A nexus analysis of an English teacher and his students
With growing diversity in Sweden’s schools, research is needed to address issues of language-in-education policy to enhance social justice and inclusion of language-minoritized students (cf. Cummins, 2017; Källkvist et al., 2017; Tholin, 2014). Research has shown that educators are at the epicenter of turning official policy into practiced policy (Menken & García, 2010). This is evident in policy documents for the English-as-an-additional-language (EAL) subject in Swedish compulsory school, which encourage teachers to use English only when teaching language- diverse groups, while also encouraging the use of ‘strategies’ to enhance learning and communicating (Skolverket, 2017). In other words, it is up to the professional judgement of teachers whether to use English only or involve translanguaging as a strategy in
classrooms (cf. Hult, 2017). Given this trust in teachers’ professional agency, we conducted research targeting teacher beliefs and classroom language practices by studying lead teachers (förstelärare) teaching EAL in multilingual and multicultural classrooms. This presentation reports on a case study of one lead teacher and his students in two year-8 classrooms in a school in one of Sweden’s major cities. Grounded in linguistic ethnography (Copland &
Creese, 2015), we collected observation, questionnaire and interview data (one teacher and 19 focal students) over a period of six months to gain a rich understanding of the practiced language policy. Two questions guided our work: Which of the languages represented in the classroom is/are used as resources for learning and communication? What ideologies of classroom learning of EAL underpin the practiced language policy? In analysing the data, we applied the nexus analysis concepts of discourse in place, historical body, and interaction order (Scollon & Scollon, 2004). Analysis revealed the discourse in place of ‘everyone’s right to comprehend all interaction taking place in the classroom’, which in turn is embedded in a discourse of ‘respect’. The practiced classroom language policy privileged the use of English and Swedish. The policy was endorsed by the focal students, who need to develop academic literacy in both languages for continued progress in Sweden’s education system. Thus, the study provides an example of Sweden’s linguistic hierarchy with Swedish and English being at the top (Hult, 2012) and has implications for language- in-education policy.
Institutionen för svenska språket Institutionen för språk
Annaliina Gynne: (Trans)languaging and language policing in upper secondary school’s Language Introduction Programme in Sweden
The study presented in this paper stems from a larger ethnographically framed project, which aimed at both creating new knowledge on
translanguaging as a pedagogical practice as well as contributing to school development within upper secondary school’s Language Introduction Programme (LIP) classrooms. The LIPs, providing education for newly arrived and migrant students, are simultaneously affected by both glocal linguistic and cultural diversity and the
monolingual-monocultural habitus of the surrounding Swedish society. The paper has a twofold focus. First, it examines everyday multilingual languaging among students and teachers in Maths, English and Science classrooms. Second, it discusses their doing of language policy from a practiced perspective. In the paper, micro-analyses of interactional and interview data are employed in order to discuss the ways in which students and teachers engage in (trans)languaging and how they relate to language policing processes. Finally, the tension between seeking to teach and learn through linguistic diversity and participants’
understandings of what kind of languaging is appropriate in the LIP context are critically reflected upon.
Institutionen för svenska språket Institutionen för språk
13.15–15.00 Caroline Kerfoot, Stockholms universitet
Towards epistemic justice: Constructing knowers in multilingual classrooms This study of a postcolonial site addresses the paucity of research on multilingual children as knowers. Its focus on peer interactions reveals multilingual classrooms as crucial sites for the recognition of knowers and the promotion of epistemic justice. Building on Fricker (2007), Ogone (2017), Santos (2014), among others, epistemic justice is defined as an ethical project of addressing epistemic exclusions and seeking parity of epistemic authority for historically marginalized speakers/knowers.
Twenty-five years after apartheid, educational reforms in South Africa have not
addressed persistent forms of epistemic injustice, wrongs done to people in their capacities as knowers (Fricker 2007): the recent Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2016) found that 78% of South African Grade 4 children could not read for meaning in any language. A major factor is that over 80% are learning in an unfamiliar language. This paper suggests that monoglossic language-in-education policies and practices constitute a form of epistemic injustice in removing from learners the ability to make epistemic contributions, a capacity central to human value (Fricker 2015). It reports on a pilot study where primary school learners could use any language in the English medium classroom.
Using observations, interviews, and audio-recorded peer interactions from a Linguistic Ethnography among Grade 6 students in Cape Town, the paper explores the use of multilingual resources to negotiate epistemic authority. Findings show how learners construct epistemic stances which are simultaneously affective, serving both to build relations of knowing and promote solidarity.
The paper extends work in Multilingual Education and Language Socialization to show the potential of multilingualism as epistemic resource to contribute to cumulative learning (Maton 2013), render visible learners as moral agents and brokers of care (García-Sánchez 2018; C. Goodwin 2007), and recognize English language learners as legitimate knowers, thus helping lay the basis for conditions of epistemic justice.
