**Inklusion und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften**

# Inclusion, Education and Translanguaging Julie A. Panagiotopoulou Lisa Rosen · Jenna Strzykala *Editors*

How to Promote Social Justice in (Teacher) Education?

### **Inklusion und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften**

### **Series Editors**

Isabell Diehm, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Julie A. Panagiotopoulou, Universität zu Köln, Köln, Germany Lisa Rosen, Universität zu Köln, Köln, Germany Patricia Stošić, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Die Buchreihe "Inklusion und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften" versammelt erziehungswissenschaftliche deutsch- sowie englischsprachige Monographien (auch Qualifkationsarbeiten) und (einführende) Sammelbände, die Fragen von Erziehung und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften interdisziplinär (und auch international vergleichend) bearbeiten. Übergreifende Fragen lauten: Wie lassen sich der gesellschaftliche und insbesondere der pädagogische Umgang mit migrationsbedingter Diversität theoretisieren und rekonstruieren? Entlang welcher sozialen Kategorien wird Fremdheit in Migrationsgesellschaften erziehungswissenschaftlich und/ oder pädagogisch hergestellt und legitimiert? Wie sind Inklusions- und Exklusionsprozesse in Bildungsinstitutionen zu verstehen?

Der sozialwissenschaftliche Begriff der Inklusion ist hier relevant, denn er setzt nicht auf individuelle Assimilations- und Integrationsleistungen, sondern nimmt die soziale und institutionelle Konstruktion von (Un-)Fähigkeitszuschreibungen, (Un-)Auffälligkeiten und (Un-)Zugehörigkeiten von privilegierten und marginalisierten Personen bzw. Gruppen in den Blick. Ähnlich wie der Terminus Inklusion birgt auch der Begriff Migrationsgesellschaft ein kritisches Potential und fordert erziehungs- und sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung heraus. Mit ihm wird nicht nur die konstitutive Bedeutung von Migration für die gesamte Gesellschaft herausgestellt, sondern er regt zur Refexion von Normen und Normalitätsvorstellungen und zu Veränderungen ungleichheitserzeugender Strukturen und Praktiken – auch in Bildungskontexten – an.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/16089

Julie A. Panagiotopoulou · Lisa Rosen · Jenna Strzykala Editors

## Inclusion, Education and Translanguaging

How to Promote Social Justice in (Teacher) Education?

*Editors* Julie A. Panagiotopoulou University of Cologne Köln, Germany

Jenna Strzykala University of Cologne Köln, Germany

Lisa Rosen University of Cologne Köln, Germany

Diese Open Access Publikation wurde von der Universität zu Köln gefördert.

ISSN 2524-4221 ISSN 2524-423X (electronic) Inklusion und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften ISBN 978-3-658-28127-4 ISBN 978-3-658-28128-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28128-1

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020. This book is an open access publication. **Open Access** This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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### **Contents**




### **Introduction**

### Julie A. Panagiotopoulou, Lisa Rosen and Jenna Strzykala

This book is based on a conference held at the University of Cologne in 2018 titled—as is this volume—"Inclusion, Education, and Translanguaging: How to Promote Social Justice in (Teacher) Education?". The initial idea for this conference came about when we visited Ofelia García in New York in the fall of 2017 and were able to observe and experience translanguaging live—in a mathematics lesson at a bilingual primary school in Queens—during a research visit. This was a special event for us because we had by then been dealing with the concept for years and were constantly confronted with the standard question of how translanguaging can be put into practice in the context of teacher education, congresses and conferences.

Even though we had already experienced some good or best practice examples, we were impressed by the ease and the taken-for-grantedness with which the teacher and the pupils acted with their linguistic repertoire and knew exactly what they were doing. In other words, we observed how the teacher systematically encouraged the children to use and enact their complete linguistic repertoire and to move in what she called a "translanguaging space" when working on a maths task. The teacher then invited the children to refect on and share their experiences in this space. One girl's testimony made a lasting impression. She said: "the Spanish word makes it easier to understand it in English!" With this refection, the teacher made it transparent that


J. A. Panagiotopoulou (\*) · L. Rosen · J. Strzykala University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

e-mail: a.panagiotopoulou@uni-koeln.de

J. A. Panagiotopoulou et al. (eds.), *Inclusion, Education and Translanguaging*, Inklusion und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28128-1\_1

translingual practices were welcome in her lessons, and furthermore that this was a (pedagogical) strategy. We were also impressed by the fact that the teacher acted as a translingual and, thus, as a multilingual role model for the children. In the interview following our observation, she told us that she had been working as a teacher for many years, frst abroad and now in the USA, and that she had come to know translanguaging as a didactic concept through the accompanying scientifc research project. She made her commitment to the concept obvious as she said: "[it] made me understand how important it is for those kids […] to become aware […] of the functions of the language and make those connections." She provided several examples of children utilizing the process and described their learning progress.

It is also fascinating to note that the teacher mentioned that she herself had already been employing translanguaging in her everyday life, but that it was only through cooperation with science (Ofelia García and her team) that she had learned this everyday practice of multilingualism was also a sociolinguistic concept as well as a multilingual pedagogy.

One of Ofelia García's team members, who is now also involved in this volume as an author (in the contribution of Seltzer et al.) and who was also present during this discussion, took up this point and elucidated that many teachers from other schools as well reported comparable experiences within the framework of the accompanying scientifc research. The educators would say that "[translanguaging] it's something that […] we've always done", and she further commented: "I think some teachers feel like […] they need permission to do it."

This experience has impressed us as an example of a successful cooperation between teachers and researchers. It inspired us to organize a conference in Germany in which such an exchange between science and pedagogical practice could take place and that would showcase research projects that, for some, were conceived as scientifcally supported projects, while others were interested in examining the perspectives or pedagogical practices in multilingual educational institutions and utilizing translanguaging as a theoretical framework. That is, those who took part in the conference had already worked with translanguaging as an innovative concept for years. We deliberately chose a small group of participants to make what we have been able to experience together possible, namely an intense and compelling discussion based on research data and a shared theoretical concept. This inevitably led to some interested people being excluded, who are now part of this documentation of the conference.

We hold that our discussions have contributed to confrm our starting point that social justice, inclusion and multilingualism or translanguaging must be contemplated together and that this connection is central to the present and the future of education and is, therefore, also of remarkable importance for teacher education.

This was also made possible by the participation of Ofelia García with whom we associate translanguaging in the frst place (although she always stresses that she did not invent the term). She framed the conference with a keynote and a fnal commentary and this book with a contribution about the connection between translanguaging and social justice titled "Singularity, Complexities and Contradictions: A Commentary about Translanguaging, Social Justice, and Education" and covering the training of educators and (pre-school) teachers.

Part one of our volume unites four contributions focusing on different ways educators and children perceive and use translanguaging specifcally in settings of early childhood education. With research projects from the USA, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland, two of the chapters look at multilingual education as a motor for creating space for the deconstruction of established linguistic ideologies (language-minorized Latinx students in the USA and children speaking languages other than French in postcolonial La Réunion island), while two others investigate bi-/multilingual day-care settings in historically multilingual national contexts (Luxembourg and Switzerland).

In the contribution "Translanguaging and Early Childhood Education in the USA: Insights from the CUNY-NYSIEB Project" *Kate Seltzer*, *Laura Ascenzi*-*Moreno* and *Gladys Y*. *Aponte* lay out the challenges and possibilities translanguaging as a pedagogy entails in the light of recent debates in the American context when it comes to educating multilingual young children. Presenting "classroom-based examples of how teachers can leverage young children's translanguaging and cultural knowledge in their education", the authors combine the theoretical lenses of critical race theory and translanguaging to oppose the current defcit framings and marginalization of emergent bilingual, specifcally Latinx students in the US. Seltzer et al. show how the CUNY-NYSIEB project brought together researchers and educators to challenge the "standardization of idealized monolingual language practices in early childhood education" and implement translanguaging as one form of anti-oppressive pedagogy. The chapter goes on to describe the project's work within one kindergarten in New York City, where teachers used books about play to reshape their teaching practice and simultaneously how different modes of play could apply to the way students learned and used their languages fuidly. Despite deeply rooted stances among Latinx educators, the project managed to foster the teachers' refection on "how they teach, view, and (mis)understand young multilingual children and their families".

In their chapter titled "Translanguaging in Multilingual Pre-Primary Classrooms in La Réunion: Refecting on Inclusion and Social Justice in a French Postcolonial Context", *Pascale Prax*-*Dubois* and *Christine Hélot* propose that combining translanguaging and the theoretical frameworks of subaltern studies can be a way of deconstructing processes of othering, specifcally in postcolonial contexts such as the French island of La Réunion, where two teachers were observed as they—with their individual teaching styles and foci—used language-awareness activities to leverage their pre-school students' multilingual skills, including the often marginalized languages that enter Creole and French-speaking preschools in La Réunion with migrant children from neighboring islands. In order to contest the effective language regime of this postcolonial setting, both teachers use different strategies such as translingual spaces that include all home languages and co-learning to enable their students to voice their multilingual experiences, thus creating room for the deconstruction of established linguistic ideologies and paving the way for a more socially just (language) education. Advocating a "critical multilingual awareness" sensu García, Prax-Dubois and Hélot conclude their contribution recommending that "teachers should be educated to understand the process of decolonizing language teaching in schools" and that, at a greater level, understanding language teaching as being part of hierarchical control will create a space to debate this colonial injustice.

Focusing on multilingual early-childhood education in Luxembourg, *Claudine Kirsch* and *Claudia Seele* offer insights into the translingual practices of four educators in their chapter titled "Translanguaging in Early Childhood Education in Luxembourg: From Practice to Pedagogy". Drawing on videographed observations of pedagogical actions within the institutions and during professional development courses for educators as well as on interview data, Kirsch and Seele reconstruct how the languaging practices of the educators and, consequently, of the children were impacted by the professional development course and its input on the benefts of translanguaging, resulting in the educators feeling freed and encouraged to "regularly translate […] from Luxembourgish to a home language other than Luxembourgish and vice versa", even keeping up the children's home languaging to support their "well-being, identity and language learning", thus encouraging children to utilize their linguistic resources dynamically and in multimodal ways. The authors conclude that while translanguaging was observed to foster participation, it did also lead to othering practices when it was not rooted in a pedagogical stance, thus making a point for specifc professional development courses for practitioners that, among others things, increase awareness for the effects of language hierarchies. Finally, Kirsch and Seele contend "that multilingual practices need to be embedded in a refexive translanguaging pedagogy in order to enhance inclusion" in early childhood education.

*Melanie Kuhn* and *Sascha Neumann* discuss how institutional language policies may neutralize or even increase educational inequalities in their contribution titled "Bilingualism Versus Translanguaging in a Swiss Day-Care Center: A Space Analysis of Language Practices and Their Janus-Faced Effects on Social Inequalities and Educational Opportunities". Basing their analysis on ethnographic interviews in bilingual French/German day-care centers in Switzerland, Kuhn and Neumann show that even in offcially bilingual settings, both languages "can be assigned unequal legitimacy". Through a spatial-analytical perspective on linguistic modes of regulation, the authors reveal how language separation aims to solidify and protect language purity while devaluing the typical language mixing in children's translingual practices. Posing the day-care centers as small-scale language regimes, the study expounds how the use of French and German is regulated according to generational difference: while the children are allowed to speak French and simultaneously are not pressured into speaking German, the staff are to follow strict language requirements that impose German as the language of education. When ethnicization of French vs. German speaking children is added, what becomes apparent is that "the bilingual concept of the day-care center is still following a monolingual norm of language use and acquisition" and actively hinders fexible language uses, thus opposing bilingual to translingual education while also creating discrepancies in educational capital between French and German-speaking children.

In the second part, three contributions present current and completed research projects in Cyprus, Germany and the Netherlands. These are explicitly designed as scientifc monitoring for primary schools and support them in multilingual and social just school development through qualitative research such as participatory observation, video observations and interviews etc. on the one hand. On the other hand, these research projects offer and carry out thematically relevant in-service training for teachers. They offer deep insights into pedagogical everyday life in dealing with multilingualism and translanguaging in their respective national context.

*Constadina Charalambous*, *Panayiota Charalambous*, *Michalinos Zembylas* and *Eleni Theodorou* discuss two case studies from Greek-Cypriot schools from the theoretical perspective of (in)security in their contribution titled "Translanguaging, (In)Security and Social Justice Education", thus combining the concepts of translanguaging and social justice education in an innovative way. The authors take the social and historical context as the starting point for their considerations: Cyprus has suffered a long history of interethnic confict between the two major ethnolinguistic communities, Greek- and Turkish-Cypriots. With regard to Turkish and migrant children with Turkish as L1, they elaborate that Turkish has been stigmatized by the history of confict both in the Greek-Cypriot context and in many of the children's own communities and historical trajectories. By researching the obstacles and limitations for reconciliation, multiculturalism and social justice as well as migrant children identity negotiation in Greek Cypriot primary schools, the authors shed light on children's silences and self-censoring of their Turkish-speakerness. By doing so, Charalambous et al. reveal how language ideologies and discourses of (in)security and confict may pose serious obstacles for enacting translanguaging as a socially just pedagogy. They therefore conclude that the discursive, historical, ideological and cultural constraints that frame classroom interactions as well as students' insecurities have to be taken into account when designing not only socially just but also sensitive pedagogies including translanguaging.

*Joana Duarte* and *Mirjam Günther*-*van der Meij* present two multilingual education projects in the North of the Netherlands in their chapter "'We learn together': Translanguaging within a Holistic Approach towards Multilingualism in Education". In this context, a holistic model for multilingualism in education is being tested with the aim of developing different approaches towards multilingual education for both migrant and minority pupils. This is done through design-based interventions in which in-service and pre-service teachers, teacher trainers and researchers co-develop, implement and evaluate multilingual activities for different school types on the basis of classroom observations conducted in three different primary schools on the one hand. On the other hand, typical translanguaging scenes were identifed and incorporated into vignette-based interviews which were conducted with participating teachers in order to elicit their attitudes, knowledge and skills towards the use of multiple languages in mainstream education. Duarte and Günther-van der Meij come to positive results, some of which clearly contradict the current state of research on teachers strongly favoring monolingualism. The authors stress that it is crucial to actively involve teachers while developing and implementing programs for multilingual education: through experimenting in a small and safe environment with the tailored help of researchers through professional development workshops for instance, teachers gradually embraced their pupils' multilingualism.

In the contribution "Language Comparison as an Inclusive Translanguaging Strategy: Analysis of a Multilingual Teaching Situation in a German Primary School Classroom", *Sara Fürstenau*, *Yağmur Çelik* and *Simone Plöger* use data from the research project "Multilingualism as a feld of action in intercultural school development" (MIKS-project for short). Within the framework of this project the teaching staff of primary schools was assisted and supported in implementing multilingual didactic approaches in the classroom. The authors state that the initial conditions for joint cooperation with the schools were advantageous because the teachers in the MIKS-schools were open and willing to engage with the pupils' home languages. Nevertheless, teachers also report challenges in this area, such as the fact that children use many different family languages about which they themselves know very little. Starting from a key-incident, Fürstenau et al. pursue the question how the teacher can include the linguistic knowledge of the children in class and use it for joint language learning in the group despite this challenge. In their analysis, they reveal that although the observed teacher has a lesson plan (verb forms in the frst person singular; regularities and irregularities), she has to deal with the uncertainty of what linguistic knowledge the children will contribute and what the linguistic basis for comparing verb forms will be. In their case, the teacher repeatedly talks with the children about questions without knowing the answers. The authors conclude from this, frstly, that what multilingual classroom situations have in common is that insecurities on the teacher's side occur and secondly, that studies on how teachers in multilingual teaching situations can deal constructively with insecurity and not-knowing will be useful to advance research on multilingual didactics.

The central question, "what is translanguaging from the perspective of students, educators and teachers?" is the topic of the third part of this volume, which comprises four contributions. They present and analyze new research data from recent and ongoing studies and deal with views on multilingual and translanguaging pedagogies and with experiences of (bi/multilinguals) students, educators and teachers in day-care centers and schools based on diverse studies conducted in Canada, Germany, Greece and the US.

*Magdalena Knappik*, *Corinna Peschel*, *Sara Hägi*-*Mead*, *Aslı Can Ayten* and *Tatjana Atanasoska* deal with the questions how to better prepare future teachers using the module "German for students with a history of immigration", implemented in 2009 in teacher education on a national level in Germany, in their contribution titled "Refecting Lingualities and Positionalities for a Changing Education System". However, the module seems, according to some recent research results, to label these students as "others having a defcit and needing the teachers' help", instead of developing a stance that values bilinguals' learning potential and skills. Knappik et al. present an ongoing biographical professionalization research project which aims to fnd out more about student teachers' attitudes towards multilingualism and specifcally their "academic knowledge" that might be created by their participating in teacher education. On the basis of autobiographical texts, the project compares experiences and attitudes of multilingual and monolingual students, as illustrated in this contribution. The authors discuss selected data from two participants' recounts and close their chapter with further research perspectives for the ongoing project, focusing on the importance of having future teachers refect on their own understanding of what multilingualism is before and after taking the university course while also putting into perspective their own language biographies.

In their contribution "German Schools Abroad: Teachers' Views on Translanguaging and Emerging Research Perspectives on Children's Language Biographies and Educational Professionalization", *Julie A*. *Panagiotopoulou*, *Lisa Rosen*, *Jenna Strzykala*, *Janine Fißmer* and *Timo Neubert* present three ongoing dissertation research projects. First, they introduce the initial project "migration-related multilingualism and educational professionalism" that started in 2014 and focused on professionalization of teachers in migration societies and especially on their views on translanguaging in German schools abroad in Southern Europe and North America, considering the negotiability of the language hierarchies in both regions. In this context one dissertation project was developed, now comparing the views of teachers working at German schools abroad in North America—specifcally Boston and Montreal. As an extended outlook for further research in the feld of German schools abroad, Panagiotopoulou et al. present two further dissertation projects that have emerged from the initial project. The frst one aims to reconstruct educational biographies and experiences of inclusion/exclusion and (non-)belonging of bi/multilingual students in German schools abroad in Southern Europe, specifcally Greece. The second project focuses on professional biographies of teachers at German schools abroad under the question to what extent their work experiences will professionalize them in dealing with migration-related diversity and, thus, contribute to inclusive school development.

*Julie A. Panagiotopoulou* and *Maria J. Hammel* present an ongoing ethnographic research and professional training project that was started in 2018 at the University of Cologne for (future) educators and teachers in their contribution titled "'What Shall We Sing Now,Amir?' Developing a Voice through Translanguaging Pedagogy—An Ethnographic Research and Professional Training Project in Day-Care Centers and Schools". Based on a critique of the monolingual educational language policies in Germany and using ethnographic project data collected by master students and doctoral candidates in day-care centers and schools in Cologne, the project aims to support multilingual professionals who are intensively engaged in counteracting the disadvantages that language-minoritized children face and, thus, to contribute to social justice in education. The theoretical framework as well as the research questions are illustrated in this chapter on the basis of an ethnographic observation of an interaction in one of the investigated day-care centers with language-minoritized children and educators, which were discussed together with the professionals involved in the project. This contribution therefore highlights how translanguaging gives multilingual children a voice to perform in everyday pedagogical life in a meaningful way and how translanguaging can be utilized for the analysis of ethnographic observations of learning and teaching practices.

In their contribution titled "Translanguaging as a Culturally Sustaining Pedagogical Approach: Bi/Multilingual Educators' Perspectives", *Roula Tsokalidou* and *Eleni Skourtou* discuss aspects of translanguaging as a culturally sustaining pedagogy. First, they introduce each of these two concepts and then illustrate their connection using data on views of educators from a recent research project that aimed to bring forward the issue of translanguaging in the everyday life of those bi/multilinguals involved in education in different institutions and countries. Their fndings suggest that, according to bi/multilinguals educators, translanguaging could help increase confdence and self-esteem for minority/minoritized students towards their linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Furthermore, Tsokalidou and Skourtou point out that, in the context of multilingual education, it is a great challenge to go against the grain of monolingualism and monoculturalism and that translanguaging specifcally can contribute to this as a form of resistance against the restriction of monolingual and monocultural perspectives: on the one hand, by giving spaces to students to perform using their full linguistic repertoire, and on the other hand, by giving educators the opportunity to design and incorporate these spaces in their classrooms.

Our sincere thanks go to the authors whose contributions made it possible for us to realize an international conference and an interesting book project. We would also like to express our appreciation to Ofelia García for the inspiration she has been to us for years through her own work and for the discussion of the contributions in this volume. We hope that this book will also inspire other colleagues to initiate conferences and their documentations and to promote inclusion and social justice as an international challenge in the context of early childhood, school, and teacher education.

Finally, we would like to thank Vivien Magyar and Diana Samani, both students at the University of Cologne and future educators, who have taken great care and responsibility in the formatting and design of all contributions.

Cologne, March 2020

Julie A. Panagiotopoulou, Lisa Rosen and Jenna Strzykala

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### **Singularity, Complexities and Contradictions: A Commentary about Translanguaging, Social Justice, and Education**

Ofelia García

### **1 Singularity, Complexities and Contradiction**

This book, edited by Panagiotopoulou, Rosen and Strzykala, reminds us of the contradictions involved in enacting translanguaging pedagogical practices in schools. On the one hand, all the chapters describe a singular vision of the potential of translanguaging to enact a more inclusive and socially just education for language minoritized students and to disrupt what Panagiotopoulou and Rosen (2018) have called a "monoglossic hegemony". On the other hand, all the articles also point to the complexities in actually carrying out translanguaging pedagogical practices, and its relationship to the sociopolitical context in which they are carried out. In fact, in some contexts, and without proper familiarization with translanguaging theory and a social translanguaging stance, pedagogical practices that have been associated with translanguaging can actually acerbate the silence of language minoritized communities. The authors in this volume do not shy away from raising the criticism of translanguaging by authors such as Conteh (2018), Hamman (2018), Jaspers (2015, 2019), and Ticheloven et al. (2019). Thus, the main message in this book seems to be that the sociopolitical context and the degree to which offcial language policies promote what Panagiotopoulou and Rosen (2018) have called a monoglossic hegemony, are paramount to translanguaging practices being received as an asset or a problem. Translanguaging, as a political act (Flores 2014), cannot be simply considered a pedagogical practice.

O. García (\*)

New York City, USA

e-mail: ogarcia@gc.cuny.edu

<sup>©</sup> The Author(s) 2020

J. A. Panagiotopoulou et al. (eds.), *Inclusion, Education and Translanguaging*, Inklusion und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28128-1\_2

In order for it to be an asset, it must be seen as a tool to reverse the minoritization process and the structural inequities that subjugated minorities students face, as well as the monoglossic hegemonic policies prevalent in schools.

The contradiction inherent in translanguaging is clear. It has been used as an instrument of minoritization of language communities whose dynamic bilingual practices are perceived as "language mixing" and illegitimate. At the same time, it is now being touted as a way of including these same communities and providing them with a socially just education. How then can translanguaging be simultaneously an instrument of oppression and an instrument of liberation? This is an important question that is considered in this volume and that we attempt to answer in this commentary.

### **2 Complexities: Product of the Colonial Difference**

The chapters herein present different educational contexts in which some forms of translanguaging pedagogical practices have been enacted—some are early childhood or pre-school contexts, others primary or secondary schools. Some are day-care settings, others are mainstream schools, yet others are bilingual schools. International schools, as well as national schools abroad are also considered. In some chapters how students use translanguaging to learn is highlighted. In others, however, how teachers leverage translanguaging to educate, as well as their pedagogical formation, are emphasized. But what this volume makes singularly clear is that in each context, students with language practices that differ from that of the national elite have undergone some form of "othering," a product of colonization and political formations that then enregister these students as inferior.

This minoritization process has not been limited to refugees and immigrants, but is much more encompassing, a result of power-struggles, domination over populations, wars, conquest and colonization. Some of the contributions in this volume address the growing refugee and immigrant population in schools (in Luxembourg, Kirsch & Seele; in Germany, Fürstenau et al., Knappik et al., Panagiotopoulou & Hammel; in Greece, Tsokalidou & Skourtou; in Switzerland, Kuhn & Neumann). But in many cases, the immigrant students of today have been displaced before, as for example, the Greek Pontians in Cyprus, now hailing mainly from Georgia, and speaking Turkish and sometimes Russian (Charalambous et al.).

In some cases, as in that described by Prax-Dubois and Hélot, the process of minoritization of the Réunion Creole-speaking population is more obvious, clearly a French colony "d'outre mer." But the geographic location of La Réunion in the middle of the Indian ocean and off the coast of Madagascar means that many also speak Malagasy or Comorian languages, as well as others. In other cases, however, the process of minoritization occurred so long ago that it has been forgotten and the "othering" has been naturalized. This is the case, for example, of Latinx in the United States (Seltzer et al.), and of Frisians in the Netherlands (Duarte and Günther-van der Meij). In both the U.S. and Frisian cases, the continuum of minoritization experiences is obvious. In the U.S., some Latinx bilingual students are native-born, whereas others are immigrants with different histories and cultural and linguistic practices. In Friesland, the Frisian students have been born in the Netherlands, whereas in the same classroom there are immigrants who speak many other languages.

What is clear when we consider all these cases together is that it is not globalization that is responsible for what Vertovec (2007) has called superdiversity. True, scholars are paying more attention to multilingualism in society and education than we have in our past. Proof of this is just the mere number of projects dealing with multilingual education in this volume. It is important to acknowledge, however, that what we are witnessing is the effects of colonization and what Walter Mignolo (2002) has called "the colonial difference," the effects of long histories of oppression and continued experiences of minoritization and racialization (Flores and Rosa 2015).

### **3 Language and the Singularity of the Colonial Difference**

Bauman and Briggs (2003) have shown how since the 17th century, theories of language as a structured entity (Park and Wee 2012) have operated as an instrument of colonialism and nation-building to produce and naturalize forms of social inequality and construct modernity. That is, the ideological invention of language by European elites has resulted not only in the imposition of rigid forms of using language that refect their own, but also in branding those whose language practices are different as intellectually inferior and even dangerous. It is not just that, as Prax-Dubois and Hélot state, the languages of the South equal the vulnerability of its speakers; the liability of speech has to do with who is the speaker and who holds the power and controls the army and the navy. Some languages of the South have prestige in the mouths of dominant white elites. It is the conquered and colonized people of the South whose language is always stigmatized, relegated to a pidgin, a creole, a mixture, a hybridity without a constructed "purity." The decolonial theorist Boaventura de Sousa Santos (2014, 2018) reminds us that the South is not geographical; it is epistemological, a metaphor of human suffering.

In coining his theory of "coloniality," the Peruvian sociologist Aníbal Quijano (2000) has pointed out that the exploitation and domination of racialized groups is now carried out not solely through labor, but through the structuring of knowledge-systems, race, language and sex into superior and inferior. The knowledges and ways of languaging of those racialized as inferior are then deemed to be inappropriate for education, producing failure for these students. Bilingual languaging is often perceived as "mixing," and enregistered (Agha 2005) as a mark of intellectual defciency among these students.

The work of translanguaging in schools must attempt to make visible this process of minoritization and racialization. Despite the complexities, it is the singularity of being the product of the colonial difference that concerns us, and that the translanguaging work needs to put into stark relief.

### **4 Language Education Policies and Pedagogical Practices in Continuum**

Language education policies in schools refect the many different ideologies of nation-states and their schools. In fact, these policies act as instruments of governmentality (Foucault 2008), controlling the language behavior of people, and restricting language socialization to the ideologies of the nation-state. Panagiotopoulou and Rosen (2018) have referred to the effect of such language policies as upholding a monoglossic hegemony. Individual schools may also enact different language education policies when allowed by the state, often responding to the students, families and/or educators in the school.

In her work, Duarte (2018) has observed how the goals of multilingualism in education projects respond to societal ideologies. The goals, Duarte has explained, can be seen as in a continuum, from acknowledgement of language diversity to actual use. That is, some of the pedagogical practices described herein respond to a language education policy of acknowledgement, whereas others respond to a language education policy of use.

In some of the chapters in this book, translanguaging practices function as merely a bridge towards the dominant language and culture. In their chapter, Duarte and Günter-van der Meij name three different functions of translanguaging practices in school: 1) symbolic, that is, merely recognition; 2) scaffolding or transitional bridge towards the dominant language and culture; 3) epistemological or acceptance of different language practices.

At one end, the language awareness activities in Fürstenau et al. or Prax-Dubois and Hélot simply acknowledge the linguistic diversity in classrooms. At the other end, other projects uphold actual use of minoritized languages, such as the bilingual education program described by Seltzer et al. and by Duarte, as well as in the Greek schools in Canada, the U.S. and Germany studied by Panagiotopoulou et al. There are also different degrees of usage, for example, in the chapter by Kirsch & Seele, the teachers are observed simply engaging in translations for the very young children. This diversity of pedagogical practices, encouraging different visions of multilingual utilization, support what Tupin and Wharton (2016) have called "pedagogies of variation."

The variations have to do with the negotiations that teachers must make in relationship to language education policies that are in place. Prax-Dubois and Hélot raise this question when they pose "What does inclusion and social justice mean in a French colonial context"? At a minimum, the pedagogical practices enacted by educators in this volume negotiate the language education policy of the nation-state so as to work with the students' funds of knowledge.

### **5 Language Ideologies in Continuum**

It is interesting that many of the teachers involved in the many multilingual projects described herein did not develop a stance that supported multilingualism in education, despite much professional development. In fact, some of the teachers who wrote autobiographical texts considered in the article by Knappik et al. complained about the "adversary effect" of a practice that acknowledged and used the students' multilingualism. Unlike the Cyprus' context of "(in)securization," Germany is not a context of open confict, yet, the teachers there expressed their hesitation in fully engaging with pedagogical practices that openly supported the linguistic diversity of their students because of its effect in marking students as defcient and needing help.

Panagiotopoulou et al. document here how teachers' words and actions in German schools abroad in Greece, Canada, and the USA refect a spectrum of ideologies from monoglossic to heteroglossic. This was also the view of the Greek teachers in the chapter by Skourtou & Tsokalidou who viewed all of these multilingual pedagogical practices as a great challenge for all.

In all the cases described in this volume, teachers were involved in professional development to different degrees. The projects described by Duarte and Güntervan der Meij, for instance, made signifcant efforts to ensure that teachers were involved in developing, designing, implementing and evaluating the multilingual interventions. In the chapter by Seltzer et al., attention is paid to the professional development provided by the CUNY-NYSIEB project, and the formation of a Professional Learning Community (PLC) to discuss, design, implement and evaluate the different activities. Yet, some of the negative ideologies of the teachers towards these bilingual students remained. In fact, one of the bilingual teachers called her Latinx pre-schoolers "nilingües," meaning they spoke neither English nor Spanish. It turns out that despite much effort, ideologies about bilingual students having "no language" remain.

### **6 A Translanguaging Stance. Singularity Again**

A most important question raised in this volume is whether we can escape linguistic ideologies. Charalambous et al. remind us that children are socialized into language ideologies. In thinking about how translanguaging pedagogical practices can be put into effect, García et al. (2017) have called attention to how teachers must develop a translanguaging stance before they can design or put into practice different pedagogical practices.

But what is a translanguaging stance and how can teachers develop such a stance?

A translanguaging stance is grounded in uncovering the colonial difference and the ways in which language, bilingualism and multilingualism have been used, and continue to be used, to minoritize and racialize conquered and colonized populations.

The construction of languages as autonomous entities, and bilingualism as simply additive has worked against the language practices of minoritized bilingual communities. The bilingualism of Latinx bilingual students is not simply additive; it is dynamic (García 2009). Thus, merely acknowledging or even using what is seen as the students' frst language in education does not in any way uncover the ways in which standard language and additive bilingualism have been used as instruments to minoritize the language practices of some bilinguals and rendering them as defcient. A translanguaging stance demands more than simple support of bilingualism and multilingualism, for as Kuhn and Neumann say in this volume, bilingualism is more likely to push back translanguaging than to support it.

A translanguaging stance has to do with the frm belief that minoritized bilinguals have the agency to fully leverage their unitary semiotic repertoire made up of linguistic and multimodal signs in ways that does not correspond to the strict parameters of one named language or another or one mode or another established by schools. The actions of bilingual students that go beyond those legitimated in schools are then perceived as virtuous, complex, fuid, creative and critical, and not simply as defcient. Teachers with a translanguaging stance trust that their bilingual students have the potential to make meaning for themselves, even if the process is different from that followed by children with monolingual middle-class parents. They understand that even though named languages are important sociopolitical realities, psycholinguistically the two languages do not simply correspond to two dual cognitive or experiential realities (Otheguy et al. 2015, 2018). Accordingly, when a bilingual student uses their entire language repertoire in ways that go beyond the familiar ones in schools, teachers do not see them as "nilingües," but as capable of being and learning, even though they live with the structural inequalities that keep them living in a "tierra entre medio," in borderlands (Anzaldúa 1987) that are not only cultural and linguistic, but also economic.

Can we escape language ideologies? Mignolo (2007) tells us that to do so we must de-link from the colonial matrix of power, bringing to the foreground other epistemologies so as to de-center universal emancipating claims. To bring to the foreground other epistemologies, other knowledges, "a new common sense" (Santos 2014, 2018), would require that teachers learn to listen to their students anew. But this new "listening subject" (Flores and Rosa 2015) can only come into being if we provide minoritized bilingual students with opportunities to bring their translanguaging openly into schools. Language socialization for these bilingual students would then include translanguaging openly, not only in their homes and communities, but for academic tasks in schools. A combination of students' translanguaging socialization experiences for academic success, alongside teachers' socialization into listening experiences where students' translanguaging was openly used to think, refect, create, and produce knowledge, might then produce some de-linking from the colonial matrix of power.

In working with teachers, I have often used Martin Luther King's saying: "You don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the frst step." To develop a translanguaging stance we cannot wait for educators to see the whole staircase. First steps to view the power of translanguaging are needed. The contributions in this book enable us to take frst steps.

### **7 Translanguaging: From Instrument of Oppression to Instrument of Liberation**

The only way to use translanguaging to liberate is simultaneously to recognize the ways it has been used to oppress and minoritize bilingual communities. In describing his "two-eyed" philosophy of education, Myles Horton, an American educator who founded a school known for its role in the Civil Rights Movement, once said:

You have to build a program that will deal with things as they are now and as they ought to be at the same time. They go together, the "is" and the "ought.". … I have two eyes that I don't have to use the same way. When I do educational work with a group of people, I try to see with one eye where those people are as they perceive themselves to be… You have to start where people are, because their growth is going to be from there. … Now my other eye is not such a problem, because I already have in mind a philosophy of where I'd like to see people moving …I don't separate two ways of looking. … I look at people with two eyes simultaneously all the time" (1990, p. 131 f.).

The process of designing translanguaging pedagogical practices keeps one eye on schools as they are, with language policies that refect monoglossic ideologies, and with language socialization practices that refect those ideologies. But teachers have potential for growth. Speaking of this human capacity to grow, Horton (1990) adds that "it's in the seeds… This kind of potential cannot guarantee a particular outcome, but it's what you build on" (p. 133). The other eye then has to be anchored in a vision, a vision and ideology of what education could be if students were to be given experiences that de-link from the colonial matrix of power.

Translanguaging offers a vision to deal with what is and could be simultaneously. Translanguaging is not a method of technique, but a process with many strands. In this book we have viewed some of these strands that together with many others are building a tapestry of much complexity, but singularity of purpose—to liberate minoritized bilinguals and educate them fairly and justly, and to liberate ourselves from the monoglossic hegemony (Panagiotopoulou and Rosen 2018) of language education policies.

### **References**


C. Hélot and J. Erfurt (Eds.). L'éducation bilingue en France: Politiques linguistiques, modèles et pratiques [Bilingual education in France: Language policies, models, and practices] (p. 100–117). Limoges: Lambert-Lucas.

Vertovec, S. (2007). Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies 30(06): 1024–1054. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870701599465.

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

### **Translanguaging in Early Childhood Education**

### **Translanguaging and Early Childhood Education in the USA: Insights from the CUNY-NYSIEB Project**

### Kate Seltzer, Laura Ascenzi-Moreno and Gladys Y. Aponte

### **Abstract**

This chapter offers insights into the education of young children—what is referred to in the United States as early childhood education—who come from homes where languages other than English are spoken. Drawing on recent critiques of early childhood education in the U.S., this chapter provides classroom-based examples of how teachers can leverage young children's translanguaging and cultural knowledge in their education. Overall, the chapter demonstrates both the possibilities and challenges of adopting a translanguaging pedagogy (García et al., The Translanguaging classroom. Leveraging student bilingualism for learning, Caslon, Philadelphia, 2017) in early childhood classrooms in the United States.

### **Keywords**

Translanguaging · Emergent bilinguals · Early childhood · Classroom practice

K. Seltzer (\*) Rowan University, Glassboro, USA e-mail: seltzerk@rowan.edu

L. Ascenzi-Moreno Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, USA e-mail: lascenzimoreno@brooklyn.cuny.edu

G. Y. Aponte Bank Street College of Education, New York City, USA e-mail: gaponte@bankstreet.edu

© The Author(s) 2020 J. A. Panagiotopoulou et al. (eds.), *Inclusion, Education and Translanguaging*, Inklusion und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28128-1\_3

### **1 Introduction**

This chapter offers insights into the education of young children—what is referred to in the United States as early childhood education—who come from homes where languages other than English are spoken. Drawing on a recent critique of early childhood education in the U.S. (Souto-Manning and Rabadi-Raol 2018) as well as critiques of recurring defcit framings of young children's languaging such as research on the so-called 'word gap' or 'language gap' (Flores 2018; García and Otheguy 2016), this chapter provides classroom-based examples of how teachers can leverage young children's translanguaging and cultural knowledge in their education. These examples emerge from a study of an early childhood education program that was carried out by researchers with the City University of New York—New York State Initiative on Emergent Bilinguals (CUNY-NYSIEB) project. From 2011 through 2018, this New York State-funded project worked with schools to improve the education of emergent bilingual students. The project's focus has been wide-ranging—from school-wide language policy development to professional development for teachers to collaborative instructional planning—but as maintained a singular vision that all schools can and must view students' bilingualism as a resource in their education. This chapter outlines the work that CUNY-NYSIEB researchers conducted with a group of early childhood educators in a "dual language bilingual" program, which had the explicit goal of fostering students' bilingualism and biliteracy in English and Spanish. By detailing the professional development the research team did with the teachers and providing examples of how their professional learning was translated into classroom work with young emergent bilingual students, this chapter offers both a counter-narrative to defcit discourses about these students' language practices and opportunities for future growth and development of early childhood educators. Overall, the chapter provides insights into both the possibilities and challenges of adopting a translanguaging pedagogy (García et al. 2017) in early childhood classrooms in the United States.

### **2 A Critical Perspective on Early Childhood Education**

This study has been framed through the convergence of two critical theories, which together, shed light on the non-neutral nature of early childhood education: a critical race lens on early childhood education and translanguaging theory. We believe that these theoretical framings in combination allow us to see young emergent bilingual children, their identities, and languaging practices as they currently exist within the early childhood education landscape. They also shed light on the ideologies that shape this educational landscape in ways that marginalize young Latinx emergent bilinguals in the U.S. and provide us with a framework for promoting pedagogies that can counter such ideologies.

We start with Souto-Manning and Rabadi-Raol's (2018) intersectional approach to early childhood education, which is informed in large part by critical race theory. Their work dissects the notion of "best practices" in early childhood education by highlighting that the standards of quality and Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) as defned by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) are far from neutral. They argue that, "traditional notions of quality in early childhood education are exclusionary, rooted in White monolingual and monocultural values and experiences, and apply defcit paradigms to frame the developmental trajectories of multiply minoritized children" (Souto-Manning and Rabadi-Raol 2018, p. 204). In other words, when early childhood "best practices" are implicitly rooted in white, middle class cultural and linguistic norms, the resources that racialized emergent bilinguals have are not valued or, worse, considered liabilities in their learning trajectories.

Rosa and Flores (2017) present a complementary framework, a raciolinguistic perspective, which highlights the ways in which language and race are co-constructed and, thus, intricately interrelated. Their work brings to educators' attention the role of the "white listening subject" who when hearing the speech of the racialized speaker—regardless of what register it is in—interprets that speech through a defcit lens. This theoretical lens can also be useful to examine the ways in which young emergent bilinguals have been negatively positioned in regard to their linguistic resources in schools.

The ideologies described by Souto-Manning and Rabadi-Raol (2018) and Rosa and Flores (2017) demonstrate how educators' day to day perceptions of their emergent bilingual students are infuenced by notions of what is considered "standard" in early childhood education. One example of how young emergent bilinguals are framed is the concept of the "word gap" (Hart and Risley 2003), which refers to the alleged disparity in vocabulary with which students from different socioeconomic groups, predominantly from families of color, enter school. It is argued that children from low-socioeconomic backgrounds arrive to school knowing fewer words and they never catch up to middle-class students. By employing a critical lens, García and Otheguy (2016) argue that the research that generated the "word gap" has not taken into account multilingual students' full emergent linguistic repertoire and therefore the word gap is simply perceived and does not truly account for young emergent bilinguals' expansive resources.

Another way that defcit lens of emergent bilinguals takes root in educators' everyday practices is through the framing of emergent bilinguals' language practices. Many educators see emergent bilinguals' language through the lens of defcit and because of this, they may claim that students do not have language and describe them as 'semilingual' (Cummins 1994) or 'languageless' (Rosa 2016). This view, in turn, shapes how teachers and school administrators focus their instructional work on "repairing" children's language and, thus, teach them dominant practices without interrogating the ideologies that render their and their families' existing practices as defcient. This standardization of idealized monolingual language practices in early childhood education perpetuates defcit views of Latinx children (as well as other language minoritized children) and often prevents teachers from appreciating and building on students' rich linguistic repertoires (Ascenzi-Moreno 2018; Flores 2016; Flores and Rosa 2015; García and Otheguy 2016; Rosa 2016; Sánchez et al. 2017).

The work of CUNY-NYSIEB has been to assist educators in developing programming and instruction for emergent bilinguals that recognizes and builds on multilingual students' full linguistic repertoires. One way this is done is through familiarizing educators with translanguaging theory, which can serve as "a counterstory to the inferiority and defcit master narratives that defne multilingual children as not having language or as having limited language" (Souto-Manning and Rabadi-Raol 2018, p. 215). Otheguy et al. (2015) have referred to translanguaging as "the deployment of a speaker's full linguistic repertoire without regard for watchful adherence to the socially and politically (and usually national and state) defned boundaries of named languages" (p. 283). Translanguaging theory argues that bilinguals develop an integrated, dynamic linguistic system and agentively use linguistic features (words, sounds, rules) that society ascribes to a specifc "named language," dialect or language variety (Otheguy et al. 2015). Acknowledging the dynamic nature of bilingualism from the internal perspectives of marginalized individuals, rather than from dominant monolingual perspectives, is an essential aspect of anti-oppressive pedagogies that center and leverage students' marginalized [linguistic] identities. Accordingly, educators who take up a translanguaging approach recognize that any perceived educational "gap" lies in social and educational practices framed by ideologies of inferiority rather than in the minoritized children themselves (Baugh 2017; Flores 2018; García and Otheguy 2016).

Translanguaging theory and practice has most often been applied to elementary and secondary school contexts, where the focus has been on how translanguaging supports emergent bilinguals learning through multiple modalities (reading, writing, speaking and listening) during literacy and literacy in the content areas (Celic and Seltzer 2013). In this same vein, we ask, how does translanguaging open up new ways for teachers to value the language and literacy practices of young emergent bilinguals? And how does translanguaging theory and practice assist teachers in developing new instructional spaces for students' bilingual language development? We now turn to describing the CUNY-NYSIEB project as well as the early childhood education work that members of the research team undertook in 2017–2018.

### **3 Working in the Early Childhood Context: The CUNY-NYSIEB Project**

The CUNY-NYSIEB project was started in 2011 by co-principal investigators Dr. Ricardo Otheguy, Dr. Ofelia García, and Dr. Kate Menken. The project, affliated with both the Research Institute for the Study of Language in Urban Society (RISLUS) and the Ph.D. Program in Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center and generously funded by the New York State Education Department, had the overarching goal of improving educational outcomes for those students labeled English Language Learners but whom the project referred to as emergent bilinguals. To meet this large goal, the project partnered with schools across New York State, working with administrators and teachers to promote two interrelated "non-negotiable" principles: (1) that students' bilingualism is a resource in their education, and (2) that the ecology of a school should refect the bilingualism of its students. To this end, members of the CUNY-NYSIEB team—bilingual and TESOL educators from universities within the CUNY and SUNY (State University of New York) system and PhD students—were assigned to schools and worked collaboratively with stakeholders to develop a cohesive language policy, build a diverse group of advocates for emergent bilinguals within the school, and make changes to existing curriculum and instruction so that it better leveraged students' bilingualism through the use of translanguaging strategies.

In the 2016–2017 academic year, the project's focus shifted from intensive work in schools to the production of resources that would help educators across New York State educate themselves on emergent bilingual students and better serve them in the classroom. After producing a series of Topic Briefs on different populations of emergent bilinguals in the state (i.e.: Newcomer students, students labeled "Long Term English Language Learners," etc.), members of the project decided that the production of resources had to emerge from what CUNY-NYSIEB always did best: work with teachers on the ground in schools. For this reason, in the 2017–2018 academic year, the project partnered with three schools to work with teachers in early childhood education, dual language bilingual education, and high school English as a Second Language (ESL) education. In this chapter, we focus on the work the team did with a small group of early childhood educators at a bilingual school in a borough of New York City.

This chapter focuses on the collaborative work among teachers at the Villa School (pseudonym) and university-based researchers in the CUNY-NYSIEB project. The Villa School is a Pre-K-8 dual language, bilingual public school located in urban area in the Northeast of the US. The school has a unique history in that it emerged from the combined advocacy of parents in the community with the assistance of a local non-governmental organization dedicated to the betterment of the neighborhoods. Parents at the time (mid 1990s) recognized the need for bilingual programs within the diverse community which included Latinx students from a variety of countries and African-Americans. The school was created through a grant supporting the creation of small schools within the district. It is distinguished by having a dual commitment to bilingual education and being responsive to parent and community needs.

The dual-language bilingual program at the Villa School has been committed to providing students and families with learning that is rooted in the community. As such, it is expected that teachers, educational leaders, and parents have a say in how the bilingual program is carried out within the school. Since its inception, the bilingual program has been rooted in project-based learning and teacher-developed bilingual units of study around topics such as the ocean or restaurants. However, with the adoption of Common Core Standards at the state level and more pressure for New York City schools to adopt curriculum aligned to these standards, the school's teacher-generated curriculum became less so. Additionally, the school experienced a shift in the early childhood program as the state and district pressure has been placed on reading and writing objectives in Kindergarten. As a result, across the school, the teacher-written literacy curriculum was replaced by a pre-packaged curriculum available only in English that teachers would have to adapt, even in Kindergarten. To reach the curriculum's goals with young emergent bilinguals, play-based spaces were eliminated in favor of explicit literacy instruction.

Our work in the school was a result of a convergence of interests. The Kindergarten teachers at the school had attended a workshop about play in Kindergarten and wanted to incorporate play into their schedule. Our work with Kindergarten was determined, in part, because of New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) policies. While a PreK class is part of the school, all professional development for PreK teachers is centralized at the NYCDOE. Therefore, PreK teachers are not involved in the overarching school-based professional development. Therefore, the scope of our work was limited to the Kindergarten teachers. The positive aspect of this, is that Kindergarten is a contested space in education. While Kindergarten is considered early childhood, it has increasingly become a site for explicit reading and writing instruction. Kindergarten children in public schools in New York City, and many other districts across the country, are held to reading and writing standards that previously began in frst grade classrooms. It is this context for literacy learning in which we began our work.

Our aim was for the work at the Villa School to be collaborative. Our group was comprised of the Kindergarten team of teachers at the school, one Research Associate, Gladys Y. Aponte, and one Associate Investigator, Laura Ascenzi-Moreno. The teachers brought to the work their inquiry about how they could incorporate play into the day with their students. The CUNY-NYSIEB team brought their understanding of translanguaging theory and their experience as bilingual teachers. The school principal supported this work by providing the entire team with time built in for a Professional Learning Community (PLC). The PLC met on a weekly basis to discuss scholarly articles, plan collaboratively, and share and refect on videos of students at play, anecdotes, and student work. The team worked collaboratively to better understand the dynamic ways students learn through their uses of language as well as their social interactions and play.

The PLC started out by reading two texts around play selected by the CUNY-NYSIEB team. For each article, teachers focused on how it applied to emergent bilingual students. The frst text, "Play-based Learning and Intentional Teaching: Forever Different?" by Susan Edwards (2017) was selected so the group could refne their thinking about the different types of play that exist within early childhood settings–open-ended play, modeled play, and purposefullyframed play—and defne the teachers' role in relation to these different types of play. During the discussions, the team recognized that the three types of play are opportunities to observe, welcome, and build on students' multilingualism. The second text, "Playing within and Beyond the Story: Encouraging Book-Related Pretend Play" by Jodi G. Welsch (2008) highlighted how play-based activities originating from shared texts could be supportive of children's literacy development. The members of the PLC appreciated the idea of placing books and textrelated props at play centers to elicit play relevant to the literature they read as a class. This set of articles provided the PLC members with a foundation for how to conceptualize and plan for play in ways that maximize their students' engagement, conceptual learning, and dynamic language development.

As the PLC progressed, the team planned collaboratively and adapted their practices and play centers to allow different modes of play that could center and extend students' multilingual identities and their emergent literacy skills. For example, teachers placed books that had been read in both English and Spanish, such as *The Three Little Pigs/Los Tres Cerditos* in play centers so that students could engage with the stories through their play. The teachers also added culturally relevant and book related props to different play areas to elicit students' unique cultural perspectives and bilingual imaginations when interpreting, reenacting, reimagining, and extending stories. The teachers created a puppet show center, and the block area, dramatic play center, kitchen, art center received fnger puppets, pretend foods, dress-up clothing, and different playthings that could encourage children to transform stories in ways that refect their dynamic multilingual worlds. These thoughtful adaptations allowed teachers to observe students' language practices holistically during play and to better understand, appreciate, and build on students' dynamic emergent bilingualism. Several important fndings emerged from the work within this PLC: students fuidly used their multimodal linguistic repertoires during play, they reimagined and played beyond texts in ways that refected their personal bilingual experiences and creativities, and their teachers exhibited ideological shifts while *simultaneously* continuing to communicate defcit thinking about their students. We describe these three fndings in the following section.

**4 What Did We Learn? Translanguaging and Play in the Early Childhood Classroom**

Our frst fnding from this work seems, at frst glance, fairly obvious: the children in the kindergarten classrooms engaged in translanguaging while they were at play in the play centers. Obvious as this may seem—it is our belief that translanguaging is the typical way of languaging for bilingual people—it is worth stating out right. Acknowledging the ways that young bilingual students language can counter the recurring, defcit mindset we laid out earlier in this chapter: that bilingual students lack profciency in *either* language and are in need of remediation at such an early age. Additionally, paying close attention to how the students languaged while at play was an important element of teachers' professional development. By using an observation protocol to stimulate their thinking and focusing their attention on students' languaging rather than any "absence" of language (Fig. 1), the teachers were able to see and hear their students in a new light (for more on this protocol, see our resource on the New York State Education Department's "Bilingual Education Resources: Supporting and Sustaining Initiative" page).

As students played, teachers saw high levels of engagement. They talked excitedly to one another at the different centers. There was laughter and extended interactions between students who might not have interacted before. And all the



**Fig. 1** Observation protocol developed for teachers to document language and play

while, students drew on both English and Spanish to understand, discuss, reenact, and co-construct meaning of the stories they read. For example, in the block center, where students focused on building using wooden blocks, students built the pigs' three houses for fnger puppets that were added to the center and reenacted the story together. The following interaction occurred during students' play at the block center:

Student 1: Y sopló, y sopló [*and he blew and blew*]…Open the – [pause] Student 2: Puerta! [*Door.*] Student 1: Open the puerta! Open the puerta de casa! *[Open the door! Open the door to the house!]*

In their reenactment of the pivotal moment when the wolf tries to blow the pigs' houses down, students drew on both English and Spanish, collaboratively building on one another's language practices to tell the story. Because both students were Spanish-English bilinguals, they fuidly shifted between English and Spanish, using language in ways that do not conform to monolingual expectations. Seen through a translanguaging lens, these two students were not "incomplete" bilinguals or "non-linguals" who lack necessary vocabulary in both English and Spanish; they are drawing on the full linguistic repertoire to make meaning of the story and play with one another. Turning this lens on students' languaging was highly important for the teachers, who—as already discussed—expressed defcit thinking about them.

This next fnding from our work builds off of the previous one. Not only did students translanguage at the play centers to engage with the stories they read; they also translanguaged to go *beyond* the stories in creative and innovative ways. This, again, counters discourses of "languagelessness" and, relatedly, "illiteracy" that so often pervade the education of emergent bilinguals in U.S. schools. An example of this creativity and innovation emerged from students' performance of a puppet show that retold the story of *Goldilocks and the Three Bears*. Building off of their play in the puppet play center, the teachers facilitated students' creation of a short performance that students put on for all the kindergarten classes, teachers, and CUNY-NYSIEB researchers.

The performance featured several examples of how students' translanguaging—and their experiences as members of bilingual, bicultural families and communities, what Seltzer (in press) has called their *translingual sensibilities* enabled them to go beyond the story itself to create something new. One example was the students' uses of English and Spanish as characters in the story. Though their performance was done primarily in English, the student who played "Baby Bear" spoke her part exclusively in Spanish. The students did not translate for her, nor was her use of Spanish at all "marked" within the otherwise English performance. Instead, the effect was that of a fuidly bilingual story, told in a way that would resonate with and understood by the bilingual audience members. Though students had read the story in both English and Spanish—kept separate in the texts—their performance integrated them and, as a result, created something new.

A second example of how students translanguaged in ways that went beyond the text was through the small changes they made to the details of the story itself. During a pivotal moment in the story, when the bears discover that Goldilocks has tasted each of their bowls of porridge, the performers (a student narrator and three students playing the three bears) said the following:

Narrator: Papa Bear said… Papa Bear: Someone has eaten my porridge! Narrator: And Mama Bear said… Mama Bear: Someone has eaten my porridge! Narrator: And Baby Bear said… Baby Bear: ¡Alguien se comió mi avena! [Someone has eaten my oatmeal!] While the narrator, Papa Bear, and Mama Bear all spoke the lines of the story in English in ways that stuck closely to the language of the original text, Baby Bear's line demonstrates how the student made the text her own through her use of Spanish. In order to speak her line, the student translated the word "porridge"—the name of a food rarely eaten in any U.S. household—to "avena," which refers to the more commonly consumed "oatmeal." "Avena" would have been a well-known food item for members of the bilingual audience, as it was to the girl playing the role of Baby Bear, and her facile translation speaks to her ability to navigate not only the languages but the cultural references. In short, by making space for students to use all of their language practices in the play centers, students brought to the performance their bilingual imaginations and experiences. This reimagining of even a small detail from *The Three Little Pigs/Los Tres Cerditos* highlights students' membership in bilingual communities and families as well as their bilingual pride, which enabled them to creatively transform a traditional tale to refect their bilingual lives.

A fnal fnding from our work with the early childhood educators at the Villa School was that these teachers—all Spanish-speaking Latinx working in a bilingual program—simultaneously evidenced ideological shifts as a result of their professional learning with the CUNY-NYSIEB team *and* continued to communicate defcit thinking about the Latinx students they taught. For example, during an exit interview with the small group of teachers, one shared this about the videos the CUNY-NYSIEB team showed during several sessions of the PLC:

The videos you presented helped me see how to support kids during play…taking them where they're at and expanding from there. Now in the dramatic play it's beautiful. A lot is happening that wasn't before (Teacher A, December 2018).

Because the teachers had been interested in developing their facilitation of students' play-based learning, the CUNY-NYSIEB team took time to provide readings and videos and to engage the teachers in discussions about how students can be taught by leveraging the languaging they draw on in their play. By creating opportunities for students to play—something that has, more and more, been reduced in early childhood classrooms in the U.S.—and focusing explicitly on supporting students in their play, this teacher saw how "beautiful" the play centers could be and how much learning was taking place "that wasn't before."

Focusing specifcally on language, another teacher shared this anecdote about her observations of students' play:

When kids are playing with a student who prefers a language, they are motivated to speak that language, even if they don't typically prefer that language (Teacher A, December 2018).

Here, the teacher is sharing that, for example, a student she might label as more "English-dominant" would use more Spanish to play with a peer she might label as "Spanish-dominant" and vice versa. This willingness on the part of students to play using the language they were less comfortable using demonstrates the fexibility of the play centers and the purposeful development of play scenarios that draw on students' translanguaging practices and cultural funds of knowledge (Moll et al. 1992). Both teachers' comments here demonstrate that they observed shifts in how their young students were playing and using language in the classroom. The frst teacher expressly attributes this shift to what she learned in the PLC, a testament to the positive infuence that professional learning can have for teachers. And the second teacher's comment demonstrates her attention to her students' languaging, an awareness that the CUNY-NYSIEB team aimed to cultivate through the PLC.

Though the team saw this kind of positive shift in teachers' attitudes towards play and towards the idea of teaching language through play, we also heard teachers express defcit thinking towards their students and their language practices. For example, during a different set of interviews, two different teachers made the following comments:

Teacher A: We have many Hispanic students who listen to Spanish at home but don't speak it. The rest are bilingual, they speak both languages well. One child doesn't dominate either language well, talks like baby talk. He'll say one thing half Spanish half English, it doesn't matter what week we're in (Interview, September 2018).

Teacher B: Most [students] prefer English, but that doesn't mean they're strong in English. Their Spanish is good but not strong. They don't have that strong background (Interview, September 2018).

Again, it is important to note that these teachers are Spanish-speaking Latinx teachers in a long-standing bilingual program. We include these examples not to demonize the teachers but to show just how deeply defcit-based ideologies run, even among people who identify as Latinx bilingual students' advocates and allies. When these teachers emphasize students' lack of ability in either English or Spanish or when they called their students "nilingües" (a play on the Spanish word bilingüe or bilingual by changing the "bi" to "ni," which means "non-lingual"), one can see evidence of deeply-held ideologies of what Rosa (2016), has called 'languagelessness', the idea that Latinx people in the U.S. who do not engage in monoglossic language practices do not have the ability to use either language well. Despite the work of the PLC—and despite other evidence of the teachers' embracing of a new lens on their young students' language practices –these teachers' commentary demonstrates just how diffcult it can be to combat such defcit thinking about Latinx children, even among the most willing teachers.

### **5 Where Do We Go from Here? Implications for Educators and School Leaders**

CUNY-NYSIEB's work at the Villa School has elicited ideas and implications for future work in early childhood classrooms. For example, in discussing the contradictory views and language ideologies communicated by the teachers at the school, the team thought about how we might encourage teachers to refect further on how they teach, view, and (mis)understand young multilingual children and their families. One way to do this is to encourage *all* teachers to see these students and families through an assets-based lens and engage them in more authentic, powerful ways. We see great potential in questionnaire or language profle tools that bring forth family and community translanguaging practices and funds of knowledge (Moll et al. 1992). Thinking along these lines and inspired by Morell and Aponte's (2016) work (also see García et al. 2017, language profling tool), the CUNY-NYSIEB team compiled this list of questions for teachers to ask the families of young emergent bilinguals:

### **Questions to Ask Families of Young Emergent Bilinguals**


*Inspired by the intake questions in Right from the Start: A Protocol for Identifying and Planning Instruction for Emergent Bilinguals in Universal Prekindergarten* (Morell and Aponte 2016).

This kind of questionnaire—combined with tools like the Child Language Observation Protocol discussed earlier in this chapter—provides teachers with a more nuanced portrait of who students and their families are and how they language, which can, in turn, lead to shifts in instruction that leverage young emergent bilinguals' rich linguistic repertoires towards new language practices, including those expected of them in school settings (García et al. 2017). It also provides teachers with the opportunity to refect on their own preconceived notions about young emergent bilinguals and their families, something they can do in community with their colleagues, as the teachers at the Villa School did in their PLC.

Another idea that emerged from our work at the Villa School related to the teachers' choices of texts. Though we did see students take traditional stories like *Goldilocks and the Three Bears* and make them their own, we would like to see more early childhood educators choose books that are culturally sustaining and contain evidence of students' language practices—not kept separate, but integrated into multilingual, multicultural stories (for a list of books and resources that feature characters from a range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds, visit CUNY-NYSIEB.org). These texts make space for students to see themselves in the classroom *and* learn about the lives and experiences of others (Espinosa and Lehner-Quam 2019). Teachers could look for published stories that resonate with their students' cultural and linguistic backgrounds as well as use students' own stories as classroom texts. By bringing such texts into the classroom and designing opportunities for students to engage in play at centers that relate to these texts, teachers can build on students' translanguaging and cultivate creative and engaging new learning opportunities.

Taking up a translanguaging lens on the language and literacy education of young emergent bilinguals means starting with the idea that these children are gifted language users: creative, highly aware, adept, and fexible. In addition to organizing their play around multilingual, multicultural texts, teachers could create opportunities for students to play and further build their critical multilingual awareness (Prasad 2018; Velasco and Fialais 2016). Teachers could organize their centers (as well as their whole-class instruction) around questions like, how do different people (their parents, a local shop owner, a neighbor) say different things? What words, phrases, songs, and stories are the same or different across languages and cultures? How do people communicate with *more* than just spoken language? These are questions and topics about which young emergent bilinguals have much to offer, and it is incumbent upon teachers to invite them in.

For play to take hold in emergent bilinguals' classrooms, school administrators need to be on the same page as teachers. We advocate that there be a cohesive vision and policy about how play is incorporated into the school day and how it is sustained. We found that while teachers' practices are framed by their own personal belief systems and knowledge, their work is also impacted by how school administrators prioritize instructional initiatives and how they measure their effectiveness. Within this project, these tensions were evident in how the newly instituted space for play—center time—was implemented in actuality and how its effectiveness was measured. We believe that these tensions are not exclusive to these teachers and this school, but are the reality of many, if not, most programs.

The kindergarten teachers were the catalysts for fnding time to reintroduce play into their days. While, by the end of the study, administration agreed to the schedule change to include center time, its frequency had been reduced and replaced with more targeted literacy instruction. It is important to point out that through the structured play sessions that the teachers set up, students' literacy skills were being supported through the relation of the centers to shared bilingual texts and the development of oral language. In addition, the administration wanted to see the results of center time which resulted in the creation of plays. While a play is an appropriate activity for kindergarten students, framing center time as resulting in a culminating activity both draws attention away from the importance of incremental work that happens over time within the centers and demonstrates how student-directed learning was redirected to meet the demands of the school. As demonstrated through the fndings, full access to play and the language practices students use for that play, is critical to emergent bilinguals' language development and to teachers' understanding of students' language practices.

In short, our work at the Villa School has strengthened our stance that Latinx bilingual children language in ways that go beyond monolingual conceptions and play in creative ways that enable them to represent their learning, their prior knowledge, and ways of knowing. Too often, this languaging and play is viewed through a defcit lens, or is over-regulated, and these children are seen as lacking. By taking up a translanguaging, play-based lens on early childhood education, educators and schools can counter this defcit thinking and create powerful learning experiences for all emergent bilingual children.

### **References**


**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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### **Translanguaging in Multilingual Pre-Primary Classrooms in La Réunion: Refecting on Inclusion and Social Justice in a French Postcolonial Context**

### Pascale Prax-Dubois and Christine Hélot

### **Abstract**

This chapter explores the strategies and ideologies of two teachers who, each in their own way, try to mobilize the languages of young plurilingual learners (aged 3–4 and 5–6) in a pre-school situated in a marginalized area in La Reunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean and central hub of migration for families from neighbouring islands. We argue that translanguaging crossed with subaltern studies can be a powerful approach to deconstruct othering processes. Following this analysis, we propose a model for teacher education that includes three main objectives to rethink inclusion and social justice in a French post-colonial context.

### **Keywords**

Translanguaging · Subaltern studies · Othering · Inclusion · Social justice

### **1 Introduction**

According to Spivak (1985), Europe has asserted its position of sovereignty by 'othering' its former colonies. France is a good example of this process: it still holds many so called "overseas" territories where linguistic and cultural practices

P. Prax-Dubois (\*)

Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France e-mail: pascale.dubois@etu.unistra.fr

C. Hélot Strasbourg, France

<sup>©</sup> The Author(s) 2020

J. A. Panagiotopoulou et al. (eds.), *Inclusion, Education and Translanguaging*, Inklusion und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28128-1\_4

have been subordinated by the centralized education system, and where the principles of inclusive education (UNESCO 2009) are still not being implemented. French education is described by the latest PISA evaluations (2018)1 as the most unequal among the richest OECD countries and is also well known for its ideological position on the national language, i.e. French, considered as the frst and foremost priority for integration. This means that acknowledging and valuing the rich plurilingual repertoires of many students is a real challenge, both in metropolitan France and all the more so in overseas territories scattered throughout the world (Hélot and Erfurt 2016; Laroussi 2016; Muni Toke 2016).

This is the case of La Réunion, a small multilingual French island located in the South West of the Indian Ocean where the complexity of multilingual language practices has been the subject of a lot of research. Recognizing language practices within the theoretical framework of translanguaging means that schools should adopt a pedagogy moving from the separation of languages and from the priority of the French language to a pedagogy of "variation", as expressed by researchers in La Réunion (Prudent 2005; Lebon-Eyquem 2015; Georger 2005; Tupin and Wharton 2016). However, research addressing the exclusion of languages other than Creole, such as Malagasy and Mahoro-Comorian languages spoken by many children in Reunionese schools, is still lacking. Furthermore, teachers are not educated to understand the affordances of multilingual education, how linguistic and cultural diversity is linked to issues of social justice (Piller 2016; Prax-Dubois 2018) and how they could become agents of social change (Hélot 2007) even in such a highly complex context.

Our chapter is based on the analysis of data collected in two pre-primary classrooms, where two teachers implemented language awareness activities (Prax-Dubois 2018). Through a critical discourse analysis of the verbal interactions between children and their teacher and the transgressive lens of tranlanguaging pedagogy, which, as explained by García (2014), strives to make the voices of 'subaltern' subjects audible, we will describe the strategies developed by the two teachers, each in their own way, to mobilize migrant and indigenous students' plurilingual repertoires. More specifcally, we will explain how they succeeded (or not) in promoting the inclusion of multilingual children in their teaching approach, through the deconstruction of the process of othering (Spivak 1985; Said 1978/2005). In other words, we will argue that specifcally in post-colonial

<sup>1</sup>http://www.oecd.org/pisa/publications/PISA2018\_CN\_FRA\_FRE.pdf.

contexts such as La Réunion, teachers should be educated to understand the process of decolonizing language teaching in schools (López-Gopar 2016). We will conclude with propositions to (re)imagine a teacher education curriculum that includes the issue of linguistic diversity and social justice (Piller 2016) in postcolonial contexts.

### **2 Context**

### **2.1 Pre-School Education in France**

Pre-primary school in France is conceptualized as "école maternelle" and is well-known as a specifc model of education for the early years. It became integrated into the primary sector as early as 1881. In September 2019, French president Macron decided it should become compulsory from age 3 in a bid to fght the high levels of child poverty in France. The latest curriculum dates from 2015. It applies to all écoles maternelles in mainland France and similarly in the overseas territories. Language awareness activities dealing with linguistic diversity are mentioned for children aged 4 to 6, but only with "modest"2 ambitions, because the foremost objective is language acquisition "in all its dimensions", meaning the acquisition of different language competences in French. The formulation in French, "mobilisation du langage" expressed in the singular noun phrase hides an equivalence between language in general and *the* French language (Georger 2005, p. 7). This persistent ideology is all the more striking in La Réunion (and in other overseas French territories, see Hélot and Erfurt 2016) where Creole is the main language of communication and where many children speak diverse minoritized languages.

Research in French on plurilingualism in pre-school structures (crèches, kindergarten, or pre-schools) is scarce compared to publications in English (Hélot and Rubio 2013). For these authors, the language development of very young children in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is not only an educational issue but involves political choices, ideologies, and an ethical positioning. Hélot (2013, p. 52) describes bilingualism in the French context in terms of a dichotomy between elite bilingualism (with languages such as French and English for

<sup>2&</sup>quot;Modeste" meaning limited, see: Programme d'enseignement de l'école maternelle: https://www.education.gouv.fr/pid25535/bulletin\_offciel.html?cid\_bo=86940.

example) and mass or migrant bilingualism (when minoritized languages such as Turkish or Arabic are concerned), the difference residing in the ideological attribution of symbolic values to competing languages on the linguistic market (Bourdieu 1982). Thus, the availability of bilingual education in dominant languages and its nonexistence in minoritized languages are a further source of educational inequality (Hélot and Erfurt 2016) both in mainland France and all the more so in overseas territories (Muni Toke 2016).

### **2.2 The Reproduction of Exclusion or Excluding Neighbours**

From a socio-historical point of view La Réunion is an insular society developed to "serve" France rather than model it (Bertile 2002) Its population has been European, Malgache, African and Asian from the beginning and its dynamism meant to lead to economic growth. It is a pluralistic society where the term "white" refers more to social class than to skin colour (Gerbeau 1997). The sudden access of the island to the post-modern era, since its transformation from an agricultural plantation economy into a tertiary economy in the 1980s, did not impede the reproduction of inequalities.

The GDP per inhabitant is higher than in neighbouring islands but markedly lower than the GDP in mainland France and La Reunion now sees itself as a "donating Northern country" in relation to its poorer neighbours in the South (Bertile 2002). Indeed, the subsidies given to La Réunion by both mainland France and the European Union, are lower in Mayotte, a neighbouring overseas territory, therefore, it does not encourage solidarity between the different islands and it even fosters the development of stigmatizing stereotypes towards people who have no other choice but to move from a poorer island (Anjouan for example, which is a non-French island) to a richer one (Mayotte, which is French) and also from Mayotte and Madagascar to La Réunion. Such socio-political and economical injustice born out of the invention of collective identities (Said 1978/2005), and notions like "overseas" or "Francophonie", ends up creating socio-ethnic inequalities that have a major impact on the ideology of languages and knowledge transmission in schools (Fig. 1).

**Fig. 1** Political map of the Indian Ocean. http://www.sciencespo.fr/

### **2.3 Selective Plurilingualism in Schools in La Réunion**

Lebon-Eyquem (2015, p. 146) has recently shown3 that today, "two thirds of children aged 5 speak very little French or none at all". She also recorded languaging practices where it was impossible to distinguish clear profles between speakers of French and speakers of Creole. But as stated above, the issue of the exclusion of languages other than Creole in education in La Réunion has hardly been addressed. In our doctoral research (Prax-Dubois 2018), we carried out a survey among 22 teachers working with newcomers in pre-primary, primary and secondary schools which revealed the diversity of languages brought into La Réunion by students identifed as "allophones",4 as well as the

<sup>3110</sup> children aged 5 were surveyed: their language interactions were recorded both in and outside of schools.

<sup>4&</sup>quot;allophone" is the term used in the French curriculum to refer to children who do not speak French (circulaire 2012-141 du 2 octobre 2012). Hélot (2013) argues they should be called "bilingual".

widespread presence of Shimaore and Malgache. While the teachers confrmed the rapid acquisition of Creole by their students, they also denounced the racism and solitude a great majority of these children suffer from. Their social marginalisation is most obvious in the erasure of their plurilingual repertoires which, as migrant languages from the Indian Ocean islands, remain largely invisible, and this even in the face of the recent popularity of the language awareness approach.5

We would like to argue that such language in education policies create an image of the other and her languages which relegates Creole and the other Indian Ocean languages to the domain of folklore (in the Gramscien sense). It feeds into colonial dichotomies (Prudent 2005; García 2014) and hides the complexity of such processes. This is why subaltern studies, according to us, allow for a new conceptualization of the relationships of power between languages and access to knowledge and underlying ideologies.

### **3 Translanguaging and Subaltern Studies in Creole Speaking Contexts**

As Hélot (2013, p. 58) reminds us:

"Languages, in our societies, are always caught in processes of subordination and domination through the attitudes expressed towards their speakers" (our translation).

This is the reason why we propose to use both the transgressive perspective of translanguaging (García 2014, 2017) and that of subaltern studies with the concepts of othering and colonial difference, in order to highlight the ideologies that, in school and elsewhere, exclude a whole sector of the mainstream population through the production of images that maintain some groups at the service of others.

<sup>5</sup>See professional education for teachers on plurilingual Education offered by the CASNAV in La Reunion (Centre for the schooling of newcomer students): https://www.ac-reunion.fr/ casnav/formations-casnav.html.

### **3.1 Transglossic Spaces, Colonial Difference and Othering**

The colonial subject is constrained socially and symbolically by her language practices. It is as if the languages of the South could only be conceived through the vulnerability of their speakers who are seen as having no other opportunities but to master the language of the colonizers if they want their share of available resources. But this analysis lacks a fner observation of the discourse strategies as well as of the agency of teachers trying to implement multilingual approaches in their classrooms (Menken and García 2010), whether monolingual or legitimately "bilingual" classrooms. This is why García (2014, p. 108) proposed to replace the diglossic model by a transglossic one to describe "a societal stable, and yet dynamic, communicative network in the 21st century, with many languages in functional interrelationship".

The prefx "trans" does not only translate the idea of crossing or mixing, but refers to transgressive theories of language (Pennycook 2007). Pedagogically, this implies that transglossic spaces should be opened up in classrooms, the voices of subaltern speakers should be heard and the colonial dimension of power relationships should be discussed (García 2014). In Creole speaking contexts, this means reframing linguistic diversity within the paradigm of transgressive and critical approaches so that the new spaces created allow for colonial injustice to be debated, in other words for three centuries of history to be uncovered (Prax-Dubois 2019b).

Colonial difference is the fgure of speech through which coloniality conceives of the other as inferior, marked by a linguistic, cultural, moral or intellectual handicap and, therefore, inferior to the metropolitan standard (Mignolo 2000/2012; López-Gopar 2016). Situated at the intersection of Western, male, Christian, white thought with different approaches to local history and to naming the world, colonial difference is also an abstract place where power is exercised while being contested, a space where the subaltern6 knowledge of speakers is reinvested but also reifed by hegemonic thinking (Mignolo

<sup>6</sup>Guha (1983/1999) was one of the frst researchers to develop the feld of subaltern studies and to question the national and colonial historiography, after he became aware of the social failure of independent India.

2000/2012; López-Gopar 2016). Inspired by the work of Said (1978/2005) and his notion of orientalism, the concept of othering was defned as central to colonial discourse, which ambivalence lies in the reifcation of the colonized subject as both an object of desire and of derision expressed through political and discursive practices of racial and cultural hierarchy (Bhabha 1994).

Spivak (1985) proposed the notion of "new subaltern" and described the process of othering in colonial contexts as based on three dimensions: a) a permanent communication campaign informing people of their subordination, b) a systematic reference to the other as culturally and morally inferior, and c) the organisation of lack of access to knowledge being mediated by colonial agents who are not indigenous, therefore trustworthy. In this way, Spivak deconstructs the natural logic of "us vs them", explaining that formerly colonized post-war states could be regrouped in a single entity "the third world", which could then be maintained in a state of dependency and inferiority by the "frst world", a global process she named "worlding".

What is the impact in La Réunion of this notion of "worlding" on "wording"? How are discursive spaces confgured on a small island which belongs to both a franco-European entity and an Indian–Oceanic space situated between Mauritius and Madagascar, submitted to a capitalist economy since its control by La Compagnie des Indes and then by the French State and the European Union, but infuenced by a profound Creole vision of the world? What can this mean for the education of children living in a region that feels the pressure of such geopolitical and socioeconomic factors? What does inclusion and social justice mean for young children in multilingual pre-schools in a French post-colonial context?

### **3.2 Translanguaging and Critical Discourse Analysis**

To address these issues, we propose to analyse data gathered through non-participant observation of language awareness activities carried out in May and June 2013 in two pre-primary classrooms (children aged 3–4 and 5–6). The school is situated in one of the three poorest areas of the island. The area around the school is known for the high number of migrants coming from the neighbouring islands, more specifcally Mayotte and other Comore Islands. This had resulted in some resident families sending their children to schools outside of this area. The school is suffering from lack of funding and an important turn-over of teachers (Prax-Dubois 2018).

In order to understand these processes of intra-insular exclusion from a sociolinguistic point of view and to analyse the impact of socio-cultural factors on the way teachers apprehend their students' plurilingualism, we use the notion of translanguaging, "to observe closely the way in which people use language and base [their] pedagogical practices on that use, and not on what the school system says are valuable practices" (García 2007, p. 13). We also opted for a critical approach to discourse analysis with the aim to redress or lessen social inequalities (Fairclough, ([1995] 2013, pp. 10 f.) though highlighting the ideologies underlying language education implemented by teachers with their students. Critical discourse analysis brings to the fore whether students' voices as well as those of communities speaking othered languages are recognized and supported or whether they are excluded from the learning process (Cummins 2011). Therefore, this means that every teacher can act upon the redistribution of power within her own classroom (Hélot 2007, p. 123). Among the competences conceptualized by García and Li Wei (2014) and the ten grounded principles for decolonizing Primary English Language Teaching (López-Gopar 2016), we chose those more specifc to teachers working at the pre-school level in a marginalized area of La Réunion. Our aim is to analyse whether it is possible in a French postcolonial context, to resist the process of othering produced by "the colonial difference discourse that positions Indigenous children as inferior and in need of help" (López-Gopar 2016, p. 199).

### **4 Translanguaging Strategies in a Post-Colonial Context**

Our analysis does not oppose a competent teacher to one who would be less competent. Both teachers, each in their own way, wished to contest the language regime in place, and have in common an interest in their students' linguistic and cultural diversity and in using the pedagogical freedom allowed within a rather constraining national curriculum. Therefore, we are interested in the way each teacher managed human interactions and social inequalities according to their level of agency in a highly normalized sociolinguistic context.

### **4.1 Strategy n° 1: The Negotiation of the Curriculum Constraints**

The classroom is a strategic space for the negotiation of power relationships and Isabelle7 knows what she is doing in her bilingual class when she decides that on "French day",8 she will devote her French language lesson to the translation of "je t'aime" in all her students' languages, because mothers' day is approaching. She chose to carry out a plurilingual activity on the day when Creole is not supposed to be used. In other words, plurilingualism takes the place of additive bilingualism and Creole fnds its own space among the other Indian-Oceanic languages thanks to the links created between the various languages used in the interactions.

Isabelle: maintenant il manque une langue qu'on n'a pas fait (Now there is one language missing) [XXX} Isabelle: en :: ? (Which one?) Jean-André: MI AIM A OU Kelly: mi aim a ou Isabelle: en quelle langue? (Which language is it?) Groupe d'élèves: EN CREOLE Isabelle: alors / ça c'est facile / comment on dit ensemble? (So, this is easy/How do we say it all together?) Groupe d'élèves: MI AIM A OU

Isabelle has no need of specifc pedagogical support to carry out this research task, because "students can translanguage, as they fnd new information" and the activity connects them to their everyday life (García and Li Wei 2014; López-Gopar 2016), in this instance the preparation of mothers'day. She needs no pedagogical materials that would be using named languages, and in this way she helps her students to fnd their own voices and to develop critical thinking as was previously explained by Hélot (2007) writing about the Didenheim project.

Anna, the second teacher speaks neither Creole nor her students' languages as she has been recruited from mainland France. Therefore, she prefers to use a

<sup>7</sup>The names of the teachers have been changed for the purpose of the article.

<sup>8</sup>In this bilingual French/Creole pre-primary class of 5/6 year olds, the use of each language as a language of instruction is implemented every other day. In this instance, the language of schooling on that day was French.

multilingual picture book presenting vocabulary in French, Shimaore and Malgache to encourage her newcomer students to express themselves. In the following extract, she tries to get her students to guess the word "tree" by saying it herself in Shimaore: "mwiri":

Anna: alors c'est quoi Abdou? ça c'est quoi Abdou / viens nous montrer / qu'est-ce que c'est mwiri? (So, what is it Abdou? What is that Abdou/ Come and show us/ what does "mwiri" mean?) [Abdou se lève et montre l'image de l'arbre silencieusement] (Abdou stads up and shyly shows the picture of the tree) Anna: SUPER / Comment on dit en français? (Great/ How do you say it in French?) Groupe d'élèves: un A: RBRE (A tree) Anna: un a: rbre (A tree) Groupe d'élèves: un A: RBRE (A tree) Anna: mwiri c'est arbre en / en shimaore / en maore // c'est bien: (Mwiri means tree in Shimaore, in Maore, good)

Anna considers her students' languages the same as she does French, as fxed entities that she wants them to master as a priority, through their lexical, phonological and morphosyntactic components. However, she does open up a plurilingual space through the use of a multilingual book that she discovers at the same time as her students. She really wants to give them some power through the opportunity to share their own expertise and also to have access to the translation of everyday lexical items in languages that remain excluded from the curriculum. In a certain way, even if the students are silent, they are cognitively active thanks to the allowed presence of their home languages.

### **4.2 Strategy n° 2: The Mobilization of Inner Speech**

The fact that students remain silent in the classroom does not necessarily mean that they are inhibited or that they refuse to speak. Le Meur (2011) for example, explains that it is the third dimension of language beyond speaking and writing, "the living proof of what is unexpressed". When silence is active, it gives way to inner speech, and García and Li Wei (2014) have shown its centrality in translanguaging practices.9

<sup>9</sup>See also Prax-Dubois (2018, 2019a).

When Anna uses the word tree in Shimaore (mwiri) to start questioning her students about its translation in French, she proposes that they compare both languages, French the language of schooling and Shimaore a minoritized language whose speakers are often discriminated against in La Réunion. This language-inquiry task does allow her in fact "to build translanguaging capacities and extend metalinguistic awareness" (García and Li Wei 2014, p. 122) but, beyond the correct answer, also demands that her students concentrate both on a cognitive and affective level. It seems as if the three students concerned do not interact, leaving their peers to occupy all the discursive space:

Anna [à Chaïma]: tu es d'accord? Chaïma Abdou vous êtes pas d'accord? Tu es d'accord ou pas? Inchati c'est ça ou pas? Inchati c'est ça mwiri? C'est ça mwiri? Groupe d'élèves: non: Anna (to Chaïma): Do you agree? Chaïma, Abdou, don't you agree? Do you agree or not? Inchati, Is it right or not? Inchati is that what mwiri means? Is this mwiri' The students´ group: No

We know that "I don't know" and silences can discretely signify many hidden messages (López-Gopar 2016). But the repeated questioning of the teacher prevents her from becoming aware of the students' submerged language competence.

Isabelle interacts differently with her students because in her bilingual classroom she is used to questioning her students without any normative linguistic supports and, therefore, trusts them to manage the discursive space while at the same time watching out for her marginalized students to express themselves. And this is the reason why she is able to hear Zaïna who utters two barely audible words in the middle of the interaction in Creole:


There was no need to question Zaïna to know what language she spoke, nor how she would translate a term. Waiting for her inner speech to let her feel like expressing herself, the teacher has opened a transgressive space giving time to her student to become aware of her peers' freedom of expression in Creole and to allow herself, albeit quite moved, to express her understanding of the world in Shimaore.

### **4.3 Strategy n° 3: Funds of Knowledge and Co-Learning**

The issue of role taking in teaching is central in educational sociolinguistics. Co-learning is defned by Li Wei (2014, p. 169) as "a process in which several agents simultaneously try to adapt to one another's behavior so as to produce desirable global outcomes that would be shared". In an inclusive multilingual classroom, students' funds of knowledge put into perspective with those of the teacher must be considered as vital resources because they are socio-historically defned (Moll et al. 1992; Li Wei 2014; López-Gopar 2016, p. 201).

In her bilingual class, Isabelle has a continuous interest in linguistic diversity and in the different ways the children express themselves in Creole and in French, therefore she also includes Shimaore in her pedagogy, for example in the case of Louis:


Through these interactions, Isabelle deconstructs the othering Louis could be subjected to as an "allophone" student. She behaves as a multilingual language and literacy teacher and gives us an example of what decolonizing language education could mean in a post-colonial pre-primary school, in the sense given by López-Gopar (2016, p. 196): "decolonizing primary English language teaching is a collaborative endeavor in which all of the actors produce knowledge and perform different roles".

Anna's pedagogical strategy is different. She also tries to avail of her students' funds of knowledge but she remains in charge of interactions in order to bring migrant students to use the French language and to understand its categorisation system:

Anna: alors c'est quoi Abdou? Ça c'est quoi Abdou / viens nous montrer / qu'est-ce que c'est mwiri? ((So, what is it Abdou? What is that Abdou/ Come and show us/ what does "mwiri" mean?)

[Abdou se lève et montre l'image de l'arbre silencieusement] (Abdu stands up and silently shows the picture of the tree)

Anna: SUPER / Comment on dit en français? (Great/ How do you say it in French) Groupe d'élèves: un A: RBRE (Student group: tree)

In other words, the teacher keeps in charge of the circulation of languages in the classroom, starting with the words in the multilingual book to move towards French, but the students do not perceive her interest in their own knowledge, and they need more time to understand the communicative situation. Furthermore, this activity (using the multilingual book) is not related to a social project but only to learning some vocabulary items by heart.

Anna, however, has enough courage to be aware of it and to change her didactic approach leaving aside the normative multilingual wordbook. Indeed, she fnishes her lesson with a more natural conversation highlighting her students' linguistic practices out of school. But the necessary safe space for the students to express themselves freely is not solid enough and the friendly and well- intentioned questioning of the teacher, who is not aware of such pre-conditions, turns into a kind of cross-examination:

Anna: alors Abdou toi tu parles le maore à la maison? (So Abdou, what language do you speak at home? [Abdou confrme d'un hochement de tête] (Abdou nods) Anna: avec qui? avec papa avec maman avec tes frères et sœurs? (With whom? Your Dad, your Mum, your brothers and sisters?) [Abdou infrme avec un mouvement de tête de droite à gauche] (Abdou denies turning his head from right to left) Anna: Ben / Inchati / toi tu parles le maore? (Well, Inchati, do you speak Maore?) [Inchati confrme d'un hochement de tête] (Inchati nods) Anna: avec qui? (With whom?) [\_\_\_] (silence) […] Anna: avec papa? (With Dad?) [\_\_\_]

All dialogues are socio-historically situated and give rise to ambivalent feelings towards the languages used (López-Gopar 2016). Without an awareness of and an inscription of these exchanges in the history of colonisation in the Indian Ocean, the identity investments of some students meet with the identity assignations of others and because these processes remain hidden the relationships of power reproduce themselves in the classroom.

### **5 Promoting Inclusion and Social Justice in French Postcolonial Pre-Primary Classrooms**

Including students' knowledge in the education agenda and promoting social justice means teacher education should start with a thorough refexion on linguistic ideologies, the sharing of knowledge and evaluation (Shohamy 2006). Piller (2016, p. 127 f.) explains how submersive education which, according to UNE-SCO (2016) concerns 40% of students in the world accessing school knowledge through a language which is not theirs, imposes on these children a double challenge: "having to learn curriculum content through a new language while studying curriculum content in that language". This is the reason why, in our opinion, it beholds teacher educators both in mainland France and in its overseas territories, to make teachers aware of the three functions of the French language at school: the frst being instruction, the second communication, both in the traditional sense given to the French language in the curriculum, and the third function should not be forgotten, subordination.

To illustrate our point, we look again at Anna and Isabelle's strategies in order to conceptualize a teacher education model which could put into perspective the three essential dimensions of the process of othering as elaborated by Spivak (1985): a) the systematic reference to the moral and cultural inferiority of targeted subjects that Mignolo (2000/2012) expressed in terms of colonial difference, b) the continuous reminder of their subordination in the name of this inferiority, and c) the colonial mediation which aim is to control access to resources and in this way leads to the maintenance of the allegiance of subaltern subjects. As a counterpoint to these three factors of subordination, we outline below three strategies developed to various degrees by the two teachers.

### **5.1 Valuing and Promoting a Social Approach to Language**

Anna listens to her students with what she knows or she thinks she knows of the translation of the multilingual wordbook. Her beliefs, born out of her ideologies, lead to the children's silence while they are trying to fgure out misunderstandings in the interaction. Isabelle, whose professional history is different, uses her didactic resources to listen to children with what she does not know. Because she can bring together her students' discourses and their understanding of the world, they become language teachers, too (López-Gopar 2016).

It is tempting to link this approach to the language awareness approach. This approach allows for students to make links between different languages and gives emergent bilingual children an expert role in languages excluded from the curriculum. However, in France, this type of approach continues to insist on normalized languages as pre-existing the students' spontaneous language practices. Furthermore, valuing and legitimating family languages within the framework of language awareness is not suffcient (Coste 1995; Hélot 2007; Hélot and Rubio 2013). For example, García (2017, p. 267 f.) reminds us that too often "some multilingual awareness programs pay more attention to dominant languages than to their communities' own regional and immigrant languages", and do not suffciently insist on the link between the present—day linguistic diversity and the history of colonisation in the world. Therefore, when educating teachers in La Réunion (or elsewhere), it is necessary to articulate language awareness with complementary approaches deconstructing the processes of subordination of minoritized groups.

### **5.2 Reappropriating the History of Human Interactions**

Anna and Isabelle interpret the top-down language policies and formulate their own didactic approach according to the way they conceive their agency in relation to their perceptions of constraints, each of them in their own professional context (Prax-Dubois 2018). What Anna is lacking is the very strength of Isabelle, an understanding of micro and macro sociolinguistic and sociohistorical contexts and an awareness of the interdependence of these contexts at different levels. Her objective was to build "the common history of the class" (Hélot 2007, p. 158) with, as a background, a questioning of the separation of the world between East and West, geographical spaces which like languages, are "made by men" (Said 1978/2005, p. 17) and need to be disinvented (Makoni and Pennycook 2007).

To help teachers to understand these processes, García (2017, p. 277) proposes to move from the framework of language awareness to that of critical multilingual awareness and to integrate in the teacher education curriculum three essential competences: "awareness of plurilingualism and the importance of democratic citizenship, awareness of colonial histories and of imperialistic oppression and, awareness that language is socially created, and thus socially changeable". These main principles were at work in the Didenheim project in Alsace (Hélot 2007) which objectives were to challenge intolerance, racism and violence through the cultural rootedness of such processes (Hélot 2007) in order to decolonize them (Hélot 2019). Rehistorizing language education is also the main aim of the CEAR10 project in Mexico (López-Gopar 2016), which showed how important it is to explore the historical dimension of the children's backgrounds as a key process to decolonize primary English language teaching. However, in the face of hierarchical control,11 it is also crucial for teachers to work collaboratively.

### **5.3 A Critical Analysis of Mediation Processes: Who Says What, How and Why?**

For teachers to go against the grain, Spivak explains that they should be made aware of othering processes by looking at the "other" as a fghting partner for social justice rather than as an anthropological being. This refection on the other is frst of all a refection to be carried out on oneself. It is based on the distance the teacher allows herself to take towards institutional discourses but also on the type of mediation one decides to implement as a counterpart to colonial mediation, this in order to give subaltern subjects access to resources. In other words, subaltern subjects should always collaborate to be more effcient in their transformative practices.

In La Reunion, Lebon-Eyquem (2018) has elaborated a hermeneutic approach for her master's course in language science. Through an analysis based on self-refection and the rehistoricization of their biographical narratives, her students became beginner researchers. Her research shows the impact of their exchanges on the questioning and negotiation of their positioning towards plurilingualism. She noticed for example, how some of them managed to uncover the symbolic and ideological processes that hide in many speakers' representations of languages. Engaging in such a refective process could be linked to educating students to critical discourse analysis. We would like to argue that this could help teachers to apprehend differently the socio-economic, historical, linguistic and educational phenomena which are more interdependent than what they conceive of by systematically asking: who says what and why? How does it impact my professional practice, my ideologies, those of my colleagues, of parents, of inspectors, of people visiting my classrooms, etc.? While keeping in mind that,

<sup>10</sup>Critical-Ethnographic-Action-Research project.

<sup>11</sup>Readers need to know that teachers in France are regularly "controlled" by inspectors whose role is to make sure the national curriculum is implemented.

"language belongs to speakers rather than to nation states" (Hélot 2019, p. 94) and that once aware of this, everything is possible.

### **6 Conclusion**

As educators working today in French schools either on the mainland or in overseas territories (the two contexts are intrinsically linked by their colonial past), it beholds us to implement inclusion and social justice meaningfully. This means that we cannot continue to ignore the double impact of colonial history and imperialistic oppression on school failure, two factors which according to García (2017) and Hélot (2019) are at the heart of most multilingual contexts today. Therefore, we have crossed research on subaltern studies with research on translanguaging and argued that both theories can provide us with the conceptual tools we need to deconstruct the paradigm of absolute effciency that separates the world today, no longer in terms of what is fair or unfair but according to the survival of the fttest, or between former masters and new slaves (Camus 1951/2010). We believe this is possible from the very frst years of early schooling, that is from the beginning of the appropriation of named languages, and the subordination of human beings to market driven societies.

### **References**


Fairclough, N. ([1995] 2013). Critical Discourse Analysis. New York: Routledge.

García O. (2007). Foreword. In S. Makoni & A. Pennycook (Eds.), Disinventing and Reconstituting Languages (pp. xi–xv). London: Multilingual Matters.


Wharton (Eds.). Du plurilinguisme à l'école. Vers une gestion coordonnée des langues en contextes éducatifs sensibles (pp. 359–378). Berne: Peter Lang.


**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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### **Translanguaging in Early Childhood Education in Luxembourg: From Practice to Pedagogy**

### Claudine Kirsch and Claudia Seele

### **Abstract**

An inclusive translanguaging pedagogy aims to promote learning and participation by drawing on the learners' entire semiotic repertoire. The focus of this chapter are the translanguaging practices of four early years practitioners in Luxembourg. We analyse the deployment of their linguistic repertoire, their reasons for translanguaging, and the ways in which their practices contributed to inclusion and participation. We found that the practices comprised using linguistic resources dynamically, translating, and 'home languaging,' and depended on the practitioners' pedagogical stance. We argue that multilingual practices need to be embedded in a refexive translanguaging pedagogy in order to enhance inclusion.

### **Keywords**

Early childhood education · Luxembourg · Translanguaging pedagogy · Inclusion

C. Kirsch (\*)

University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg e-mail: claudine.kirsch@uni.lu

C. Seele RAA Mecklenburg-Vorpommern e. V., Waren (Müritz), Germany e-mail: claudia.seele@raa-mv.de

© The Author(s) 2020

J. A. Panagiotopoulou et al. (eds.), *Inclusion, Education and Translanguaging*, Inklusion und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28128-1\_5

### **1 Introduction**

Educational institutions worldwide must cope with increasingly heterogeneous intakes and, therefore, monolingual pedagogical strategies are no longer appropriate. Owing to migration and globalisation, a growing number of children enter these institutions with more varied linguistic repertoires than those of the dominant majority. However, their resources are neither fully acknowledged by education systems nor systematically included in policies, curricula and teaching practices. In education, inclusion refers to 'a process of addressing and responding to the diversity of needs of all children, youth and adults through increasing participation in learning, cultures and communities' (UNESCO 2009, p. 8 f.). The index for inclusion in early childhood education (Booth et al. 2008) provides professionals with concrete strategies that promote inclusion such as recognising cultural and linguistic diversity as a resource, showing respect for children's identities and cultures, and drawing on differences to support play, learning and the participation of all children. Language policies on early language education of the European Commission address the necessity to accommodate children's diverse needs and backgrounds, and promote equal opportunities and social justice (e.g. European Commission 2011). Translanguaging is a central pillar for realising more inclusive, learner-centered, multilingual pedagogies (García and Li Wei 2014; García et al. 2017). As a sociolinguistic and socio-educational concept, translanguaging refers, on the one hand, to the process of deploying one's entire semiotic repertoire to make meaning and communicate and, on the other hand, to pedagogical practices that leverage these processes to support learning and participation (García and Otheguy 2019).

In Luxembourg, multilingualism is an everyday reality (Fehlen and Heinz 2016). Apart from the three offcial languages – Luxembourgish, French and German – many more are spoken on account of the high proportion of immigrants in Luxembourg. In 2018, 47.5% of the residents did not have Luxembourgish citizenship (STATEC 2019) and 63.7% of the four- to six-year-olds spoke a frst language other than Luxembourgish (MENJE 2019). Despite this multilingual reality, educational practices were found to hold on to monolingual norms and policies of separating and excluding languages (Christmann 2011; Neumann 2015; Seele 2016). Studies such as PISA, PIRLS and the national *épreuves standardisés* (standardised tests) have repeatedly shown that academic achievement largely depends on students' socio-economic, migrant and language backgrounds (MENJE 2018). Recent language education policies therefore call for multilingual approaches in early childhood which aim to reduce the persistent inequalities in attainment and promote social justice.

The present chapter focuses on the translanguaging practices of professionals in early education and a day-care center in Luxembourg. Early childhood education is divided into formal and non-formal institutions (Kirsch and Seele 2020). Formal education for young children is organised within the offcial school system and comprises a two-year compulsory preschool for four- to six-year-olds and an optional preschool year for three-year-olds called the *éducation précoce* (early education). In the *éducation précoce*, teachers and caregivers collaborate and follow the national primary school curriculum. Non-formal educational institutions are a more recent development. They include state or private out-of-school educational institutions such as day-care centers (MFI and SNJ 2013). Professionals adhere to the national framework plan for non-formal education (MENJE and SNJ 2018). In this paper, we analyse the ways in which professionals deploy their semiotic repertoire and examine the extent to which their translanguaging practices contribute to inclusion and participation. The data for the present chapter stem from observations and interviews of the project 'Developing Multilingual Pedagogies in Early Childhood' (MuLiPEC), conducted from 2016 to 2019 by

Kirsch.

### **2 Translanguaging Pedagogies**

The call for more fexible approaches that open up to the diversity of the children and can accommodate their needs comes from various felds: the index for inclusion (Booth et al. 2008), work on linguistic human rights (Skutnabb-Kangas 1995), and education (Weber 2014), to name a few. 'Multilingual pedagogies' (García and Flores 2012) or 'translanguaging pedagogies' (García et al. 2012, 2017) recognise the existence of multiple linguistic resources in educational institutions and attempt to leverage students' unitary semiotic system to support meaning-making and learning (García et al. 2017). This resource-based pedagogy places the learners at the center, values their linguistic and cultural practices, and offers them some choice over their language use. The transglossic learning arrangements challenge dominant monolingual practices and equalize positions of learners' by allowing them to deploy their multilingual repertoires fexibly.

To contribute to the implementation of the pedagogy and help practitioners conceptualise the main aspects, García et al. (2017) identifed three interrelated elements; *stance*, *design* and *shifts*. The *stance* refers to the teachers' commitment to embrace multilingualism, draw on students' repertoires, and consider their languages as part of a unitary system rather than as isolated and bounded entities. The *design* refers to the curriculum and activities that integrate children's diverse linguistic and multimodal resources and enable children to connect home and school languages. The *shifts* denote the teachers' deviations from the design and the fexible ways in which they adapt to the children's needs.

Studies in monolingual, bilingual and multilingual early years settings have identifed various purposes and benefts of translanguaging: facilitating communication and meaning-making, promoting participation and learning and supporting the children's socio-emotional development and multilingual identities (García 2011; Garrity et al. 2015; Kirsch 2017). In these studies, translanguaging was transformative in that it changed individuals and made teachers develop inclusive practices which valued all languages and challenged dominant monolingual practices. This was the case when teachers raised the status of minority languages, drew on the children's varied funds of knowledge for learning, and designed collaborative tasks where children used their linguistic repertoires fexibly (Gort and Sembiante 2015; Mary and Young 2017; Palviainen et al. 2016).

Some studies shed light on the relationship between translanguaging and inclusion. Studying translanguaging in a bilingual education programme in a secondary school in Sri Lanka, Wijesekera et al. (2018) found that the teachers generated inclusion through creating feelings of solidarity and interdependence between students of two ethnicities, who had historically lived in separation and anxiety. This led to respect and the feeling of being a member of a community. Examining the use of multiple languages in a Dutch-medium secondary school in Brussels, Jaspers (2015) concluded that this practice may reinforce traditional language hierarchies. While abiding to the school's monolingual language policy, the teachers, Mr S in particular, reverted at times to French and the children's home languages including Turkish and Arabic. This fexible language use created some 'camaraderie' (p. 125) between Mr S and the students. While students may have felt respected, valued and more included, Jaspers argued that this languaging practice also raised the students' awareness of language hierarchies. Given that the home languages were only used at transitional moments and in a playful way, they had less status. Furthermore, Hamman (2018) showed that the fexible language use in a primary dual-language class in the US led to children's unequal participation. The teachers and children used more English than Spanish which provided the English-dominant children with more opportunities to show their expertise and at times positioned the Spanish-dominant speakers as different. Finally, Mary and Young (2017) reported that a preschool teacher in France used translanguaging strategically to help children learn. The teacher used words and concepts in Turkish to show the three- to four-year-olds that she was knowledgeable of some cultural practices. This helped the children connect linguistic and cultural practices at home and at school. The resulting inclusive practice testifes to the teacher's intercultural competence 'underpinned by the value she places on equity and her consequent commitment to offer all the children in her care equal access to education' (Mary and Young 2017, p. 8). Taken together, Jaspers (2015), Hamman (2018), Mary and Young (2017) and Palviainen et al. (2016) seem to agree that teachers should carefully monitor their language use, that is plan how to use translanguaging strategically in teaching and learning in order to promote inclusion and ensure participation.

In sum, this section has shown that the translanguaging pedagogy intents to promote children's learning and participation through the inclusion of their entire linguistic and non-linguistic repertoires. Studies focusing on the relationship between translanguaging and inclusion in early education are scarce. Moreover, most studies either focused on one institutional language and the children's home languages (e.g. Belgium, France) or two institutional languages (e.g. Finland, Sri Lanka, US). Virtually no studies paid attention to the languaging practices of multilingual children and staff in contexts where two or more languages are used. The present study addresses these gaps and examines the translanguaging practices in a day-care center and a class of the *édcuation précoce* in multilingual Luxembourg in relation to inclusion. In order to examine if and how these practices are embedded in a refexive translanguaging pedagogy that implies a more general inclusive *stance* (García et al. 2017), we ask:


### **3 Methodology**

The present case study is part of the longitudinal research project MuLiPEC which examines the infuence of a professional development course about multilingual pedagogies on the practitioners' knowledge, beliefs and practices (see Kirsch and Aleksić 2018). In this chapter, we focus on the practitioners of one formal and one non-formal education setting, who work with three-year-olds. Ms Clara (teacher) and Ms Jane (educator) work in an *éducation précoce* in a town in the South of Luxembourg and Mr Ken and Mr Ted are educators in a day-care center in the Center of Luxembourg. All four are aged between 30 and 39, have more than 10 years' experience and are multilingual. They all speak Luxembourgish, French, German, and English and Ms Clara and Mr Ken some Portuguese and Spanish respectively. The language diversity of the children was high in each setting. None of the 11 children in the *précoce* spoke Luxembourgish as a home language, but Arabic, Cape Verdean Créole, French, Portuguese, and Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian were spoken. While most children were from working class backgrounds in this school, most children in the day-care center were from middle-class families. Of the 21 children, most did not speak Luxembourgish as a home language but Arabic, Danish, English, Finnish, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian were spoken.

The present chapter draws its data from 36 days of observations in the settings, 6 observations of the professional development course, and 11 interviews. A research assistant, Mortini (PhD candidate), and Kirsch observed and video-recorded daily interactions. An overview of the activities is given in Table 1.

All video-recordings and interviews were transcribed and relevant paralinguistic resources (e.g. tone of voice) and extralinguistic resources (e.g. mime, gestures) were included in the observations. To analyse the translanguaging practices, Kirsch identifed, frstly, monolingual and multilingual dialogues. Next, she analysed the deployment of the practitioners' and the children's linguistic resources in transglossic situations, examining which features of the repertoire were used and how these were orchestrated. Codes included using resources fexibly, translating and 'home languaging'. The frst code refers to instances where adults and children dynamically combine various verbal and non-verbal resources from their repertoires to communicate in bi- or multilingual conversation. Translating means that specifc key words or sentences are translated from Luxembourgish to another language or vice-versa. In other words, the same content is mentioned in two 'named' languages. Finally, the code 'home languaging' denotes situations of language separation where adults switched from Luxembourgish to a home language to talk to a particular child, thereby remaining in a monolingual mode. Thus, they may speak French to one child, German to another and Luxembourgish to the whole group, using one language with one person at the time. The categories may of course overlap and we distinguish them mainly for analytical purposes. In order to identify the nature and purpose of translanguaging, Kirsch made a micro-


**Tab. 1** Overview of the type of language promoting activities

analysis of teacher talk (Seedhouse 2005), coding for communication, knowledge construction, well-being, inclusion/exclusion as well as interaction promoting strategies (e.g. asking questions) and language modelling strategies (e.g. corrective feedback). The fndings generated from the video-recordings were compared across the two settings and triangulated with the interviews. The latter were analysed with thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006) with a particular focus on the reasons for translanguaging and the relationship between translanguaging and inclusion.

### **4 Findings and Discussion**

Languaging practices were, according to the practitioners, largely shaped by the traditional monolingual curriculum and the expectations of parents who had enrolled their children in the *précoce* or the day-care center to learn Luxembourgish. The practitioners explained that they had a habit of using Luxembourgish unless they needed to comfort a child during the settling-in-phase. Over the course of the professional development, they learned and experienced that translanguaging promoted language learning and did not confuse children (García 2009). Mr Ken explained that he felt good, 'almost freed' because he could let children communicate in their home languages without him having to ask 'do I have to intervene, do I have to insist on Luxembourgish?'. He believed that he could better accommodate children's needs. Ms Clara and Ms Jane similarly reported using home languages more frequently, feeling 'relieved' and 'less constrained' (interviews, March and June 2017). From February 2017, thus more than half a year into the professional development path, translanguaging became a legitimate practice in all settings (Kirsch et al. 2020). While all practitioners deployed features of several 'named' languages of their repertoire, they combined these in different ways. The following three sections present the orchestration of these linguistic resources in a more bilingual, monolingual and multilingual mode.

### **4.1 Using Translations**

The practitioners in both settings regularly translated from Luxembourgish to a home language other than Luxembourgish and vice versa, across the different types of activities and for several purposes. Firstly, they translated key-words and sentences to facilitate communication, ensure comprehension and value home languages as shown elsewhere (Gort and Sembiante 2015; Mary and Young 2017; Lewis et al. 2013). Representative examples of both settings in Luxembourg follow. In October 2016, the children in the *précoce* mixed salt, four and water to produce salt paste. When Abdul vigorously stirred the mixture, Ms Clara shouted in Luxembourgish '*lues*' (slowly) which she translated into French ('*doucement*'), Abdul's home language. The translation ensured that Abdul understood the warning, which he may not have understood in Luxembourgish. In the day-care center, Mr Ken translated some words into English to engage an English-speaking child named Aaron during the sharing of a book on animals. In Excerpt 1, he pointed to a tiger and Paul, a Luxembourgish-speaking child, mentioned that it was friendly. Mr Ken asked Paul if it looked friendly (line 2). Aaron uttered 'not friendly' in Luxembourgish, disagreeing with Paul (line 3). Mr Ken translated these two words into English and turned them into a clarifcation question (line 4). Aaron confrmed in Luxembourgish that the tiger was not friendly without any further elaboration.


Excerpt 1 *Book on animals (07.11.2016)*

Secondly, translating was used to promote language learning. When teaching key words, Ms Clara and Ms Jane translated these to help children understand and memorise the words by encoding them in two languages. Furthermore, they regularly translated from Portuguese or French into Luxembourgish to help children follow a conversation and encourage their participation. During a storytelling activity in February 2017 (Excerpt 2), for example, three-year-old Sarah described a picture in Portuguese, which led Ms Clara to translate the child's utterance into Luxembourgish. This translation legitimised the use of Portuguese in class and enabled the non-Portuguese children to understand Sarah's contribution. Ms Clara then extended the sentence to provide additional input in Luxembourgish.


Excerpt 2 *Storytelling activity, book project (06.02.2017)*

Translating is one of many communication strategies, as illustrated in the following example of Ms Clara. During one morning circle in February 2017, for example, when the children routinely counted all children, then the boys and the girls in turn, Abdul became confused. Rather than counting the boys, he counted the girls. Ms Clara repeated the Luxembourgish word for boys and made a 'no' gesture with her fngers, when Abdul began to count the girls a second and a third time. She then translated the word 'boy' into French, but realising that Abdul did still not know what to do, she showed him a picture of a boy and repeated the Luxembourgish word, articulating it slowly and carefully. Abdul fnally understood his task. This example shows that Ms Clara orchestrated many resources of her multimodal semiotic repertoire (Blackledge et al. 2017; García and Otheguy 2019). Translating, a bilingual strategy, did not suffce to help Abdul understand the word 'boy'. Given that young children are in the process of developing concepts, they need to experience word meanings in a wider range of ways and teacher-led translanguaging can therefore contribute to meaning-making.

There were plentiful examples of translating for the purpose of learning words in the day-care center. Excerpt 3 shows Gaspard saying 'knife' in French and Mr Ken translating the word into Luxembourgish and praising Gaspard. In Excerpt 4, Tony mentioned a colour in Luxembourgish, which Mr Ken translated for Gaspard into French.




Excerpt 4 *Language activity (19.06.2017)*

The educators in the day-care center had developed the practice of asking children for labels and translations, unlike the practitioners in the *précoce*. Excerpt 5 is drawn from the activity with the animal book (November 2016). Turning to Aaron, Mr Ken switched from Luxembourgish to English and asked if he had seen a fox (line 1). Aaron pointed to one. Switching back to Luxembourgish, Mr Ken asked for a translation of 'fox' (line 3). Aaron said daddy in Luxembourgish, expressing the idea that the fox is male. Mr Ken repeated his question and Aaron responded in Luxembourgish that he did not know. Aurélie created a Luxembourgish compound to indicate that the fox was female. She thereby challenged Aaron.


Excerpt 5 *Book on animals (07.11.2016)*

An analysis of the classroom discourse revealed that the practitioners in the school setting used different interaction promoting strategies and engaged children differently from the practitioners in the day-care center. Mr Ken and Mr Ted tended to work at the word-level, believing that three-year-olds develop languages in stages and are at the word-level stage (interview, September 2016). This may explain their focus on label quests and translations (Excerpts 1, 3, 4, 5). They tended to use closed questions to stimulate talk but rarely used modelling strategies such as corrective feedback and extensions unlike Ms Clara and Ms Jane (Excerpt 2). Another difference is the 'automatic' use of translations. Mr Ken and Mr Ted explained that they wished all children to feel well and included, and that the use of the children's home language contributed to this aim. However, the purpose of their translations was not always clear: they translated when there was no apparent need and no signs of misunderstanding. Aaron spoke Luxembourgish (Excerpts 1, 5) and Gaspard was able to speak Luxembourgish in June 2017 (Excerpt 4) but the educators translated nevertheless. Ms Clara and Ms Jane, by contrast, used translating more purposefully and in combination with other strategies, which would suggest a more careful monitoring both of the children's needs and their own language use (García 2009; Palviainen et al. 2016).

### **4.2 Home Languaging**

At the beginning of the academic year, all practitioners switched from Luxembourgish to a home language within an otherwise Luxembourgish space for communicative purposes other than translating words. This practice happened across activities and was legitimated by the intention to contribute to children's well-being (see also Seele 2016).

[Using home languages] is particularly important at the beginning of a school year to ensure that children feel well, accepted and understood. Furthermore, they are less afraid if we explain something in their language and request something. They develop a sense of security. Slowly, you then add Luxembourgish.

(Interview Ms Clara and Ms Jane, 9.9.2016)

The idea that the use of home languages is helpful and legitimate in the early stages but then needs to be replaced, as seen in the interview excerpt, was expressed by all practitioners. Through the professional development path, they became aware of the relationship between home language, well-being, identity and language learning and therefore continued to use home languages during the whole academic year (Cummins 2000; Mary and Young 2017; Kirsch 2017). This was particularly the case when they wanted to comfort or discipline a child or ensure comprehension. While working on an assessment task at the end of the school year in June 2017, Ms Jane switched from Luxembourgish to Portuguese to accommodate for Sandro's linguistic needs. She explained the task in Portuguese to be sure he understood. As seen previously, Mr Ken switched to English to address Aaron (Excerpts 1 and 5) and to French to address Gaspard (Excerpt 4). Excerpt 6 illustrates a similar switch to French by Mr Ted to address Gaspard during an outdoor play activity. Gaspard sat in a huge box, playing on his own. Mr Ted approached him, sat in front of the box and tried to engage him in a conversation. He put a card box piece on top of the box and called Gaspard. Gaspard looked up but did not speak. Mr Ted switched to French asking him to use the board to make a window. When Gaspard did not react verbally, Mr Ted built a 'window' himself and tried to play peekaboo (line 1). Gaspard looked up but did not react. Mr Ted put more pieces close to the box, encouraging Gaspard to build a window (line 3). Gaspard did not react. When Nadia arrived, Mr Ted switched back to Luxembourgish, asking if she wanted to get into the box and informing her that they were building a window (line 5). He then called Gaspard, asking him to look. The conversation shifted from monolingual French (lines 1, 3) to monolingual Luxembourgish (line 5).


Excerpt 6 *Outdoor play (27.03.2017)*

The switch to French was intended to engage Gaspard in a conversation but Mr Ted did not succeed. Gaspard played happily on his own and did not wish to engage, notwithstanding the use of the home language or the number of prompts. This excerpt illustrates the educators' adult-centerd way of interacting without paying close attention to the child's linguistic, social or emotional interests. Many observations revealed that the educators seemed to fnd it diffcult to observe or carefully listen to children, let them take a lead, and engage them in a meaningful way. By addressing children in their home language while they tried to communicate in the language of the institution, the educators may well have 'othered' these children (Thomauske 2017).

### **4.3 Using Resources Flexibly and Dynamically**

Children in both settings were observed combining features of their semiotic repertoire in fexible ways to communicate. By contrast, we observed mainly the practitioners in the *précoce* orchestrate their linguistic as well as paralinguistic and extralinguistic resources in dynamic ways. A frst example presented was the observation of Abdul counting boys. This fuid translanguaging practice was observed in most activities from the second term onwards once the children had developed more skills in Luxembourgish and Ms Jane in Portuguese. Both practitioners seemed to have opened up to multilingual education and developed a translanguaging *stance*. Excerpt 7 illustrates Ms Clara and Felice translanguaging while looking at a book during free-play. This excerpt is typical of situations of dialogic reading in this classroom and illustrates how adults and children weaved together multimodal and multilingual resources to communicate, negotiate meaning and ensure comprehension. In this particular dialogue, only two people participate. Moving easily between Luxembourgish, Portuguese and English and using the whole body enabled Ms Clara and Felice to co-construct meaning. The three-year old boy pointed to details in the picture, labelled the animals in Portuguese (lines 1, 5), and used English (line 3) or Luxembourgish with Portuguese (lines 7, 11) to make himself understood. To guarantee comprehension, he pointed and imitated the slithering movement of a snake. The teacher listened to Felice and confrmed (lines 2, 4) or corrected his speech (line 6) when he confused snakes with worms. To help Felice remember the names of the animals and the word 'heart', she pointed to the objects in the book, drew a heart on his chest to make him feel the shape (line 12), repeated words (lines 4, 6, 8) and translated (lines 2, 4, 6, 10). As Felice did not know the word ladybird, she offered him the word in Luxembourgish and Portuguese. Felice not only had an opportunity to acquire the Luxembourgish names of the animals he knew in Portuguese but he may also have learned more about a grasshopper, a snake and a ladybird. Ms Clara showed him the grasshopper he had not mentioned and provided some explanations (line 2). She also rephrased his short utterances and embedded them in slightly larger chunks (line 8, 12) to promote language learning. In contrast to Excerpt 6 of the day-care center, Ms Clara monitored her speech and was highly responsive to the child's interests and needs. She let Felice take the lead, provided input when necessary to move the conversation on, translated with a purpose in mind and created a space where both could use their entire semiotic repertoire for meaning-making. The range of strategies deployed, such as translations, repetitions, explanations, questions, corrective feedback, pointing and drawing are very similar to the strategies used by other teachers (e.g. Mary and Young 2017; Mifsud and Vella 2018). In this carefully scaffolded child-initiated interaction, Ms Clara posits both herself and the child as multilingual. This positioning, which includes and legitimates the child's language practices, may enhance the child's confdence and well-being and make him feel valued and included in class. It is a core strategy of a translanguaging pedagogy according to Palmer et al. (2014).



### **5 Summary and Conclusions**

Focusing on practitioners in early childhood education in Luxembourg, this chapter set out to analyse their reasons for translanguaging, the deployment of their linguistic repertoire, and the ways in which their practice contributed to inclusion and participation. The results showed that all four practitioners associated translanguaging with particular aims such as communication, learning, participation, well-being and recognition of home languages (García 2011; Garrity et al. 2015; Gort and Sembiante 2015; Kirsch 2017). Furthermore, we found that all practitioners, who adhered to monolingual policies at the beginning of the professional development path, began to deploy their multilingual and multimodal repertoires more fexibly. This encouraged children to use language features dynamically. Translanguaging became a legitimate practice. The adults' multilingual language practices included translating, 'home languaging' and, especially in the case of the *précoce*, using semiotic resources fexibly and fuidly. Like teachers elsewhere (Gort and Sembiante 2015; Mary and Young 2017; Palviainen et al. 2016), the practitioners in Luxembourg frequently deployed translations. Unlike other studies, they also reverted to various home languages for purposes other than translations. To ensure their well-being, they at times addressed children in their home languages, speaking one language to one child, a second to the other. In this way, they created a situation of parallel monolingualism. This practice of frequent switching testifes to the practitioners' multilingual competence and is typical of residents in Luxembourg who need to constantly accommodate the interlocutors' linguistic needs in this highly diverse country. Similar to the Welsh study (Lewis et al. 2013), the translanguaging practices in Luxembourg developed with the children's (and the practitioners') developing language competence.

There were some differences in the translanguaging practices between the practitioners. Ms Clara and Ms Jane engaged less in 'home languaging' and used their semiotic repertoires more fuidly, as a result of having developed a dynamic view of multilingualism (García 2009). Furthermore, they monitored children's linguistic needs more carefully than the practitioners in the day-care center, possibly because of their longer experience of observing and assessing children at the end of each term or the teacher education programme, which focuses on planning, teaching, assessment and refection on one's practice. Ms Clara and Ms Jane had come to deploy translanguaging as part of a pedagogy including *design* and *stance* (García et al. 2017), thus legitimating and making 'visible the meaning-making potential of all students' (García and Otheguy 2019, p. 11). In doing so, they helped all children participate in daily interactions and literacy activities. By contrast, Mr Ken and Mr Ted tended to use translating and 'home languaging' to accommodate for the perceived needs of the children without always considering their actual needs or refecting how this may enhance their participation. There were some examples of unequal participation and 'othering' (Hamman 2018; Thomauske 2017), possibly because the multilingual practices were not embedded into a translanguaging pedagogy.

With the limited data at hand, we do not claim that the practices we observed in the day-care center led to exclusion. But, based on our fndings, we wish to remind practitioners and researchers that we need to take a close look at the forms of fexible language use, and their implications. Translanguaging can be inclusive and encourage participation if practitioners use their linguistic repertoires strategically and based on children's needs, and if they are aware of language hierarchies (Jaspers 2015; Hamman 2018). We therefore agree that translanguaging practices need to be integrated into a wider transformative pedagogy that values social justice and inclusion (García et al. 2017). While we agree with the need to monitor languages as emphasised by García (2009) or Palviainen et al. (2016), our fndings have shown that this complex ability does not come automatically, and may need to be developed, for example through further training with a focus on observation and refection. Future research could examine factors beyond the adults' languaging practices, such as the children's views, policy frameworks, the institutional context and parental contributions.

### **References**


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**Bilingualism Versus Translanguaging in a Swiss Day-Care Center: A Space Analysis of Language Practices and Their Janus-Faced Effects on Social Inequalities and Educational Opportunities**

Melanie Kuhn and Sascha Neumann

#### **Abstract**

Based on an ethnographic study of institutional language policies in bilingual Swiss day-care centers (French/German), we discuss implications these policies have in terms of balancing or even intensifying educational inequalities. Referring to a space analytical approach, we investigate to what extent language practices are regulated in relation to imaginations of the social order

This paper is a modifed version and translation of the article "Differenz und Ungleichheit im Kontext von Mehrsprachigkeit. Raumanalytische Perspektiven auf Regulierungsweisen sprachlicher Praktiken im frühpädagogischen Feld" in the volume *Differenz*— *Ungleichheit*—*Erziehungswissenschaft. Verhältnisbestimmungen im (Inter*-*)Disziplinären*, edited by I. Diehm, M. Kuhn, and C. Machold and published by Springer VS in 2017. Translated by J. Harrow, Mulsum, Germany.

M. Kuhn (\*)

S. Neumann

© The Author(s) 2020

Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany e-mail: m.kuhn@ph-heidelberg.de

Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany e-mail: sascha.neumann@uni-tuebingen.de

J. A. Panagiotopoulou et al. (eds.), *Inclusion, Education and Translanguaging*, Inklusion und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28128-1\_6

of languages in the social space surrounding the institution. In terms of social justice, our fndings raise the question whether bilingualism is more likely to push back translanguaging rather than support it.

#### **Keywords**

Bilingualism · Day-care center · Inequality · Switzerland · Translanguaging

### **1 Introduction**

The increasingly widespread understanding that day-care institutions for children under the age of 4 serve not only a care function but also an educational one is being accompanied by growing expectations that they can promote equal opportunity.1 Assuming that "language" is an "obvious element in promoting equal opportunities" (EKM and BFM 2012, p. 14), educational, social, and integration policies in Switzerland focusing on preschool care and educational institutions anticipate that day-care will "contribute to promoting the local national language" (Edelmann 2010, p. 2032). Accordingly, a number of empirical studies focus primarily on inequality as *educational inequality* and explore the potential of preschool language education and support for creating equal opportunities and preventively reducing educational disadvantage (see, for day-care centers and playgroups, e.g., Edelmann et al. 2013; Isler 2014; Vogt et al. 2015). Moreover, there are now a number of ethnographic studies that take a closer look at everyday life in formally monolingual and multilingual early education felds to see how the way linguistic practices address and socially position speakers produces hierarchical differences (on kindergartens in Switzerland, see, e.g., Kassis-Filippakou and Panagiotopoulou 2015; on preschool childcare in Luxembourg, see Neumann 2012a; Seele 2015; on Kindergartens in Germany, see Diehm et al. 2013a; Kuhn and Mai 2016; for international comparisons, see Panagiotopoulou 2017). Based on the premise in social theory that one function of language is to produce social orders (Heller 2006; Blackledge and Creese 2010), these studies assume that the hierarchy of languages points to hierarchical orders of power and domination. It refects "social dominance relations" and stabilizes them by "symbolically legitimizing them" (Niedrig 2002, p. 3 f.). The aforementioned studies do not reduce

<sup>1</sup>For empirical fndings on Switzerland, see Burger (2013) and Knoll (2018).

<sup>2</sup>Original German quotations are translated into English.

questions of social inclusion and social justice merely to educational success. In relation to inequality, inclusion, and social justice, they often address and analyze language more (but by no means exclusively) regarding the *situated* reproduction of social relations of dominance and inequality more generally.

The main interest of German-language studies on power and inequality addressing how multilingualism is dealt with in pedagogical felds is on the institutional devaluation of marginalized minority languages in monolingual settings and the normative and standardizing effects of early promotion of the majority language. This chapter, in contrast, focuses on *bilingual* Swiss child day-care. Here, it cannot be assumed in advance that only *one* language is considered to possess prestige and be worth promoting. As we shall show, however, even in bilingual day-care centers, the two formal languages of the institution—the offcial cantonal languages, German and French—can be assigned unequal legitimacy. The hierarchy of both languages does not necessarily "refect" the "social dominance relations" (Niedrig 2002, p. 4) of the majority and minority languages, but can serve as a countermodel designed to resist the language relations in the surrounding social space.

In the following, we shall apply the methodological heuristic of the "language regime" (Busch 2013, p. 127, translated) in two steps to develop a spatial-analytical perspective on linguistic modes of regulation (Sect. 2). Then, using interview data from an ethnographic study, we shall show how the German and French languages are related to each other hierarchically in the constitution of the local language regime, and how generationalizing, ethnicizing, and spatializing differences are produced and reproduced in this process. This reveals a separation of languages that aims to establish and protect purity of language and problematizes the mixing of languages to be found in children's translingual practices (Sect. 3). The chapter concludes with thoughts on analyzing the relation between language policies and questions of social inequality and educational opportunities (Sect. 4).

### **2 Methodological Considerations**

### **2.1 A Spatial Analysis of Using the Language Regime to Produce Difference in Day-Care**

Since the so-called *spatial turn*, theoretical perspectives in the social sciences have generally regarded space as a phenomenon that is not only generated through being practiced but also changeable (Soja 1989; Lefebvre 2006). Based on the assumption that the production of space is linked closely to social conditions (Günzel 2008, p. 11), the analytical focus of studies applying spatial analysis is on the entanglement of space, society, and power. Sociolinguistic studies, such as that of Heller and Duchêne (2012), reconstruct the connection between language, space, and globalization with the help of such a spatial-analytical approach. Busch (2013), in turn, analyzes the entanglement of language, space, and time using the example of the language dispute in Austria. Drawing on Lefebvre's (2006, p. 333) theoretical analyses of the threefold dimensionality of space, she develops the heuristic of the language regime that she understands, following Coulmas (2005), as that "bundle of habits, legal regulations, and ideologies" that "restrict the speakers' choice of linguistic means in spatially situated interactions" (Busch 2013, p. 135). In the following, we shall apply these methodological considerations to the feld of day-care centers using interview data. Referring to Busch (2013, p. 135), the frst dimension of *spatial practices* would include habitualized, institutionalized, and routinized language practices that re-/produce social space (Busch 2013, p. 137). In day-care centers, these would be collective practices such as circle times, mealtimes, reading aloud sessions, or handicraft lessons. With the second dimension of *spatial representations*, Busch (2013, p. 137), following Lefebvre, summarizes scientifc discourses and ideological conceptions of spaces that are located on a societal level. With regard to educational organizations, however, this also includes assumptions about which linguistic practices are taken to be "legitimate and desirable" in which of the above-mentioned settings, as well as the explicit regulation modes in language practices such as "house rules, decrees, and laws" (Busch 2013, p. 137). Under the third dimension of *representation spaces*, Busch subsumes the "lived in and experienced" space (2013, p. 138). From an analytical point of view, this is about "how subjects read the space and how they relate themselves to it, how they "interpret" it, and how they "shape it" (Busch 2013, p. 138). These three dimensions of linguistic space are entangled in multilayered ways and usually cannot be distinguished from each other clearly in empirical research. Nonetheless, they evoke perspective-broadening focuses of attention when it comes to interpreting the data material.

In the following, an expert interview conducted in the ethnographic study "Linguistic Landscapes. Case Studies on Pedagogical Practices in Dealing with Multilingualism in Bilingual Day-Care Centers,"3 will be used as a basis to examine the corresponding day-care center as a "small-scale language regime"

<sup>3</sup>The study was directed by S. Neumann and M. Kuhn with the collaboration of K. Brandenberg and L. Tinguely from January 2014 to August 2015 with funding from the Jacobs Foundation and Stiftung Mercator Schweiz.

(Busch 2013, p. 127).4 The interview conducted with a manager of a bilingual day-care center in a municipality of Western Switzerland can be analyzed not just in terms of the discourses *on* language and space (spatial representations) that are entrenched within it. It is far more the case that analyses can also question—indirectly—the speaker's self-positioning *in* space (the representation space) and the spatial location of language practices (the spatial practices).

#### *On the spatial/temporal entanglement of language regimes*

Starting from a sociolinguistic perspective, situated language practices cannot be analyzed in isolation from the historical, sociopolitical, and institutional contexts in which they are embedded (Heller 2006; Pennycook 2010). In a spatial theory interpretation, the assumption of such a context dependence of language practices primarily refers to the sociohistorical conditionality of each space (Foucault 2006; Lefebvre 2006). Busch (2013, p. 139) transfers this premise to the feld of language with Bachtin's concept of the "chronotopos" (2008) when she points out that in every speech act, "references to different space–time structures" can be discerned, and that ultimately, every language regime "can be thought of as such a chronotopos linked to other times and spaces".

Methodologically, this means that we have to take an additional analytical step and reconstruct a local language regime along with the constructions of difference implemented within it by also focusing on the historical and extralocal framings. In the following, we perform such a contextualization of the empirical fndings on the constructions of difference in the early educational language regime in two ways: First, the expert interview itself serves as such a contextualization. By this, we follow Seele's assumption (2015, p. 160), borrowed from Pennycook (2010), that the sociohistorical conditions of language practices should not be viewed as a statically given context, but rather as being accomplished and recontextualized locally in everyday practice. On this basis, we can ask: Which sociopolitical and/or historical phenomena are appropriated in what way in the interview? How does the person interviewed use these to contextualize the language regime of the institution? In the interview, this means that *practices* of contextualization can be traced that are carried out by the person being interviewed *herself (frst*-*order contextualizations)*. When analyzing difference and inequality, we can, in turn, ask the following questions: What modes of regulating and enabling language practices

<sup>4</sup>For this chapter, the heuristic of the language regime was applied retrospectively to the data after it had been collected and, together with an expert interview, this analysis here refers to a more limited database than that in Busch's ethnography (2013, p. 172f.).

does the person invoke during the interview? What differences does she construct thereby? When doing this, we focus on the representations of space and the representation spaces as well as the spatial practices that can be reconstructed from the interview. Second, we draw on social science literature and legislative texts to contextualize the language regime against the background of the historically developed and contested language situation and the legal de-/regulation of institutional day-care in this particular Swiss canton (*second*-*order contextualization*).

### **3 Constructions of Difference in the Local Language Regime of the Day-Care Center**

### **3.1 Spatial Representations and Representation Spaces**

The heuristic of spatial representations focuses the analysis on the discourses *over* language and space invoked by the manager, the ideas she formulates regarding which language practices are considered "legitimate" in the day-care center, and the explicit ways they are regulated through house rules, decrees, and laws (Busch 2013, p. 137). The use of the two formal institutional languages of German and French is regulated in different ways for the individual groups of speakers.

### *Generation*-*based construction of difference: The rights of children*—*the duties of professionals*

Giving the children the opportunity of not having to speak German. I think it's important that we keep this open. Hence, no pressure, that's very important.

The explicit formulation that the children should not be pressured into speaking German makes it apparent that they are implicitly and, so to speak, conversely granted the right to speak French in everyday activities at the day-care center. For the professional staff, in contrast, the manager imposes relatively rigid language requirements that are intended to exclude their use of French.

So, I'll also try to picture it and say when you come in the door, turn on the switch, [speak] German5 … Well, I stand by the fact that I'll correct very quickly then and simply go there and say no, not like that, and either they do it or they have to look for another job.

<sup>5</sup>In this location, this means various dialects of Swiss German.

Whereas the children should not be forced to speak German, the staff members, in turn, are required to submit unconditionally to a monolingual language regime in the day-care center (*turn on the switch, [speak] German*). Language-related misconduct is ultimately sanctioned by exclusion from the organization (*they have to look for another job*).

Insofar as German has a continuous legitimacy in everyday life at the day-care center whereas French is a legitimate language only for the children, both languages are brought into a hierarchical relationship with each other, thus, creating an inequality between German and French (Brandenberg et al. 2017, p. 265). At the same time, the respective symbolic capitals of the children's languages of origin are also assigned a different rank. Although francophone children are allowed to speak their language of origin every day at the center, German is still the language to which, and "in which, and through which children are educated" (Neumann 2012a, p. 188). Furthermore, the language regime of the day-care center is institutionalized in line with the "generational order" (Alanen 2005). It acknowledges different ways of regulating language for different speakers in the feld: Whereas children are expected to adapt receptively, staff members, in contrast, are expected to actively use the German language. This leads to a generational differentiation between children and professional staff, which, in turn, is the basis of a pedagogical order (Brandenberg et al. 2017, p. 266).

From the perspective of the heuristic of representation spaces, the (self-) positioning of the manager *in* space, and her ways of appropriating and shaping the language space (Busch 2013, p. 138), this sequence brings to light that the manager presents herself as a kind of "language police offcer" who monitors adherence to the language regime and intervenes promptly in the event of any language-related misconduct on the part of the staff (*correct very quickly … not like that*). In doing so, she assigns to herself and her management team (see *we* below) a central role in maintaining the institutional language regime of this conceptually bilingual institution. This is described as being a laborious task:

So, all the work with parents, then the whole team, that also took a lot of energy, because we always had to make sure that the educators didn't slip into French.

#### *Contextualization*

On the level of a second-order contextualization, the textual "house rules, decrees, and laws" (Busch 2013, p. 137) relating to the regulation of language practices also have to be analyzed from the perspective of spatial representations. From a social theory perspective, it can be assumed that they prefgure a local language regime without determining it (Nadai 2012, p. 51). A distinction can be made between the nonlocal political documents of the regional authority of the canton such as recommendations and laws on the one side versus the local documents on the institutional level such as the pedagogical concepts and curricula on the other side. On the political level, the language regime of the day-care center is *de*regulated in two ways: In the cantonal Law on Supplementary Family Day-Care Facilities (FBG) (Grosser Rat des Kantons 2011), the associated implementation regulations (Staatsrat des Kantons 2011), and the cantonal standards and recommendations for institutions and facilities for child care (Direktion für Gesundheit und Soziales 2010), there are—in contrast to Kindergartens—no requirements regarding the use of the two offcial cantonal languages German and French.6 Moreover, these documents defne only a care but not any educational function for day-care centers. This type of institution "meets the parents' care needs while simultaneously ensuring educational supervision" (Direktion für Gesundheit und Soziales 2010, p. 9). As a result, it is hardly surprising that these documents contain no recommendations relating to language education. Thus, neither the promotion of language nor the use of the offcial languages is regulated politically.

In contrast, the concept of the day-care center formulates the programmatic intention to guarantee7 "the balance" between the two languages German and French by "mostly bilingual staff" (see also Brandenberg et al. 2017, p. 263). If one understands a pedagogical concept as a textual representation of everyday (language) practice, then, in view of the theoretically proclaimed equality of both languages, one can observe only a loose coupling between the situated language practices and their document-based regulations—and, thus, a discrepancy between the institutional program and its practical implementation. This is an issue that can be registered frequently in day-care centers (Neumann 2012a). However, the manager does not interpret this discrepancy between the bilingual concept and the monolingualizing practice as a relapse behind her self-formulated bilingual claims:

Yes, simply you know what is written down, yes, the mission statement. Well, we have a brochure in which it says that our crèche is bilingual … Well, we are bilingual because we only speak German, otherwise we would be French-speaking.

<sup>6</sup>For schools, and thus for the Kindergartens for 4–6-year-olds that are part of the school system, the territorial principle is used to regulate that the language of instruction must correspond to the offcial language of the municipality of a school district: either German or French. If a school district includes French and German-speaking or bilingual communities, attendance at public schools in both languages is guaranteed free of charge.

<sup>7</sup>For reasons of anonymization, no source is given here.

As this seemingly paradoxical statement already suggests, the manager legitimizes the monolingual German language regime of the day-care center as a necessary strategy to counter the dominance of French that she justifes with an—in this case, language-based—construction of difference, in which an ethnicization of different groups of children is embedded.

#### *An ethnicizing construction of difference: French*- *and German*-*speaking children*

It's not just like that with the children, we have maybe eight or nine German-speaking children in a group and maybe only three or four French-speaking ones and then the groups simply speak in French. So, the German speakers learn French, the French speakers do not learn any German … That is also one reason why we said, well, those who speak French, they can just as well learn German.

This example given by the manager has to be understood as fctitious, inasmuch as the ratio of two-thirds German and one-third French-speaking children discussed here is not consistent with the more equally balanced occupancy fgures at the day-care center. It is to be understood far more as a complaint designed to dramatize the personal experience of French being spoken as a matter of course even when German-speaking children are in the clear majority. With an ethnicizing differentiation between German- and French-speaking children, she states that there is no mutual learning, and thus implicitly positions francophone children as being unwilling to learn. The manager concludes from this that it is acceptable to expect the francophone children to do what the German-speaking children through their willingness to learn—do almost as a matter of course: namely, to learn the other language. In this way, she makes the French-speaking children responsible for the seemingly natural dominance of the French language. By emphasizing that this is not just the way things are with children, she construes the dominance of the French language as a general problem rather than a problem specifc to children. Against this background, the monolingualizing language regime of the day-care center is brought into play as a necessary strategy to resist the dominance of French.

#### *Contextualization*

Well, I started there 30 years ago as an intern and the majority of us spoke French … That we consistently speak German with the children, that started about 12 or 13 years ago … We have worked out quite purposefully, simply from the experience over the last few years, so simply really that the German language comes frst, yes.

The manager describes the "chronotopos" (Bachtin 2008) of the language practice at the day-care center in relation to other times (Busch 2013, p. 139). By citing the 30-year-old experience with the hegemony of French as the reason for the change in the language practice introduced some 12–13 years ago, she herself undertakes an institutionally historical contextualization of the currently dominant language regime (*frst*-*order contextualization*).

### **3.2 Spatial Practices**

The heuristic perspective of spatial practices targets the language practices in the everyday life of the day-care center that reproduce the social space and, thus, reconstitute it over and over again (Busch 2013, p. 137). By applying this analytical approach to the observational data from the project, we can show how different spaces are created by the different ways in which language practices are regulated. This can be seen in, for example, the spatial formation of the children's circle times: When the professional staff ask for a German translation of something the children have said in French, the children's French language is no longer considered to be as legitimate to use within the circle time in the same way as it is to use it outside ( Brandenberg et al. 2017, p. 265). For the data from the interview, however, the analytical perspective on spatial practices, which focuses more on the microlevel of everyday life, has to be readjusted. In this context, we can ask which space-related references the manager is actually using to constitute the language regime of the day-care center when talking about the local language practice. The manager spatializes what happens in language by separating the inside from the outside of the daycare center in two different ways.

*Spatializing construction of difference I: Day*-*care center versus the city*

In order to be bilingual, we have to upgrade German here in city X. If we were in another city, it might well be the other way around.

With the statement to "*upgrade German*", the manager is describing the directive that the professionals should speak only German with the children. In a spatial localization (*here in city X*), she constructs the monolingualizing language regime as a necessary regional requirement (*we have to*), whereby she brings the day-care center into play as a place that aims "to preserve valued elements of a threatened language" (Heller 2006, p. 52).

#### *Contextualization*

This linking of the local language regime of the day-care center with "other spaces" (Busch 2013, p. 139)—namely, with the relation of the German to the French language in the surrounding social space—can also be read as a practice of *frst*-*order contextualization*. The manager is referring to the fact that the ratio of language majority to minority is different in city X than in Switzerland as a whole. Although far more people speak German than French in Switzerland, the situation in city X is quite the opposite. Here, German is spoken by only a minority.8 By doing this, the manager sets up a border between the "inside" of the daycare center and the "outside" of the social language space, and she legitimizes the precedence of German practiced in the daycare center9 as being due to the hegemony of French outside.

On the *second*-*order* level, the language regime of the day-care center can be contextualized within the framework of the cantonal and nationwide language debates. Historically, there has always been a contested relationship between German and French in Canton X that lies on the language border between French- and German-speaking Switzerland. The language policy debates in the canton were initiated by the demands of the German-speaking population, which is explained, among other things, by the fact that especially the German-speaking regions had suffered from political neglect and economic underdevelopment until the 1950s (Helbling 2004, p. 10). In particular, reforms of the cantonal school law led repeatedly to conficts between the language communities (Helbling 2004, p. 8). Indeed, an independent German-speaking school system was established only in the 1970s. At the cantonal level, it is only since 1991 that all offcial documents have to be available not only in French but also in German. The fact that the "language issue" seems to be about more than language is made clear by the way that the language border between German-speaking Switzerland and French-speaking Western Switzerland is sometimes also described with the (criticized) concept *Röstigraben* as a cultural border dividing French-speaking from German-speaking Switzerland. When it comes to institutional early childhood education, parents in French-speaking Western Switzerland, for example, are unfamiliar with

<sup>8</sup>This leads to the paradoxical situation, according to Helbling (2004, p. 5), that both language groups in the canton often refer to themselves as a "minority".

<sup>9</sup>Compare the aforementioned statement by the manager: "When you come in the door, turn on the switch, [speak] German", in which the door symbolizes the border between the French/outside and the German/inside.

the preschool playgroups known as *Spielgruppen* that are very widespread in German-speaking Switzerland (Feller-Länzlinger et al. 2013, p. 17). In contrast, the use of crèche places for children under the age of 4 is higher in French-speaking than in German-speaking Switzerland (Neumann et al. 2015, p. 23).

On the national level as well, the issue of how to deal with Switzerland's constitutional quadrilingualism in education is still controversial (Arquint 2014). Current political debates, which have been put to the vote in some cantons via citizens' initiatives, focus, on the one hand, on the question of a "Standard German requirement" in Kindergartens in German-speaking Switzerland (Berthele 2010). This is sometimes interpreted as a threat to regional Swiss-German linguistic identity (Knoll 2016). On the other hand, foreign language teaching at elementary school level is under discussion, with critics seeing this as a threat to national unity (Ribeaud 2013). Hence, the local language regime at the day-care center has to be understood against the background of these current and historical language policy conficts in the surrounding language space. The manager herself also goes on to refer to the family space.

#### *Spatializing construction of difference II: Day*-*care center versus the family home*

On average, the children attend for about sixty percent of the week. And if they speak only French at home, it's simply not enough for us to speak only two or three sentences of German. There just has to be consistency and that's what counts then.

The manager justifes the need to consistently adhere to the German-dominated language regime through the fact that the children *attend* the daycare center for only a few days a week and are otherwise exposed to the francophone language practices in their family homes.10 Here as well, a spatial difference is evoked between the inside and the outside, and the inside is constructed as a space to counter the outside by legitimizing the language practices inside the day-care center as a necessary pedagogical consequence to counter the language use established at the outside *place* of the family home (see also Seele 2015, p. 169).

The day-care center is presented as having a limited infuence on this familial outside, so that the parents are also understood as addressees of the institutional language regime:

<sup>10</sup>In Switzerland, children attend their day-care centers for an average of 2.5 days per week. One reason for this is the high cost for the parents. In German-speaking Switzerland, parents pay two-thirds of the full costs; in French-speaking Switzerland, about one-third (Kibesuisse and Netzwerk Kinderbetreuung Schweiz 2015, p. 5).

Well, it is also the case that we also have to maintain our attitude when dealing with the parents. Well, I always frst try to speak German with the parents, but most of them don't like to speak it; they have certain inhibitions. But I think that's where it starts. That is to say, demand something from them—from the parents as well and not just from the children. And after that, they are the example, I mean model.

Here as well, a necessity (*have to*) is evoked. It is also essential to persist with the monolingualizing practice vis-à-vis the parents. It seems that more is expected of them than of the children, because they should at least try to communicate in German. The manager seems to assume not so much incompetence in the francophone parents, but more of an inhibition and a reluctance to speak German. Following the motto "nip it in the bud", she protests that parents should also be expected to use German, because they should serve as a practical language role model for their children (*I mean model*).

The manager aims not only to regulate the parents' language practices within the day-care center but also to suggest that parents adopt specifc language practices in the family space:

Well, I think that's also important now, when parents ask … that we really pass on the advice … that is very important, that they simply stick to one language. Because otherwise, the child will mix them up very, very strongly indeed.

Although the *advice to* speak only *one language* at home does not seem to be handed out without being solicited (*when parents ask*), it is, nonetheless, assigned a very high signifcance (*very important*). Ultimately, it remains to be seen whether the manager is pushing for the use of a single common family language or proposing an orientation toward the widespread concept of "one person–one language" (Döpke 1992), according to which each parent should speak to the children in her or his frst language and, thus, use only *one language.* Nonetheless, the proclaimed and evidently undesired effects on children of parents using several languages (*because otherwise*) are clearly highlighted: This leads to *the child* mixing up the languages *very, very strongly indeed.* As a consequence, a fexible and strategic shuttling between French and German—as is common in practices of translanguaging (García and Wei 2014)—is labeled not only as *needing to be avoided* but also as *avoidable* through a strictly monolingual mode of language use by parents. Hence, in the bilingual regime of the daycare center, the fexible use of different linguistic repertoires appears as a both disadvantaging as well as an illegitimate practice. Finally, this demonstrates (again) that a bilingual concept is not in every case a fruitful basis for the implementation of a translingual environment. This applies in particular if a bilingual concept still sticks to monolingual norms of language use.

### **4 Conclusions on How Early Educational Language Regimes Relate to Inequality**

In the institutionalized language regime of the bilingual day-care center, speakers are "restricted in their choice of linguistic means" by a range of regulations (Busch 2013, p. 135). By emphasizing the maintenance of the language regime by the professional staff as something that has to be monitored and declaring that nonacceptance is a justifcation for sanctions, the manager clearly reveals how language regimes are linked to power. Different rules on the use of language apply for the different groups of actors in the day-care center. Although the children are not expected to speak German, the parents *should* at least try do so in the institution and the staff members *have to* do so. The ethnicizing and spatializing differentiations serve primarily to legitimize this generationally ordered language regime that—according to the manager's statements—is only necessary *because* French-speaking children are supposedly not willing to learn and *because* the French language dominates the sociospatial and familial environment. It is only against this background that the manager can present the generationally differentiating language regime of the day-care center as a compensatory solution to problems (such as the threatening superiority of the French language and the unwillingness of francophone children to learn German), while the institutional practice of differentiation is itself involved in the construction of these problems (Neumann 2012b, p. 147 f.).

What opportunities for participation and education does the institutionalized language regime offer to the French- and German-speaking children, and what inequality-related effects are possibly associated with this?11 In line with Heller (2006, p. 17), we can say that the language regime:

make[s] sense only if understood as part of [a] political … mission, a mission which itself can only be understood as a part of minorities struggles for power.

Interpreted in this way, the regime aiming to protect the German speakers who are perceived as oppressed can, on the one hand, be read as a policy of empowerment for German-speaking children who are a linguistic minority in the social space. The day-care center presents itself as a political actor in the contested

<sup>11</sup>This cautious formulation refects the methodological challenges facing qualitative inequality research (Diehm et al. 2013b; Emmerich and Hormel 2017).

power feld of languages. In line with this, the bilingual concept of the day-care center is still following a monolingual norm of language use and acquisition. At the same time, the regime of promoting bilingualism by privileging the German language places limits for a fexible use of language in terms of an active translanguaging by adults and children, which, for both French-speaking and German-speaking children, means that they are offered limited opportunities for learning how to cope with a complex linguistic environment. At the same time, this delivers comparatively more limited opportunities for participation in everyday activities for francophone children—at least until they have acquired receptive German language skills. What is applied to the French-speaking children here is a "subtractive bilingualism" (García 2009, p. 142): The use of the frst language (French) is restricted in order to promote a second language (German). As a consequence, at an early age, these children gain the experience that their language of origin is assigned a lower status in the institutional hierarchy of languages. Looking at the educational relevance of the preschool institution of the day-care center, we, nonetheless, have to ask whether German-speaking children might not be disadvantaged in the long term when the day-care center so decisively does not feel responsible for teaching French. This is not just the language of the majority in the canton, but also the frst foreign language in all German-speaking elementary schools in the canton—and, thus, ultimately an educationally relevant capital. In view of the realities of migration in society, this particularly affects those children whose family language belongs to neither one language group nor the other. Because the majority of migrants in city X acquire or have acquired the hegemonic lingua franca French and often do not speak German, these parents usually choose to send their children to school in the francophone part of the school system. In this case, the German language skills acquired by the children at the day-care center will result in a loss of educational capital in the francophone education system in which they will continue to be relevant only as a foreign language. Hence, the institutionalized language regime of the day-care center that either discriminates against or favors individual language groups in both cases impacts on inequality. The effects seem to be mutually entangled and, in terms of educational biographies, they correspondingly differ in their impact on the further educational pathways of different groups of children. Hence, effects can be disadvantageous in various ways and point to the Janus-faced consequences of institutional language policies in felds of education.

### **References**


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Differenz – Ungleichheit – Erziehungswissenschaft. Verhältnisbestimmungen im (Inter-) Disziplinären (pp. 257–274). Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Pennycook, A. (2010). Language as a local practice. Milton Park: Routledge.


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**Translanguaging in School Education**

### **Translanguaging, (In)Security and Social Justice Education**

### Constadina Charalambous, Panayiota Charalambous, Michalinos Zembylas and Eleni Theodorou

### **Abstract**

This chapter draws on two ethnographic studies in Greek-Cypriot schools, focusing on immigrant children with Turkish as L1, a language that has been stigmatized by a history of confict both in the Greek-Cypriot context and in many of the children's own communities and historical trajectories. Analysing children's silences and self-censoring of their Turkish-speakerness, it examines how language ideologies and discourses of (in)security and confict may pose serious obstacles for enacting translanguaging as a socially just pedagogy.

#### **Keywords**

Translanguaging · Confict · Insecurity · Securitization · Social justice

European University Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus e-mail: co.charalambous@euc.ac.cy

E. Theodorou e-mail: E.Theodorou@euc.ac.cy

P. Charalambous Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture, Nicosia, Cyprus

M. Zembylas Open University of Cyprus, Latsia, Cyprus e-mail: m.zembylas@ouc.ac.cy

© The Author(s) 2020 J. A. Panagiotopoulou et al. (eds.), *Inclusion, Education and Translanguaging*, Inklusion und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28128-1\_7

105

C. Charalambous (\*) · E. Theodorou

### **1 Introduction**

The concept of "translanguaging"—referring to "the fexible use of linguistic resources by bilinguals in order to make sense of their world" (García et al. 2015, p. 200)—has recently dominated debates on bilingual education inspiring many projects, conferences, articles, monographs and edited volumes—beyond the present one (García 2009; García and Li Wei 2014; Blackledge and Creese 2014; Jaspers and Madsen 2016, 2019). Coined in 1994 by Cen Williams in the context of north Wales, "translanguaging" has since signifcantly expanded in the work of Ofelia García (Beres 2015) and many others (e.g., García 2009; García and Li Wei 2014; García et al. 2015; Li Wei 2018). The educational benefts of translanguaging have been much celebrated to the extent that it is often seen as "the best way to educate bilingual children in the 21st century" (Beres 2015, p. 103). As a pedagogical strategy, translanguaging can "offer communicative and educational possibilities to all" (García 2009, p. 148), helping bilingual students develop "linguistic security and identity investment" (García 2009, p. 157) and ultimately working towards linguistic equality (García and Li Wei 2014). Within this context translanguaging can also be seen as a type of a socially just pedagogy, as it refers to a conscious pedagogical endeavour to improve the learning and life opportunities of typically underserved students, while equipping and empowering all students working towards a more socially just and inclusive society (Ayers et al. 2009; Kincheloe and Steinberg 1998; King 2005; Ladson-Billings 1994).

However, as the title of the present chapter implies, here we won't focus as much on the positive outcomes of translanguaging, which have been thoroughly documented by many studies (cited above). Instead, we will rather focus on some complications emerging from the processes of confict and insecurity that are increasingly affecting the lives of many students and teachers (see also P. Charalambous et al. 2016, 2019). In other words, our chapter aims to address questions such as: How can translanguaging practices be affected by language ideologies, and in particular, ideologies and discourses of confict? And what are the challenges posed by the increasing (in)securitization processes and practices that "enact our world as if it is a dangerous world, a world saturated by insecurities" (Huysmans 2014, p. 3)?

In order to answer these questions, we draw on data from two ethnographic studies, conducted in diverse schools and classrooms, focusing on students' linguistic practices. Both studies were conducted in Cyprus, a country that has been seriously affected by interethnic confict and has been divided since the 1974 war. Taking into account the dominant discourses of confict in this socio-political context, we will look at classrooms as a "charged space" (Pace 2015) that includes frictions, emotional discomfort and insecurity, and we discuss the role that translanguaging pedagogies may have in such spaces.

In what follows we frst provide an account of how discourses of "security" affect our everyday lives, borrowing the concepts of "securitization" and (in) security from critical International Relation (IR) studies. We then move on to discuss the notion of translanguaging in relation to social justice pedagogies. After we briefy introduce the confict-affected Cypriot context we present the two case studies and we discuss the complications for enacting translanguaging as a socially just pedagogy under conditions of insecurity and confict.

### **2 Everyday (In)Securitization**

Since 9/11, "security concerns" and discourses of threat, fear and suspicion have become much more pervasive in everyday life, signifcantly impacting educational institutions. Schools, nurseries, universities and youth community centres are becoming sites of security surveillance as teachers have to deal with undocumented students, and students from what are seen as "suspect communities" (C. Charalambous et al. 2018; Figueroa 2017; Khan 2017; Nguyen 2016).

For example, in the UK the *Prevent* policy consists of a comprehensive anti-terrorism strategy which includes local authorities, education from early child care providers to higher education, and health services. Within this policy, educational institutions are obliged to report any children who might be radicalized or "at risk", with Muslim students portrayed as potential terrorists and teachers as de facto security professionals (C. Charalambous et al. 2018). Similarly as Nguyen (2016) describes in the US context, the FBI has warned of the "vulnerability" of high school students for recruitment by violent extremists calling out to educational institutions to report children/individuals who might be radicalized or "at risk" by observing and assessing behaviors and communication.

In order to account for the increasing presence of security discourses in education and their impact on language education and bilingualism, the notion of "securitization" (Emmers 2013; Stritzel 2007) emerges as a helpful one, and indeed it has recently been widely used, beyond the feld of IR and the Copenhagen School of Security Studies, where it was initially coined (see P. Charalambous et al. 2017; Rampton and Charalambous 2020). Securitization, in the way it has been used in IR, refers to authoritative institutional processes in which existential threats are identifed, and in response to this potential danger, issues can be moved away from the realm of ordinary politics into the realm of exceptional measures, where normal political rights and procedures are suspended. Throughout this process, discourse plays a crucial part, both in declaring a particular group, phenomenon, or process to be an existential threat, and in persuading people that this warrants the introduction of special measures to ensure "security" (P. Charalambous et al. 2017).

However, a question worthwhile asking is to what extent we can separate "security" from "insecurity". For example, does the image of armed soldiers in public places produce security or insecurity to people present? Using the metaphor of a "mobius strip" where the two sides of the string cannot be separated, Bigo and Mc Cluskey (2018) argue for the "consubstantiality of security and insecurity" (p. 126), suggesting instead the use of the parenthetic "*(in)*" and accordingly the terms "*(in)security*" and "(*in)securitization*" to highlight that what is considered security for some might be insecurity for others, depending on the point of view. Following the conceptualization of "(in)security" as everyday practice, Rampton and Charalambous (2020) emphasise the need to understand the "lived experience of (in)securitisation as an intensifying apprehension of institutionally authorised vulnerability and existential threat, produced (and received) in communicative practice in a range of social settings" (p. 6). In order to do so here, we turn to the communicative practice of translanguaging and the social setting of a classroom.

### **3 Translanguaging & Social Justice**

Translanguaging theory and research emerged within more general critique of ideologies of "fxity" in conceptualisations of language, belonging and social identity and a shift of emphasis to the more fuid and hybrid nature of linguistic practices—especially in urban, globalised and culturally diverse social contexts (e.g., Jaspers 2005; Madsen et al. 2016; Rampton 1995). In this context, concepts such as "crossing", "translanguaging", "polylanguaging" etc. (Creese and Blackledge 2010; García 2009; Jørgensen 2008; Rampton 1995, 2006) have been introduced to describe various heteroglossic practices and their social and pedagogial implications.

Translanguaging, in particular, refers both to (a) more general habitual discursive practices of multilingual speakers, *and* (b) to a particular pedagogic approach for the teaching of both language and content (Canagarajah 2011; Creese and Blackledge 2010; García 2009; for a more detailed account see P. Charalambous et al. 2019). In the last two decades, translanguaging has been taken up and further developed by a number of educators (García 2009; García and Li Wei 2014; see also Beres 2015) as a pedagogical strategy that can contribute to a socially just world:

a process by which students and teachers engage in complex discursive practices that include ALL the language practices of ALL students in a class in order to develop new language practices and sustain old ones, communicate and appropriate knowledge, and give voice to new sociopolitical realities by interrogating linguistic inequality. (García and Kano 2014, p. 261)

Socially just pedagogies are generally understood as those pedagogical practices that actively address issues of oppression and privilege in the classroom with the purpose of addressing social inequalities and contributing to a more socially just society (Kincheloe and Steinberg 1998; King 2005; Ladson-Billings 1994). Although socially just pedagogies in and by themselves will not eradicate structural inequalities, they can make a contribution to recognising and critically interrogating the issues that perpetuate these injustices. Teachers who enact social justice pedagogy in their classrooms acknowledge their role as agents of social change and aim to equip their students with the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to transform society into a place where social justice can exist. Basically, then, a social justice framework in pedagogical practice is driven by the determination to resist and take action against unfairness and inequity, while enhancing freedom and possibility for all students (Ayers et al. 2009).

Also committed to empowering all students, translanguaging encourages "the deployment of a speaker's full linguistic repertoire without regard for watchful adherence to the socially and politically defned boundaries of named (and usually national and state) languages" (Otheguy et al. 2015, p. 3), going thus against the powerful monolingual paradigm and the nationalist "dogma of homogeneism" (Blommaert and Verschueren 1992). As such, translanguaging pedagogy emerges as an inherently "political act", (Flores 2014 as cited in García and Lin 2016, p. 8) within a broader "sociocritical approach to teaching" (García and Li Wei 2014, p. 92 f.), closely connected with education for social justice (García and Leiva 2014) and human rights (García and Li Wei 2014, p. 116). According to García and Li Wei (2014, p. 13) translanguaging practices "enact a political process of social and subjectivity transformation which resists the asymmetries of power that language and other meaning making-codes associated with one or another nationalist ideology, produce".

Within this context, the deployment of students' full linguistic repertoires is seen as creating a "third space" "where alternative representations and enunciations can be generated because buried histories are released and alternative, conficting knowledges are produced" (García and Leiva 2014, p. 204). According to García and Li Wei (2014) translanguaging as pedagogy promises to "liberate" and empower minoritised bilingual students that have been "silenced" (p. 101), "oppressed" (p. 42) and ostracised by "giv[ing them] back the voice that had been taken away by ideologies of monoglot standards" (p. 105).

Hurst and Mona (2017), for example, propose translanguaging pedagogies as a socially just alternative to colonial monolingual and anglonormative practices of continued reliance on English as the medium of education in South Africa, which disadvantages many students whose home language is not English. Indeed in post-colonial contexts translanguaging can provide recognition to languages that are usually ignored, empowering students and promoting social justice.

However, as with any educational attempt to run against powerful and hegememonic ideologies, translanguaging may produce resistance, discomfort and negative emotional reactions (P. Charalambous et al. 2016, 2019) and in this paper we focus on these instances, and the implications for teachers, learners and (socially just) pedagogy when discourses of (in)security and processes of (in) securitization affect the classroom.

Before turning to the examples from the two studies, it is worth describing the Cypriot context and the ways in which it is affected by discourses of threat.

### **4 The Cypriot Context**

Cyprus has suffered a long history of interethnic confict between the two major ethnolinguistic communities, Greek- and Turkish- Cypriots. As both ethnic groups had political claims over the island's identity—"Greek" and "Turkish" respectively (Bryant 2004)—, interethnic violence (1963–1967) broke out soon after the establishment of the independent Republic of Cyprus in 1960 and the confict culminated with Turkey's military operation in 1974. Since 1974, Cyprus has been de facto divided, with Turkish-Cypriots residing in the north—considered "under Turkish occupation" by the UN—and Greek-Cypriots residing in the southern government-controlled areas of the Republic of Cyprus. Up until 2003 communication between the two parts was almost impossible.

Despite ongoing negotiations for reaching an agreed settlement, the so-called "Cyprus Issue" remains unresolved, leaving open many legal but also emotional questions (e.g., property rights, missing people). This "open wound" has contributed to the cultivation of a strong ethnocentric orientation in Greek-Cypriot society, with Turks being represented as an imminent threat that poses sincere security concerns.

In this context, language has played a signifcant role in perpetuating the confict, as both communities viewed their language as a salient part of collective identity and as crucial for ethnolinguistic survival (Karoulla-Vrikki 2004). It is for this reason that, even though both Greek and Turkish are offcial languages of the Republic, Turkish was only introduced in Greek-Cypriot education in 2003, as a "foreign language" and a "measure for building trust" between the two communities. Still, studies showed how Turkish continued to invoke the "enemy" and the historical traumas of war and displacement; Greek-Cypriot students of Turkish were often called "traitors"; while teachers systematically tried to avoid references to the local contexts of Turkish language use (C. Charalambous 2012, 2014).

At the same time, the Greek-Cypriot society has been witnessing (since 90s) a diversifcation with signifcantly increasing migration and the last census estimated migrants comprising about 23% of the population (e.g., Greek-Pontian expatriates, Eastern Europeans migrants from South East Asia, and political or war refugees from Syria, Iran etc.). As a result, in 2001, Intercultural Education was frst introduced in state schools and, despite considerable progress, research points to challenges posed by the hegemony of confict narratives on the implementation of intercultural education (P. Charalambous et al. 2016; Theodorou and Symeou 2013).

Another notable change in the ideological orientations of Greek-Cypriot education has been the introduction of a peace-related policy in 2008 aiming at the promotion of a "culture of peaceful coexistence" between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. This initiative caused ferce public and educational debates, as many teachers considered the policy incompatible with the dominant culture and inconsiderate of local sensitivities. Although a signifcant step in introducing peace education in Greek-Cypriot offcial rhetoric, in actual practice the initiative resulted in relatively poor implementation outcomes (see also Zembylas et al. 2016). The second case study described here involves a teacher's attempt to implement the new peace-related policy in 2010, in a classroom where the majority of students had Turkish as home language.

In what follows we present the two case studies conducted in multilingual classrooms, and we show how confict discourses and processes of (in)securitization created unfavourable ecologies in the schools and classrooms for performances of Turkish speakerness.

### **5 The Two Studies**

### **5.1 Case Study 1: Immigrant Children Identity Negotiation in a Greek Cypriot Primary School**

This was an ethnographic study that sought to explore identity negotiation processes among immigrant students in Cyprus. It was conducted by Eleni Theodorou over a period of eight months in 2007 (January–August) and it included interviews with students, teachers, parents and members of the ethnic communities existent at the school, as well as document analysis. In addition, daily full-day observations were carried at the school both during school hours as well as after, during social events such as football games, school festivals, and graduation ceremonies, at a nearby public youth club, children's homes, and the surrounding community throughout the duration of the feldwork.

The school which consisted the primary site of the study was a small urban public primary school with fewer than 150 students that was chosen because of its high concentration of non Greek-Cypriot students. Thirty-three percent (33%) of the school population were non-Cypriots. Of the non-Cypriot population at the school, half were children with parents from Georgia, 21% with parents from other former Soviet Union countries, such as Russia and Bulgaria, 21% were Greeks from Mainland Greece, 4% had parents from countries of the Middle East, and another 4% from countries in Asia. The great majority of the immigrant children were Pontian whose parents had been born and raised in Georgia. It is important to note that Pontian families who originated from Georgia spoke Turkish at home (children could also communicate in Russian). At the backdrop of the sociohistorical context of Cyprus, this fact proved to be highly consequential for the way Turkophone children at the school crafted their space and positioned themselves therein and beyond, as explained below.

One of the central fndings of the study was the revelation of the extent of the educational and social marginalization immigrant children suffered at the school contrary to teachers' perceptions of social integration which they often based on the relative absence of volatile and blatantly racist incidents. Indeed, on a frst glance the school appeared to be one of peaceful coexistence of different cultures, languages, and backgrounds. Closer looks however revealed that immigrant children received such strong messages of assimilation that in fact one of the strategies they deployed to negotiate their positionalities at the school was hiding and passing. Depending on the spheres and contexts they traversed, this was a twofold process of associating and disassociating with a particular social identity, in order to avoid otherization. Passing mainly consisted of asserting Greekness. Hiding was a multi-layered process which involved *hiding the status of foreignness*, *concealing Pontianness*, *and distancing* one's self *from Turkishness*. This was mainly manifested in the way immigrant children at the school often resorted to concealing aspects of their identities, including their native language, the language(s) they spoke at home and their parents' home country. For the purposes of this discussion, we will be focusing on processes of distancing from one's Turkishness when at school or in public (for a discussion on how immigrant children navigated public and private see Theodorou 2008), precisely to highlight the necessity of understanding processes of translanguaging (and identity negotiation) as intricately enmeshed in felds of power which unfold in the midst of social interaction and in particular sociohistorical contexts.

As stated above, the language of the private sphere within the Greek diasporic community of Pontians from Georgia was Turkish. For Pontian children, the frictional relationship between dominant notions of Greekness and Turkishness in the Cypriot context raised issues of ethnic identity, loyalty, and patriotism all at once. As a result, Pontian children, wary of possible repercussions "because Turks did that other thing…[and] some get angry for sure, they don't like [that you speak Turkish]" (Katerina, female, Greek,1 immigrant), opted to keep their native tongue a secret, as exemplifed in the excerpt of an informal conversation Eleni Theodorou had with a Pontian girl in the school yard during recess below:

Popi (f., im.): {I will be} Here {during the summer}. I don't want to go to Greece, they don't watch Turkish channels there over. They have them but they don't watch them. Eleni/Researcher: Whereas here you watch them? Popi: Yes. Eleni: Do you like it? Popi: Yes, I like Turkish very much. Eleni: Do you tell your classmates too that you know Turkish? Popi: *Noooo!* ((emphasis in original)) Eleni: Why? Popi: Did they ever ask or anything? Eleni: If they did, would you tell them? Popi: *Noooo!!* ((emphasis in original)) Eleni: Why? Popi: ((She does not respond and looks at me with a nervous smile))

<sup>1</sup>Pseudonyms and ethnic self-identifcation were provided by children participants themselves.

Eleni: If they asked you what languages you know, what would you say? Popi: Greek ((pauses)) and Russian. Eleni: Only? You would not bring up Turkish? Popi: No. (Field notes by Eleni Theodorou, 13th June 2007)

Acts of direct and spontaneous admittance regarding Turkish, such as the above, occurred only in private, outside the formal structural environment of the classroom, and in the intimacy and safety of small friendship groups in the yard out of earshot of their classmates. The fear of exposure which drove all these efforts to take precautionary measures against a potential public exposure was by no means ungrounded and could not have been mitigated simply through what may well have been well-intended yet naïve efforts on behalf of teachers to encourage multilingualism in the classroom. Without a more nuanced reading of these silences, their (hi)stories, and historicities, efforts to promote (celebratory rather than critical) translanguaging in the classroom may be rendered not only ineffective (as seen in the example below) but damaging, even, for those most vulnerable.

### **5.2 Case Study 2: "Researching the Obstacles and Limitations for Reconciliation, Multiculturalism and Social Justice"**

The second study was a two-year ethnographic project (2009–2011, funded by the Open University of Cyprus) which set out to explore the challenges and opportunities involved in the Greek-Cypriot 2008 educational initiative for "Peaceful Coexistence".2 The study was conducted by the frst three authors and involved three phases: (1) participant observations, recordings and interviews in 6 focal classrooms for 3 months; (2) a series of 6 3-hour training seminars on Peace, Reconciliation & Social Justice in which all focal teachers participated; (3) observations and lessons designed and implemented by focal teachers based on the training they had received on peace pedagogies. The data in this paper derive from this third phase after the focal teacher, Thalia (a pseudonym), had completed her training on peace pedagogies.

Thalia was a teacher in her late 30s with 15 years of teaching experience and considerable postgraduate studies. She had been teaching at the school for the past four years and was teaching the same group for the second year. Hence,

<sup>2</sup>For a detailed description of the project and its overall results see Zembylas et al. (2016).

classroom relations were strong and students appeared very fond of their teacher, keen to participate and generally enjoyed their time in class. Thalia described her students as "good kids", though "mediocre to bad" in terms of achievement, and she reported modifying her teaching considerably to meet their needs. Thalia also appeared quite knowledgeable of her students' out-of-school lives (migration histories, residence, family circumstances, interests etc.) and her teaching often sought to incorporate this in the classroom.

The small primary school where Thalia worked was located close to the buffer zone dividing the old city centre in Nicosia, and belonged to the Zones for Educational Priority (ZEP), a special intervention programme (at the time) for addressing social inequalities in education. 95% of the students were of migrant working-class backgrounds, with complex migration trajectories. Teachers often described the school as "special", "very different" and sometimes "diffcult". In addition to their various ethnolinguistic backgrounds, students had also varied levels of communicative and academic competence in Greek.

Turkish had a signifcant presence in the school as students of Turkishspeaking Pontian backgrounds formed the biggest ethnic group (about 40% of the population), with the majority originating from Georgia and Western Russia. According to teachers, most Pontian families had migrated to Cyprus in the late 1990s, often after having spent several years in Greece as repatriate Greeks. Therefore, Pontian students tended to be more confdent in Greek, some of them had attended Greek education since their early childhood, and Turkish was used in their home environments mostly for oral communication. Other Turkish-speaking students in the school had Bulgarian, Roma, Turkish and Turkish-Cypriot backgrounds. Although these groups used different varieties of Turkish, teachers reported that Turkish-speaking students seemed to manage basic understanding across these varieties. Nonetheless, Greek remained the preferred language of communication between all students in the school.

Thalia's group consisted of 11 students (3 girls, 9 boys) between 8–9 years old, of which only one was Greek-Cypriot. The remaining students had Greek as a second language, while Turkish was the home language of six students, fve with Pontian and one with Turkish-Bulgarian backgrounds. Emil was by far the most fuent speaker of Turkish in class and he had also basic literacy skills, acquired through chatting online with his uncle in Bulgaria. Thalia characterised Emil (who will be the protagonist in the example below), as a "quiet but very good kid", who was "still struggling with Greek" because, in contrast to most students, he had only entered Greek-Cypriot education a year ago, while his family could not speak Greek at all.

During our ethnographic observations it emerged that many Turkish-speaking students in Thalia's class had considerable out-of-school experiences with Turkish people and culture. Nevertheless, our research collected evidence for the suppression of students' Turkish-speakerness in school in various ways, similarly to case study 1. Generally Turkish-speaking students tended to refrain from speaking Turkish in school, especially in more formal contexts like the classroom, or in front of the researcher. According to Thalia, Pontian students seemed to carry from home "a guilt mixed with fear" for being Turcophone, and they often felt the need to clarify that "I speak the language but I'm not Turkish".

Likewise, Emil for several months withheld the fact that he also had a Turkish name (Mehmet) and refused to be called by this at school. He also appeared "uncomfortable" during classroom discussions about Muslims and Turks and tried to conceal his family's relations with the Turkish-speaking north.

In contrast, Thalia's own classroom practices did not, in any way, encourage monolingual norms. In line with the suggestions in the translanguaging literature discussed above, with which she was familiar from her studies, she generally embraced her group's diversity and encouraged students' use of home linguistic repertoires to ensure understanding and maximise communication. Thus, she often invited students to offer synonyms of Greek words in their home languages or use home languages to explain aspects of the lesson to peers, which resulted in hybrid constructions that combined different linguistic features.

However, when Thalia tried to formally encourage linguistic performances of Turkish she met considerable resistance, as her sincere and well-intended educational attempt ran against powerful ideologies of (in)securitization and confict. This ideological clash becomes obvious in the extract that we present and discuss below (for an extended discussion of this episode see P. Charalambous et al. 2018). This extract comes from a series of 3 lessons that Thalia designed during the training education workshops, and involved teaching positive Greek-Turkish relations within the framework of peace education. To this end, Thalia chose a story that thematized Greek-Turkish relations, included Turkish characters and Greek-Turkish bilinguals, and contained Turkish lexical items.

During the frst lesson, in which Emil was absent, Thalia introduced the story, and the class discussed the bilingualism of the Greek protagonist (who was using many Turkish words) comparing it to their own bilingualism, whether it involved Turkish or not. Thalia also shared with students the fact that her own grandfather was bilingual because he had been living and working with Turkish Cypriots. Thalia then attempted to elicit some Turkish phrases from students but they resisted, and there were references to Emil as a more competent bilingual.

The next lesson started with a brief revision of what they did last time. Taking advantage of Emil's presence, Thalia told him that they needed him last time to compose a note that would be sent to the fctional Turkish character of the story.

1 2 3 4 5 6 **THALIA:** ok, Emil should tell us now, in case you found Meltem ((*fctional character*)), what would you tell her in Turkish, because she lost her slipper and so on and so on **Emil:** miss I would tell he::r-**Maria:** in Turkish! **Yorgos:** not in Greek!


(Classroom recording, feldnotes taken by Panayiota Charalambous)

a English translation: I found your (slipper) in the sea

As evident in the episode above, despite the fact that a large group of students had at least some level of competence in Turkish, and despite Thalia's best intentions, the attempt to encourage students to perform their home linguistic repertoires was met with considerable resistance: pauses (lines 12, 15, 17, 26), hesitation (e.g., lines 4, 10, 15), and silence (lines 26–27). Throughout the extract both Thalia and the students are supportive and encouraging (e.g., lines 5, 6, 12, 13,) whilst Emil seems very willing to perform the task (which was constructed as "helping the class"—line 14) and please Thalia; in fact, he does not abandon the attempt and tries to deliver the content of the task (a message to Meltem). It's only in line 18 that Thalia realises that the problem is the medium in which the task was supposed to be delivered and she therefore recommends a change (frst in Greek and then in Turkish). Indeed, Emil responds immediately to this change and without a hesitation tries in line 22 to perform the task in his L2 even with some audible diffculties in constructing the sentences and choosing the right Greek words. When he fnally attempts to translate the message to his L1 and home language there are again hesitations and pauses, and he leaves the task unfnished. After a whole 12s pause, Thalia steps in and changes the task to relieve the tension.

So, how can we interpret the "sensitivities" and the "silences" that emerge, despite the teacher's efforts and good intentions? In order to do so, we need to consider how wider collective narratives, historical trajectories, sociopolitical processes, and larger ideologies may impact classroom interaction, and specifcally the ways in which linguistic diversity is "voiced"—or not.

We do so in the discussion section that follows, where we refect on how the two case studies can help us rethink concepts such as "translanguaging" and their relation to social justice pedagogies.

### **6 Discussion and Implications**

A socially just pedagogy involves pedagogical strategies that encourage critical questioning and resistance against systems of oppression and normalisation, and inspire social action that challenges injustice (Ayers et al. 2009; Kincheloe and Steinberg 1998; King 2005; Ladson-Billings 1994). A translanguaging pedagogical approach involves pedagogical strategies that are designed to empower, liberate and "give voice" to students to express their marginalised full linguistic repertoires. However, in both the case studies we discussed, rather than recording creative polylingual performances we evidenced silence and inarticulateness. As this chapter has shown, strong (in)securitization discourses may have complicated the enactment of translanguaging as socially just pedagogy.

Despite students' linguistic practices at home, as well as linguistic competences, students' public performance of their home linguistic repertoires in educational settings seemed to cause emotional discomfort, and hesitation resulting in self-censorship. This urges us as researchers and educators to rethink and interrogate our concepts and practices. How easy is to avoid associations with named languages? Can we escape linguistic ideologies and how? And to what extent can we transcend language as a powerful index of ethnonational belonging? Furthermore, how can we rethink translanguaging as a socially just pedagogy when issues of (in)security are involved?

These questions become more pressing in contexts where language is unavoidably part of a "conficted heritage" which students have to negotiate in their everyday lives (C. Charalambous 2019) and which may pose a risk and create severe insecurities. Indeed, in students' home communities (Pontian, Bulgarian) we can fnd narratives of confict with Turks and histories of oppression of Turkish language use. With the political situation in Cyprus remaining unresolved, the issues raised in this chapter continue to create complications and other recent studies also discuss their emotional and political complexities (Zembylas et al. 2017, 2019a, b—the frst in the context of religious education, the second in Holocaust education and the third in human rights education). But issues of (in)security are not unique for Cyprus. With the increase of (in)securitization processes that was described in the beginning of this chapter minority languages in different countries might also be (in)securitized, and their public performance in the classroom may be seen as threatening. Khan (2017) describes such processes taking place in the UK, whilst Zakharia (2016) describes the impact of (in)securitization processes on Arabic education in NYC.

As Jaspers and Madsen (2019) remind us, language socialisation literature has long argued that from very early on children socialise into language ideologies, and power asymmetries between different "named languages" and that this metapragmatic awareness always shapes to an extent their language use. This is also the case with (in)securitization processes and children in both case studies knew that performing Turkish in the classroom could potentially put them at risk.

The examples discussed here do not undermine the pedagogical potential of translanguaging practices. They do though urge us to carefully examine the discursive, historical, ideological and cultural constraints that frame classroom interactions, as well as students' insecurities, in order to design not only socially just but also *sensitive* pedagogies—including translanguaging. In this endeavour the concept of "inarticulateness" maybe as useful as "translanguaging". According to McDermott (1988) inarticulateness should not be approached as the product of individual inability of linguistic defciency but rather bound to social situations, roles, and social structures that condition what is sayable (McDermott 1988). In this way inarticulateness may serve as "an invitation to listen in a new way". The call for socially just pedagogies in conditions of (in)security requires attention to silences (Rampton and Charalambous 2016; Spyrou 2016) and inarticulateness as much as to issues of recognition, voice and polylingual creative performances.

This can help educators to seriously take into consideration the emotional and political complexities and the students' precarious positionings.

### **References**


**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

### **'We Learn Together'—Translanguaging within a Holistic Approach towards Multilingualism in Education**

### Joana Duarte and Mirjam T. Günther-van der Meij

### **Abstract**

Within two multilingual education projects in the north of the Netherlands a holistic model for multilingualism in education is being tested. This is done through design-based interventions in which in- and pre-service teachers, teacher trainers and researchers co-develop and evaluate multilingual activities for different school types. Results show that through experimenting in a safe environment teachers gradually embraced their pupils' multilingualism. This contradicts earlier fndings on teachers strongly favouring monolingual instruction and viewing migrant languages as a defcit.

#### **Keywords**

Translanguaging · Holistic approach · Multilingual education · Design-based research

J. Duarte (\*)

University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands e-mail: j.duarte@rug.nl

M. T. Günther-van der Meij

© The Author(s) 2020

NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands e-mail: mirjam.gunther@nhlstenden.com

J. A. Panagiotopoulou et al. (eds.), *Inclusion, Education and Translanguaging*, Inklusion und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28128-1\_8

### **1 Introduction**

Since the rise of modern nation-states, dominant monolingual language ideologies have perpetuated in much of the industrialized world—with Europe being no exception. In particular, over the past two decades, academic success for those who fnd themselves speaking a plurality of languages, has been pressured by monolingual standards in dominant languages (Pulinx et al. 2017). These ideologies have failed to comprehend and cater for the rich complexities of human collective existence and thus, at times have been implemented as weapons in ever persisting battles for nationalistic control. As the world undergoes processes leading to superdiversity through the intensifcation of migration (Vertovec 2007), it is unlikely that nation building tactics from the past, such as the continuation of a monolingual habitus (Gogolin 2002), will be able to manage the composition of modern states. This is already evident across a plethora of institutional platforms, where multilingual identities are often denied full participation, contributing to the degradation of intercultural existence and equality. One such platform capable of moulding shared beliefs, expectations and norms is the school, which behaves as a microcosm for its surrounding environment and can provide an insight into future societal operations.

Nowadays, pupils from minority language backgrounds face a gap between their academic achievement and that of their majority speaking peers (Samson and Lesaux 2015). Typically, in explaining this gap, educators take a defcit approach to multilingualism, where insuffcient linguistic capabilities in the dominant language of the school are seen as the key cause for poor academic performance (Pulinx et al. 2017; Young 2014). Conversely, those within the scientifc community have seen the vast benefts of multilingualism as a resource to learners and classrooms, if fostered in an appropriate way by the teaching staff (Tolbert and Knox 2016). Currently however, the special linguistic and cognitive benefts available to multilinguals are typically allotted mostly to children belonging to a socially privileged background, where the transnational human capital offered by migration is commonly acknowledged (Fürstenau 2016). Equally, students deriving from socially disadvantaged migrant families, often presenting multilingual skills in languages low on the linguistic hierarchy, are seen as problematic or worse—a threat (Angelis 2011; Fürstenau 2016; Pulinx et al. 2017).

The current study is set in the offcially bilingual Province of Friesland, in the North of the Netherlands. In this region the minority language Frisian and the dominant language Dutch are spoken next to other minority and migrant languages. Friesland has known a growing number of migrants in the last decade (CBS [Central Bureau voor de Statistiek] 2016). Language maintenance of Frisian is of high importance for the region, especially because of the high interference of Dutch (Gorter et al. 2001). This has led to strict language separation in education (Duarte and Günther-van der Meij 2018a). With the arrival of other minority and migrant languages, schools are nowadays faced with a new challenge: incorporating these languages into their everyday practice. This is the motivation behind recent multilingual education projects based on a holistic model for multilingualism in education (Duarte and Günther-van der Meij 2018b) that aims at acknowledging and using both migrant and minority languages of pupils in education, next to the majority and foreign languages and is suitable for different school types (e.g., trilingual, mainstream, newcomer schools). Offcial or pedagogical translanguaging is one of the approaches of the model (Duarte 2018).

The aim of the present chapter is to shed light on the potentials of (offcial) translanguaging as a part of a holistic approach for multilingualism in education (Duarte 2017; Duarte and Günther-van der Meij 2018b), in which also other approaches for the use of multiple languages in education are featured. It looks at translanguaging at two levels: classroom practices and professional development of pre- and in-service teachers. Further, it wishes to address the following research questions:


### **2 Translanguaging (Functions) and the Holistic Model**

According to Li Wei (2017), "the term translanguaging seems to have captured people's imagination" (p. 9). As such, it has almost shifted from a descriptive label for the fexible use of pupils' linguistic repertoires to make meaning (García 2009) to a prescriptive concept that researchers and practitioners in education should be using as a theoretical lens proposing an alternative view of biand multilingualism (Vogel and García 2017). The term has been widely applied to pedagogy, but also to the analysis of everyday social interaction, cross-modal communication (Gort 2015), linguistic landscape, visual arts, music, and transgender discourse (MacSwan 2017; Li Wei 2017). García and Kano (2014) refer to translanguaging in education as

a process by which students and teachers engage in complex discursive practices that include ALL the language practices of ALL students in a class in order to develop new language practices and sustain old ones, communicate and appropriate knowledge, and give voice to new socio-political realities by interrogating linguistic inequality. (p. 261)

In terms of the use of the concept in pedagogical settings, a plethora of studies has examined multiple advantages of a translanguaging lens on how teachers act multilingually and how learners acquire and use their respective languages in classroom settings. Concrete examples of studies looked at how learners use two languages in small group activities to support bilingual learning (Childs 2016; Martin-Beltrán 2009), the co-construction of knowledge in content classes (Duarte 2016), interaction of emergent bilinguals in school settings (Gort 2015), the general use of two languages in classroom settings (Palmer et al. 2014; MacSwan 2017), the effects of using two languages for the teaching of reading (Soltero-Gonzalez et al. 2016), within science classrooms (Jørgensen 2008), as a means of balancing the power-relations among languages in the classroom (Canagarajah 2011), in promoting minority languages (Cenoz 2009), for raising participant confdence and motivation (Creese and Blackledge 2010), as a maximiser of learning literacy skills (Hornberger and Link 2012), and for general empowerment and early language learning (Latisha and Young 2017).

Duarte (2018) described translanguaging spaces, in which various interaction practices serve different functions depending on a) whether the aim of the teachers is to acknowledge or actively use the different languages; b) whether the teachers are profcient in the languages involved in the translanguaging moment, and c) the types of languages involved. Instances of offcial translanguaging (see Tab. 1) with a *symbolic function* are aimed at recognizing and valorizing migrant languages within mainstream education and require no profciency in those languages from the teacher. A *scaffolding function* is achieved when temporary but systematic bridges towards other languages are incorporated in everyday teaching attributing equal value to all languages. Teachers require no knowledge of migrant languages to do this, as long as pupils are perceived as the experts for their own family languages. Similar aims can be reached by scaffolding the acknowledgement of various instruction languages present within the teaching


**Tab. 1** Functions of offcial translanguaging. (Note. Adapted from Duarte 2018, p. 13.)

model (such as Dutch, Frisian and English). Jones and Lewis (2014) also refer to "scaffolded translanguaging" in the context of bilingual education. Finally, offcial translanguaging can likewise fulfl an *epistemological function* when the different languages are actively used to enhance both content- and language knowledge. This is appropriate for exploring migrant, minority and foreign languages in their full potential as learning instruments. However, a teacher profcient in those languages is needed to interact with the pupils.

Criticism to translanguaging pedagogies stresses its lack of empirical verifcation in terms of measurable effects on educational outcomes. In addition, teachers often complain that its goal is too philosophical and it lacks a clear defnition in terms of pedagogical tools (Ticheloven et al. 2019). Conteh (2018) also delivers a critical review of translanguaging as pedagogy, claiming that the emphasis of research has so far been on understanding processes of interaction rather than on exploring its pedagogic potential. Jaspers (2018) states that the implementation of translanguaging at school is likely to be less transformative and socially critical than implied, as research a) has much in common with the monolingual ideologies it criticizes, b) trades on causality effects that cannot be taken for granted, c) is becoming a dominating rather than a liberating force.

In sum, although enjoying positive echoing in research and, to a certain extent, pedagogical practice, the implementation of translanguaging as a pedagogy does not yet belong to the pedagogical *status quo* across schools in Europe. On the one side, a translanguaging pedagogy clashes against prevailing monolingual ideologies often translated into immersion models for language teaching which lead to strict language separation. On the other side, ideas of teachers in relation to the value and functions of pupils' other languages lead translanguaging practices to be perceived as 'illegitimate' in mainstream education (Kamwangamalu 2010).

For these reasons, in the current study translanguaging was included in a wider holistic approach towards multilingualism in education (Duarte 2017; Duarte and Günther-van der Meij 2018b). Research on multilingual approaches has recently called for the development of such holistic or integrative models that "recognize that language learning and teaching is more than the sum of the elements of that equation seen as isolated units – language, learning and teaching – and should therefore be seen from a more holistic and ecological perspective" (Melo-Pfeifer 2018, p. 193). The model presented here (Duarte 2017; Duarte and Günther-van der Meij 2018b) combines fve approaches to teaching and knowledge along a continuum that oscillates between the acknowledgement of different languages and their actual use in instruction. By doing so, teachers can choose whether to focus on, for example, language awareness with activities in which languages and dialects in the classroom and the environment are explored, on language comparison in which typologically related and unrelated languages are compared or on conveying content-knowledge through a foreign language using the CLIL-approach (Content and Language Integrated Learning). Finally, the model addresses attitudes, knowledge and skills of both teachers and pupils (Herzog-Punzenberger et al. 2017) within a multilingual approach. Language awareness, language comparison and receptive multilingualism approaches focus more on attitudes whilst CLIL and immersion focus more on knowledge and skills in the language(s). As the model shows, translanguaging is a feature that appears in each of the fve approaches and is mostly manifested in interaction. For more detailed information about the model see Duarte and Günther-van der Meij (2018b). The present study looks at the role of translanguaging as a part of a wider pedagogical approach for professional development of primary school teachers for multilingual education.

### **3 Research Design**

In general, classroom interaction in most European schools is dominated by national languages, with the exception of foreign or, to a lesser extent, regional minority languages used in education (Duarte 2016; Duarte et al. 2013). Across the literature on professional development (PD) there is a clear correlation between multilingual teacher training, exposure and experience, and the degree of monolingual ideology permeating teacher beliefs, practices and knowledge. Other factors that became clear throughout the studies pertained to practical implications, such as a lack of multilingual resources, time and the demands of standardized testing (Haukås 2016; Lee and Oxelson 2006; Young 2014). These too, however, could be associated with an absence of appropriate multilingual training. In the current study, we look at the role of translanguaging as integrated within a holistic approach towards multilingualism in education in the North of the Netherlands aiming at addressing the PD needs of primary schools and teachers in our particular setting.

### **3.1 The Research Context and General Design**

For this chapter we discuss data from two research projects. The 3M-project (*Meer kansen Met Meertaligheid*—More Opportunities with Multilingualism) works with 12 schools in order to develop multilingual activities for pupils aged 8–10, the Languages4all-project (*Talen4all*) focuses on pupils aged 10–12 in 8 schools. Despite the fact that each project focuses on different age groups, in both projects other age groups were involved as well. Both projects focus on different school types such as trilingual Frisian-Dutch-English schools, refugees/newcomer schools, schools with a high percentage of migrant language speakers and schools with a high percentage of Dutch speakers. In the activities developed, all (home) languages that are present at the school are involved. Within both projects a large team of teachers and researchers jointly develop the educational experiments, following the holistic model for multilingualism in education. A design-based approach (McKenney and Reeves 2013) was used to work with teachers in order to co-develop the multilingual teaching activities. Design-based research acknowledges the complexity of educational contexts by carefully examining the different processes, levels and actors involved in carrying out a jointly engineered educational experiment (Cobb et al. 2003). Previously assembled theoretical knowledge is used together with an iterative cyclic design to improve the original experiment. Regular school visits as well as the organisation of workshops for the teachers add to their theoretical knowledge and experiences which are useful in the development of the activities. During these visits, the implementation of teaching activities was captured in video observations.

In both projects, the intervention phase lasted for about 18 months, spreading over two school years. Six professional development workshops with key experts in the feld were conducted, alongside individual feedback sessions during regular school visits. Student, teacher and principal-questionnaires were conducted before and after the intervention. The evaluation of this phase was conducted in a fnal workshop on the basis of data collected in the school visits.

### **3.2 Data Collection: Classroom Interaction**

For the current study a total of 29 hours of video observations were recorded in three project schools. The recordings were conducted in subject lessons in which the language of instruction varied. After careful consideration by the research team, two excerpts were selected for the present paper that exemplify the functions of offcial translanguaging as in the model proposed by Duarte (2018), such as different types of interaction patterns and including different languages (national, foreign, migrant and regional minority). More examples can be found in Duarte and Günther-van der Meij (2018b).

### **3.3 Data Collection: Teacher's Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills towards Multilingualism in Education**

At the end of the intervention phase of the two projects, an evaluation workshop took place, aiming at a refection on the teaching approaches developed, its effects and how participating teachers saw their future role within their schools. In order to elicit this information and foster a discussion, we used vignettes (Bloor and Wood 2006; Steiner et al. 2016). For the current research, the concept of vignettes was redefned to translanguaging-based vignettes, in order to present participating teachers with a representative sample of translanguaging interaction taken from the implementation of the activities developed throughout the intervention. For the development of the fve different translanguaging-vignettes, we repeatedly reviewed all video-data and stipulated fve different criteria that should be as different as possible in the selected video data:


The discussion on the vignettes was conducted during a PD-workshop in June 2019 with 30 teachers and 4 preservice teachers, distributed into 7 groups (4 to 5 participants per group). All interaction of the participants was recorded (N=164 min) and transcribed (N=74.127 words). Data was analysed using the MaxQDA-software (release 18.2.0). Transcripts were coded by applying thematic analysis (Clarke and Braun 2013), pre-divided into 6 large coding categories: attitudes, knowledge, skills, challenges, examples of pedagogic activities and changes occurred through project participation. In total 107 codes were applied to the transcripts of the vignette discussions, ranging from 45 to 149 words.

### **4 Results**

### **4.1 Interactional Functions within Translanguaging-Based Pedagogies**

Below two excerpts are discussed that show examples of the different functions of translanguaging (Duarte 2018). In the frst excerpt, the research team's Polish pre-service teacher performed an activity with the class of 3rd graders. While explaining the story of the Tower of Babel she involves a group of fve Polish-speaking pupils and asks how several words in the story are uttered in other languages present in the classroom (Tab. 2).

The teacher asks the pupils to translate different words from the story from Dutch to Polish, Arabic and Frisian. All languages are allowed. This interaction illustrates both a symbolic and a scaffolding function of translanguaging as the teacher acknowledges all languages in the classroom by explicitly involving them in her story. In addition, the teacher uses the languages to check comprehension of the key-terms of the story. The Dutch language is used as a bridge to the other languages.


**Tab. 2** Building the Tower of Babel using multiple languages


**Tab. 3** Discussing the role of words in communication

In the second excerpt a grade 5 teacher discusses the theme "communication" in a language lesson at a mainstream city school with a high percentage of Dutch speakers. The teacher uses English, Frisian and Dutch as languages of instruction (Tab. 3).

The teacher switches back and forth between English, Dutch and Frisian. The pupil in this excerpt answers in Dutch with the Frisian word for "word". In this excerpt translanguaging has three functions. By including French translanguaging has a symbolic function. It also has a scaffolding function as translanguaging is used as a bridge between the three languages. Finally, because of the topic of the lesson translanguaging also has an epistemological function as the both content (about the function of language) and knowledge in the languages are enhanced.

In sum, these two excerpts show how translanguaging can fulfl different pedagogical functions. The teachers are consciously using translanguaging to attain several communicative aims: to acknowledge different languages, as a lever between different languages and to enhance both content and language knowledge.

### **4.2 Analysis of Translanguaging Sequences for PD**

The recordings of the group discussions on the translanguaging-based vignettes were transcribed and then coded. From the six codes applied, the largest amount was coded as "skills" (33%), followed by "knowledge" (20%), "examples of activities" (15%), "changes through project participation" (14%), "attitudes" (9%) and "challenges" (9%). In the following, the categories skills, knowledge and attitudes will be discussed.

### **4.2.1 Reported Skills in Translanguaging-Based Approaches**

Teachers describe a variety of practical skills that they apply in their teaching and that are related to the use of several languages. They often relate these skills to different functions they have identifed from their use of multilingualism in class. Four main functions of translanguaging were coded in the data. The largest amount of skills was attributed to the code *facilitating content comprehension*, which contains various accounts of how teachers use the different languages in their classes in order to enhance knowledge acquisition and comprehension of the pupils. An example of this is presented in the excerpt below. A teacher in a school for newly arrived pupils explains how she pauses her class to allow the Arabic-speaking pupils to discuss new content, using several dialects, and then reach a group conclusion that is translated into Dutch:

Because in Arabic you also have different dialects. At least that's what they say in my class. They go back and forth in their own language. I listen to them, but I don't understand it. Then they come to a conclusion and then we also talk about it in the group. I think this is very valuable.

The importance of connecting the home languages to the Dutch language to enhance comprehension is often highlighted. One of the teachers for example describes how she teaches new concepts by looking them up in the home languages—e.g., asking parents, other pupils or using Google Translate—and then explicitly links them to the Dutch concept.

Next to content comprehension, teachers identify *acknowledgment and awareness* as one of the main functions deriving from the use of several languages in instruction. In the excerpt below, a group of teachers is commenting the interaction in one of the vignettes:


The teachers in this group comment how valorizing the different languages present in the class can be just as important as developing activities to learn different languages. In terms of the didactic implementation and classroom management of the use of several languages to enhance comprehension, teachers report on how they explicitly use *peer*-*mentoring*. In the excerpt below, two teachers report on the experience of their school with a high percentage of newly arrived pupils:


In two of the groups there is a discussion on the relevance of developing an own *micro*-*language policy* when offcial institutional policies are mainly monolingual:

We speak Dutch every day. We also have different days for English and Frisian. On a Dutch day, when a child asks something in Frisian, I answer in Frisian. It facilitates reading comprehension. Then a child also learns faster, because he understands it better. I would like to use the languages interchangeably much more. Children have no problems with that at all, we only think that. In this way you can develop your own policy a bit. When the director comes in, I stick to the offcial language policy.

### **4.2.2 Reported Knowledge in Translanguaging-Based Approaches**

The segments coded under the category "knowledge" were sub-divided into six thematic categories: language acquisition in multilingual settings, teaching methodologies, role of translation, interconnectedness between languages, advantages of a comprehensive approach and parental participation. The majority of the segments were attributed to the teaching methodologies sub-category. In the following excerpt, for example, the teacher demonstrates knowledge on *receptive multilingualism*:

Sometimes it does not matter what language you speak, as long as you understand each other, like with receptive multilingualism. You may not speak a language but understand it, like with Frisian and Dutch. Then the point is that you get the message even though you speak a different language.

While commenting on the excerpts in the vignettes, teachers also provided their views on the *combination of different teaching approaches*:


This excerpt clearly shows that teachers are aware of the *different teaching approaches* that can be implemented in order to use several languages in instruction and how to combine them.

Next to knowledge on specifc teaching methodologies, teachers also shared their experiences on language acquisition in multilingual settings. In the excerpt below, teachers discuss the *importance of pupils' home languages* for learning new concepts:


A teacher in another group provides an account of the skills of pupils with and without prior instruction in the home languages:

If a child is eight or ten, and they speak Chinese at home and no one else speaks this language in class, it is diffcult but possible. They have learned how to learn, they know how to sit on a chair at a table, how to pay attention, how to write. Skills like that enhance learning of a new language. We also had children from Eritrea who had no education at all in their home country. They don't even know what it is like to sit on a chair at a table all day or to write with a pencil. So, they frst have to learn the motor skills to write.

This teacher is thus aware of the transfer of skills that pupils with prior schooling can accomplish within the Dutch education system and that teaching needs to accommodate to this situation. Another teacher discusses phases in the language acquisition of multilingual pupils:

You also see that students frst have some sort of intermediate phase in that they use words in Dutch but sometimes in their own language and that it is very logical for them but not always for us.

### **4.2.3 Reported Attitudes in Translanguaging-Based Approaches**

Explicit attitudes are diffcult to elicit, in particular in a group discussion. As a result, only 9% of the coded segments were attributed to this category. Three main sub-categories were distinguished: change in attitudes, awareness and vision development and bidirectionality of teaching and learning. In terms of *changes in attitudes* a teacher in one of the groups reports that the "*whole attitude of the staff and how we deal with multilingualism*" has changed within the school. In another group, this is made more concrete in terms of changes in attitudes at different levels:


In one of the groups, teachers reported on the need to *develop their own vision on multilingualism* and to cooperate with other teachers:

 "That is certainly the frst big change, awareness, understanding, how do you deal with multilingualism, what is your vision, that kind of thing and the other teachers help you with this. Awareness and vision development are important."

Another discussion focused on the need to acknowledge that *learning is bidirectional* and for this to take place, teachers should be open to pupils' cultures:


Finally, another group summarizes changes in attitudes within their school in the following way: "But you know it is no longer 'me laughing at you', but 'we laugh together'. You see what I mean? And I noticed that this change is due to our general positive attitude."

### **5 Discussion and Conclusion**

In this chapter we set out to outline the potentials of translanguaging-based approaches as part of a holistic approach for multilingualism in education (Duarte 2017). We investigated classroom interaction in three schools participating in a two-year intervention for multilingualism in education (see description in Duarte and Günther-van der Meij 2018b) in order to pinpoint several functions of translanguaging. In addition, we used vignettes as an impulse to elicit teachers' skills, knowledge and attitudes towards translanguaging-based approaches.

Both data sources point towards the relevance of the symbolic function of translanguaging (Duarte 2018) for both pupils and teachers. At the interactional level, teachers often make bridges towards the pupils' home languages in order to enhance learning. They also emphasise the importance of linking home languages to the Dutch language. In our sample, we found this to happen mainly at a semantic level, i.e., teachers asking for single words in the pupils' languages. The exception was one school for newly arrived pupils that encourages pupils to engage in longer interactions in their home languages during offcial classroom talk. Other schools also stimulated interaction in pupils' languages by using peer-coaching during group work. These recurring translanguaging spaces make use of "diverse multiple meaning-making systems" (Li Wei 2017, p. 24) and seem to occur naturally at the project schools.

At the PD level, teachers in fact reinforced the relevance of acknowledging the different languages of the pupils and of linking them to concepts in Dutch. In their discussions, several skills were mentioned in order to realize this, such as asking the pupils themselves or their parents, using translation or involving peers.

As seen in both interaction excerpts and in several accounts of the teachers, the symbolic function of translanguaging—the awareness and acknowledgement of different languages—is often perceived to be linked to cognitive aspects of learning. Teachers reported that such awareness moments facilitated content comprehension and learning in both language and content subjects. This happened often without the teachers themselves being profcient in the pupils' languages and being able to check the pupils' answers in their family languages.

Another aspect that emerges in both interaction and teacher discussions is related to the process of language learning itself. The data shows how both explicit language comparisons and making language a topic in class can also enhance (meta-)linguistic knowledge of all pupils. In teachers' accounts of the use of translanguaging they reported more often on the benefts of using several languages in instruction to enhance knowledge on languages in general but not to learn one specifc language.

The current study, although based on a small sample of video observations and vignette-based discussions, points towards the importance of addressing pedagogical skills, knowledge and attitudes of teachers in PD (Fürstenau 2016; Pulinx et al. 2017) while developing and implementing programmes for multilingual education. Teachers in our sample gradually embraced and used their pupils' multilingualism through experimenting in class in a small and safe scale, discussing the results with colleagues and researchers before engaging in another cycle of experimenting. The iterative design-based approach (McKenney and Reeves 2013; Cobb et al. 2003) used to co-develop the multilingual teaching activities seemed to provide enough possibilities for teachers to develop their knowledge on language development and teaching in multilingual settings, to experiment with and implement different pedagogical skills in a translanguaging-based pedagogy and to report having developed a positive attitude towards the use of multilingualism in education. As such, our results so far contradict earlier fndings on teachers perpetuating monolingual myths, (Angelis 2011; Fürstenau 2016; Gkaintartzi et al. 2015), on the perception of migrant languages as a defcit (Kaptain 2007; Pulinx et al. 2017; Tolbert and Knox 2016) and on home languages having little value, cognitively or otherwise (Gkaintartzi et al. 2015; Pulinx et al. 2017; Vaish 2012; Young 2014).

### **References**


**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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### **Language Comparison as an Inclusive Translanguaging Strategy: Analysis of a Multilingual Teaching Situation in a German Primary School Classroom**

Sara Fürstenau, Yağmur Çelik and Simone Plöger

### **Abstract**

This chapter highlights the practical implementation of language comparisons in a multilingual classroom. Following the key-incident-approach, we analysed a specifc teaching situation in a German primary school in order to point out how the teacher shapes a translanguaging strategy that includes all children and their knowledge, and how she deals with the associated challenges.

### **Keywords**

Translanguaging · Language comparison · Multilingual classroom · Inclusive teaching

Translated by Judith Keinath

S. Fürstenau (\*) · Y. Çelik · S. Plöger Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany e-mail: sara.fuerstenau@uni-hamburg.de

S. Plöger e-mail: simone.ploeger@uni-hamburg.de

145

J. A. Panagiotopoulou et al. (eds.), *Inclusion, Education and Translanguaging*, Inklusion und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28128-1\_9

### **1 Introduction**

In educational projects all over the world, it has been stated that educators should encourage their students to use their entire linguistic repertoire to think, refect and extend their inner speech (for an overview see Hélot 2013). The present chapter focuses on language comparison as a didactical core element of multilingualism-sensitive classrooms. The use of language comparisons has been promoted in the context of Translanguaging Pedagogy, and we will trace it back to Hawkins' (1984) ideas of "Awareness of Language".

Although language comparisons play an important role in the conception of didactic approaches to multilingualism, their practical implementation in the classroom can qualify as a research desideratum. In this contribution, we address this desideratum by analysing a classroom situation. The aim of the analysis is to work out how a teacher shapes the language comparison in a multilingual learning group and how she deals with the associated challenges. One challenge frequently mentioned with regard to multilingual classrooms in migration societies is the fact that the children use many different family languages about which the teacher herself knows very little. The analysis in this article is led by the question as to how the teacher can include the linguistic knowledge of the children in class and use it for joint language learning in the group despite this challenge. The paper is based on data from a research project ("Multilingualism as a feld of action in intercultural school development", short MIKS-project) in which the teaching staff of primary schools was assisted and supported in implementing multilingual didactic approaches in the classroom. An important precondition for language comparisons in multilingual settings was met: teachers in the MIKS-project schools were open and willing to engage with the pupils' home languages.

### **2 Theoretical Framework, State of Research and Research Questions**

### **2.1 Translanguaging Pedagogy**

To analyse language education in multilingual classrooms, it is useful to adopt a pedagogical concept of translanguaging that involves all languages in a classroom, as the one offered by Ofelia García and others:

Translanguaging can be defned as a process by which students and teachers engage in complex discursive practices that include *all* the language practices of students in order to develop new language practices and sustain old ones, communicate appropriate knowledge, and give voice to new socio-political realities by interrogating linguistic inequality. (García and Kano 2014, p. 261)

As we know, the inclusion of children's multilingual language practices into class is by no means the norm but rather the exception in most schools worldwide (see Hélot 2013). Against this background, teachers who want to develop translanguaging pedagogy in multilingual classes are facing major challenges. It is not merely a matter of including all the language experiences of all students; in addition, new language practices should be jointly developed in the multilingual learning group—involving all children in the communication—with the aims of learning something and of questioning language hierarchies in social contexts. It was not without reason that one of the MIKS project's focal points was the support of school development processes. For a single teacher, it is hardly possible to implement translanguaging pedagogy in this comprehensive sense. Rather, it needs the cooperative development of a "multilingualism-friendly school culture", as Katrin Huxel observes in her case study of a MIKS project school (Huxel 2018). This corresponds to the categorization of translanguaging pedagogy as "transformative" pedagogy (García and Wei 2014).

With regard to the lessons in every single classroom, many questions remain open as well. Some researchers point out that translanguaging among children is most likely to occur naturally once a school decides to be open to all children's languages (Creese and Blackledge 2015; Vogel and García 2017). This expectation is based on the fnding that multilingual children are accustomed to access their full linguistic repertoire for communicative purposes, even in educational contexts. Accordingly, teachers can support the learning processes of individual children already by permitting all languages in class and by welcoming multilingual activities. This is not enough, however, if we adopt the comprehensive understanding of translanguaging pedagogy outlined above and the premise that teaching should support co-constructive learning in the group. Following Suresh Canagarajah (2011), we therefore base the analysis of classroom interaction in this paper on an understanding of translanguaging as a "social accomplishment" (p. 4). In this understanding, translanguaging "is an interactive achievement that depends on aligning one's language resources to the features of the ecology to construct meaning" (p. 5). The teacher is therefore faced with the task of shaping "translanguaging as a form of social practice" (p. 5) in the classroom, drawing on all children's language experience and knowledge, and rendering it useful for joint learning in the group. With this in mind, we view translanguaging as an *inclusive* teaching strategy. The professional actions of a teacher who implements translanguaging as an inclusive teaching strategy can be characterized by using three core components described by García et al. (2017, p. xii): "stance", "design" and "shifts". According to the authors, a "translanguaging stance sees the bilingual child's complex language repertoire as a resource, never as a defcit" (p. xiii). The second component, design, relates to planning and organizing a multilingualism-sensitive classroom. The third component, shifts, means that the teacher is essentially prepared for dynamic multilingual acting and thinking in the classroom and is willing to take up the children's multilingual knowledge spontaneously. These core components are—as the analysis in this paper will show suitable to capture the characteristics of teacher action in shaping a multilingual teaching situation. When shaping such a situation according to our understanding, *all* students should get the opportunity to develop cooperative metalinguistic awareness and mutual understanding, to recognize the value of all languages, and to jointly challenge language hierarchies. These goals of translanguaging pedagogy can be traced back to the concept of *language awareness*, as will be illustrated below.

### **2.2 Language Awareness**

In the scientifc literature on *Language Awareness*, the following defnition attributed to B. Gillian Donmall (1985) is popular: "Language Awareness is a person's sensitivity to a conscious awareness of the nature of language and its role in human life" (as cited in Garret and James 1993, p. 109). This concept has been used for decades as a basis to develop teaching that combines linguistic education in the school and majority language, in foreign languages, in the student's home languages and in minority languages; today, it is of outstanding importance for approaches to multilingualism didactics. Eric Hawkins, who developed the concept in the 1970s, is considered the founder of *Language Awareness.* In the scientifc discussion on foreign language didactics since the 1960s, the focus has been increasingly on teaching communicative competences, contrasting it to didactics that focus on teaching grammar. In this context, Hawkins' notion of "*Awareness of Language*", which he describes in his book with the same title (1984), was special and innovative. From Hawkins' point of view, one important goal of language teaching is to refect language, thus rendering students' implicit knowledge about language accessible and making it explicitly the subject of the lesson. Unlike didactic approaches that focus on communication skills, "*Awareness of Language*" is about developing metalinguistic knowledge: "our new curriculum topic will seek to give pupils confdence in grasping the patterns in language" (Hawkins 1984, p. 4). In addition, Hawkins developed the concept not only from a linguistic but also from a pedagogical perspective:

We are seeking to light fres of curiosity about the central human characteristic of language which will blaze throughout our pupils' lives. […] Above all we want to make our pupils' contacts with language, both their own and that of their neighbours, richer, more interesting, simply more fun. (Hawkins 1984, p. 6)

Our request to use linguistic diversity in the classroom for joint learning in the group and to design inclusive situations can also be traced back to Hawkins' thoughts on "*Awareness of Language*" (p. 3). According to Hawkins (1984), when children "come from different language backgrounds" and "tell one another about their language experiences", all children "can feel that they have something to contribute. Experiences that they share […] can, if properly handled, unite children". Hawkins' ideas live on programmatically in current concepts of multilingualism didactics. However, there are still hardly any answers to the question as to how multilingualism in the classroom should be "properly handled" in order to make joint learning possible. This question arises in particular with regard to learning groups in which the children have experiences with a great variety of languages the teacher is barely familiar with. Our analysis of a teaching situation in this paper aims at this desideratum.

### **2.3 Language Comparison**

Comparing linguistic forms of expression is, according to Hawkins (1984), the core element of a didactic that follows his concept of *Awareness of Language*:

A contrastive study, at an appropriate level, of […] patterns [in language] with those met in other languages (foreign languages studied in class as well as the ethnic minority languages of classmates) will be part of […] growing insight into the way language works to convey meaning. (p. 5)

In research, foreign language didactics were the frst to come up with language comparisons as a teaching strategy—a didactic approach that soon was discussed controversially (for an overview see Ticheloven et al. in press, for an example see Mehlhorn 2011). Due to the complexity of language comparisons, it is not easy to clearly outline the subject of a language comparison in the classroom and to use the comparison for linguistic learning. Nevertheless, language comparisons play an important role in recent concepts of multilingualism didactics. But the scientifc study of concrete experiences in the classroom has just begun. The scientifc discussion is often about challenges, obstacles, and the reasons why language comparisons are rarely carried out in multilingual learning groups (see Bredthauer 2019; Ticheloven et al. in press). The unease of teachers when dealing with languages they do not understand and about which they know nothing is an important issue. One of the few empirical studies on language comparisons in "hyperdiverse-multilingual classes" (p. 5) in German schools (Bredthauer 2019) is based on six expert interviews with teachers who teach language subjects at secondary level and declare that they regularly conduct language comparisons to incorporate the knowledge of their multilingual students. These teachers take the plunge of accepting that the classic role allocation in school changes when the students act as experts in their languages in class and when there are things the teacher does not know. Bredthauer elaborates, however, that the surveyed teachers take on an important "accompanying and moderating function" (p. 15) when guiding language comparisons, a task the respondents perceive as highly demanding (2019, translated from German). Hawkins (1984) attempts "to challenge pupils to ask questions about language" (p. 4). In light of the role that teachers play in including and comparing the students' languages, we would like to add that it can be equally important to challenge teachers to ask questions about language. The fact that language comparisons in multilingual classes can stimulate joint learning not only among the children, but may also include the teacher as a learner will be depicted in the classroom analysis in this paper.

The following questions, derived from theory and state of research, guide the analysis of a multilingual classroom situation: How does the teacher include the children's knowledge? To which extent is the teaching situation inclusive? In which ways does joint learning take place in the group? What are the goals of language comparison and what is the subject of comparison?

### **3 Research Project and Methods**

The project "Multilingualism as a feld of action in intercultural school development" (short MIKS-project) was funded by the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) for six years (2013–2019).1 MIKS includes a training programme for professionalization and school development, which aims at

<sup>1</sup>https://www.ew.uni-hamburg.de/en/einrichtungen/ew1/vergleichende/diver/forschung/ laufende-projekte/miks.html.

developing constructive approaches to incorporating students' home languages into the classroom (Fürstenau 2016). The training programme was developed in three primary schools during the frst phase of the project (2013–2016) and then implemented and scientifcally investigated at 17 project schools in North Rhine-Westphalia from 2016 to 2019. It comprises training days with a focus on the development of psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic knowledge and of possible multilingual teaching strategies, trial phases in which teachers experiment with multilingual strategies in their own lessons, and guided refection exercises (for details see Lange 2019). During the trial phases, teachers could choose or design ways of multilingual teaching that ft their own classroom and teaching style. In this regard, according to Mechthild Dehn the MIKS project is an "impulse project" (as cited in Fürstenau 2019): Teachers receive knowledge input and are supported in designing multilingual lesson units, but at the same time, they develop their own multilingual teaching practices. The scientifc investigation of the MIKS project included both qualitative (i.e. participant classroom observation, interviews with teachers and head teachers, observation of training days) and quantitative methods (survey questionnaires before and after the training programme). All project schools had a linguistically diverse school population with monolingual and multilingual students born in Germany as well as newcomer students. From the 17 project schools, four focus schools were selected for participant observation based on their explicit interest to be a focus school.

Results from the scientifc study of the MIKS project show that multilingual classroom situations differ greatly, e.g. depending on whose languages are incorporated, by whom, for which reasons and in what manner (see Dlugaj and Fürstenau 2019; Gilham and Fürstenau 2019). Project school teachers reported to use language comparisons more frequently than other multilingual teaching practices (Ticheloven et al. in press). Based on an analysis of observation protocols, we distinguished three levels of teacher initiative (Ticheloven et al. in press): responding to student-initiated comparisons (1), improvising spontaneous comparisons (2), and planning lessons that include comparisons (3). In this paper, we conduct an in-depth analysis of a classroom situation on the micro level. The data basis is one of 92 protocols from classroom observations in which a teacher conducts a language comparison in a planned manner. The situation illustrates a successful handling of the challenges outlined above. The teacher creates an inclusive classroom situation in which individual multilingual children can contribute their knowledge and, at the same time, the group can learn jointly. In addition, the teacher ensures that all children can understand the goal of their joint conversation about language and the subject of comparison. When choosing the teaching situation for analysis, we thus followed a key incident approach (Erickson 1977; Wilcox 1980). The objective was to "write it up so that others can see the generic in the particular, the universal in the concrete, the relation between part and whole […]" (Erickson 1977, p. 61). The results shed light on micro-level teaching patterns that represent and corroborate the bigger and more abstract theory of comparing languages in a multilingual setting.

### **4 Analysis: Comparing Languages in a Multilingual Primary School Classroom**

The analyzed teaching situation was observed at Hollyhock School, one of the MIKS focus schools. The school is located in the center of a German medium-sized city. In the school year 2017/2018, about 230 students attended the school, 57% of which, according to school management, use another family language besides German and 70% have a migrant background. At the school there are heritage language classes for the languages Albanian, Arabic, Greek, Portuguese, and Turkish. According to the headmistress, the school participated in the MIKS project because they feel that multilingualism and German as a second language classes are challenging and that an existing school development group should be supported in its work.

We analyse a teaching situation in an inter-year class 1/2 where the children are six to eight years old. Topic of the lesson is the lexical category verbs. At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher Ms Steffens asks the children if they know what verbs are. Some children know that verbs are "doing words" ("Tuwörter"). Ms Steffens lets the children tell her verbs in their basic form and in frst person singular and writes them on the board: spielen—ich spiele [play—I play], laufen—ich laufe [run—I run], etc. Then she draws the children's attention to the common feature of the German verb form in frst person, i.e. the ending -e2:

'What do you notice now? What do these [she stresses the word and points to the frst person forms] words all have in common?' She calls on a student. The student stands up, points to the ending of each word on the board and says, 'e, e, e, e.' Ms Steffens nods and says: 'There are many children in our class who speak a language other than German. Can any of you say *spielen [play]* in another language? How do you say *spielen* in your language? I can say it in English. In English you say *play*. Which other languages do you know?'

<sup>2</sup>All protocol citations are from an observation protocol dated 8 May 2018, written by Yağmur Çelik. All proper names are pseudonyms.

**Fig. 1** Blackboard Presentation (8th of May 2018, Hollyhock school)

As an introduction to the subject, Ms Steffens initiates a ten-minute conversation in which the teacher and the children jointly compare languages. Subject of comparison are the verb forms in frst person singular. With the question "Which other languages do you know?", the teacher addresses the whole learning group. During the following conversation, she never addresses individual children with specifc expectations. Rather, it is up to the children to decide which linguistic knowledge they want and are able to contribute. During the conversation, the children introduce seven languages of their own accord: Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Albanian, Bulgarian, Polish, and Kurdish. The teacher develops the blackboard presentation by letting the children dictate verb forms and writing them down phonetically (see Fig. 1: 2nd line Arabic, 3rd line Persian, 4th line English, 5th and 6th lines Bulgarian, and 7th line Kurdish). The teacher herself adds the English form "I play" on the blackboard once none of the children raises the hand any more. Thereupon a boy contributes Bulgarian and writes "I play" in Bulgarian using Cyrillic script on the board after the teacher wrote the phonetic version. In the course of the conversation, other children point out that while they may speak Turkish, Albanian and Polish, they do not know the verb forms; therefore, these languages do not appear on the blackboard. In the protocol is noted, for instance, "Another student says somewhat desperately: 'I can speak Polish, but I don't know what it means'". The teacher does not comment on this. Below, we will analyse in detail chosen passages from the observed sequence with regard to the teacher's pedagogical approach and her creation of an inclusive discussion in class.

Following the introductory question "Which other languages do you know?", the teacher picks a student who raises his hand:

He says an Arabic word. She asks: 'Tell me your language.' He replies: 'Arabic.' She repeats: 'Arabic? And how do you say this in Arabic? Say it again.' He repeats the word *to play* again in Arabic. She imitates him and asks grinning: 'Do I pronounce that correctly?' The boy and the other Arabic-speaking students shout 'no' and laugh. She laughs, tries it again and says: 'Oh man, that's diffcult. Can you pronounce that?' The students shout 'yes', laugh, and repeat the word loudly a few times. She repeats it with them and the students try to help her with the pronunciation. She tries it a few more times and then says: 'Now, of course I can't speak Arabic. Do you also know how to say *I play* in Arabic?' She looks briefy at an orange note on her desk.3 An Arabic-speaking girl puts her hand up and says two Arabic words. Another student corrects her pronunciation. Then Ms Steffens says: 'I've had it written down for me; that's how it is written.' She writes *innaa aleabu*4 on the board below *ich spiele*, then looks at all students and says: 'This is not Arabic writing. These are the German letters.' She turns to the Arabic-speaking boy who answered frst and asks him to say the word again. He repeats it; she repeats it as well, is briefy corrected in her pronunciation by the students and then corrects herself again.

The Arabic-speaking children contribute their knowledge, and the teacher positions herself as a learner ("Do I pronounce that correctly?", "Now, of course I can't speak Arabic"). In advance, the teacher had asked someone to write down "I play" in Arabic using Latin script ("orange note"). But that was her only preparation for this language comparison, and the spelling is corrected by the children in the further course of the language comparison (see below). Not only Arabicspeaking children, but all children participate and correct each other and the teacher when it comes to the pronunciation of Arabic ("'Can you pronounce that?' The students shout 'yes', laugh and repeat the word loudly a few times"). Then,

<sup>3</sup>The teacher had asked an Arabic-speaking person to write down for her "I play" in Arabic using Latin script. That was her only preparation for the language comparison.

<sup>4</sup>In the further course of the conversation, this spelling is changed by the children to: ana aleabu (see Fig. 1).

the teacher assumes again the teaching role by directing the children's attention to the writing ("This is not Arabic writing. These are the German letters").

Other children raise their hands and introduce various languages. The observation protocol indicates that in this process, the children and their teacher jointly discover the linguistic knowledge present in the group. It becomes clear that all parties are very interested in this knowledge, as is shown e.g. in the following situation:

Ms Steffens writes *manbasi miconam*5 on the board. The pupil Zahir Zia nods contentedly. […] She turns to him: 'That means I play? In which language?' He looks startled, points with both hands to his upper body and says in a high voice: 'In my language.' Ms Steffens laughs and says: 'What is your language?' He says again in a high voice: 'In Persian.' An exclamation of admiration 'oaah' can be heard from some children.

Multilingualism and engaging with different languages do not yet seem to be a normal part of class in this group, since the children meet the knowledge of Persian with "admiration", and the teacher did not know that Zia Zahir speaks Persian. She knew that some children in the group speak Arabic, but the family languages of other children seem to be new to her. This also applies to Julian. Only when no more children raise their hands and the teacher contributes her own English language skills (she writes "*I play*" on the board), Julian pipes up:

Julian says he knows it in Bulgarian. Another student loudly calls his name and points to him: 'Julian can do that.' Ms Steffens looks at him in surprise: 'Julian, Bulgarian! I play?' He quickly says the Bulgarian words for it. It is followed by a 'Woaah' of admiration that sweeps through the classroom.

Julian dictates, and the teacher writes "as igraje" on the blackboard. Obviously, the children understood that in the current situation—unlike in most classroom situations—knowledge in languages other than German is required. The situation is inclusive since all children focus on the multilingual knowledge available *in the group* ("Julian can do that."). "Admiration" may also be evoked by the appreciation in the classroom context. Julian is further able to write "I play" in Bulgarian on the blackboard using Cyrillic script, and the teacher as a moderator can contribute her knowledge of various scriptures: "Look, Julian writes in Cyrillic letters. Have you ever seen that?" Some students exclaim: "Like cursive handwriting." She nods and says: "Yes, it looks a little bit like cursive handwriting." Another student says: "Our writing is different, too."

<sup>5&</sup>quot;Miconam" means "I do" and "basi" means "game".

This creates a new occasion for comparison, this time on the level of writing. Julian is not the only one in the group who knows about different writing systems ("Our writing is different, too"). This is probably a knowledge that has not played a major role in the classroom so far but becomes meaningful now by way of the inclusive setting.

In a next step, Ms Steffens wants to write the frst person forms for another verb—to run—on the board:

She says that now they will also conjugate the verb *to run* multilingually and starts again with Arabic. She asks: 'Can anyone say *I run* in Arabic?' A student puts her hand up and says two Arabic words. Another student heckles: 'No, that means *walk*.' Ms Steffens: 'It means *I walk*? And *run* is yet another word?' She frowns. The Arabic-speaking students think and look at each other, but do not answer. Ms Steffens says: 'But *ana* defnitely. Does it mean *I*? Does *ana* mean *I*?' She writes the word *ana* on the board and asks: 'and run?' A student says: 'ana irkot.' The other Arabic-speaking students repeat it and Ms Steffens writes 'ana irkot' on the board. I am surprised how attentively and quietly the other students listen. Ms Steffens says: 'Look, I'm wondering right now. That means [she points to the word *innaa alaebu* on the board] *I play* and that means *I run* [she points to *ana irkot*]?' The students nod 'yes'. Ms Steffens asks: 'Why is here [she points to the word *innaa*] another word for 'I' than here [she points to the word *ana*]?' An Arabic-speaking student says: 'That's wrong.' Ms Steffens: 'This is misspelled? Is it also *ana*?' The student nods and Ms Steffens says: 'Who knows how that is written. We can't write Arabic. But then this should also be an *ana*.' She changes the word *innaa* to *ana*. The students nod.

The protocol contains various indications that in this situation everybody involved is stimulated to think about language while the teacher and several Arabic-speaking children work out together how to write "I run" in Arabic using Latin script on the blackboard. The joint refection begins on the semantic level as the children orally translate "I run" into Arabic (running vs. walking). The teacher thinks ahead ("'It means *I walk*? And run is yet another word?' She frowns."). The teacher lets the children go on pondering by not insisting on a quick answer but frst writing down the part of the translation the children seem to agree on: ana. "Does *ana* mean *I*? […] and *run*?" Ms Steffens asks. Now a student dictates "*ana irkot*" and other children agree by repeating the wording. The pondering has obviously led to a joint result. Even the children who cannot translate 'I run' into Arabic seem to be pondering (the observer is "surprised how attentively and quietly the other students listen"). In the next step, the teacher once again pursues the matter of comparing languages and discovering regular patterns. She draws attention to the translation of the word *I* into Arabic, or rather to its phonetic representation in Latin script, because there are two different spellings, "innaa" and "ana" on the blackboard. Although it was the teacher who introduced the spelling "innaa" ("orange note", see above), a student now dares to say, "That's wrong." The teacher, in turn, accepts the student's correction without questioning it ("then this should also be an *ana*") and corrects the spelling on the blackboard. The teacher arranges the situation in such a way that the children have the last word, thus honouring the children's knowledge. At the same time, she observes something the group has in common, which is that apparently none of those present has learned to write Arabic script ("Who knows how that is written. We can't write Arabic."). In the role of teacher, Ms Steffens draws the attention of the class to the signifcance of different writing systems. However, with the spelling "*ana*" established by the children, everyone seems to be satisfed ("The students nod."). With the aim of making different languages visible for comparing them, the children incidentally accomplish the feat of assigning sounds of the Arabic language to Latin writing.

After the group has agreed on Arabic, a student speaks up and names a language that has not yet been considered, but which is spoken by many children at Hollyhock School: Kurdish. "Ms Steffens: 'Oh, we forgot Kurdish. Do you know it?' Another Kurdish-speaking girl laughs and says, 'Anyone can do that'."

The teacher's wording in the frst person plural—"*We* forgot Kurdish"—can be seen as a further inclusive approach to multilingualism. By using *we*, the teacher makes it clear that Kurdish as a language is signifcant for all in the group, not only for those who speak Kurdish at home. Quickly the girls dictate the teacher *I play* and *I run* in Kurdish. Subsequently, Zahir Zia dictates *I run* in Persian—*man midoam*—and explains that *man* means *I*. 6 The teacher takes up the example to explicitly compare the frst person forms:

Ms Steffens summarizes: 'Well that's the same as in German. The *I* at the beginning stays the same. We always have an -*e* as ending and in Persian we always have an -*am*.' She underlines the word *man* and the ending -*am* with a different colour.

Again, the teacher speaks in frst person plural ("… and in Persian we always have an -*am*"), thus emphasizing the signifcance of the Persian verb form for

<sup>6</sup>Besides "man", the other Persian verb "man basi miconam" and "man midoam" also have the "mi-" in common, which is a prefx for verbs in present tense.

joint learning. She draws the students' attention to both similarities and differences between the verb forms:

As a last example, she takes the Bulgarian word and asks Julian for the translation of *I run*. He says it and she writes *as titscham* on the blackboard. She asks again: 'What is now the same in Bulgarian?' Nikolas raises his hand and says that the frst word *as* recurs. Ms Steffens nods and underlines the *as*; then she asks about the ending: 'Is the ending the same, too?' The students shout: 'No.' A student says: 'No, but *as* means *I*'. Ms Steffens: 'That's possible. But as you can see, endings are not necessarily the same in every language. Here we have different endings [she points to the Arabic translations], in German the ending is always the same and in Persian it is the same, too. But in Bulgarian it is different. Thus, it can differ from language to language.'

Although Julian is the only student in the group who speaks Bulgarian, the teacher clearly addresses all children with the question "What is the same in Bulgarian?" Nikolas recognized that the word "*as*" recurs. Then Ms Steffens asks the children to look at the endings of the Bulgarian frst person forms written in Latin script on the blackboard ("Is the ending the same, too?"). The protocol states that "The students [i.e. all and not just the boy who speaks Bulgarian] shout: 'No.'" The student who then objects "but *as* means me" refers to the meaning of a word in a language that is new to her and shows what she has learned. The teacher answers "that's possible", making it clear that she herself is not the one who speaks Bulgarian, and continues the joint refection on language. Finally, the teacher uses all the verb forms gathered on the board for a short talk on the subject of comparison—verbs in frst person singular—and points out with regard to the observed regularities and discrepancies that "it can differ from language to language." The gist of what all children should learn in this German lesson is also explicitly stated by Ms Steffens: "In German, the ending is always the same."

### **5 Conclusions**

We chose the analysed teaching situation as a key incident because it is productive for answering the research questions formulated above. The analysis provides guidance on how a teacher may create an *inclusive classroom situation* in which *individual children can contribute their knowledge* and, at the same time, the *group can learn jointly*. Furthermore, we can see in the analysed situation how a teacher may ensure that all children understand the *goal and subject of language comparison* and jointly develop *language awareness*. To conclude, we will map out how the characteristics of the teacher's actions can be captured with the three core components of translanguaging pedagogy devised by García et al. (2017, p. xii): "stance", "design" and "shifts".

How does the teacher in the analysed teaching situation succeed in activating the multilingual knowledge of frst- and second-graders for language comparison and in making it the subject of conversation? It is noteworthy that the teacher addresses her questions consistently to the whole group, not to individual children. It is up to the children themselves to decide whether they want to contribute their knowledge or not. We attribute the lively participation of the children not least to the *stance* of the teacher: The way in which the teacher treats the children's statements displays a permissive, appreciative, curious and error-friendly stance. By way of genuine questions and great interest, the teacher seems to encourage the children to talk about their family languages, even though they have not been used to it in the classroom context. Besides, the teacher seems to literally infect all children in the group with her interest in languages, which helps to develop a conversation in which they actually think together about language. This becomes apparent, for example, in the fact that children express and discuss observations about their classmates' languages which they do not understand themselves. The joint refection is supported by the teacher's moderation, who takes the children's contributions seriously and picks up on them, repeatedly making it clear that the group ("we") has a common interest in all represented languages. Thus, the teacher ensures an *inclusive classroom situation* in which the *group can learn jointly* not only by her stance, but also by explicit announcements. Hawkins (1984) assumes in his conception of "Awareness of Language" that "[a]ll can feel that they have something to contribute" (p. 3). This is obviously true in the analysed situation, regardless of whether the children grow up monolingual or multilingual.

The analysis has shown that, during their conversation about languages, teacher and children jointly discover the linguistic knowledge existing in the group. In the process, the knowledge of individual children receives great recognition—even "admiration", according to the observation protocol. We therefore assume that addressing the existing multilingualism is a new experience for the learning group. The analysis thus provides an insight into a classroom situation, in which the transformative potential of translanguaging pedagogy becomes apparent. According to Vogel and García (2017), translanguaging pedagogy even has "the potential to transform relationships between students, teachers and the curriculum" (p. 10). Our analysis of the teaching situation contains references to such a transformative process, since it is indeed true that "teachers and students learn from each other, and all language practices are equally valued." (Vogel and García 2017, p. 10). The described transformations take place as part of a school development process. The teaching staff of Hollyhock School, where the teaching situation was observed, decided to address multilingualism as a feld of action for school development by participating in the MIKS project. The teachers try out multilingual didactic approaches in the classroom and thus gain new experiences.

A special experience for the teachers consists in planning and designing lessons in which contents—more specifcally: languages—are addressed, about which they know very little themselves. This makes a careful *design* no less important, as the analysis has shown. The observed teacher guides the language comparison in a well-planned manner. In the analysis, we mapped out how the teacher in her role as a moderator ensures that all children can understand the *goal and the subject of language comparison*. The teacher does not lose sight of the subject of the lesson (verb forms in frst person singular) and repeatedly tells the children explicitly what they need to understand (regularities and irregularities). Ultimately, this multilingual language comparison is a planned part of German language class, and the goal is to understand verb forms of the German language. Nonetheless, the art of teaching consists in maintaining openness to the children's knowledge and thoughts despite the plan, and this is where the *shifts* come into play.

García et al. (2017) describe it as a challenge in the classroom "to follow the dynamic movement of the translanguaging corriente" (p. xiii). Although the observed teacher has a plan, she has to deal with the fact that it is completely unclear which linguistic knowledge the children will contribute and what the linguistic basis for the comparison of verb forms will be. The teacher repeatedly talks with the children about questions without knowing the answers. The "shifts" consist in the "moment-by-moment decisions" (García et al. 2017, p. xiii), e.g. when a child dictates something in a language the teacher does not understand, and she writes it in phonetic spelling on the blackboard. Such shifts are only possible if the teacher takes the children's knowledge seriously and is prepared to leave safe ground. Findings from the MIKS project indicate that this willingness among teachers varies considerably depending i.a. on their own experiences with language learning (Gilham and Fürstenau 2019).

It is a task for further research to investigate how teachers in multilingual teaching situations deal with linguistic uncertainties, and which strategies they pursue when applying multilingualism didactics in order to use languages they know very little about. To prepare for a lesson, the teacher may of course read up on languages spoken by children in her class as part of the *design*. This approach played only a minor role in the teaching situation analysed above (the teacher had Arabic words written in Latin script on a slip of paper in advance). Other lessons we observed at the MIKS focus schools were based on, e.g., cooperating with multilingual parents who contribute their linguistic knowledge to lessons. In any case, multilingual classroom situations have in common that insecurities on the teacher's side can hardly be avoided, that is to say, moments of not-knowing will occur. This conficts with the self-image of some teachers. Therefore, studies on how teachers in multilingual teaching situations can deal constructively with insecurity and not-knowing will be useful to advance research on multilingualism didactics.

### **References**


Hawkins, E. (1984). *Awareness of language*. Cambridge: University Press.


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**Translanguaging from the Perspective of (Multilingual) Students, Teachers and Educators**

### **Refecting Lingualities and Positionalities for a Changing Education System**

### Magdalena Knappik, Corinna Peschel, Sara Hägi-Mead, Aslı Can Ayten and Tatjana Atanasoska

### **Abstract**

To improve teacher education for multilingual and often minoritized classrooms, we aim to fnd out more about future teachers' understandings of multilingualism. Using a biographical professionalization research approach, we investigate the interactions of students' biographical and academic knowledge in autobiographical texts, focusing on two minoritized students. Their texts allow to reconstruct biographical knowledge of family language policies, Heritage Language Instruction and translingual lifeworlds. They also show the students' knowledge of language ideologies that devalue multilingualism.

C. Peschel e-mail: peschel@uni-wuppertal.de

S. Hägi-Mead e-mail: sara.haegi-mead@uni-wuppertal.de

T. Atanasoska e-mail: atanasoska@uni-wuppertal.de

© The Author(s) 2020

165

M. Knappik (\*) · C. Peschel · S. Hägi-Mead · T. Atanasoska Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany e-mail: knappik@uni-wuppertal.de

A. C. Ayten Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Münster, Germany e-mail: aytena@uni-muenster.de

J. A. Panagiotopoulou et al. (eds.), *Inclusion, Education and Translanguaging*, Inklusion und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28128-1\_10

#### **Keywords**

Teacher education · Minoritized pre-service teachers · Understandings of multilingualism · Language ideologies

### **1 Introduction**

Multilingualities are neither neutral nor equal, even though they are part of everyday life and education in most societies all over the world. Research shows that minoritized multilingual students still face social injustice and run the risk of being educationally disadvantaged (Kuhn and Neumann 2017; Panagiotopoulou and Rosen 2018). Classroom practices that devalue multilingual languaging practices are greatly contributing to this inequality. This is often the case in national education systems that still support mainly monolingualism even though they are factually multilingual, such as in Germany or Austria. Teachers often report to be overcharged by the lingual heterogeneity in their respective classrooms, feeling illprepared and fearing to lose control (Arnold 2015; Baumann and Becker-Mrotzek 2014; Bredthauer and Engfer 2018). To better prepare future teachers for a changing education system, the module "Deutsch für Schülerinnen und Schüler mit Zuwanderungsgeschichte" (German for students with a history of immigration, short "DaZ module") was implemented in teacher education in 2009 in Germany. In some of Germany's federal states, it is mandatory for all students in teacher education), including the state where our project is located, and facultative in some of the other states (Baumann 2017). The module (6 ECTS1) usually comprises a lecture and a seminar and provides an introduction to multilingualism and its didactics.

The "DaZ module" is meant to equip future teachers with knowledge to work on language-related didactics and education inequalities. Some studies show that teacher education students who participate in seminars that prepare teachers for multilingal classrooms show a greater appreciation of multilingualities and less insistence on strictly monolingual teaching practices (Strobl et al. 2019—albeit for a more extensive version of the module with 12 ECTS, Born et al. 2019). Furthermore, they show a higher competence in teaching matters related to

<sup>1</sup>The University of Duisburg-Essen is the only university in North-Rhine Westphalia that offers a 12 ETCS module. The University of Dortmund offers 9 ECTS for secondary school teacher education degrees and 6 ECTS for other teacher education degrees. Before implementation, 12 ECTS were recommended (Stiftung Mercator 2009).

multilingualism and German as a Second Language (Bührig et al. 2020). The sum of attended seminars is the most important predictor for their competence growth (Stangen et al. 2019). However, some results also point towards an adversatory effect: The module seems to create and label a group of students as others, and moreover, as others having a defcit and needing the teachers' help (Döll et al. 2017). This seems to happen instead of developing a stance that values emerging bilinguals' linguistic curiosity, fexibility and their communicative and learning skills. Bredthauer and Engfer (2018) summarize their review of twelve empirical studies on teachers' beliefs about multilingualism by pointing towards a considerable discrepancy between teachers' overt positive stance towards multilingualism and their lack of actual multilingual teaching practices and negative views on minoritized languages. This is in line with research that stresses the importance of developing a professional and refective stance toward issues of migration, social inequalities and language(s) as part of teacher education (Skerrett 2015; Gomez and Johnson Lachuk 2017; Dirim and Mecheril 2018; Gottuck et al. 2019). This is beautifully complemented by García's et al. (2017) insistence on the development of a translanguaging stance as the foundation for lesson planning and teaching within translanguaging pedagogy.

However, before we can do more research on teachers' stances on multilingualism, we need to fnd out more about students' actual understandings of multilingualism. What do they mean when they talk about multilingualism?

We approach this question with a focus informed by biographical professionalization research (Dausien 2003; Volkmann 2008; Schwendowius 2015; Dausien and Hanses 2017; Thoma 2018; Epp 2019). Drawing on the sociology of knowledge and its distinction between different kinds of knowledge (Berger and Luckmann 1966), biography research focuses on biographical knowledge (Alheit and Hoerning 1989; Dausien and Hanses 2017). Biographical knowledge is the knowledge we acquire throughout our lives. It is stacked up over the time of the life-span and specifc to each individual. However, biographical knowledge is not just of a personal or individual nature, it also contains institutional and social knowledge, as individuals' experiences are embedded within social and institutional frames. By forming their biographical knowledge, they interpret and make sense of their experiences, and of themselves, within these frames. This allows us to view the students' biographical knowledge as being in a multi-layered interaction with social frames such as language ideologies (Irvine 2016). These interactions might shape their understandings of multilingualism and their respective beliefs.

It is important to note that biography is not simply a term that relates to individuals' life stories. Dausien and Hanses (2017) point out that biography is also a social construct. Individual life stories refect social expectations on (normal) biographies. They argue that it is possible to reconstruct social expectations of normalcy from the ways in which individuals present themselves through their life stories. From this perspective, a biography research approach is interested not only in individual life stories, but also, as Dausien and Hanses stress, in more general and abstract reconstructions of social expectations and constructions of normalcy with regard to biographies. In a similar vein, biographical texts allow to reconstruct social membership categories and the "rules" of their inclusiveness or exclusiveness by analyzing how individuals negotiate their own social memberships in their biographical texts.

Biographical professionalization research also highlights the interactional (Dausien and Hanses 2017) nature of biographical knowledge with other kinds of knowledge, such as "academic knowledge". This relationship may be viewed as fuid (Epp 2019), or, as we fnd, also contradictory. We use the term "academic knowledge" to refer to the knowledge that might be created by participating in higher education. Processes of knowledge creation are individual. They are only partly infuenced by the content matter of a curriculum and the learning opportunities that educators provide.

Thus, we ask:


### **2 Method**

To answer these questions, we conduct the ongoing project "DaZu" ("Aushandlungen von Zugehörigkeiten im DaZ-Modul"—"Negotiating Social Memberships in the DaZ-Modul"2). The project "DaZu" consists of quantitative and qualitative

<sup>2</sup>The research group working on this ongoing project is Tatjana Atanasoska, Sara Hägi-Mead, Magdalena Knappik, Corinna Peschel (University of Wuppertal) and Aslı Can Ayten (University of Münster); the project is led by Sara Hägi-Mead.

data; in this article, we will focus on the qualitative data. To pilot our study, we asked students who participated in the DaZ-Modul to write down their "multilingualities biographies". This was an assignment at the end of their seminars in the module. We used a prompt that focused on the students' individual encounters and experiences with multilingualism, multilingual speakers and German as a Second Language. We also asked them to write about any content matter they came across during their studies that had to do with multilingualism. The prompt was accompanied by a short questionnaire that asked students about their background information (like age, languages learned in their frst three years, etc.). They could decide whether they wanted their text to be included in our project or not. 125 biographies were collected and anonymized using an individualized alphanumerical code. The written texts are two to four pages long in average.

Asking the students to write seems to have two major advantages: First, writing gives access to thoughts and beliefs, which otherwise could not be analyzed by us. Second, writing could, thanks to its epistemic quality, be a chance for the writers to organize their own knowledge and beliefs and refect on them.

The data collection method proved apt to elicit explicit positionings of students towards multilingualities and their speakers. Students recounted both everyday experiences and things they learnt in their studies. It is possible to reconstruct biographical and academic knowledge from the texts, and it is very interesting how those kinds of knowledge contradict each other. Those contradictions seem to be a great source of data for analyzing frictions and changes in knowledge and concepts (also in those, that might have been inert before), developments in the way students refect on multilingualism and, hence, learning processes.

As a limitation, in the pilot's writing prompt, we did not explicitly ask students to refect. We only had one point of data collection (towards the end of the DaZ-Modul), so it is not possible to reconstruct learning processes. However, we could reconstruct potential signposts for such processes. These are points where students make the aforementioned contradictions the subject of discussion. The seminar setting of data collection frames the relationship between students and researchers who were the seminar teachers. Institutional frameworks can have infuenced which content students chose to write about. Considering the strong social desirability that is to be expected here, it is even more remarkable when students position themselves in opposition to content matter that was taught in the module. We utilized the data of our pilot study to develop a heuristic for these questions and to further develop our research design for the main study.

We interpreted the biographies using both, initially, a sequential analysis approach (Reichertz 2016) and later a category building approach drawing on Grounded Theory Methodology (Charmaz 2006).

### **3 Findings**

When analyzing the biographies of multilingualism, we noticed that there are systematic differences between the biographical knowledge of minoritized multilingual students and students who grew up monolingual German-speaking. For students who grew up monolingual German-speaking, the contents of the DaZ module are knowledge productions about "others". For migration-related multilingual students it is contents that address themselves as members of the group/ category that is produced by the module ("with immigrant history"). They do not simply assign themselves to this group, but negotiate this addressation intensively. For this text, we will highlight the biographical knowledge of two multilingual students and the negotiations that are part of their understandings of multilingualism.3 In the following, we will present fndings about the students' negotiations of being a "Speaker of German as a Second Language", about their family language policies, about their experiences with Heritage Language Instructions, and about their views on translingual practices. We chose to present the fndings following the temporal sequence of the students' texts.

### **3.1 Negotiating Being a "Speaker of German as a Second Language" ("DaZ-Sprecher\*in")**

At the beginning of their texts, three-quarters of the multilingual students identify themselves as "DaZ speakers". According to the contents taught in the DaZ module, this term refers to speakers who have acquired German after the age of three (Ahrenholz 2017). The term is used in the literature to distinguish this constellation of acquisition from that of simultaneous bilingual language acquisition, i.e. the acquisition of two languages within the frst three years of life.

"My frst contact with a DaZ speaker is probably I myself. Even though I now speak German much better than Arabic, it was the language with which I frst came into contact, as I was born in Tunisia. But in the DaZ seminars I learned that your frst language is not the same as the language one speaks best, but a completely neutral and time-oriented term" (BDS28, pp. 1–5).

<sup>3</sup>For analyses on majorized students' understandings of multilingualism, see Hägi-Mead et al. (forthc.).

"Before I went to university, I was able to make experiences with speakers of German as a Second Language in many contexts, because I am basically a speaker of German as a Second Language myself. My family is originally from Turkey. My parents were both born in Turkey, albeit my mother completed her education fully in Germany. Hence, I was born in Germany" (RRA28, pp. 1 ff.).4

There are three things to note here: Firstly, the students self-identify as members of the group of "DaZ-speakers" with modalizing expressions such as "probably" (BDS28), which gives the impression that they assign themselves to this category hesitantly. Secondly, they link their identifcation as members of this group with explanations about their (educational) biography and sometimes, as in the case of RRA28, that of their parents. Thirdly, their assignment entails statements about their language skills in German and in their family language. The latter two points are usually closely intertwined; throughout their texts, descriptions of their language skills can be found.

First, the modalizing self-identifcation ("I am basically a speaker …", RRA28; "is probably myself", BDS28) could be a reaction to the writing prompt. The frst question of the prompt asked about experiences with "DaZ-speakers" which means that it is, in fact, not directed at them but at monolingually raised students. The modalization could also indicate that multilingual speakers do not like to be assigned to this category. The term "Second Language" is often understood as pejorative, especially by multilingal speakers themselves (Miladinović 2014; Dirim and Pokitsch 2018, also Ennser-Kananen and Montecillo-Leider 2018 in critique of the term "English language learners"). It should also be noted that students who were raised monolingual German-speaking do not defne themselves as such in their biographies. Being raised monolingually is an unmarked category.

Second, the self-assignment as a DaZ-speaker does not stand alone, but is linked with explanations of the writers' migration biography. They explain why they are bilingual: either they themselves were born in the country of their family language, as in BDS28, or their parents, as in RRA28. This indicates that the writers feel a need to explain their bilingualism. RRA28 also mentions their mother's educational biography, which was "fully" completed in Germany. One reason for this could be that she wants to show how long her family has been in Germany already, at least since her mother's elementary school enrolment. A complementary interpretation is that by mentioning her mother's educational

<sup>4</sup>All quoted passages are translations from the German original.

biography, and not merely the duration of her stay, she wants to point out her family's strong affliation with the German educational system.

Third, both students make statements on their language skills in their family languages and in German. BDS28 says that his German is now much better than his Arabic, thus referring to a common understanding of frst language as one's "best" language. The fact that the term "frst language" as it is used in scientifc literature differs from this common understanding—namely that the term is meant to be "neutral and time-oriented" (BDS28)—shows, again, that the common understanding contradicts this understanding. It seems to be relevant for students to emphasize their high language skills—in German and, partly, also in the family language.

### **3.2 Family Language Policy**

Another important part of the students' multilingualism biographies is their explanation (and endorsement) of their family language policy (Macalister and Mirvahedi 2017). This term refers to the decisions that parents and their children make about the languages used at home (Crump 2017). According to Crump, family language policies have three components: ideology, practices and management. In the students' texts we learn about their representation of their parents' ideologies—what, in their perspective or recollection, their parents advocated and why. In very general terms, students also mention what was practiced in the family.

"The frst language that I learned as a child was the Turkish language. My parents spoke only Turkish with me up until I was three years old. It was important to both of them that I have a good mastery of my family language. […] I have to say this worked pretty well" (RRA28).

The family language policies of the students in our data vary, but they are similar in the two biographies examined here: both parents decide to use the family language exclusively (RRA28) or mainly (BDS28) for the frst three years of their children's lives. The reason for this strategy is also the same: both families are convinced that their children would learn German later anyway; it is also important for the family of RRA28 that she has a good command of their family language. Both students evaluate the family language policy of their family as positive, both with reference to their language skills in German; RRA28 also with regard to her family language skills in Turkish. If we recall the opening passage of RRA28's biography where she highlights her mother's educational biography, it is now possible to present another interpretation for this. RRA28 might want to emphasize here that her family's language policy, choosing Turkish only for the frst three years, does not show a lack of educational aspiration or orientation towards the German educational system: At least one parent made this decision in full knowledge of the German educational system.

Crump (2017) stresses that a family language policy is never decided and enforced by parents alone, but negiotated between parents and children. We do not fnd any mention of such negotiations on the part of the children in the two biographies, but their positive presentation can be read as an endorsement of their family's language policy.

### **3.3 Heritage Language Instruction ("Herkunftssprachlicher Unterricht")**

Both students recount experiences with Heritage Language Instruction (HLI) in their texts, and both assess it negatively. BDS28 recounts his perspective as a former student of HLI as a child, and RRA28 refects on observations of HLI that she made during an internship during her teacher training. BDS28's recollection is characterized by a child's perspective. He remembers that, as a child, he did not like the HLI teacher, that he found the textbooks boring, that the lessons took place in the afternoon. He also felt excluded from a group of students with a different Arabic-speaking country of origin in the class. From an adult perspective, he analyzes that emotional distance to his family language was also a reason for his rejection of HLI. He states that he was emotionally distant to his father who, being a quiet man, never talked much to him. As a consequence, he says he did not experience his family language to be a language of emotions, but rather one that he was distant to. As an adult, however, he regrets that he "did not seize this opportunity" (BDS28) to develop literacy in his family language through HLI.

RRA28, who did not attend HLI as a child, discusses it from the perspective of a future teacher:

"During a practice placement at a high school I was given the opportunity to visit a 'Turkish heritage language class'. To my horror, I had to fnd out in the Turkish class that most students were not able to speak correct Turkish nor German. Instead, they talked a mixed language using both of them, but this was marked by grammatical mistakes. […] Additionally, it has to be said that the teacher was originally from Turkey. He also was not able to speak German correctly. In my view, this is very problematic, because the teacher acts as a linguistic role model and, hence, should be able to also use the German language correctly" (RRA28, 22–30).

For RRA28, it is horrendous that the students do not speak German or Turkish correctly in the HLI class she observes. She reports that the students use translingual practices and make grammatical mistakes. At this point, we do not know whether she rejects translingual practices per se, or if she mainly rejects the lack of correctness she observes. Yet, it is not clear what RRA28 classifes as grammatical errors. In translingual practices, for instance, words from one language are often inserted into the syntactic and/or morphological system of the other language, which is called code mixing (Dirim 1998). If we were to assess the correctness of an entire discourse from within the system of a single (named) language, this phenomenon can appear as a lack of correctness in this language. RRA28 also criticizes the German language skills of the teacher who is of Turkish origin. She argues that teachers should also be language models and, thus, in her view, this teacher should also be able to speak German correctly.

RRA28's presentation is characterized by a strong dissociation from the observed lessons and the HLI teacher. In Sect. 4, we will discuss this in the context of her position as a member of a minoritized language group and in the context of societal demands on citizens' (German) language skills in German-speaking countries.

### **3.4 Views on Translingual Practices**

We do not know whether RRA28 disavows translingual practices per se. Her recollections and observations seem to be based on the common idea of single named languages, rather than the idea of a translingual repertoire. She also describes her own language skills within the frame of separated, named languages. However, in her work as a substitute teacher, RRA28 aims to create translanguaging spaces:

"Based on my own experiences, it was important to me to include frst languages in my teaching. So frst of all, I got an overview of the individual frst languages. My mastery of the Turkish language was very helpful. In my lesson planning, I tried to translate important expressions into the students' respective frst languages as well, in order to make understanding easier. It should be assumed that most of the "newly arrived students5" also went to school in their home country and are, therefore, familiar with certain contents. It is important to build on this knowledge. By

<sup>5</sup>Students who enter the German school system after the age of 6, due to their family's migration, and who have usually participated in another country's school system before.

including the frst languages, a very pleasant atmosphere was created in the class and the pupils had a lot of fun learning" (RRA28).

Even though RRA28 describes what she does in the vocabulary of separate languages, it is apparent that she is eager to include her student's repertoires in a meaningful way. She values her students' prior knowledge. Her lesson planning must have required some time and effort, but she does not mention it. Instead, she values her own family language skills as a resource for her planning.

BDS28, on the other hand, creates the image of a "cosmos" to describe his very positive translingual experiences at secondary school.

"The secondary school I attended had a high percentage of migrants - an estimated 72%. Playing with languages and cultures was part of everyday life, and living together between nations, religions and peoples was part of our identity. Boys could be insulted in dozens of languages from Russian to Italian to Polish and you could compliment girls and sing love songs to them from Turkish to Arabic to Spanish. Every day we talked about what things were called in other languages or refected, in fact, on speaking habits. Sometimes we parodied the other language and had to laugh if something meaningful came out of it. […] Foreign languages were a very conscious thing for us. This showed musically as well. Russian, Turkish or Greek music was not uncommon in the schoolyard and everyone knew a few songs. In this place we were foreigners, but we were foreigners together and identifed ourselves with multiculturalism and multilingualism. We tried to take racism's pungency away with humor, not only by throwing whole racist resentments at each other in jokes, but also by calling ourselves K\*\*\*\*\*, P\*\*\*\*\*\* or N\*\*\*\*.6 In fact, inter-ethnic conficts were never an issue, even homosexual teachers were respected to the greatest extent. By living together with the foreign, we had simply learned to be tolerant and to empathize with the other. We had developed our own little cosmos" (BDS28).

BDS28 describes multilingualism here as a part of the lebenswelt/lifeworld7 (Schütz and Luckmann 1973) in which he lived as a secondary school student. His recollections seem to be situated mainly in the schoolyard. In this multilingual lifeworld, all languages seem to be available to everyone. Here, all students form a group in their shared "foreignness", they are equal to each other. Their interactions are characterized by humor and respect. They also share experiences of racism, and "we [tried] to take the edge off racism with humor". BDS28 recalls

<sup>6</sup>The student uses three racial slurs, he writes them fully in his original text. We censored them in the quotation of his text to disrupt the reproduction of the slurs.

<sup>7</sup>Ingrid Gogolin (1994) refers to migration related multilingualism as "lifeworld multilingualism".

translingual practices such as singing love songs to girls and insulting boys, using a rich repertoire of languages for both. The young students use translingual practices in such a way that, in the words of BDS28, they create their "own little cosmos". The youths also refect on language(s) on a meta-level: "Every day we talked about what things meant in other languages, or refected on speaking habits".

BDS28 also uses named languages to describe the languaging practices in this "cosmos", but he emphasizes how everyone could participate in any languaging practice, regardless of the languages' names. This practice transcends notions of multilingualism as entailing just a frst and a second language, or the notion of languages and their speakers as being associated with members of a specifc nation. The shared languaging experiences that BDS28 describes are available to all, and instead of different "worlds", this translingual space creates their "own cosmos".

Later in his text, BDS28 describes the "cultural break" he experiences when entering university. Here, nobody cares for his full linguistic repertoire, as only German and English are valued as academic languages. This shows that the understanding of multilingualism described here, this translingual and equal cosmos, is not related to an individual alone, but describes the linguistic and social practices of a local community. The "cosmos" disappears in another context, at university.

### **4 Discussion**

The students' biographical texts allow us to reconstruct their biographical and academic knowledge of multilingualism and, thus, to gain insights into their understandings of multilingualism. With their recounts of their family language policies, their experiences with Heritage Language Instruction (HLI), and of a translingual lifeworld (as in BDS28), their texts allow to identify some shared elements of multilinguals' biographical knowledge. These are elements that the texts of monolingually raised students in our data do not contain. However, this result should be regarded as preliminary, as it needs further confounding by more data.

The biographical texts also allow to reconstruct the students' knowledge of social expectations of multilingualism and of language ideologies (Irvine 2016). Through their participation in monolingual institutions, their socialization in a society with a monolingual norm, through their reception of media and (mainstream) arts, knowledge about language ideologies has become part of their biographical knowledge. In most biographies, this knowledge is not articulated as explicitly as the abovementioned elements—family language policies, HLI or translingual lifeworlds (although in some other text in our data, it is). Their knowledge about social expectations on multilingualism can be reconstructed by analyzing what the students seem to think is in need of explanation, and by analyzing their recurring assessments of language skills.

In the opening passages, the students explain why they are bilingual by relating their migration biographies and, in RRA28's case, also her family's migration history. This allows to reconstruct a knowledge of multilingualism as something that needs explanations in Germany. The social expectation of normalcy is monolingualism and a non-migration biography.

Both students combine their recounts of their family language policies with an emphasis on their strong language skills. RRA28 also highlights her family's connections to the German education system. It can be reconstructed that the students have a biographical knowledge that family language policies focusing on the family language are, in Germany, not considered an everyday part of parenting or a self-evident family right. Instead, family language policies seem to be in need of defense by highlighting strong language skills.

The students' biographical knowledge shows that the terms "frst language", "second language", and "DaZ-speaker" are, in the common sense, not "absolutely neutral and time-oriented" terms, as BDS29 formulates for the technical term "frst language". As a technical term, it conveys no information about the level of mastery of this language, but in their biographical knowledge, the opposite is more accurate. This can be reconstructed as the students only assign themselves hesitantly to the category "DaZ-speaker", and they are fast to highlight their strong German language skills. Here, the students' biographical knowledge contradicts the academic knowledge they acquire in the DaZ module.

We understand the students' articulations as answering and countering the social expectations on multilingualism that is part of their biographical knowledge. In their biographical texts, they self-position and re-position themselves against social expectations and ideologies on languages. We can reconstruct this in their assessments of multilingual policies, e.g. in their endorsement of their own family language policy, or in their rejection of HLI. Both needs to be interpreted against the language ideology of monolingualism as being the norm, and against the societal devaluation of migrant languages. With their endorsement of their family language policy, they reposition themselves against societal expectations that families should speak majorized languages. As regards to HLI, their negative assessments allow them to align themselves with a common negative societal view on HLI that is refected in its massive institutional marginalization. By this alignment, they might gain a socially viable position.

The students reposition themselves also against the simplicity of some of the technical terms and teaching matters that form part of their academic knowledge. These can be seen as "single stories" (Adichie 2009) if compared to the complexity of a multilinguals' language biography. BDS28's recounts of his father's stillness and their ensuing emotional distance are opposed to the idea that family languages are important for the authentic expression of emotions, as might be emphasized in teaching as part of the module's advocacy for multilingualism. In these regards, we can see how the students reposition themselves against assumptions and expectations on multilingualism that form part of their biographical knowledge.

In the instance of the emphasis on language skills, and on correctness in particular, the biographical texts also take up language ideologies in an affrmative way. RRA28's text is characterized by a strong emphasis on correctness in language use. This can be interpreted as adoption of the language ideology of idealizing correctness, and this ideology often contains the idea of a native speaker as the ideal speaker of a language (Holliday 2006). BDS28 does not formulate correctness as a strong goal, but he constantly negotiates why his family language skills are "this bad" (BDS28). We can observe an adoption of language ideologies by multilingual students or teachers in several studies on translanguaging as part of teacher education, too. Holdway and Hitchcock (2018) show that engagement with translanguaging literature in a further education course changes teachers' teaching practice to be more inclusive of multilingual resources. Out of seven teachers in this study, one teacher does not change her teaching and insists on focusing on teaching content matter using English-medium only. We think it is noteworthy that this very experienced and well-educated teacher is herself multilingual due to migration. Martínez-Roldán (2015) found that bilingual teacher candidates tended to reinforce hegemonic English languaging practices in an after-school program for Latinx students when there were no specifc rules and spaces for the use of Spanish.

We have to take into account that speakers of minoritized languages are often taken as representative for their whole group (Gümüşay 2020). Minoritized future teachers are, in particular, in the position to negotiate their ideas on (multilingual) education, and their language biography, by negotiating the expectations of a society that widely endorses monolingual ideologies (Thoma 2018). The emphasis on correctness, and on their language skills, could be a way to leverage their language and educational biographies within this frame.

### **5 Conclusion**

In order to further improve teacher education for a multilingual and often minoritized student population, we think it is important to fnd out more about future teachers' actual understandings of multilingualism. Using a biographical professionalization research approach, we are interested in the interactions of biographical and academic knowledge in the students' understandings of multilingualism. The term biographical knowledge does not only entail personal experiences, but also refects social expectations on normalcy and "normal" biographies as social constructs (Dausien and Hanses 2017). Thus, this approach enables us to reconstruct students' biographical knowledge on social expectations and ideologies on multilingualism and multilinguals, as well as their acts of (re-)positioning themselves against those expectations. We used biographical texts written by students in teacher education with a focus on their experiences with multilingualism as instrument of data collection. In this text, we presented two minoritized multilingual students' biographies.

Family language policy, their experiences with Heritage Language Instruction, and, partly, their experiences with translingual lifeworlds are shared elements of their biographical knowledge of multilingualism. With Schwendowius and Thoma (2016), we suggest that it is important for teacher educators to acknowledge these elements as funds of knowledge (Moll et al. 1992). The translingual lifeworld that BDS28 describes is rich, multi-faceted and full of informal learning: linguistic and metalinguistic learning, the experience of solidarity, fnding strategies for dealing with the experience of racism, and the development of a respectful empathy for all "others". Similarly, to know about family language policies and about HLI is a fund of knowledge that is important for (future) teachers to have in a multilingual migration society. In teacher education, this needs to be part of refective work ("biography work", Dausien and Hanses 2017) for students in order to become aware of structural shortcomings and to develop transformative ideas for institutions such as Heritage Language Instruction, in particular if personal experiences with this were negative.

The biographical texts also allowed for reconstructions of the students' biographical knowledge of social expectations on lingualities and language ideologies, mainly the expectation of monolingualism as normalcy. We found that the students re-position themselves against some of these ideologies, for example by endorsing their family-language-oriented family language policy. However, we found that they have also taken up some of the ideologies, mainly the idealization of correctness and the idea of languages as separate entities. This was also apparent in their recurrent affrmation that their (German) language skills were strong.

The project "DaZu" is ongoing. So far, we gained frst insights into the students' understandings of multilingualism and how their biographical knowledge might interact with the academic knowledge they create when participating in the DaZ module. In a further step of the project, we will collect biographical texts before the DaZ module and ask students to comment on their own texts after the DaZ module. This way, we hope to gain more insight into possible changes of students' understandings of multilingualism after the DaZ module and into their ways of refecting on their biographies.

Martinéz-Roldán (2015) points out that bilingual future teachers "need time to refect on their own biographies, to interrogate their understandings and valuings of bilingualism, and teacher education programs should provide such opportunities" (Martínez-Roldán 2015, p. 55). The act of writing down your own language biography and refecting on it in teacher education could provide an excellent opportunity to do this. Such kinds of refection and ways of prompting it could then perhaps become a regular part of teacher education.

### **References**


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### **German Schools Abroad: Teachers' Views on Translanguaging and Emerging Research Perspectives on Children's Language Biographies and Educational Professionalization**

Julie A. Panagiotopoulou, Lisa Rosen, Jenna Strzykala, Janine Fißmer and Timo Neubert

### **Abstract**

In this chapter, we present three ongoing dissertation projects that emerged from the research project "migration-related multilingualism and educational professionalism" (led by Julie A. Panagiotopoulou and Lisa Rosen). The common ground of these projects is the focus on German schools abroad and the qualitative research approach to frstly, translingual practices and language ideologies, secondly, multilingual educational biographies of students, and thirdly, transnational professional biographies of teachers.


#### T. Neubert e-mail: timo.neubert@uni-koeln.de

J. A. Panagiotopoulou (\*) · L. Rosen · J. Strzykala · J. Fißmer · T. Neubert University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany e-mail: a.panagiotopoulou@uni-koeln.de

L. Rosen e-mail: lisa.rosen@uni-koeln.de

J. A. Panagiotopoulou et al. (eds.), *Inclusion, Education and Translanguaging*, Inklusion und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28128-1\_11

#### **Keywords**

Translanguaging · Inclusion/exclusion · German schools abroad · Language biographies · Educational professionalization

### **1 Introduction**

In this chapter, we present research projects on German schools abroad. After introducing the initial project "migration-related multilingualism and educational professionalism" (see Sect. 2.1), we outline Jenna Strzykala's doctoral research, which focuses on the views of teachers working at German schools abroad in North America—specifcally Boston and Montreal (Sect. 2.2). Rather than discussing desiderata in the following, we present two new projects that have emerged from the initial project (see Sect. 3). We therefore refrain from drawing a conclusion in the classical sense, but rather see these two projects as an extended outlook for further research in the feld of German schools abroad. The frst project is led by Julie A. Panagiotopoulou and will be the subject of Timo Neubert's dissertation project. It aims to reconstruct educational biographies of multilingual students in German schools abroad in Southern Europe, specifcally Greece. The project focuses on experiences of inclusion/exclusion and (non-) belonging of "Greek" bi/multilingual students in the context of German schools of encounter (see Sect. 3.1). The second project is the doctoral research project of Janine Fißmer, supervised by Lisa Rosen. It focuses on professional biographies of teachers at German schools abroad that are characterized by mobility and internationality. The overarching question is to what extent the work experiences gained at German schools abroad will professionalize teachers in dealing with migration-related diversity and thus contribute to inclusive school development (see Sect. 3.2).

### **2 Migration-Related Multilingualism and Pedagogical Professionalism**

### **2.1 The Initial Research Project**

Within the framework of the international comparative project "Migration-related multilingualism and pedagogical professionalism" (the theoretical background, design and frst results can be found in Panagiotopoulou and Rosen 2015b), the aim was to dwell on the practical experiences and those relating to the educational biography of pedagogical professionals in multilingually organized educational institutions in and outside Germany using expert interviews (Bogner and Menz 2009). The interview guide comprised eleven questions, some of which refer to the multilingual and translingual reality of multilingual children and adolescents both in the context of the educational institution as well as outside of it and prompted the pedagogical experts to share their views. Other questions invite the interviewees to comment on scientifc fndings and to focus on their own experiences as well as on the students multilingual practices at the German schools abroad in order to answer the following leading research question: "[i]f and how do the experiences gained by pedagogical professionals in multilingually organized educational settings interrelate with their views on migration-related multilingualism, linguistic diversity and language practices at school?" (Panagiotopoulou and Rosen 2015b, p. 230).

With respect to the research feld of German schools abroad, it should frst of all be noted that while these schools are private schools within their host countries, they are supervised and partially funded by the German state (Brüser-Sommer 2010) and follow one of the offcial German curricula from kindergarten to high school. These institutions are open to students from local, bi-national, expat and migrant families while maintaining strong ties to Germany and especially the German language. Teaching staff at these schools can be either locally recruited or temporarily dispatched teachers trained and tenured in Germany who keep their status as civil servants. Within the many German schools abroad across the globe, a distinction can be made between different school types: the two most important are *Deutschsprachige Schulen* [German-speaking schools] and *Begegnungsschulen* [schools of encounter]. In this second context, students may graduate with both national degrees and the German *Abitur* [highschool diploma]. While the offcial language of the host state is partly also the language of instruction in bilingual encounter schools, German is the sole language of instruction in German-speaking schools (Brüser-Sommer 2010).

First starting with German schools abroad in Greece and Canada and later on in the United States, a theoretical contention was that the views of pedagogical professionals regarding multilingualism and their interaction with the linguistic reality of multilingual children are always embedded socio-culturally and are therefore shaped by concrete values and concepts: according to Maitz (2014), these values can be understood "as assumptions and convictions that can be used to explain and justify linguistic facts and practices" (p. 4), they relate to language ideologies that are mostly unconscious and rarely articulated as such. Instead, they are "located in metalinguistic statements" and hence can only be made accessible through "a qualitative analysis of authentic metalinguistic discourses" (Maitz 2014, p. 4). A comparative axis should therefore be established with the different felds of research in Southern Europe and North America, considering the negotiability of the language hierarchies in both regions: while Greek is assumed to increasingly lose its status as a dominant, offcial language, and German to gain a stronger, more dominant role in the context of the German schools in Greece (see Sect. 3.1), the sociopolitical value of the Francophonie in Québec and especially the asserted dominant position of French within the German school in Montreal is unlikely to be challenged by German as one of many heritage languages in Canada (see Sect. 2.2).

Using Grounded Theory according to Charmaz (2014), the analysis of selected interviews from the corpus—now encompassing 65 interviews from German schools abroad, which are currently being extensively analyzed in Jenna Strzykala's doctoral research (see Sect. 2.2)—has so far yielded a broad variety of views towards migration related multilingualism and heteroglossia (Bakhtin 1981) in educational settings.1 The fndings hint at the following preliminary insights: Multilingual teachers in German schools abroad showcase a spectrum ranging from monoglossic to heteroglossic views when it comes to addressing multiple languages in their teaching practice. Even with multilingual teachers one cannot assume that their own linguistic reality and that of their students is being addressed in their daily school life. While some hold very dynamic views on bilingualism, others adhere to monoglossic (teaching) approaches, specifcally:


<sup>1</sup>In addition to German schools abroad, complementary schools were also among the felds of research of the initial project "migration-related multilingualism and pedagogical professionalism" (on the methodology of international comparison and the different felds of research see Panagiotopoulou and Rosen 2015, p. 231f.). At the present time, we have conducted 21 interviews in Canada and the USA using the above-mentioned interview guide adapted to complementary schools. Results regarding the sampled complementary schools have already been published (see Panagiotopoulou et al. 2017; Panagiotopoulou and Rosen 2019).

From this we developed the hypothesis that the (emerging) multilingualism of educators in the context of German schools abroad does not automatically lead to a simple appreciation of the multilingualism of students. Moreover, these teachers are beginning to question and distance themselves from the monolingual decree; some of them even implicitly adopt translanguaging at school (for translanguaging as a pedagogy, see García 2009; García and Li Wei 2014) by including and valorizing the family languages.

### **2.2 Multilingual Teachers' Views on "Family", "National", and "Academic" Language(s) and Everyday Multilingual Practices of Staff and Students at German Schools in the USA and Canada**

Building on these frst fndings from the initial project as well as on its design is a doctoral dissertation focusing on a specifc aspect of everyday school life at German schools abroad, namely Translanguaging as an everyday social practice of multilingual families, students and educators as coined by García (2009; see also García and Li Wei 2014).

This section presents the ongoing research on selected data gathered in the USA and Canada pertaining to the views on multilingualism in everyday school life of (multilingual) teachers at German schools abroad. This dissertation project shares a common research interest with the initial project, i.e., reconstructing underlying (language) ideologies and investigating their links to (implicit) institutional (language) policies. It focuses on the translanguaging strategies self-reported, sometimes unconscious, often unacknowledged—that frame the everyday lives of multilingual teachers and students in German schools abroad, reconstructed through the views or beliefs of the interviewees, presuming that "all beliefs exist within a complex, interconnected and multidimensional system. Within that multidimensional system, beliefs may be primary or derivative (i.e., grounded in primary beliefs), core or peripheral (i.e., endorsed with more or less conviction) and be held in clusters, that are more or less isolated, thereby allowing incompatible or inconsistent beliefs to coexist" (Buehl and Beck 2015, p. 66). Thus, considering both the educators' own histories of migration, their professionalization and their own language ideologies on the one hand, and the reported or implied language policy of the institution they represent on the other hand, this project explores how they navigate their multilingual practices and how and to what extent translanguaging frames these practices within and outside of what one could argue is a German (educational) enclave.

By focusing on German schools abroad in Canada and the USA, what becomes possible is a comparative approach working on two simultaneous axes:


Especially the second axis is what adds novelty to the initial research project. As felds of comparison, Canada and the United States are intrinsically different when it comes to the social history and role of (European) migration and the contemporary (educational) value of multilingualism (and social diversity at large). Canada and especially Québec are historically multilingual, with French and English being offcial languages and very present in both English-language and French-language public education. Support for so-called heritage languages for migrants and their children is long-established in education policy (even if tension between policy and classroom reality do exist and are still pervasive (Breton-Carbonneau et al. 2012)). However, the United States' educational system serves an imagined monocultural, monolingual audience with very little acknowledgement for the (linguistic) needs of multilingual and migrant children (García 2009; Flores and García 2017). Considering these fundamental differences when it comes to the social and political status of (migration-related) multilingualism, German schools abroad, albeit private schools and hence only marginally impacted by national educational policies, are of particular interest here as they allow for an extra-European comparison of German educational enclaves. Furthermore and beyond their contextual and historic differences, Québec with its ever-strong Francophonie and its "French linguistic landscape" (Crump 2017, p. 155) following Bill 101 and the USA with its infamous History of bilingual education relegated to "racialized basements" (Flores and García 2017, p. 15) as extra-European felds share a non-negotiability of their respective dominant national language. In fact, as opposed to the marginalization of Greek in favor of the increasing dominance of German as observable in German schools in Greece (see Sect. 3.1 for a follow-up project focusing on language hierarchies in German schools in Greece), English and French respectively exist as strong competition with German in the USA and Québec and appear very unlikely to be challenged by the German language even within German schools. Considering these new particularities that come with the expansion of the research feld into North America, the following research questions are to be answered:


First results from the gathered interview data with educators in Boston and Montreal hint at various levels of conformity with as well as resistance to the perceived policy, with pedagogically intended and student-initiated (and tolerated) translingual time-spaces playing a major role in these multilingual settings, partly creating (with or without conscious attempts) what García et al. (2017) have called "translanguaging classrooms".

### **3 Further Perspectives: Follow-up Projects**

### **3.1 Between Exclusivity and Exclusion in the European South: Educational Biographies of Multilingual "Greek" Students in German Schools**

German schools abroad are considered to be exclusive educational institutions: They function mainly as private Begegnungsschulen—meaning schools that are supposed to facilitate an encounter and a dialogue between the respective "different cultures" (Federal Foreign Offce 2019; *Kultusministerkonferenz* 2017)—for socioeconomically privileged (upper) middle class families from the host countries (Kühn and Mersch 2015). This is because German schools abroad promise obviously based on the EU concept of plurilingualism (see below)—a German International High-School Diploma (DIA). According to the website of the German School in Thessaloniki (http://www.dst.gr/integrierte-begegnungsschule), this diploma grants access to universities in "virtually all European countries, the USA and other countries of the world". This assessment provides a characteristic example of the way the DIA is used for self-promotion in the case of German schools abroad, in Thessaloniki and elsewhere. In Greece, the aforementioned (upper) middle class families use these schools as a purposeful preparation for their children's "educational migration" triggered by the European fnancial crisis (Gkolfnopoulos and Panagiotopoulou 2020). From a German perspective, this serves as a recruitment strategy by the schools, which was elaborated by the KMK: through "German language promotion and binational school diploma" it is not only possible to win over those students who are "German" but also "young foreigners are prepared for economic contacts with Germany or respectively for academic studies in Germany" (KMK 2017, p. 3). As an instrument of recruitment, but also as a place of supposed intercultural encounter, these German schools abroad target Germans who work abroad on the one hand while, on the other hand, allegedly offering the opportunity to adolescents in the host countries to get to know the "German culture" and language (Kühn and Mersch 2015) and also to be plurilingual European citizens. In German schools abroad, the envisioned "dialogue between the cultures" (KMK 2017, p. 3) is therefore based on a simplistic idea of two separable national cultures (Radtke 2011) and on "named languages that represent different cultures and political states" (García and Otheguy 2019, p. 2). Following García and Otheguy (2019), it can be assumed that in German schools in Greece "raciolinguistic ideologies […] operate even when practices follow a philosophy of plurilingualism". In addition, the expectation for students positioned as Greeks in German schools in Greece "is not that they speak and use the national [German] language 'to varying degrees' but to what is considered a 'native' norm" (p. 7). This in turn leads to the classifcation of children as "native German(-speaking)" versus "native non-German(-speaking)" from a young age when transitioning to German schools abroad. The questions how these ideologies correspond with the bi/multilingual students' and teacher's translanguaging practices and how the according ascriptions are processed in the students' educational biographies still remain empirically open.

The main prerequisite for education in exclusive schools like the German schools abroad is "a certain linguistic capital" (Bourdieu 2017, p. 126), which in Germany consists of the school-sanctioned (foreign) languages, i.e., the "languages of the former colonial powers and current privileged nation states" (Thoma 2018, p. 61). The empirical question concerning the possible implications of these exclusive and simultaneously exclusionary language policies for the educational biographies of students who speak languages that are considered "low-prestige (migrant) languages" in Germany remains equally pertinent in the global South. The evidence provided by research in "a German school abroad in postcolonial foreign countries" indicates an alarming shift in linguistic (power) relations, namely the delegitimization of the language(s) "of the native population" in favor of "a focus on the spread of the German language" (Paulus 2011, p. 27 f.). Since the "legitimate" language always functions as a means of distinction, thus facilitating the reproduction of inequalities (in school) (Bourdieu 2017), the issue addressed here concerns not only the global South but also the European South. Based on the existing internationally comparative groundwork in the North American and the Southern European regions investigating the views of teachers in German schools towards migration-related multilingualism (Panagiotopoulou and Rosen 2015b, 2017; see also Sect. 2.1), it was possible to reconstruct how ambivalent the German language policy is and, depending on the host country, to what extent it is oriented mono- or plurilingually. For instance, at the German school in Montreal, children are exposed to an elite "trilingualism" already in the school's kindergarten prior to their enrollment in primary school (see Panagiotopoulou 2017a), whereby German, which is considered an "immigrant language" in Canada (Statistics Canada/Census 2016), is valorized and thus added to the elite "linguistic trinity of German-French-English". By contrast, in the kindergarten of the German school in Athens, all "non-(monolingual) German-speaking" preschoolers are "consistently" taught in "German only" (Panagiotopoulou 2016, p. 18) to prepare them for the German primary and secondary schools characterized by that same strict language separation (Neubert 2018). These frst research results imply that "foreign" or "domestic" adolescents who are living bi/multilingually by attending German schools abroad are faced with language hierarchies and language ideologies depending on the host country. Paulus (2011) points out that these schools' self-defnition as German schools refects a normative stance that causes not only the termination and prevention of domestic perspectives, but also the exclusion of certain behavioral patterns that are connected to the local culture. To what extent and how "translingual practices" (Canagarajah 2013), which are important locally (i.e., in the everyday life of bilingual "German-Greek" families), are excluded from everyday school life could be reconstructed through an ethnographical research approach. Glorius (2016) claims that the educational biographies generated by German schools abroad do not only involve gaining knowledge but also a "loss of capital" and sometimes lead to negatively connotated "either-or decisions" (p. 114). Regarding language use, the question thus arises whether students with Greek as a family language, labeled as a "low-prestige (migrant) language" in Germany, lose their own "linguistic capital" (Bourdieu 2017) by attending a German school in Greece. Furthermore, what remains to be seen is to what extent children and youths experience exclusion as well as being out of place through the course of their socialization in an exclusive school—as they are being addressed as "foreign", not-German and/or not-German-native speaking—and to what extent they see their own family languages (apart from German) as not relevant (anymore) for their own educational process.

From the perspective of pedagogical biographical research, it is important to address the impact such institutional contexts may have on individual educational processes of (emergent) bi/multilingual students, for instance to fnd out how young and older children use their entire linguistic repertoire to learn in class. Thereby, the project is focusing primarily not on the process of language acquisition, but rather on the process of self-positioning that adolescents perform (interactively) through their experiences of inclusion/exclusion as well as on the labelling processes with which students may be confronted in a school context that is infuenced by the pervasive ideology of "native-speakerism" (Knappik and Dirim 2013). In detail: The project aims to reconstruct experiences of the participating "Greek" children—preschoolers aged 5 to 6 and primary school children aged 7 to 12—with the school's monolingual and plurilingual policies by observing their practices and interactions with each other and their educators. Additionally, high schoolers who have graduated or are about to graduate with the German International High-School Diploma will be interviewed using biographic narrative interviews (see Thoma 2018). Thus, in order to exemplify educational biographies from kindergarten through high school, a quasi-longitudinal feld research design is implemented in the context of one of the German schools abroad (not named here for anonymization purposes), using a research strategy which combines biographical and ethnographical approaches (Dausien and Kelle 2009; Schnitzer 2017; Panagiotopoulou 2017b).

### **3.2 Transnational Professionalization for Schools in the Migration Society?**

In conjunction with the abovementioned the research project "Transnational Professionalization for Schools in the Migration Society?" focuses on the professional biographies of teachers who have gained work experience at German schools abroad. They are expected, and this will be initially discussed in the following, to contribute to inclusive school development in migration societies, similar to teachers with a so-called migration background.

A central consideration relates to institutionalized educational inequalities: Students with a so-called migration background are still disproportionately affected by these disparities in the German school system (Rosen 2019). In addition to the structural reform of the education system (Rosen 2018), models and strategies of inclusive school development are applied at the personnel level to the recruitment of teachers with transnational (professional) biographies (Panagiotopoulou and Rosen 2015a): For example, teachers with a so-called migration background are supposed to contribute to the reduction of educational disadvantage through "habitus sensitivity" (Fabel-Lamla and Klomfaß 2014). However, the positive impact of personal or familial migration experiences on pedagogical-professional competences in dealing with migration-related diversity, which is assumed in educational policy, must be questioned on the basis of exploratory studies (Lengyel and Rosen 2015; Panagiotopoulou and Rosen 2016; Rosen 2015). Similar to teachers with a so-called migrant background, teachers who worked at a German school abroad are also assumed to have specifc competences in dealing with migration-related diversity, such as special pedagogical abilities in dealing with multilingualism, acquired through work experiences abroad. For example, one of the central educational policy documents states that they acquire "intercultural competences" (KMK 2017, p. 4). In addition, the document states as a goal for returning teachers that a feld of activity should be found for them "in which they can optimally use and ideally expand their newly acquired skills in teaching practice, thus also contributing to school development at home" (KMK 2017, p. 5). Furthermore, in the context of symposia organized jointly with educational researchers, in particular of the internationally and interculturally comparative educational sciences, the connection between "German school work abroad and intercultural socialization" is currently being deepened.2 However, on these occasions the quasi-automatism of "intercultural experiences towards intercultural competence" is relativized by the question of whether "returnees from school work abroad can contribute to the interculturality and internationality of schools in Germany" (p. 4), but still is made thematically relevant (Köhler-Fritsch 2018). In the empirical preliminary work within the above described project "Migrationrelated multilingualism and pedagogical professionalism", a certain potential of these experiences of (temporary) migration abroad could be reconstructed along the lines of views on migration-related multilingualism that teachers hold: The teachers at German schools abroad interviewed in the course of expert interviews expressed themselves in a diversity-conscious manner by questioning monolingual ideologies of the German school system and switching to translingual, i.e., teaching practices that include and valorize the family languages of their students (Panagiotopoulou and Rosen 2015b, 2017; see also Sect. 2.1). However, the

<sup>2</sup>see https://www.interedu.phil.fau.de/2019/03/27/tagung-deutsche-auslandsschularbeit-undinterkulturelle-sozialisation/.

majority of German schools abroad has so far been regarded as a "blind spot" in educational research (Adick 2013, p. 109; Kühn and Mersch 2015, p. 198f.). In a systemization of existing studies the "subject area of returnees" has been identifed as one of a total of three "overarching research topics" (Mägdefrau and Wolff 2018, p. 6) and the question how "the competences of returnees can be used for school development processes at home" (p. 13) is outlined as a central strand of a research framework plan for German schools abroad (Mägdefrau and Wolff 2018, p. 6). This desideratum is taken up by the research project "Transnational Professionalization for Schools in the Migration Society?" and focuses on the question of professionalism of teachers addressing migration-related diversity through work experience at German schools abroad, more specifcally through the acquisition of their own temporary migration experiences. Is there a difference between these teachers within the framework of an explorative research approach and the mainstream of teachers who often perceive the migration-related diversity of their students as a defcit and not as a resource (Auernheimer and Rosen 2017)? Do they see themselves as being habitualized and professionalized with regard to their students' diversity?

In order to investigate these initial questions, three research approaches will be selected and systematically triangulated (Flick 2004) in the course of the research process:

(1) Firstly, a document analysis (Wolff 2004) will be carried out to examine teachers' experiences abroad with regard to their (re)arrangements of the "self" and the "other". This analysis will investigate publications of the Central Agency for Schools Abroad (ZfA) and of the AGAL [Working Group of Teachers Abroad] of the GEW [Union Education and Science]. These publications are yearbooks (since 2004), the magazines "Begegnung" [encounter] (since 1980) and "TIP/TIPP—Theorie, Information, Praxis" [theory, information, practice] (until 2006) and newsletters.3 One guiding question will be whether and to what extent there are similarities and disparities between the reports of teachers at schools abroad within vs. outside the "Fortress Europe" (Bade 2016, p. 92) respectively in the "global South" vs. the "global North". These results are to be included in the choice of interview partners in the subsequent data collection and analysis stage.

(2) Secondly, biographical-narrative oriented interviews (Rosenthal and Fischer-Rosenthal 2004) are carried out to reconstruct the subjective views of teachers on migration-related diversity along their experiences of "being a

<sup>3</sup>see https://www.auslandsschulwesen.de/Webs/ZfA/DE/Services/Publikationen/publikationen\_ node.html.

stranger" and to conduct an intersectional analysis. According to the theoretical sampling in the course of the iterative or circular research process, approximately 12 teachers should be interviewed who


(3) Teachers will be selected on the basis of maximally and minimally contrasting case studies from the second research step. Following an ethnographic approach (Lüders 2004), these teachers will then be accompanied in this third phase of the study in their everyday teaching practice. By means of participating observations, their routines in dealing with migration-related diversity in school and during lessons will be captured and refected in feedback discussions. Specifcally, the participants' estimations of whether school situations are linked to the gain in diversity awareness through their work abroad will be examined. Furthermore, it will be explored whether and to what extent they believe to "capitalize" on their employment abroad in terms of their teaching career.

### **References**


Bakhtin, M. (1981). *The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays*. Austin: University of Texas.


*einer erziehungswissenschaftlichen Migrationsforschung* [Migration: Resolutions and Drawing Boundaries - Perspectives of Educational Migration Research] (pp. 169–190). Wiesbaden: Springer VS.


**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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### **'What Shall We Sing Now, Amir?' Developing a Voice through Translanguaging Pedagogy— An Ethnographic Research and Professional Training Project in Day-Care Centers and Schools**

Julie A. Panagiotopoulou and Maria J. Hammel

#### **Abstract**

With the aim of promoting inclusion and social justice in education, a new project supports (multilingual) professionals who address their own pedagogical practice of counteracting the disadvantages multilingual children face within a monolingual norm in Germany. The presentation of the project highlights how translanguaging as a pedagogy gives language-minoritized children a voice and as a sensitizing concept can be utilized for the analysis of project data and especially of ethnographic observations of learning and teaching practices.

### **Keywords**

Translanguaging · Professionalization · Ethnography · Multilingualism

e-mail: a.panagiotopoulou@uni-koeln.de

203

J. A. Panagiotopoulou (\*) · M. J. Hammel University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

M. J. Hammel e-mail: m.hammel@uni-koeln.de

J. A. Panagiotopoulou et al. (eds.), *Inclusion, Education and Translanguaging*, Inklusion und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28128-1\_12

### **1 Introduction**

This contribution focuses on an ethnographic research and professional training project for (future) educators and teachers in Cologne (Germany) titled "Translanguaging Pedagogy in Multilingual Day-care Centers and Schools" (TranslaPed), led by Julie A. Panagiotopoulou, that aims to support multilingual professionals who intensively deal with shaping their own pedagogical practice in a more inclusive way and, thus, contribute to social justice. After a brief critical review of educational language policy in German day-care centers and schools (2.), the theoretical framework of the project that was started in 2018 at the University of Cologne will be discussed under the question how translanguaging can be utilized as a sensitizing concept for the analysis of ethnographic observations of learning and teaching practices (3.). Furthermore, the design of the main project, as well as the research questions of Maria J. Hammel's dissertation will be presented using an example from a daily pedagogical routine showing how language-minoritized children "develop a voice through translanguaging" (4.).

### **2 Educational Language Policy in Germany**

Germany's offcial monolingual language policy has become particularly apparent in recent years under the conditions of (forced) migration and the considerable challenge of including refugee children in day-care centers and schools. The current language policy regarding newcomers aims to integrate them through language assimilation, and by doing so (re)produces the monoglossic hegemony in Germany (Panagiotopoulou 2020; Panagiotopoulou and Rosen 2018). Although many newly arrived students are already multilingual, they are often approached by monolingual authorities and educational institutions as if they had no language resources at all. Utilizing ethnographic studies in so-called preparatory classes for newcomers in Cologne, we were able to reveal, in particular, how young children who grow up in multilingual families and/or have become literate in more than one language (e.g. in Arabic and English) before their (forced) migration are often stigmatized as "zero-language speakers" (in German: "Nullsprachler"), possessing only non-lingual resources (Panagiotopoulou et al. 2020).

Even multilingual children who grow up in Germany and attend day-care for the frst time are also—metaphorically speaking—newcomers, as they and their parents are offcially confronted with this language policy reproducing a strictly monoglossic hegemony for the frst time. In particular, children from immigrant families are assumed to not being able to speak German, especially "native" and "academic German", due to their multilingualism (for a critical view on monolingual language ideologies in day-care centers and schools see Montanari and Panagiotopoulou 2019). These children's language practices are usually regarded as problematic, their language skills as insuffcient for the Germanspeaking day-care center, while the solution offered for this self-made problem is a separate language support, without taking into account the competences in home languages. However, this is very likely to achieve the opposite effect, since restricting children's multilingual repertoire in educational institutions puts young learners at a disadvantage by preventing them from using all their available resources and strategies for learning and by stigmatizing them as "semilinguals" (Panagiotopoulou 2017a). This language policy implicitly requires that all language users (even those who live multilingually) should speak "German only" in a German educational context. In (formally) monolingual day-cares and schools, members of the educational staff, even those who act multilingually in their own everyday lives, tend to communicate monolingually with multilingual colleagues, students and parents and hence to exclude "other" languages (Panagiotopoulou and Zettl 2020) or to silence the voices of "others", e.g. of Arabic-speaking newcomers in preparatory classes (Panagiotopoulou et al. 2020).

One of inclusive pedagogy's main principles, which originated long before the debate on inclusion in Germany even started, may be formulated as treating "family language worlds" of all children [and educators] with respect in educational institutions regardless of whether they consist of "standard", "dialectal" or "mixed" registers (List 2004, p. 133). Nowadays and although the issue of multilingualism is being explicitly addressed in the German educational guidelines for early childhood language training, the focus remains mainly on "the promotion of the [academic] German language" (Lengyel and Salem 2018, p. 443 f.). Primarily "migrant languages" such as Arabic, Turkish, Russian, Italian or Greek tend to be marginalized and each of them neglected as a "non-academic language" (as opposed to the "language of education", in German: "Bildungssprache"), whereas only selected languages with elite prestige such as English are offered in special (private) bilingual day-care centers in the form of foreign language acquisition. Therefore, this language policy encourages the exclusion of home languages, thus contradicting the values of inclusive multilingual pedagogy (Panagiotopoulou 2016).

This educational language policy is also transposed onto the landscape of further education for (early) pedagogical staff, as the current study by Samuel Jahreiß (2018) unveils. The reason appears to be that the "understanding of multilingual education, which is aimed at all children in day-care centers in order to promote an increase in competence in all spoken languages, has not yet become part of further training for pedagogical specialists" (Jahreiß 2018, p. 52). Multilingual educators in Cologne day-care centers often express skepticism towards the implementation of multilingual education regardless of whether they are themselves living multilingually, which can be attributed to underdeveloped pedagogical concepts (Roth et al. 2018). This result is particularly problematic because "early childhood multilingual education", which is also understood as being inclusive, "lives off multilingual role models" in education and family contexts (Chilla and Niebuhr-Siebert 2017, p. 97; Uçan 2018).

In pedagogical practice the opposite is the case: Restricting young children's multilingual repertoires in the context of monolingual educational institutions puts many children in Germany at a disadvantage by preventing them from using all their available multimodal, linguistic and semiotic resources and strategies for learning, as they usually do. This is an important reason why questioning monolingual language policies and teaching practices through ethnographic observations of multilingual and translingual children's learning practices in German day-care centers and schools is of paramount relevance to promote social justice in education.

### **3 Translanguaging as a Theoretical Framework: Promoting Social Justice in Education Contexts**

Multilingual children do not use autonomous languages or linguistic systems but make use of their whole linguistic repertoire (García 2009), e.g. "their words" (such as "uzeug" or "aeplano", see the following excerpt) often without consideration for conventional language boundaries. In order to communicate with other multilinguals, even very young children combine the accessible linguistic elements into an integrated whole which can always be adjusted to the situation and their interlocutor's repertoire. This might seem, to a certain extent, extraordinary from the external perspective of a monolingual language user. However, from the perspective of multilingual children, this dynamic language usage is authentic, legitimate and conducive to learning. In order to make this transparent, ethnographic studies in day-care centers can be crucial. To analyze such observations and make them comprehensible for the participating educators, many scholars in different, also German speaking countries use translanguaging as a "sensitizing concept" (Charmaz 2014, p. 117), (for an overview of ethnographic studies see Montanari and Panagiotopoulou 2019). We would like to illustrate this with an excerpt from the feld study "Lena" (Panagiotopoulou 2016):

*Lena, a two and a half*-*year*-*old child from a German*-*Greek*-*speaking family looks at me and says "uzeug" while viewing a picture book.*

*I can't understand what she means, so I ask her: "Τί είναι αυτό?" ["What is that?"]*

*Lena asks back: "aplano"?*

*I answer, emphasizing and correcting her utterance "α, εννοείς α*ερ*οπλάνο!" ["Ah, you mean aeroplano!"] to signal that I now understand what she meant (namely in Greek "aeroplano", pronounced by Lena as "aplano", in German "Flugzeug", pronounced as "uzeug").*

*Lena nods so as to confrm, while also repeating, emphasizing and correcting her own utterance: "aeplano!"*

Ethnographic studies may provide scholars and educators with a deeper insight into the practice of translanguaging by young children like Lena who tend to cross conventional language boundaries despite the monolingual language policies of the German educational institution. In the course of professional training for pre-service teachers and educators, these ethnographic observations may respond to such important questions as: How do multilingual children use their entire linguistic repertoire to communicate and learn (e.g. see above: What is an "uzeug")? Taking observations on translanguaging into account, this may contradict the traditional understanding of languages as autonomous, clearly defned systems (L1, L2, L3 etc.) which are learned or acquired by individuals as monolingual codes in an additive manner (L1+L2+L3 etc.). Ethnographic observations of language practices also entail questioning the ideology that multilingual adults (like Lena's interlocutor in the observation above) allegedly do not "mix" their languages and any kind of "language mixing" presents an irregularity and a deviation from the monolingual norm. Ethnographic research projects in (offcially) mono- or multilingual regions of the globe and in the context of (formally) mono- and multilingual educational institutions for children, adolescents and adults suggest the opposite: despite the ability to act monolingually in monolingual settings, authentic language usage of multilingual individuals remains fexible and dynamic (Creese 2017).

Furthermore, translanguaging is also "a practical theory of language" (Li Wei 2018, p. 9) which underscores "the necessity to bridge the artifcial and ideological divides between the so-called sociocultural and the cognitive approaches to Translanguaging practices". As Li expounds, multilingual children do not disassemble their complex linguistic repertoires, in order to pick just "one namable language" or register for communication, because even when they act monolingually in specifc situations, when they are in a "monolingual mode", their thinking process still takes place "beyond language, and thinking requires the use of a variety of cognitive, semiotic, and modal resources" (Li Wei 2018, p. 18). In the abovementioned excerpt, we see how Lena, a two and a half year old child, implements elements from her entire linguistic repertoire to communicate with her interlocutor while she develops her bilingualism: "young kindergarteners use translanguaging for […] metafunctions", e.g. "to construct meaning within themselves" or "to mediate understandings among each other" (García and Li Wei 2014, p. 82). With her translation "a(ero)plano", Lena ensures that her original utterance "uzeug" is recognized as "airplane" by her interlocutor. Furthermore, with her improved second *emphasized* attempt ("aeplano"), Lena also approaches the target language utterance ("aeroplano") by adding an element and it is precisely this intentional emphasis that renders a variety of linguistic and semiotic resources and her dynamic, translingual learning process observable. In this interaction Lena demonstrates knowledge and at the same time she creates new meaning, since "[t]ranslanguaging […] enabled the learning to take place" (García and Li Wei 2014, p. 82). Similarly, by using observations from a bilingual kindergarten in the USA, García (2011, p. 47) found that the most prevalent use of translanguaging by young children was to co-construct meaning, both with others and within themselves.

If ethnography "has enabled the voices" of children, like Lena, "to be heard" (James 2001, p. 255; Panagiotopoulou 2013, p. 771), through professional trainings based on such ethnographic observations (future) educators and teachers could be enabled to hear the voices of (emergent) bi/multilinguals, more precisely, to support them in "developing a voice through translanguaging" (García and Li Wei 2014, p. 108) by critically refecting on (their own) traditional conceptions of autonomous languages and monolingual pedagogical practices. Especially if they intend to support young bi/multilingual children comparable to Lena by including "*all* the language practices of *all* students in a class" (García and Li Wei 2014, p. 66, original emphasis) and encouraging them "to learn within and across languages" (List 2010, p. 10), educators challenge their own teaching as the concept of translanguaging "has the potential to change the nature of learning, as well as of teaching" (García and Li Wei 2015, p. 229).

As a sensitizing concept translanguaging redirects our attention from the separate namable languages and varieties existing as autonomous systems to the authentic language practices (the languaging) of multilinguals. As a pedagogy translanguaging has been put into practice in schools and day-care centers already (García et al. 2017; Seltzer et al. see this volume), which bears implications for educational (language) policy: "the voices of Others come to the forefront, relating Translanguaging to criticality, critical pedagogy, social justice, and the linguistic human rights agenda" (Li Wei 2018, p. 24; García and Flores 2012).

### **4 Translanguaging Pedagogy in Multilingual Day-Care Centers and Schools: A Research and Professional Training Project in Cologne**

In this section we will briefy depict how the intention of the project to empower and support (future) teachers and educators utilizing the concept of translanguaging pedagogy arose and how it led to the current design. Following the publication of the expertise "Multilingualism in Childhood" (Panagiotopoulou 2016) published as part of the "Further Education Initiative" of the DJI (German Youth Institute) early childhood educators and teachers were informed in detail about the "multilingual turn" (Conteh and Meier 2014), the approaches of "multilingual pedagogies" (García and Flores 2012), as well as the German concept of "multilingual didactics" (Reich and Krumm 2013) and the "possible perspectives for a reorientation of language pedagogical practice" and "concepts of an inclusive pedagogy […], such as Translanguaging (García and Li Wei 2014; García 2009)" (Panagiotopoulou 2016, p. 24). Two bilingual (German-Italian and German-English) day-care centers based in Cologne approached the author of the expertise at the University of Cologne on their own initiative and asked for concrete support in "changing structures that have become entrenched in daycare life" (e.g. strict language separation according to the immersion model and striving for "elite multilingualism") and for assistance in opening up new language support programs "for immigrant, language-minoritizedchildren" through a further training on translanguaging.

Furthermore, a third day-care center introduced itself to us at a city networking event regarding multilingualism in day-care centers. Subsequently, this kindergarten, which already utilized the term translanguaging (also as a result of the above-mentioned publication) in its language training program to declare its orientation towards lived and authentic multilingualism (in German, Arabic and Turkish) also expressed a desire for further training. This apparent need for further training in translanguaging, which was generated and formulated directly from early pedagogical practice, gave rise to the idea of initiating a superordinate project that would offer the unique opportunity to document the beginning of the implementation of translanguaging pedagogy in the Cologne area, to develop a further training concept for the implementation of translanguaging in pedagogical everyday life in German day-care centers.1

<sup>1</sup>In the meantime, primary schools in Cologne were also involved in the project, however, the present contribution focuses on day-care centers.

The process of developing a training concept on translanguaging for day-care centers will be accompanied by Maria J. Hammel's dissertation project: Through constant gathering, documentation and comparison of ethnographic data (interviews and observations) we will be able to create a multi-sited perspective on if and how different day-care centers in Cologne overcome monolingual ideologies and practices, and adopt a more inclusive and multilingual approach. To that aim the accompanying research is pursuing the following questions:


The goals of the dissertation project are to be achieved with the help of various documentation and survey instruments in accordance with "Constructing Grounded Theory" (Charmaz 2014). The instruments are briefy presented in the following.

In relation to the addressees of the training (educators, day-care center managers): narrative-generating expert interviews are conducted a few days before and immediately after a workshop to collect data concerning explicit and interpretative knowledge (Bogner et al. 2009). The main aim of the pre-interviews is to clarify the expectations of the participants. The post-interviews are intended to refect the effects of the training and to draw conclusions about possible changes in the interviewees' attitudes towards translanguaging. In addition, for the student ethnographers involved in the preparation and implementation of the project and the project leader and trainer, guided interviews (Bohnsack et al. 2018, p. 151 f.) are being used, which are also conducted before and after each workshop.

In this training concept, ethnographic observations are collected by student ethnographers several weeks before the frst training unit. The ethnographers, who are future educators and teachers, are in the fnal phase of their (master) studies and will be trained and accompanied in a weekly ethnographic research workshop simultaneously with the ongoing survey. This will help assess an ethnographic attitude during the observation process (Panagiotopoulou 2017a) as well as the production of thick descriptions (Geertz et al. 1983) and possibly to sharpen the further focus of observation by a frst common coding of selected sequences (Charmaz 2014). The collected data also serve as an empirical basis for the student ethnographers' fnal master theses, which generate a great usability and effciency of the survey for various purposes.

Certain sequences, like the following example, were then specifcally selected from the available observation protocols to give the observed educators the opportunity to refect on their own pedagogical practice during the workshops.

*All children and educators [sit] around the table and start the morning circle. Amara says, "Yalla, alle Kinder erstmal psssscht" ["Yalla, all children frst psssh"] and puts her fnger on her mouth. Some of the children do the same until fnally all are quiet. Then they begin to recite an Arabic prayer song, "Bismillah", and gesture to it. First, they make a bowl with their hands, then they wipe their face with their hands. When the song ends, Amara asks, "Was sollen wir jetzt singen, Amir?" ["What shall we sing now, Amir?"] Amir says a little quieter: "Alle meine Entchen" ["All my little ducklings"] (a German children's song). Amara repeats: "Alle meine Entchen? Ok!" ["All my little ducklings? Ok!"]. They start to alternately knock twice on the table and clap their hands once and sing "Alle meine Entchen" with the melody from the song "we will rock you" (from the rock band Queen). The children all join in and knock loudly on the table and clap their hands.*

*(Day*-*Care Center Arkadaş, 13.12.2018; ethnographer F. Kamphuis; the names of the day*-*care center, educators and children are pseudonymized and are subject to data protection guidelines).*

In this short example of a daily ritual of the researched day-care center we see a "meaningful performance" (Li Wei 2011, p. 1223). The starting statement "Yalla, all children frst psssscht" regularly invites *all* children to participate in the daily pedagogical routine through translanguaging, which "opens up a space of resistance and social justice" (García and Li Wei 2014, p. 115), including also language practices of "minoritized" children and educators. What is special here is the fact that the utterance begins with an Arabic word generally known in the feld, continues in German and ends with an onomatopoetic interjection, which is accompanied by the associated gesture ("puts a fnger on the mouth"). These diverse, verbal and non-verbal signs enable all children to understand the request and to independently follow and participate in the group event. At the same time, it is signalized that multimodality and migration-related multilingualism are welcome within this particular action, which makes this morning circle "a translanguaging space" for its participants.

Following García and Li Wei, translanguaging opens up trans-spaces capable of stressing the sociopolitical order (García and Li Wei 2014, p. 137), which in this case would be the monolingual norm that predominates German day-care centers and also the expectation towards children to act "only in German". The children here experience that songs can be sung in different and also in their own home languages and that they (when asked by the educator) are given the opportunity to decide about the content of the morning circle themselves, as shown by the threeyear-old child named Amir. That morning, he makes the decision that a traditional German song should now follow a traditional Arabic song, namely "Alle meine Entchen", and thus both languages—Arabic and German—are used in a non-hierarchical way. By singing the song to an internationally known, modern rock melody, this "act of translanguaging" irritates the monoglossic hegemony again and identifes the observed situation as the practice of a creative and multimodal transspace and as "a social space" for multilingual, yet language-minoritized educators and children "by bringing together different dimensions of their personal history, experience and environment […] into one coordinated and meaningful performance". (Li Wei 2011, p. 1223).

The fact that this transformative moment is initiated by the educators on a daily basis, as the ethnographic observations have shown, proves that the practice of a translanguaging space is not an accidental, special competence of individual multilingual educators in the observed day-care center, but has already been institutionalized as part of a pedagogical concept (and that translanguaging plays a central role in the educators' professional practice).2

The training session in which the educators were confronted with the scene above was recorded and later transcribed, as were all future training sessions. As can be seen from the transcript of this workshop, one of the participants explained that the translanguaging morning circle "encourages the participation of all children". This shows how the transcripts of the workshops allow for conclusions about the connection between the confrontation with the observed sequences and the subsequent refection in the interview to be drawn.

Based on Melanie Kuhn (2013), referring to Cloos (2001, 2008), the theoretical orientation of this project aims at the perspective of professionalization, since the discourse on early childhood education is more concerned with the theory of professionalization than profession (Kuhn 2013, p. 140). However, as Kuhn has pointed out, there is a desideratum regarding genuinely professional-theoretical empirical studies, specifcally ethnographies, that focus on the everyday practices of educators. (Kuhn 2013, p. 143).

<sup>2</sup>This is the same principle Claudia Seele (2015) has worked out, namely the spatialization of pedagogical action. However, it is not the reference to monolinguality that constitutes the pedagogical space, but the translanguaging of those involved.

Therefore, this training project is based on the scientifcally substantiated discussion of daily practices in each educational context with the observed educators themselves. Due to the "closeness to practice and the focus on the outcome, such a project format has the potential to connect theory with practice and increase the overall quality of further education" (König and Friederich 2015, p. 14). This connection is also established by addressing the observed actions of educators within a workshop, stimulating refection on one's own competences. According to Kuhn (2013, p. 144), promoting a more scientifc and refective practice that leads to an improvement in the quality of early childhood education is a recommended strategy of professionalization.

Thole et al. (2015) explained that pedagogical specialists who are confronted, for example, with video sequences from their own practice, view the situations directly in relation to themselves and their views (Thole et al. 2015, p. 129). However, the knowledge applied in the actions is not explicable3 (Thole et al. 2015, p. 137). The project's format tries to counteract this aspect by enabling educators to generate theoretical knowledge based on their own pedagogical practices. Afterwards they may use this knowledge both for reconsidering their past pedagogical practices and consciously constructing new ones. This can reduce the aforementioned research desideratum concerning the refection of pedagogical professionals on their own actions "as a necessary prerequisite for the development of a professional attitude" (Thole et al. 2015, p. 140).

### **5 Outlook**

We regard pedagogical professionals in day-care centers and schools as actors jointly responsible for the implementation of language policies, since they act "at the local level" and in everyday pedagogical life as "language policymakers" (García and Menken 2010, p. 249). Through their practice they can question implicit language ideologies and norms as well as explicit or de facto language policy regulations and change their own strategies and practices when dealing with multilingualism. This is precisely the reason why they ask for concrete support from science and research.

Representatives from day-care centers and schools in Cologne that wanted to be involved in our research and professional training project were invited to the con-

<sup>3</sup>For this result, the analysis of the transcript of our frst training course provides a counter-argument, but this must be addressed elsewhere.

ference in Cologne—which is documented in this book—where they exchanged ideas with other scholars and educators about promoting social justice through translanguaging pedagogies in an international context by attending the lectures of Ofelia García and Kate Seltzer et al. (see this volume) and then the workshop of Claudine Kirsch and Claudia Seele (see this volume). After the conference, the frst working meeting with the participants, on which we report here, was organized in order for the students of the University of Cologne to start their ethnographic studies in 2018. Both these future educators and the professionals working in practice and involved in the project are multilingual. With this project it is important to support and empower especially migration-related multilingual educators and teachers who, despite the offcial monolingual language policy in Germany, have set out to change their practice. In a further step, together with Claudine Kirsch from the University of Luxembourg and with the support of Ofelia García, we will set up a network with day-care centers and schools in New York to promote international exchange between interested educators, teachers and scholars.

### **References**


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### **Translanguaging as a Culturally Sustaining Pedagogical Approach: Bi/Multilingual Educators' Perspectives**

### Roula Tsokalidou and Eleni Skourtou

### **Abstract**

In this paper we will focus on data from bi/multilingual educators and discuss aspects of translanguaging as a Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (Paris and Alim, Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies. Teaching and Learning for Justice in a Changing World, Teachers College Press, New York, 2017). The data from the bi/multilingual educators come from a recent qualitative research (Tsokalidou, *SiDaYes! Πέρα από τη διγλωσσία προς τη διαγλωσσικότητα/*Beyond bilingualism to translanguaging, Gutenberg, Athens, 2017) that aimed to bring forward the issue of translanguaging (TL) in the everyday life of multi/bilinguals. Our fndings suggest that TL could function as a means of increasing the confdence and self-esteem of minoritized students, while offering them a feeling of normality and pride for their linguistic and cultural backgrounds. It also becomes clear from our data that going against the grain of monolingualism and mono-culturalism is a great challenge for all.

### **Keywords**

Translanguaging · Culturally sustaining pedagogy · Multilingual educators

R. Tsokalidou (\*)

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece e-mail: tsokalid@nured.auth.gr

E. Skourtou University of the Aegean, Rhodos, Greece e-mail: skourtou@rhodes.aegean.gr

© The Author(s) 2020

219

J. A. Panagiotopoulou et al. (eds.), *Inclusion, Education and Translanguaging*, Inklusion und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28128-1\_13

### **1 Introduction**

The contemporary world is challenged by demographic changes which make promoting diverse linguistic and cultural dexterity necessary not only for valuing all communities but also for the development of "skills, knowledges, and ways of being needed for success in the present and the future" (Paris and Alim 2017, p. 5). As Paris and Alim (2017) put it, the future is a multilingual and multiethnic one, regardless of attempts to suppress that reality (p. 6). This reality cannot but challenge educators to acknowledge and develop the diverse linguistic and cultural skills of their students as well as of themselves. To this end they call upon a Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP). This is in line with García's (2017) suggestion that teachers need to take up a "translanguaging stance", shed their authoritative position, and adopt different roles. She suggests that through TL teachers can take on the four roles of "detective", "co-learner", "builder" and "transformer". She notes that as teachers of migrants, they are also interested in social justice. Such an ideological stance requires them to become colearners of their students' worlds (through interviews, life stories, co-production of video-documentaries). At the same time, through translanguaging practices, teachers are also involved in transforming the social reality of their adult migrant/ refugee students, as they build on the human ability to re-mix and recontextualize; that is, to inscribe language performances and identities into new contexts (García 2017, p. 23). In this paper we will discuss aspects of translanguaging as a Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (or CSP) (Paris and Alim 2017). We will then illustrate this connecting of the two concepts using data on views of bi/multilingual educators from a recent qualitative research (Tsokalidou 2017) that aimed to bring forward the issue of translanguaging (TL) in the everyday life of multi/ bilinguals from different parts of the world. In this paper, we will specifcally present the perspectives of those bi/multilinguals who are involved in education. Our fndings suggest that TL in education could function as a means of increasing the confdence and self-esteem of minoritized students, while offering them a feeling of normality and pride for their linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

### **2 Translanguaging**

Translanguaging (Baker 2003, 2011; Garcia 2009a, b, 2011) could be considered one of the most dynamic contemporary sociolinguistic approaches to the study of linguistic variation (Tsiplakou 2016). Through this approach we look into what we refer to "beyond bilingualism" or beyond what has been called by Cummins (2007) the "two solitudes" or double monolingualism. Research in the area of bilingualism and language contact phenomena, within a fuid and ever-changing contemporary sociopolitical and educational context, has very little to beneft from a study in the types of bilingualism or in issues of maintaining heritage languages. Within the context of the constant need for (re)defning the deeper meaning and dimensions of language contact, of language itself, we attempt to muster all our intellectual tools in order to shed more light onto the issue of what we call "communicative collaboration", both on a personal and a collective level. Based on Tsokalidou (2017), we call "collaboration" the process whereby all our linguistic and cultural tools render us communicatively competent and in a position to handle our uniqueness as well as our explicit or implicit relations with the other members of the communities we inhabit as linguistically active and socially vibrant members. Translanguaging as a term, process and surrounding reality can express the collaborative relations that connect each person with his/her linguistic equipment, as well as with the rest of the members of the communicative communities in which s/he partakes (family, friends, professional context, etc.).

According to Tsiplakou (2016), it is common knowledge that most linguistic communities, synchronically and diachronically, are characterized by multilingualism and hybridity. In this context, she suggests that the approach of translanguaging puts forward a dynamic stance to language, not as a static system, but as languaging, a series of performances placed within specifc social and cultural micro- and macro-contexts. Within the context of translingual performances, many elements from various linguistic repertoires can be put to use, producing a variety of multi-level sociocultural meanings and acts of identity. Thus, while translanguaging allows for values to be negotiated, and personal "voices" to be heard, it also creates a broader "platform" where issues of language ideologies and language policies can become more visible.

Τhe term "translanguaging", or TL for short, was created by the Welsh educationalist Cen Williams in the 1980s in order to describe the planned and systematic use of two languages for teaching and learning within the same lesson (Baker 2003, 2011). It was coined as a Welsh word "trawsieithu" by Cen Williams and a colleague of his (Dafydd Whittall) during an in-service course for deputy headteachers in Llandudno (North Wales) and it was later translated into English as "translinguifying" but then changed to "translanguaging" following a conversation between Cen Williams and Colin Baker. "Translanguaging" came to mean the process whereby one language is used in order to reinforce the other with the aim to increase understanding and in order to augment the pupils' ability in both languages (Williams 2002, p. 40). In other words, through translanguaging, pupils internalize new ideas they hear, assign their own understanding to the message/concept and, simultaneously, utilize the message/concept in their other language(s), from their own perspectives. In doing so, they augment and supplement the message/concept through dual language processing. This idea seems to be in line with the notion of "transduction of meaning" (Kress 2000) and the "cone scheme" analysis developed by Skourtou (2011, p. 150), according to which shared content is expressed by similar concepts in each language, although the languages are different. Therefore, the cone scheme includes L1—L2 on top, E1—E2 in the middle and C1=C2 at the bottom, forming a cone. Although we fnd this idea very interesting, we believe that it expresses the approach to TL by Williams (2003), as the more recent approaches go beyond the dichotomy of L1—L2, treating the language level in a similar manner to that of the concept and content levels, as we will discuss later.

Williams (2003) suggests that translanguaging focuses more on the pupils' use of two languages (and what they are able to achieve by using both languages) rather than on the teachers' role within the classroom, although it may be engineered by the teacher. Williams (2003) also suggested that through translanguaging often the stronger language is used in order to develop the weaker one thereby contributing towards a relatively balanced development of a child's two languages. This approach was important in the Welsh context as the aim was for the child to develop their two (or more) languages at school and translanguaging was seen as a strategy for retaining and developing bilingualism rather than one promoting the teaching of the second language. The four potential educational advantages of translanguaging put forward by Williams, as documented by Baker (2001, 2006, 2011) are:


Ofelia García (2009a, b) extended the term "translanguaging" to mean more than the pedagogic variation of linguistic input and output. García treats "translanguaging" as a strategy that bilinguals use to make meaning, shape their experiences, gain understanding and knowledge, and make sense of their bilingual worlds through the everyday use of two (or more) languages. García proposed the defnition of "translanguaging" as "a powerful mechanism to construct understandings, to include others, and to mediate understandings across language groups" (García 2009a, p. 307 f.). García argues that it is impossible to live in communities such as New York and communicate among multilinguals without translanguaging (García 2009b, p. 151). Based on observations of translanguaging practices in bilingual communities, García's approach towards translanguaging helped extend the use of this process to include the complex everyday realities of home and street (García 2009a).

In other words, García (2009a, 2011) views translanguaging as "engaging in bilingual or multilingual discourse practices" (2009a, p. 44), as an approach centered not on languages, but on the communicative practices of bilinguals. Within the notion and process of translanguaging, other linguistic contact phenomena are included, such as code-switching and translation, but the emphasis is given on the process adopted by bilingual students in their classrooms, rather than on the languages involved.

The proposed approach to translanguaging seems to be in line with the approach to bilingualism proposed by Brutt-Griffer and Varghese (2004, p. 94), according to which "Bilinguals remind us that linguistic space is rather a continuum of Language (…) it is not only languages that cohabit in the same space but (…) also an accompanying process of (…) 'mixing of cultures and world views' that is impenetrable to some, troubling to others". In other words, according to the above approach, the fusion of different views and cultures plays a signifcant role in understanding bilingualism, and, at the same time, the traditional distinction of autonomous languages is abandoned as emphasis is given to the existence of a linguistic continuum as expressed by bilinguals themselves. This defnition shows that the resistance to bilingualism is attributed, to a great extent, both to the concerns of the dominant society about a potential subversion of the linguistic norm, and to the failure of monolinguals to appreciate the importance of language coexistence for bilinguals and the rest of society (Tsokalidou 2015). Equivalent is the approach expressed by Velasco and García (2014), according to which the language practices learned by emergent bilinguals are in functional interrelationship with other language practices and form an integrated system. TL is more than code switching, which treats languages as separate systems (or codes) that are "switched" for communicative purposes. Moreover, we believe that while code-switching refers mainly to the language level, translanguaging allows us to refer to the wider ideological issues of multilingual management and the development of languages and language varieties, life in between different cultures and language varieties, elements which make up our personal and collective identity/identities. García and Kleyn (2016) make a thorough review of the literature on translanguaging, explaining the differences between TL approaches to code-switching and Cummins' interdependence hypothesis and emphasize that for them TL "*refers to the deployment of a speaker's full linguistic repertoire, which does not in any way correspond to the socially and politically defned*  *boundaries of named languages*" (García and Kleyn 2016, p. 14). To express this, they refrain from using L1 or L2 and instead they symbolize language use as Fn and TL as a series of Fn (Fn, Fn, Fn, Fn…) where for code-switching and other traditional models of bilingualism the symbols L1 and L2 are used and Fn stands for any language use. They note that in the TL model, named languages such as English, Spanish and Russian have a material and social reality but not a linguistic one. They also explain that Williams' TL model refers to an internal linguistic view of language but it corresponds to an external social view of language, namely Welsh and English.

According to our approach, translanguaging could include a variety of adopted language practices such as translation, transference of elements, code-switching and others, while surpassing them at the same time. It becomes an educational and social practice that contributes to linguistic creativity through the synthesis of linguistic and cultural multimodal elements (Tsokalidou 2016). Through translanguaging we can, thus, overcome the socio-educational reality of "invisible" bilingualism, which refers to the existence but ignorance of the bilingual potential of students from various backgrounds in Greek schools, as these students are termed "αλλόγλωσσα" ("alloglossa" meaning "other language speaking") and not bi/ multilingual, as their linguistic wealth remains simply invisible (Tsokalidou 2012, 2015, p. 44 f.).

### **3 Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies (CSP)**

As Edwards (2004) proposes globalization has given multilingualism visibility but also an added value associated with the ability to speak several languages. However, not all language speakers receive the same added value for their languages (Tsokalidou 2017). Nonetheless, through translanguaging weaker or stigmatized languages can fnd a place along dominant ones whose value is not questioned. This is in line with the approach known as Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies (or CSP) (Paris and Alim 2017) which "calls for schooling to be a site for sustaining the cultural ways of being of communities of color" (p. 5). Like in the U.S, Greece and Europe as a whole are also challenged by demographic changes which make promoting diverse linguistic and cultural dexterity necessary not only for valuing all communities but also for the development of "skills, knowledges, and ways of being needed for success in the present and the future" (p. 5). As Paris and Alim (2017) put it, the future is a multilingual and multiethnic one, regardless of attempts to suppress that reality (p. 6). Paraphrasing the goals and content of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) (Ladson-Billings 2017), translanguaging can become a powerful means of expressing the ways in which race, ethnicity, language, literacy and engagement with culture are enacted in shifting and dynamic ways. The coexistence of languages, the constant references to the need for more than one, imposed upon us, way of being and expressing oneself, the need to sustain elements from our familial and communal lives along with elements that connect us to our contemporaries, while leading us to a common diverse and dynamic future can be located and expressed through creative translanguaging practices. As participants mentioned when asked to expand on the notion of translanguaging, cultures and languages need to be sustained as fuid, ever-changing and dynamic, according to the many and complex ways in which people place themselves within and beyond ethnic, cultural and linguistic groupings in their effort to defne their own sociolinguistic universe.

According to its founders (Paris and Alim 2017), CSP relies on the theories of funds of knowledge, the third space and culturally relevant pedagogy. Funds of knowledge refer to the knowledge that students bring with them from their homes and communities and which needs to be used for their cognitive and overall development (González et al. 2005). Third Space theory focuses on the uniqueness of each person as a hybrid (Gutierrez 2008) and is used in order to understand and bring forward the spaces "in between" two or more discourses or binaries (Bhabha 1994). Through this approach we can appreciate the process whereby people negotiate and synthesize their traditional cultural background with newly imposed cultures, creating their unique third space cultures. Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) involves three main components which are:


Ladson-Billings (2017) discusses how these three components have been misunderstood and misused by teachers who seem to follow culturally relevant pedagogy. She stresses, among other issues, the fact that culture goes far beyond issues or lists of "cultural tendencies" or "cultural stereotypes", encompassing worldview, thought patterns, ethics, epistemological stances and ways of being that are fuid and dynamic (p. 143). Through a study of both CRP and CSR, it becomes evident that such approaches cannot be implemented without involving multilingual and translingual practices in class. As it has been shown from our research, language and culture are so intertwined that they cannot be separated in our efforts to sustain them as we support our multilingual/multicultural students within and outside the classroom context. The work of Bucholtz et al. (2017) makes this connection evident, too, as they claim that one "of the most important yet most devalued resources available to youth of color is their language", which is often and superfcially described as "improper", "sloppy", "ungrammatical" or "broken" rather than as innovative, creative or fexible, central to young people's creation of their identities (p. 44). As the same writers claim, the recognition of the importance of language in the lives of youth of color has led Paris and Alim (2017) to include "the valorization of language as a central component of CSP" (p. 44). The impossibility of separating language from culture is made clear in the statement by Bucholtz et al. (2017) that "it is culture, produced primarily via language, that endows experience with meaning and provides a deeply held sense of identity and social belonging" (p. 45). Although the work of Bucholtz et al. (2017) refers mainly to youth of color, we believe that the same premise holds for all minoritized students in general as well as adults who often feel that their color or their ethnic/cultural/linguistic backgrounds place them in a position of feeling like a "wog" or a "gharib" (Tsokalidou 2017). This feeling is not just a personal matter, but it refects vividly the established structural power inequalities between mainstream and minorized communities in migration communities. In this context it is worth highlighting the point made by Paris and Alim (2017) that "too often cultural practices, activities, and ways of being and doing are invoked in ways that obscure the racialized, gendered, classed, dis/abilitied, language (and so on) bodies of the people enacting them." (p. 9). Just like culture and language cannot be sustained separately, Paris and Alim claim that CSP is about sustaining cultures in relation to sustaining the bodies and the lives "of people who cherish and practice them" (p. 9). This is an important aspect that makes cultural values and realities person-specifc and person-centred and helps educators and students realize the individual complexities and idiosyncrasies that matter for people within the contexts of their ethnic and other affliations. Such a realization makes the bond between CSP and translanguaging even more vital as we all need to appreciate the unique ways in which individuals and groups express their universe combining all the linguistic (which are also culturally sustaining) means available to them.

In their discussion of multilingualism, Cenoz and Corter (2015) note that during the last 15 years there has been a shift from a cognitive to a social perspective in the felds of second language acquisition and bilingualism, as well as a turn towards multilingualism. Within this context the distinction between a second and a foreign language seems to lose its momentum. The example of the sociolinguistic context of countries in regions other than Europe, such as Lebanon and other countries in the Middle East, has given us more parameters to consider (Tsokalidou 2000, 2012) which challenge traditional terms used in language learning and use. Having studied the written work of immigrant students in Greece, Archakis (2019) notes that the issue of hybridity and hybrid identities, as it surfaces from the students' own texts, needs to be taken into consideration in the planning of language teaching. Archakis proposes that the terms "teaching Greek as a second or foreign language" within the context of hybridity and diversity are at least redundant, while a more general term such as "language teaching" can be more accurate and meaningful. Equivalent issues of the inadequacy of monolingual language tests for adult immigrants in Greece have been noted by other researchers (Androulakis 2015; Moschonas 2010). This approach seems to be in line with the holistic view of the linguistic repertoire as adopted in "Focus on Multilingualism", a research and teaching approach for multilingual contexts (Cenic and Seltzer 2011). This approach encourages students to use their resources cross-linguistically rather than separately (Cenoz and Gorter 2015). Blommaert (2010) proposed the term "truncated multilingualism" in order to describe the use of bits and pieces from different languages that people have at their disposal while communicating in multilingual contexts as "repertoires composed of specialized but partially and unevenly developed resources" (p. 23). Although we fnd the term appropriate for many multilingual communicative contexts, we prefer to describe this process as translanguaging, as the term "truncated" might have negative connotations that may not do justice to the often miraculous way in which people actually manage to communicate across individual or named, according to García (2016), language borders. We can say that despite the limitations set by one's lack of knowledge of many aspects of the languages that make up one's "linguistic universe", communication does happen and strong bonds do form between people from diverse backgrounds.

### **4 The Research: Methodological Issues, Research Sample and Findings**

The research presented here belongs to a qualitative research paradigm and the analysis carried out can be described as qualitative content analysis (Tsokalidou 2017). As Zhang and Wildemuth (2009) suggest, "qualitative content analysis goes beyond merely counting words or extracting objective content from texts to examine meanings, themes and patterns that may be manifest or latent in a particular text. It allows researchers to understand social reality in a subjective but scientifc manner" (p. 1). Qualitative research is fundamentally interpretative, and interpretation represents our personal and theoretical understanding of the phenomenon under study (Patton 2002). However, the current research can be characterized as inductive within a grounded theory approach, according to which the researcher does not derive variables/categories from existing theories or previous related studies but immerses herself in the data and lets the categories emerge on their own.

The data presented below is part of the research by Tsokalidou (2017) which involved a broader range of issues to be addressed. In this paper we focus on the data regarding bi/multilingual educators and their views on TL practices. The data were gathered through a combination of oral communication and interviews with the participants. Since they all live in different countries (Australia, Sri Lanka, Dubai, Germany, Italy, Thailand and Greece) the interview questions were, in some cases, sent to them by email and communication with them took place either through social media or in person. In every case, however, the participants themselves wrote or corrected the content of the provided answers and had control over the way in which they answered the questions. The purpose of the research and its focal concept of translanguaging were explained to them, while a short defnition of TL was provided in the written interview questions. Τhe bilingual participants were encouraged to express their views on the given topics. They all wanted their own name to be used in the analysis as they all expressed their desire for their voice to be heard.

The fndings presented come from the following bi/multilingual participants who are all involved in education. Valbona, 45, is an Albanian background woman living in Greece who teaches Albanian to Albanian-background students. She regards Albanian, Greek and English as her languages of use. Stacey, 26, is a Greek-background woman living in Canada who teaches Greek to Greek-background students. She mentioned English, Greek, French, Italian, (some) Arabic, (some) Hebrew and (some) Turkish as her languages of use. Devika, 50, is an Australian-Sri Lankan woman living in Sri Lanka who teaches English to tertiary education students. She mentioned English, French, Italian, Spanish, Korean and Sinhala as her languages of use. Gianna, 55, is a Greekbackground woman living in France, teaching French to students in informal French education. She referred to Greek, French, Russian and English as her languages of use. Kathy, 39, is a bilingual (American-)Lebanese-background woman living in Dubai, carrying out seminars on self-improvement to adults. She uses English, Arabic, French and Spanish. Max, 68, is a Greek-background man living in Adelaide, Australia, teaching theater to students in formal education. He mentioned Greek, English and French as his languages of use. Last but not least, Badal, 57, is a man from Pakistan who lives in Italy and teaches ethnology to University students. He uses Balochi, English, Urdu and Italian to communicate.

The participants answered questions about the use of TL in class, the possible advantages and disadvantages of TL for both bi/multilingual and monolingual students. Below we examine their main responses.

Valbona replied that TL "*είναι ελευθερία για μένα. Πιάνω των εαυτό μου ότι μιλάει άλλη γλώσσα, πχ ελληνικά αντί για αλβανικά στην τάξη. Αρνητικό ίσως είναι ότι δεν ενισχύεται η εκμάθηση της γλώσσας στόχου, αλλά απελευθερώνει τα παιδιά κι εμένα πάρα πολύ, 'απερίγραπτη' ελευθερία. Αντιλαμβάνομαι ότι μιλάω ελληνικά αντί για αλβανικά από τα «ήρεμα» πρόσωπα των μαθητών/ριών μου*". [it is freedom for me. I catch myself speaking another language, i.e. Greek instead of Albanian in class. Perhaps it is negative as the learning of the target language is not reinforced but it frees the children and me very much, "indescribable" freedom. I realize that I speak Greek instead of Albanian when I see the "calm" faces of my students].

Stacey said "*I question the absolute immersion (in my case the immersion into the Greek language) and use of the languages my students speak. In addition, I am certain that the use of multiple languages will boost their confdence and self*-*esteem*. *I also turn to code switching when I teach, in order to ease the language*-*learning process. Especially now that I teach to English*-*speaking preschoolers Greek I need to switch between English and Greek often, otherwise they don't understand and lose interest*". Moreover, she commented that "*By allowing students to speak in their own language and by enabling them to share their heritage language with their classmates, we raise their self*-*respect and shape a positive environment for them. Furthermore, TL eases the educational process. It makes it quicker and easier for students to understand a new concept or idea, as they will relate it to previous knowledge*".

Especially in relation to the monolingual students, Stacey said that "*This cultural and linguistic exposure fosters an unprejudiced attitude for monolingual students and promotes a peace building and confict resolution culture*".

When asked about her own language use in class, Devika replied that "*I am currently learning to understand Sinhalese, and expanding my vocabulary and phraseology, to enable me to create course materials in English for students from rural and regional areas who are cut off from the wider world. There is a need for me to start to think as they do, to understand how best to reach them and help them equip themselves with English skills in a way which respects their original language and cultural base*". Moreover, according to Devika, translanguaging lessens her "*perceived remoteness*" *f*rom her students, while it "*opens our minds*  *to think outside our own exclusive frame of reference. It helps us stay open and fuid and adaptive, in dealing with others*".

Gianna said about the importance of TL in class: "*Προσϕέρει μια κανονικότητα, ϕυσιολογικότητα στο να είσαι δίγλωσσος/η, νομιμοποιεί κατά κάποιο τρόπο αυτή την κατάσταση. Ιδίως στα παιδιά που η άλλη τους γλώσσα δεν είναι και πολύ ´αποδεκτή´, όπως τα αραβικά ή τα πολωνικά. Αυτή η κατάσταση τα βοηθάει να νοιώσουν καλύτερα και να προοδεύσουν γενικά και στα μαθήματα γλώσσας αλλά και στα υπόλοιπα μαθήματα. Να βγουν από το μπλοκάρισμα που τους προκαλεί το ότι είναι διαϕορετικά από την πλειοψηϕία και να δουν τη διγλωσσία σαν κάτι θετικό κι όχι σαν ελάττωμα*" [It offers a sense of normality to being a bilingual, it legitimizes, somehow, this situation. Especially for children whose other language is not very "acceptable", like Arabic or Polish. This situation helps them feel better and make general progress in language class as well as in the other classes. To get out of the blockage caused by the fact that they are different from the majority and to see their bilingualism as something positive and not a defect].

In relation to monolingual students, according to Gianna, TL "*Τους βοηθάει να καταλάβουν, να αντιληϕθούν ότι υπάρχουν πολλοί τρόποι να πούμε, άρα και να δούμε μια κατάσταση, μια ιδέα, τον κόσμο, τους άλλους/ες. Κάπου τους/τις ωθεί να βαθύνουν τις γνώσεις τους σε μια άλλη γλώσσα ή να πάνε και σε μια άλλη γλώσσα, να μη μείνουν μονόγλωσσοι/ες*" [helps them understand, realize that there are many ways to express, to see a situation, an idea, the world, the others. Somehow it urges them to deepen their knowledge in another language or to go to another language, not to remain monolingual].

Kathy said about TL: "*I think it's something that good teachers do anyway. In my classes I'll use slang, Arabic or French words to get my meaning across if I feel it resonates more with my students. I'm also careful to pick up their language and re*-*use it to explain things rather than sticking to textbook terminology*". When asked about monolingual and bilingual students in her classes, she comments that "*Most of my students are bi*- *and tri*-*lingual. I don't have any monolingual students, what I have is mono*-*cultural or mono*-*socialized students and that makes for a greater barrier to teaching new concepts than language does I think*"*. When students are narrowly socialized and educated they have a harder time being fexible and accepting of new ideas. Remember that I teach innovation and entrepreneurship so the students that have traveled more, explored more and experienced more are much faster at picking up and adopting new concepts that the ones that have stayed put.*

Max said the following: "*Well, clearly, students can feel `more comfortable´ about crossing bridges in communications. Sometimes, language classes are quite strict and the teacher demands that responses must only be in the language under study. I know from personal experience this puts great pressure on individuals who may avoid the task to avoid embarrassment*".

*´If you provide this "freedom of speech´ you will have many more "teachable moments" in your classes".*

Badal said about TL in class: ´"*My personal opinion is that such a process might be very effective for students from all backgrounds. It increases the confdence of those kids who are a minority in number and whose language is not the medium of instruction or communication in school and society but also to the host students who, learning a few words from the minority/guest language, create a kind of bridge to approach the world of the minority´*….´*each language has its place in this mosaic of the world of diversities but also of similarities at the same time*".

From the participants' own views, we can see that, according to bi/multilinguals involved in education, TL provides as a means of increasing confdence and self-esteem for minority/minoritized students, gives them "indescribable freedom" (in the words of Valbona above), "strength of thought", a feeling of pride, a deeper adaptability and openness and as Max mentions this freedom of speech provides "more teachable moments". This last point about creating more teachable moments seems to be in line with the argument put forward by García and Kleyn (2016) that translanguaging in education is not random or haphazard but strategic. Although the insights of the participants in this research project focus on broader cultural rather than linguistic goals in their TL teaching practices, the opportunities created through them have strategic importance for the class context. As Gianna and Badal suggest, assisting the students' need to overcome any negative feelings attached to the other, minoritized, languages and cultures and giving them a sense of normality and belonging is one major strategic goal in education and TL can be a very powerful means of achieving it. Moreover, the participants' views on TL in education seem to be in line with the research fndings of University students who were asked to participate in multilingual practices (Kyppö et al. 2015), such as the importance of cultural contexts and their impact on language use and TL especially. As Kathy suggested, in order for the benefts of multi/bilingualism to become evident, it is important that cultural aspects are developed, since mono-culturalism may hinder human development more so than monolingualism. The use of various languages allows for other "voices" to be heard and have a place within social and educational norms.

### **6 Conclusions**

Within an educational context, the strategic use of TL, as explored by García and Kleyn (2016), could be aligned with the idea of creating more teachable moments. This is suggested by our fndings as well. Other main issues that surfaced from our research are TL as a means of assisting students to overcome any negative feelings attached to their other languages and cultures and giving them a sense of normality and belonging, which is another major strategic goal in education for social justice. Moreover, TL in education is related to the importance of cultural contexts and their impact on language use (also suggested by Kyppö et al. 2015), the restriction of monocultural perspectives and the treatment of bilingualism as the embodiment of the world's cultural diversity.

TL for our participants appeared to be a powerful means of cultivating a deeper understanding of the world, offering openness, adaptability and creating more teachable moments. However, it also became clear from the bi/multilingual educators' perspectives that going against the grain of monolingualism and monoculturalism within and beyond the educational context is a great challenge for all, even for those who strongly believe that it is only through TL that all "voices" can be heard and given a place within social and educational norms.

However, all agree that it is important to highlight diverse cases where students are given the space to perform using their full linguistic repertoire, and educators are multifunctionally designing and incorporating TL spaces into their teaching and the everyday life of their classrooms (Fu et al. 2019). This way we could follow how educators develop their TL stance, how students are practicing it, and how TL itself results to benefts both on emotional and cognitive aspects of learning and schooling of these students. As García concludes in her foreword to Fu et al. (2019): "It is all here 'within reach'".

### **References**


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### **List of Contributors**

**Gladys Yacely Aponte,** Fieldwork Advisor and Course Instructor at Bank Street College of Education and doctoral student in Urban Education at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. Main research areas: bilingual education; translanguaging; internalized linguistic inferiorities.

**Dr Laura Ascenzi-Moreno,** Associate professor of Bilingual Education and bilingual program coordinator at Brooklyn College, City University of New York and research associate of the Research Institute for the Study of Language in Urban Society (RISLUS). Main research areas: biliteracy; bilingualism; translanguaging; teacher knowledge; equity-based instruction in literacies.

**Mag. Tatjana Atanasoska,** Research assistant at the University of Wuppertal, School of Education, Area: Multilingualism and Education. Main research areas: German as a second language; German as a foreign language; teacher education; teacher professionalization.

**M.A. Aslı Can Ayten,** Academic staff at the University of Münster, Institute of Educational Science and temporary lecturer at the University of Wuppertal, School of Education, Area: Multilingualism and Education. Main research areas: heritage language instruction; critical race theory; teacher professionalization; translanguaging.

**M.Ed. Yagmur Celik,** Research associate at the University of Hamburg, Department of Education. Main research areas: multilingualism; language comparison; multilingual education.

**Dr Constadina Charalambous,** Assistant professor at European University Cyprus, Department of Education Sciences. Main research areas: sociolinguistics; applied linguistics; language education; multilingualism; linguistic ethnography; language politics.

**Dr Panayiota Charalambous,** Greek language teacher in secondary education at the Cyprus Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth. Main research areas: literature education; literacy practices in divided societies; intercultural and peace education; ethnography in education.

**Dr Joana Duarte,** Professor at the NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, research group on Multilingualism and Literacy and Professor at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences of the University of Amsterdam. Main research areas: multilingual education; teachers' professional development; global citizenship education and didactics.

**M.A. Janine Fißmer,** Research fellow at the University of Cologne, Department of Education and Social Sciences. Main research areas: gender and education, especially research on so-called male-dominanted areas; intercultural education; social justice; transnational spaces of education; qualitative, especially biographical research.

**Dr Sara Fürstenau,** Professor at the University of Hamburg, Department of General, Intercultural and International Comparative Education as well as Educational Psychology. Main research areas: multilingualism and language education; school and curriculum development in the migration society; transnational education.

**Dr Ofelia García,** Professor Emerita in the Ph.D. programs in Urban Education and Latin American, Iberian and Latino Cultures at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, former professor at Columbia University's Teachers College and Dean of the School of Education at Long Island University. Main research areas: language education; bilingualism and bilingual education; sociology of language; language policy.

**Dr Mirjam Günther-van der Meij,** Associate Professor at the NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, research group on Multilingualism and Literacy. Main research areas: trilingual language acquisition; literacy development in multilingual settings; multiliteracies; multilingual education including minority and migrant languages.

**Dr Sara Hägi-Mead,** Professor at the University of Wuppertal, School of Education, and director of the Area Multilingualism and Education. Main research areas: German as a second language; language(s)-aware teaching; self-refective learning and teaching.

**M.A. Maria J. Hammel,** Research fellow and doctoral candidate at the University of Cologne, Department of Education and Social Sciences. Main research areas: multilingualism and doing difference; ethnography in felds of early childhood education; training for educators on multilingualism.

**Dr Christine Hélot,** Professor Emerita at the University of Strasbourg and associate professor at the University of Luxembourg, invited professor at various universities in Europe and at the CUNY Graduate Centre, New York. Main research areas: language in education policies; bilingualism and multilingualism in family, school and early childhood education contexts; children's literature; multilingual literacy.

**Dr Claudine Kirsch,** Associate professor at the University of Luxembourg, Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, and Vice-head of the Institute for Research on Multilingualism. Main research areas: language learning and teaching; multilingualism; early childhood; family language policies; family literacies; professional development.

**Dr Magdalena Knappik,** Research assistant at the University of Wuppertal, School of Education, Area: Multilingualism and Education. Main research areas: linguistic ethnography; translanguaging; critical pedagogy; critical race theory; writing research; teacher education.

**Dr Melanie Kuhn,** Professor at the University of Education of Heidelberg, Faculty of Education and Social Sciences, Institute for Educational Sciences. Main research areas: education, migration and inequalities; early childhood education; professional theory approaches; methodology of ethnographic research.

**M.Ed. Timo Neubert,** Research fellow and doctoral candidate at the University of Cologne, Department of Education and Social Sciences. Main research areas: multilingualism; educational language policies; teacher education..

**Dr Sascha Neumann,** Professor at the Eberhard-Karls-University of Tübingen, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, Institute of Education. Main research areas: early childhood education; childhood studies; theory and history of social work; multilingual education in the early years.

**Dr Julie A. Panagiotopoulou,** Professor at the University of Cologne, Department of Education and Social Sciences. Main research areas: education and inclusion/exclusion in migration societies; early childhood education; multilingualism and translanguaging; language policy in families, care-day centers and (pre) schools; methodology of multi-sited ethnography.

**PD Dr Corinna Peschel,** Senior researcher at the University of Wuppertal, School of Education, Area: Multilingualism and Education. Main research areas: German as a second language; teacher education and professionalization; writing research.

**M.Ed. Simone Plöger,** Research assistant at the University of Hamburg, Diversity in Education Research Group. Main research areas: schooling of newcomer students; language education and multilingualism; school and classroom ethnography.

**Dr Pascale Prax-Dubois,** Teacher educator for newcomer students in La Réunion and researcher at the University of Strasbourg and the University of La Réunion. Main research areas: language education policy in migration contexts; multilingual practices of creole speakers in the Indian Ocean; multilingual teacher education in post-colonial contexts.

**Dr Lisa Rosen,** Professor at the University of Cologne, Department of Education and Social Sciences and Link Convenor of Network 07 "Social Justice and Intercultural Education" of EERA (European Educational Research Association). Main research areas: school development, pedagogical professionalization and professionalism in migration societies; marginalized educational spaces; inclusive and multilingual education; diversity-aware, intersectional as well as internationally comparative educational research.

**Dr Claudia Seele,** Project manager at the Regional Agency for Education, Integration and Democracy (RAA) Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Main research areas: early childhood education; multilingualism; educational ethnography; childhood studies.

**Dr Eleni Skourtou,** Professor at the University of the Aegean, Department of Primary Education and director of the Language, Literature & Folks Culture Lab. Main research areas: language education; second language learning; bilingualism and education of minorized children; literacy, orality, multiliteracies; text & meaning making.

**Dr Kate Seltzer,** Assistant Professor of ESL and Bilingual Education at Rowan University, Department of Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Education. Main research areas: language ideologies; English education; translanguaging; translingual approaches to writing.

**M.A. Jenna Strzykala,** Research fellow and doctoral candidate at the University of Cologne, Department of Education and Social Sciences. Main research areas: (forced) migration and multilingualism; educational language policies; translanguaging; internationally comparative educational research.

**Dr Eleni Theodorou,** Associate Professor at European University Cyprus, Department of Education Sciences. Main research areas: sociological and anthropological constructions of childhood; multicultural education politics and policy; family involvement; teacher professionalism.

**Dr Roula Tsokalidou,** Professor at the School of Early Childhood Education and director of the Confucius Institute of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Main research areas: language, ethnicity and gender; language teaching; language contact; bilingualism and translanguaging.

**Dr Michalinos Zembylas,** Professor at the Open University of Cyprus and Honorary Professor, Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa. Main research areas: emotion and affect in education; social justice pedagogies; higher education; peace/human rights education; decolonization.