Session Information
31 SES 16 A, Risk or Opportunity – A Question of Perspective? Language and Education in Transnational School Careers Part 1
Symposium
Contribution
This paper focuses on language and education in transnational trajectories. Framed by the poststructural theory of identity construction (Anderson 1991), it presents a qualitative study with youths who have experienced multiple transitions in education across national borders. Research on language diversity and education has a long pedigree. In educational discourse, the monolingual approach is criticized as source of “institutional discrimination” with national language becoming a) conditio sine qua non for the access to education, b) medium of teaching and evaluation, c) criterion of selection and finally d) source of positioning and determinant for educational careers (García et al. 2006; Gomolla/Radtke 2009; Shohamy 2010). Studies in sociolinguistics reveal that these language practices in education factor into the self-perception as a multilingual speaker (Putjata 2017; Thoma 2018) and influence the constructed image of the society as primarily monolingual with multilingualism becoming a deviation from the norm (Putjata 2018). While the presented research on language and education focuses on risks and disadvantages of mobility, the present paper assumes a “transnational” perspective. on “transnational family” (Mazzucato/Schans 2011) and “transnational education” (Carnicer 2018; Fürstenau 2015) this perspective challenges the traditional understanding of mobility as an exceptional phenomenon with its risks. Instead, it focuses on benefits and resources and presents an exploratory study with three youths, between 12y and 18y, who experienced multiple educational transitions across borders. Born as children of Russian-speaking immigrants, and socialized in Hebrew-speaking schools, they are today students in Germany. Based on multisited ethnography, data were collected through language portraits, group interviews and participatory observations. Field notes and transcribed audio-registrations were coded using qualitative content analysis (Mayring 2010) an interpreted in terms of identity construction (Anderson 1991). The data allow deep insights into the process of identity construction in transnational trajectories. Multilingual communication in these narratives appears as self-evident: children rely on different linguistic resources in educational settings and perceive them as legitimate. The resulting self-perception as multilingual is not linked to advantages or disadvantages and no separation is made between “heritage” or “school” language. Interpreted in the theoretical framework of identity construction, these narratives reveal a pragmatic perception of language rather than one of belonging and nation.
References
Anderson, Benedict (1991): Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Verso. Carnicer, Javier (2018): Transnational Family and Educational Trajectories, Transnational Social Review, 170–184. Fürstenau, Sara (2015): Transmigration und transnationale Familien. Neue Perspektiven der Migrationsforschung als Herausforderung für die Schule. In: Leiprecht, Rudolf/Steinbach, Anja (Eds.): Schule in der Migrationsgesellschaft, Debus, 143–165. García, Ofelia (2009): Bilingual Education in the 21st Century. A Global Perspective, Blackwell. Gomolla, Mechtild/Radtke, Frank-Olaf (2009): Institutionelle Diskriminierung. Die Herstellung ethnischer Differenz in der Schule, VS. Mazzucato, Valentina/Schans, Djamila (2011): Transnational Families and the Well-being of Children: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges, Journal of Marriage and Family 73/4, 704–712. Putjata, Galina (2017): New Language Education Policy – Policy Making and Enhancement of migrant-related Multilingualism in Student's own Perception. A Case Study with Russian Speaking Israelis, ZfE 20/2, 259–278. Putjata, Galina (2018): Mehrsprachige Identitätskonstrukte im Wandel der Zeit. Biographien von Israelis. In: OBST – Phänomen ‚Mehrsprachigkeit‘: Einstellungen, Ideologien, Positionierungspraktiken, 194–167. Shohamy, Elana (2006): Imagined Multilingual Schools: How come we don't deliver. In: García, Ofelia et al. (Eds.): Imagining Multilingual Schools. Languages in Education and Globalization, 171–183. Thoma, Nadja (2018): Sprachbiographien in der Migrationsgesellschaft. Eine rekonstruktive Studie zu Studienverläufen von Germanistikstudent*innen, transcript.
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