Session Information
20 SES 04 B, Issues of Identity
Paper Session
Contribution
The study has its starting point in the view of identity as co-constructed, within a social constructivist perspective on learning. This is in contrast to an essentialist view of identities as stable and fixed, according to pre-defined (group) characteristics (see e.g. Rummens, 2003). Different aspects of identity constructions like cultural determination and gender are thus co-articulated in discourse. The constitution of cultural identity in multicultural contexts is a discursive process that can be both fragmented and conflicting, but it can also be a positive process in which individuals articulate their identities e.g. in their speech through active negotiation (Hall & Du Gay, 1996). How teachers, parents and other role-models relate to and talk about (or not talk about) languages and cultures affect the socialization and identity formation of children and teenagers (Aukrust & Rydland, 2009; Seeberg 2004). Of relevance for the study is Lave and Wenger’s (1991) notion of Communities of Practice, defined by social engagement and describing both more permanent and transient collectives that are meaningful to those participating, as opposed to essentialist and pre-given abstract categorizations.
Finland has two national languages, Finnish and Swedish, both with their own separate education systems. At present the Swedish speakers constitute about 5.4% of the population. A large part of the surrounding settings where Swedish-medium schools are operating are Finnish or bilingual (Finnish and Swedish) at least to some extent. Today these settings are also becoming more multilingual through an increase in the number of refugees and immigrants. These changing settings have resulted in the research project MULIE, Multilingual learning and identity in the everyday lives of Finnish children (FLIS in Swedish), which aims at understanding learning and identity construction of Finnish children from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds from a holistic perspective involving recording both at school and in the home environment. Particular focus in the present study is put on multiculturalism in Swedish-medium schools in Finland as expressions of minorities within the minority (cf Forlot, 2009).
The complete corpus of project data so far consists of recordings from the everyday life of eight children in three different Swedish-medium school settings during 2008-2010, each for about a week of the child’s life both at home and at school. The present study focuses 32 hours of recordings of two children in one of these school settings, during the entire school day (including the after-school program). In the data, sequential patterns have been identified through which specific and regular actions, such as (cultural and linguistic) identity construction and relational positioning, are accomplished in interaction.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Antaki, C. & Widdicombe, S. (1998). Identity as an achievement and as a tool. In C. Antaki & S. Widdicombe (Eds.) Identities in talk, pp 1-14. London: Sage. Aukrust, V. & Rydland, V. (2009). `Does it matter´. Talking about ethnic diversity in preschool and first grade classrooms. Journal of Pragmatics, 41 (8), 1538-1556. Baker, C. (2006). Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (4th edition). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Benwell, B. & Stokoe, E. (2006). Discourse and Identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Cummins, J. (2000). Language, power and pedagogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Day, D. 1998. Being ascribed, and resisting, membership of an ethnic group. In C. Antaki & S. Widdicombe (Eds.) Identities in talk, pp 151-170. London: Sage. Forlot, G. (2009). Choosing a school in a 'double-minority' context: language, migration and ideologies in French Ontario. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 30 (5), 391-403. Hall, S. & Du Gay, P. (1996). Questions of cultural identity. London: Sage. Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rummens, J.A. (2003). Conceptualising identity and diversity: overlaps, intersections, and processes. Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal, 35, 10-25. Seeberg, M. L. (2004). Dealing with difference: two classrooms, two countries: a comparative study of Norwegian and Dutch processes of alterity and identity, drawn from three points of view. Oslo: Norsk institutt for forskning om oppvekst, velferd og aldring (Doctoral dissertation). University of Bergen. Sjögren, A. (2003). Kulturens roll i identitetens byggande. In N. Ahmadi (Ed.), Ungdom, kulturmöten, identitet. Stockholm: Liber. Talib, M-T. (2002). Monikulttuurinen koulu, haaste ja mahdollisuus. Helsinki: Kirjapaja. Zimmerman, D. H. (1998). Identity, context and interaction. In C. Antaki & S. Widdicombe (Eds.) Identities in talk, pp 87-106. London: Sage.
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