A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Utrymmen för flerspråkighet: Funktionella aspekter av flerspråkiga låg- och mellanstadielärares språkliga praktiker

  2022. Sara Snoder. HumaNetten 48, 293-321

  Article

  Framväxande flerspråkiga miljöer, till följd av migration, globalisering och informationsteknik, skapar nya förväntningar och krav på språkkontakt både på samhälls- och individnivå. Grundskolan i Sverige utgör en av flera samhällsarenor i vilken omfattningen av flerspråkig användning, utöver svenska och de språk som undervisas, behöver (om)förhandlas. Studiens syfte är att få ny kunskap om hur flerspråkig användning kan ta sig uttryck i ordinarie låg- och mellanstadieundervisning. Med en etnografisk ansats genomfördes observationer av fyra flerspråkiga lärares undervisnings-praktiker samt intervjusamtal med lärarna. Fokus för analysen är lärarnas praktiserade flerspråkighetspolicy i klassrummet (Bonacina-Pugh 2017). Resultaten visar att de flerspråkiga lärarna skapar ett mellanrum, third space (Bhabha 1994), i vilket flerspråkig användning legitimeras främst för att underlätta elevernas kunskapsinhämtning och språkliga medvetenhet, men även för att skapa känslomässig förståelse och trygghet. Lärarna använder dock sin flerspråkighet i undervisningen i olika grad. Det är framför allt en av lärarna som på ett systematiskt sätt använder sin flerspråkighet i de två olika årskurserna som hon undervisar. Flerspråkig användning visar sig också på flera olika sätt och har olika funktioner. En sådan multifunktionell aspekt av flerspråkig användning öppnar upp möjligheter för att en större del av elevers hela språkliga repertoar kan tillvaratas och utvecklas inom ramen för den ordinarie undervisningen. 

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• ”Var i kroppen känns språken liksom?”: Fyra flerspråkiga lärares reflektioner över yngre elevers språkliga identitetskonstruktioner

  2021. Sara Snoder. Nordisk Tidskrift för Allmän Didaktik 7 (1), 19-37

  Article

  Although an increasing number of pupils and teachers in Swedish primary schools bring languages other than Swedish and English to the classroom, research is lacking about multilingualism in mainstream primary school settings. This article is based on a research project with an ethnographic approach. The project was conducted at two elementary schools with a high proportion of multilingual teachers and pupils and involved in total three classes in second and fourth grades. The study aims to illuminate multilingual teachers’ perspectives on their pupils language identity construction, through language portraits (Busch, 2017, 2018). Data consist of field notes from observations of the multilingual teachers’ modeling of and reflective talks on the research-generated activity (language portraits). In these reflective talks the teachers exhibited good knowledge about their pupils’ language repertoires. They also expressed surprise that some multilingual pupils filled in only one language in the portrait. Other pupils portrayed themselves as monolingual Swedish speakers, but wanted to add for additional languages to their portrait. The teachers’ reflections also comprised complex notions of what languages are, linguistic identity, and multilingualism relating to their own experiences and emotional understanding. This use of language portraits may provide more knowledge about identity constructions as well as showing the complexity of multilingualism.

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• "Det är inte så att vi exklusivt pratar svenska.": Flerspråkighetens möjliga utrymmen i låg- och mellanstadieklassrum. En studie av flerspråkiga grundskollärares perspektiv

  2022. Sara Snoder.

  Thesis (Doc)

  This dissertation explores and discusses minoritized multilingual teachers’ perspectives on their own multilingualism, and their use of languages other than Swedish, the language of instruction, in regular teaching. Multilingual teachers comprise about 20 percent of the teacher population in Swedish primary schools and the number of pupils who speak minoritized language(s) (that is, languages other than Swedish) is growing. The overall aim of this thesis is to contribute new and increased knowledge about possibilities for using minoritized languages in mainstream teaching in primary schools (with pupils ages 7–12). Five multilingual teachers at two different schools with a high proportion of pupils with migrant backgrounds participated in the study. The fieldwork spanned over a six-month period during which I observed lessons and other activities, wrote fieldnotes and conducted interviews with the teachers. Furthermore, I conducted a research-generated activity that included work with language portraits and reflective conversations among teachers. Methodologically, the study is rooted in linguistic ethnography where an analytical focus is on both interaction and the wider social context. The overall theoretical framework is socio-constructivism, which also contributed useful analytical concepts. Article I focused on what and how teachers discursively position their own multilingualism in relation to their teaching, pupils, colleagues and caregivers. In Article II, I focused on the teachers’ practiced language policy. The analysis was based on fieldnotes from observations in class and during the school day. In Article III, I illuminated multilingual teachers’ perspectives on their pupils’ language identity construction through language portraits. The results from the three studies show how minoritized multilingual practices among the teachers and their pupils are (re)negotiated, limited or enabled in an ongoing process meaning that some of the teachers relate to their own multilingual use with ambivalence. The results also show how the teachers construct their multilingualism as a resource, for example, by creating spaces where multilingual use is valued and legitimized, both for subject learning and for a sense of emotional safety, and also in relation to caregivers. Teachers’ reflections thus comprise complex notions of language, linguistic identity and multilingualism, which they interconnect with own experiences and emotional understanding. The thesis aims to contribute to further discussions and research about minoritized multilingualism in (Swedish) primary school contexts, where both pupils and teachers are able to use their whole language repertoires to enhance learning and develop multilingual identities.

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