Research project Participative multilingual identity construction in the language learning classroom
The project focuses on critical language awareness in a preparatory class with recently arrived students in secondary school.
This is a collaborative project focusing on critical language awareness in a preparatory class with recently arrived students in secondary school. One of the teachers in Swedish as a second language adapted parts of the teaching material from the We Are Multilingual strand of the MEITS project Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies.
The aim is to study how this participatory pedagogy may be implemented among newcomer students, who are beginner learners of the language of schooling. A specific focus is on how various themes and issues are dealt with and perceived by students, teachers, and the multilingual study mentors (who provide support in the students' strongest language/s), and what the potentials and challenges are for such an approach in this educational context.
Collected data consist of audio-/video-recordings and observational fieldnotes from the lessons, and some student activities outside the classroom, as well as audio-recordings from artefact-mediated interviews with the students and the multilingual study mentors. Interviews were also conducted with the teachers.
The results will contribute new knowledge on the potentials of a participative multilingual identity construction approach among migrant adolescents (see Fisher et al., 2020).
Project members
Project managers
Christina Hedman
Professor
