Linguistic Diversity: A Global Challenge for Education

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

Linguistic diversity is the reality in many parts of the world—not only in large urban centers, but also in rural communities. How it is dealt with officially and un-officially, however, differs greatly, not only from one country to the next, but also from one group of speakers to the next. The proposed WERA-symposium will present perspectives from three international research teams that deal with linguistic diversity as part of their official mandates. The presentations aim to examine linguistic diversity and its consequences for education in Germany, Canada and Mexico. The research teams report on major shifts—in policy, theory and research methodology, and teacher preparation. They will demonstrate that current concepts that treat learning and teaching as ‘monolingual’ in principle, and as ‘bilingual’ in exceptional (model) cases are insufficient to capture the increased linguistic and cultural diversity of societies and their education systems. The contributions will highlight the theoretical as well as practical implications of their approaches to unveil the consequences of growing linguistic diversity for education.

Sub Unit

• AERA Sessions

Chair

• Liesel Ebersohn, University of Pretoria

Papers

• Linguistic Diversity Management in a German Urban Area: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Multilingualism - Ingrid Gogolin, University of Hamburg

• Working Towards Sustainable Multilingualism in Urban Settings - Rahat Naqvi, University of Calgary

• Multilingualism in an Intercultural University: An ethnography of linguistic and cultural diversity discourses and practices - Gunther Dietz, Universidad Veracruzana

Discussant

• James Cummins, University of Toronto - OISE