“My Idea Was, Let’s Protect Ourselves”: Exploring How Parents of Multilingual Children Establish Family-School Relationships

• In Event: The Power of Relationships in Family, School, Community Partnerships

Abstract

Family-school relationships are proposed to overcome persisting divides between multilingual homes and monolingual schools. Studies on family-school relationships emphasize effects in the school space and disregard the family space.Therefore, I map family-school relationships in both spaces and ask: How do parents of multilingual children establish family-school relationships? What images of parenthood emerge when interacting with schools and schooling? How are home languages and the language of schooling negotiated through family-school relationships? Discourse analysis on interviews with 24 parents in Belgium reveal actions of both bridging and distancing the two spaces, eventually upholding the home-school language divide. However, this is not only due to conforming to the dominant societal language but also to preserving the family space as independent of school.

Author

• Nikolett Szelei, KU Leuven