Teacher perceptions and practices concerning multilingualism

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday V)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Work with diversity in sustainable education

Proposal

When working with diversity issues in schools, as researchers we often experience that teachers say they would like to know more about multilingualism and how they could use students’ language backgrounds as resources in the classroom. In this study, we collected data from highly multilingual and multicultural classes in Norway, i.e. classes at a secondary school devoted entirely to newly arrived students. We asked how teachers perceive and work with multilingualism in their classes (Burner & Carlsen, 2017; EU, 2015; Haukås, 2016; Hilt, 2016; Krukatz & Dahl, 2016; Skrefsrud, 2018) . Our hypothesis was that teachers working in such classes have obtained knowledge and experience to work actively, creatively and systematically with students’ multilingual backgrounds. We carried out questionnaires (n=21) and interviews (n=2) with teachers as well as observed classroom teaching. The findings reveal that teachers possess knowledge of multilingualism, but fail to apply the knowledge in classroom settings. They have higher level of formal qualifications to work with multilingual and multicultural topics compared to mainstream school teachers. Furthermore, they are more positive towards multilingualism and activating students’ L1. However, they focus primarily on the development of students’ L2, in this case Norwegian, even in L3 classes such as English, indicating that they believe language learning occurs stepwise rather than simultaneously. This is a surprising finding taking into consideration the teachers’ high formal qualification in multilingual topics. The students’ L1 was not activated systematically, their tendency to mix languages was described as a major problem, and L2 (Norwegian) was the main language of reference and the main objective of learning in all subjects. We conclude, based on our classroom observations and in-depth interviews, that teachers’ knowledge of multilingualism and multiculturalism did not appear to have a marked effect on their teaching practices. Moreover, teachers express positive attitudes towards schools entirely devoted to newly arrived students, but are worried about the students’ social segregation. The study calls for more classroom research on schooling of newly arrived students in order to enhance learning and teaching for such highly multilingual and multicultural student groups. We would like to discuss the following questions at the CIES conference:
- What could be the reasons for the discrepancies between what teachers say, learn and do?
- What are the experiences from other countries/contexts when it comes to working in such highly multilingual and multicultural classrooms?
- In what ways can our study contribute to enhancing work with diversity in schools?
- What could be the lessons learnt and which actions are needed in order to decrease the gaps we have addressed?

Authors

• Christian Carlsen, University of South-Eastern Norway

• Tony Burner, University of South-Eastern Norway