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Breaking Out of L2-Exclusive Pedagogies: Teachers Valorizing Immigrant Pupils’ Multilingual Repertoire in Urban Dutch-Medium Classrooms

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The Multilingual Edge of Education

Abstract

This chapter explores the outcomes of an evaluation study into a local multilingual education initiative promoting a type of pedagogical translanguaging. It was conducted in urban elementary classrooms in a subnational context (Flanders, Belgium) where a monolingual language ideology prevails. The qualitative data from this study on teacher practice indicated tentative steps towards translanguaging, rather than a profound transformation of a monolingual into a multilingual learning environment. We observed the practices of both preschool and primary school teachers. While preschool teachers showed greater openness to inclusion of children’s first languages (L1’s) for their socioemotional benefits, primary school teachers showed more interest in L1’s as a cognitive resource and showed a greater tendency to restrict the emerging ‘multilingual spaces’ in classroom. An important lesson of the study is that pedagogical translanguaging faces both the persistent influence of the monolingual context, which is taken for granted, and a pedagogical ideology which highlights constant teacher control as a prerequisite for effective classroom and learning management.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Immigrant students or students from an immigrant background refer here to different types: foreign-born immigrants who have recently immigrated (with their families) or students who were born in the country of immigration and whose (grand)parents have immigrated. Most of them speak another language at home. However, some students in the second group may have shifted to the majority language.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Diversity & Learning, Linguistics Department, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Sven Sierens

  2. University of Leuven (until 2013), Leuven, Belgium

    Griet Ramaut

Authors
  1. Sven Sierens
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  2. Griet Ramaut
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ghent University, Gent, Belgium

    Piet Van Avermaet

  2. Ghent University, Gent, Belgium

    Stef Slembrouck

  3. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Koen Van Gorp

  4. Ghent University, Gent, Belgium

    Sven Sierens

  5. Ghent University, Gent, Belgium

    Katrijn Maryns

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Sierens, S., Ramaut, G. (2018). Breaking Out of L2-Exclusive Pedagogies: Teachers Valorizing Immigrant Pupils’ Multilingual Repertoire in Urban Dutch-Medium Classrooms. In: Van Avermaet, P., Slembrouck, S., Van Gorp, K., Sierens, S., Maryns, K. (eds) The Multilingual Edge of Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54856-6_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54856-6_13

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-54855-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-54856-6

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