Diversity, linguistic variety, and global citizenship are often invisible and unrecognised in interactions between teachers and students. A survey on reading at Swedish upper secondary level (conducted by us in Spring 2022) generated 712 responses in a student body of 1,500 students. The question "Do you speak another mother tongue other than Swedish? If so, which?" brought surprising answers as we discovered that as many as 41 mother tongues were distributed among the 99 respondents who answered in the affirmative. The question used the concept of mother tongue, which is problematic since it potentially excludes "father tongues" and also does not take language variations into account. Four respondents list three languages or more as their mother tongues.
Given the initial, but striking, results, we noticed the teacher team's unawareness of linguistic variety in the student population. Our aim then became to explore how students framed language skills, when and in what contexts these were used, and for what purposes. We conducted six follow-up focus group interviews with 27 students. In these, we asked what languages the students speak (to avoid labelling their language to one parent and one language only, which excludes multilingual contexts (Bagga-Gupta & Ribeiro Carneiro)). It became evident that linguistic backgrounds were not only invisible in the school setting, they were also downplayed by the students themselves.
As students' linguistic competences remain unrecognised, we question the normative aspects of linguistic knowledge and where this might lead. The "uncritical reinforcement of notions of the supremacy and universality of 'our' (Western) ways of seeing… can reproduce unequal relations of dialogue and power and undervalue other knowledge systems" (Andreotti & de Souza, 2008). Biesta (2020) questions what learning "actually is, what educational learning is supposed to be about and supposed to be for, and who should have a say in answering these questions" and highlights undervalued and, therefore, "invisible" competences that risk remaining untapped by those working with students and by the students themselves.
In this proposal, our aim is to draw on the above-mentioned dataset to make diverse linguistic, digital and cultural competences visible and contribute to more sustainable and inclusive classroom contexts and societies. Curricular policies, individual and collective commitment must take invisible languages and unrecognised globalisation, which we argue are not socially sustainable, into account as a more global and holistic approach is implemented, which integrates linguistic diversity.
References
Andreotti, V. & de Souza, L. M. T. M. (2008). Learning to read the world Through Other Eyes: An open access online study programme focusing on engagements with indigenous perceptions of global issues. www.throughothereyes.org.uk
Bagga-Gupta, S. & Ribeiro Carneiro, A. S. (2021). Nodal frontlines and multisidedness: Contemporary multilingualism scholarship and beyond. International Journal of Multilingualism. DOI: 10.1080/14790718.2021.1876700
Biesta, G. (2020). What constitutes the good of education? Reflections on the possibility of educational critique. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 52(10), 1023-1027, DOI: 10.1080/00131857.2020.1723468
