In evolving multilingual spaces, schools try to systematically develop multilingual competencies through teaching languages, including English. Still, teachers struggle to adjust their practices to align with inclusive teaching practices (Alisaari et al. 2019; Erling and Moore 2021) in times when conceptualizations of language and the English language are evolving (Berthele 2021; Cogo et al. 2022). In 2020, a new national curriculum in Norway granted ideological and implementational spaces for multilingualism to be viewed as a resource and English as a multilingua franca for the first time. Still, while English teachers in Norway generally express positive attitudes towards multilingualism and linguistic and cultural diversity, their teaching practices tend to reflect monolingual ideologies (Krulatz and Dahl 2016; Flognfeldt et al. 2020).
This research explores these tensions and aims to identify the language beliefs and ideologies (Woolard 2020; Kroskrity 2010) of English teachers in multilingual classrooms in Norway and the factors that influence these. An ecological view is assumed and language teacher cognition used as the theoretical frame (Borg 2006) in this mixed methods, explanatory sequential study. Phase 1 was a survey study (N=110) with results suggesting a complexity of beliefs and practices in which conflicting beliefs co-exist, and that the age of the teachers and the learner age group were significant factors for some beliefs. Phase 2, the focus of this presentation, is a longitudinal, qualitative study of teachers in grades 1-10 (N=6) in their school contexts. Teachers were interviewed multiple times during the span of one school semester and classroom observations made. The data is analyzed through considering the macro-, meso- and micro-contextual levels that impact teachers' language beliefs, and through discourse analysis. Initial results will be presented and discussed.
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