Dr Katerina Strani HeriotWatt University Interweaving conference 10102019

Dr Katerina Strani Heriot-Watt University Interweaving conference, 10/10/2019

§ Social v. individual (cf Aronin, 2007) § Not just people speaking multiple languages, or societies with different languages § Beyond structuralist and reified conceptions of language § Languages as living, dynamic, and porous § “Express and symbolize cultural reality” (Kramsch and Widdowson, 1998: 3) § Language practices rather than language competency § Not something people have or can acquire § Against the separation of language from its speakers

§ Multilingualism is “what the environment, as structured determination and interactional emergence, enables and disables them to deploy” (Blommaert, Leppänen and Spotti, 2012, p. 213). § Someone’s language can be promoted, demoted, ignored, challenged, or systematically rejected. § Not static, but dynamic and contingent upon power differentials that affect the status and legitimacy of languages and their speakers. § Multilingualism in education and pedagogy (Blackledge and Creese 2010; 2014; O’Rourke, 2011; Pavlenko et al, 2001; and many others),

§ Plurilingualism: educational and communitarian aspects § The Council of Europe’s 2007 report on Plurilingual Education refers to multilingualism as “the presence of several languages in a given space, independently of those who use them”, and instead considers plurilingualism both “as a value and as a competence” that is linked to linguistic tolerance and intercultural education. § ‘Plurilingualism’ is rarely found outside educational discourse and scholarship. § Polylingualism: speakers “combin[ing] three, four, or more different sets of features (i. e. so- called ‘languages’) in their linguistic production” (Jørgensen, 2008, p. 161) § Mostly used when studying linguistic production and variations within the same language depending on cultural and generational settings. This may include metrolingualism, urbilingualism and translanguaging. § Otsuji and Pennycook, (2010); García, (2009); Creese and Blackledge (2015),

§ Oligolingualism, coined by Blommaert (1996): state policy of “reduction of languages in a given territory for better state management” § State glottopolitics § language hierarchies, minoritisation, marginalisation and endangerment. § When plurilingualism and polylingualism are juxtaposed with multilingualism, this is done by reducing multilingualism to its erroneous sense of simply speaking many languages.

§ “Britain can now be characterized by ‘super-diversity, ’ a notion intended to underline a level and kind of complexity surpassing anything the country has previously experienced. Such a condition is distinguished by a dynamic interplay of variables among an increased number of new, small and scattered, multiple-origin, transnationally connected, socio-economically differentiated and legally stratified immigrants who have arrived over the last decade. ” (Vertovec, 2007, p. 1) § Superdiversity “is driven by three keywords: mobility, complexity and unpredictability” (Blommaert, 2013, p. 6) § Complex and rich ecology of linguistic practices and landscapes § “new multilingual realities” (Martin-Jones, Blackledge and Creese, 2012, p. 9) § “new linguistic dispensation” (Aronin, 2017) § “the multilingual condition” (Kramsch, 2009)

§ multilingualism a “philosophy” (Aronin and Singleton, 2012; Aronin, 2017) § multilingualism an everyday practice § multilingualism the norm § not an exception that needs to be thematised and exoticised

§ The Ottoman, Habsburg and Qing Empires were all multilingual, and so was 19 th Century France, for example, and today countries such as Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, India and South Africa are officially multilingual. § Aronin (2017): current multilingualism is different from that in the 18 th century, for example, when multilingual societies existed, but language was not “integral to the construction of a specific social reality” (p. 177). § multilingual condition is part and parcel of contemporary societies, where multilingual practices cannot be separated from their cultural, social and political dimension § Modalities have changed

§ Meylaerts (2013, p. 548) uses Bourdieu’s linguistic power relations to argue that minority and majority languages do not refer to numbers but to relations of power. In this sense, minoritized publics are those who have purposely been demoted to a weaker public of lesser status with access to a narrower pool of resources, even if their language is widely spoken. § Multilingual reality v. monolingualist ideologies and policies. § Multilingualism is managed by decentralisation or oligolingualist policies under the pretext of administrative simplification. § Resulting clusters of monolingual-dominant, monolingual-minoritised publics have serious implications. § Monolingual public spheres are by definition exclusionary practices

§ In the official-dominant view “immigrants are not multilinguals, they are perpetual language learners” (Collins and Slembrouck, 2005, p. 192). § Their main goal should be to learn the dominant state language, and there are language- learning and translation / interpreting provisions to help them along the way. § The condition of the migrant “is the condition of the translated being” (Cronin, 2006, p. 45) § Their own languages, and the multilingualism they bring to communities, are “invisible and, implicitly, undervalued” (Nikula et al, 2012, p. 62) along with their actual language practices. § Ethnolinguistic assumption (Blommaert)

§ Minoritized publics who deliberate in a language different from the dominant one, would fall under the category of minority “counterpublics” (Fraser, 1993) or “emergent collectives” fighting for recognition (Asen, 2000). § False perception that such publics have one voice and are part of a single community (Hill, 2016). In linguistic counterpublics, their language and related identity may supersede any other aspects, and lead to the assumption of uniformity of needs, views and arguments. § Demotion of languages and their speakers

§ Communication through interpreters and translators adds a level of contingency related to the filtering processes that are associated with interpreting in particular. § It adds a level of power differential between the ‘have’ and ‘have nots’ of language, the interpreter / translator and the user, which is frequently ignored. § Provision for interpreting and translation is not equally allocated. § Deaf people and BSL users

§ Multilingualism at the core of post-national citizenship § Intercultural education has a crucial role in this § It needs to be more explicitly connected to fostering citizenship practices against the backdrop of the multilingual, multicultural condition of contemporary societies. § Multilingualism in this respect needs to be situated in its socio-political context and not reduced to (degrees of) language competence § That is not to say that language learning is not essential in multilingual societies, but the multilingual condition requires more than that; widening the pool of languages offered to include migrant, minority or heritage languages would be a good start to move away from selective or hegemonic multilingualism. § Decolonising multilingualism (Phipps, 2019): adds to the increasing voices by academics and educators to decolonise curricula, methodologies, teaching and education in general.

§ Citizenship is a form of commitment to a specific polity and to a set of rights of obligations - which is why it is also connected to legitimacy (Bauböck, 2010; Kockel, 2010). § Such a commitment implies a personal sense of belonging as well as ascribed belonging from the state. § This citizenship-belonging nexus (Bauböck, 2010) means that citizenship can never be culture-blind (Nic Craith, 2004; Habermas, 2005) § The opportunities in societies where citizenship is multilingual (and multicultural), and therefore people’s existence is legitimised through their commitment to certain values, include flourishing communities, a redefinition of ‘common interests’ and enrichment of public life.

§ Global citizenship, including an understanding of multiple levels of identity and the role of language in identity § Intercultural education “goes beyond passive coexistence to achieve a developing and sustainable way of living together in multicultural societies through the creation of understanding of, respect for and dialogue between the cultural groups” (UNESCO, 2006, p. 18).

Intercultural Training for Educators of Adult Migrants 2018 -1 -UK 01 -KA 204 -047987 October 2018 -November 2020

§ There is a need, acknowledged by both educators and learners, for intercultural training for educators of adult migrants. § To ensure adult migrants’ skills development § Need to introduce intercultural education programmes that recognize and effectively support diversity, promote mutual acceptance and respect, while combating racism and xenophobia. èfoster interculturalism and reject archaic educational practices that cultivate monoculture, othering and stigmatization. Integration is a complex, multidirectional process

§ Design a course for educators working with adult migrants § Develop an internationally competitive modularized training curriculum with qualification standards specialized for Adult Education (EQF Level 5) § Produce a handbook for trainers, which will include: learning outcomes; a theoretical framework of basic concepts; the training package itself, with practical exercises and case studies.

O 1: Needs Analysis § Questionnaires to educators and migrant learners (147 responses) O 2: Research on intercultural education § Partners collected data on existing training programmes designed for migrants. § Semi-structured interviews with educators of migrants (104 responses) O 3: Curriculum development § A curriculum on Intercultural Education and training for Adult Educators was designed and developed based on O 1 and O 2 results. § The curriculum consists of 4 modules: § Theoretical background, basic principles and concepts; § Intercultural competences in the context of migration; § Adult education practices in Intercultural Contexts; § Impact and Global Citizenship. /…contd

O 4: Development of training materials – current phase § Develop the training materials in line with the curriculum designed in O 3. Development of a MOOC, where the training materials will be uploaded and adapted. O 5 and O 6: Training guide and course syllabus § A training guide and course syllabus with the final course and material will be made available for free to Adult Educators and all other interested partes.

Joint Staff Training Event (April 2020) § The partners will test the developed curriculum and training materials with a range of end users. § They will provide feedback on activities and make necessary changes before the final output. § The feedback provided by end-users will ensure that the results will be relevant to target groups. Multiplier Events § At the end of the project, summative workshops will take place in each partner country from June to September 2020. § A final dissemination event will take place in Edinburgh in September 2020.

Katerina Strani THANK YOU ΕΥΧΑΡΙΣΤΩ ! A. Strani@hw. ac. uk @Katerina. Strani