Attitudes, beliefs and knowledge of teachers on multilingualism – the view from Sweden

• Swedish schools are experiencing new challenges due to increased mobility and linguistic diversity. Efforts to achieve inclusive education for all are dependent upon teachers’ attitudes, beliefs and knowledge (ABK) of multilingualism. The interplay between teachers’ ABK and the pedagogical and language-developing practices in schools is defined by four major factors interactively shaping and being shaped by teacher cognition: teachers’ own schooling experience, teacher education, contextual factors (e.g. the organization of education), and classroom practices (Borg 2003, 2006). Against this theoretical backdrop, our study investigates the ABK of multilingualism of Swedish teachers, a key issue in the nation today, as part of a larger international project that investigates what shapes teachers’ ABK of multilingualism across countries. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with pre-primary and primary teachers from five Swedish regions (Dalarna, Småland, Stockholm, Värmland, and Västerbotten), representing varied school demographics. These interviews were transcribed and analysed using appraisal theory (Martin & White, 2005; White 2015). Early results indicate that while teachers generally express positive views on multilingualism, echoes of a monolingual mindset are quite strong (“the language” equated with Swedish; “home country” for children born in Sweden; descriptions of a “monolingual” school as the “perfect school”). Teachers with training in language-developing practices acknowledge that mother tongue instruction supports the majority language development as well as students’ overall academic performance. Nonetheless, using all linguistic resources and acknowledging students’ multilingual identities are not common pedagogical strategies. In the school context, Swedish is considered as more important than students’ additional languages, which are often merely seen as an added value not directly relevant to the daily activities in the Swedish school system. Moreover, the findings point to a need for more extensive pre-service teacher education and professional development of teachers, on multilingualism more generally, and on related classroom practices more specifically.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Jämförande språkvetenskap och allmän lingvistik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Language Studies and Linguistics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

multilingualism

teacher attitudes beliefs and knowledge

appraisal theory teacher cognition

Utbildning och lärande

Education and Learning

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)