par Anja Pesch, associate professor, Inland Norway University
Conférence en anglais
* * * * * * *
Abstract
The starting point for my talk is two ethnographic research projects, which I have been part of in recent years. The first one is my PhD project on discursive conditions for ECEC-teachers’ linguistic practice with multilingual children and collaboration with their parents, the second one is our ongoing project Multilingualism in transitions (MultiTrans) which explores multilingual individuals and families’ language choices in and through educational transitions. Taking a nexus analytic approach (Scollon & Scollon, 2004), I will discuss ECEC teachers’ perspectives on multilingualism, how they connect to language ideologies and joint discourses in ECEC, in relevant policy documents, to the teachers’ individual experiences and to the choices they make in their practice with multilingual children. Furthermore, the significance of multilingual children’s voices and authorship (Bakhtin, 1984; 1986) arises as part of both projects, pointing to ethical and methodological questions regarding the children’s status as a vulnerable group and the researcher’s positionality. A third topic my talk will engage in is the question of encounters of Norway’s historical minorities and the increasing transnational diversity. On the policy document level, these two groups are kept strictly separate, while children from both groups often attend the same educational institutions. In the MultiTrans-project we explore how such encounters might shape new circumstances for multilingual speakers in educational contexts, an element I will shed light on through excerpts from my recent fieldwork.
Bio
Dr. Anja PESCH is an associate professor in education at the Inland Norway University where she teaches courses within the programs on Early Childhood Teacher Education and Master in Adapted Education. She has also worked in several projects for continuing professional development in kindergartens. Her research interests are: Early Childhood Multilingualism, kindergartens' work with multilingual children and families, kindergarten-home cooperation, multi-/translingual practices and semiotic landscape research. In her PhD, she studied ECTE teachers’ understanding of multilingualism, their linguistic practices with multilingual children and the children’s parents. Anja Pesch is part of the project Multilingualism in Transitions (MultiTrans), located at the UiT The Arctic University of Norway and financed by the Research Council of Norway. The project explores multilingual individuals' and families' language choices in transitions in the education system of Norway. She is am member of the research group Språkdidaktikk i flerspråklige kontekster (Language didactics in multilingual contexts) and an associate member of the research group Barn, barndom og barnehagepedagogikk i det 21. århundre (Childhood and early years education) at the Inland Norway University, and associate member of the research group Multilingual North: Diversity, Education and Revitalisation at UiT the Arctic University of Norway.
