School actors navigating between implementor & arbiter – a qualitative study on the dynamics in multilingual schools’ language policy

ABSTRACT

Over the past two decades, heightened migration has increased linguistic diversity in schools. For schools to cope with this multilingualism, many governments impose a monolingual policy where only the language of instruction is allowed. Although many schools adopt such a policy, the classroom practices may differ since multilingual students often revert to translanguaging-as-practice. Drawing on three key conceptual language policy (LP) models (Bonacina-Pugh, 2012. Researching ‘practiced language policies’: Insights from conversation analysis. Language Policy, 11(3), 213–234; Johnson & Johnson, 2015. Power and agency in language policy appropriation. Language Policy, 14(3), 221–243; Ricento & Hornberger, 1996. Unpeeling the onion: Language planning and policy and the ELT professional. TESOL Quarterly, 30(3), 401–427), this study explores LP formation across macro (government), meso (school), and micro (classroom) educational levels in Flanders, Belgium. Macro-level analysis involves scrutinizing policy documents from the Educational Department of Flanders. Meso-level investigation includes policy documents from three secondary schools, compared with insights from interviews with the schools' principals and language coaches. Semi-structured interviews with teachers (n = 18) and classroom observations (n = 138 hours) provide nuanced perspectives at the micro-level. Triangulating data reveals declared, perceived, and practiced language policies at various levels. The study underscores LP's intricate nature within a multilingual educational context. Results highlight the contrast between macro-level policy straightforwardness and the complexity faced at meso- and micro-levels, where context-specific challenges arise. As schools navigate linguistic diversity, the role of language coaches becomes pivotal in creating inclusive and effective educational settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Monolingual policy
• linguistic diversity
• secondary schools
• language policy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds UGent under Grant number BOF.STG.2019.0030.01.

Notes on contributors

Maxime Van Raemdonck

Maxime Van Raemdonck is working as a PhD Researcher at the Centre for Diversity and Learning (Faculty of Arts and Philosophy at Ghent University), where she investigates the use of students' home languages in secondary education. She focuses on the dynamics present in a school's language policy and teachers' perceptions, attitudes and behavior towards multilingualism after implementing Functional Multilingual Learning (FML) in their classroom practices.

Robyn Tyler

Robyn Tyler is a senior researcher in the Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research at the University of the Western Cape. Robyn supervises graduate students and student teachers and is a member of the bua-lit language and literacy collective www.bua-lit.org.za. Her research and teaching focuses on multilingual learning, school language policy, biliteracy, bilingual learning materials development, inquiry-based Science education and language across the curriculum.

Piet Van Avermaet

Piet Van Avermaet is Emeritus Professor at Ghent University, Belgium, where he teached 'multicultural studies', 'multilingualism in education', ‘language, diversity and globalisation' and 'language policy'. He was also Director of the Centre for Diversity & Learning (CDL) at the same University. He has a long-standing expertise in the field of diversity, language and social inequality in education. Piet Van Avermaet and the CDL carry out predominantly mixed method research into processes and strategies of dealing with diversity and contexts of educational inequality. He is series co-editor (with Kathleen Heugh and Christopher Stroud) of the book series ‘Multilingualisms and Diversities in Education’, Bloomsbury. His expertise and research interests cover topics related to multilingualism in education, social inequality in education, language policy and practice in education, language policy and practice in contexts of (social) inclusion, language assessment, diversity and inclusion, integration and participation, discrimination in education.

Wendelien Vantieghem

Wendelien Vantieghem is Professor in ‘Language, diversity & learning' at the Faculty of Arts & Philosophy of Ghent University and director of the Research Centre for Diversity & Learning (CDL). Wendelien’s work researches diversity and inclusion from different angles, with a focus on the inequalities in the educational system in terms of gender, sexual orientation, multilingualism, SES, ethnicity and disability, and studies the attitudes and competences of teachers with regard to diversity.