Abstract
Abstract This article derives from a three-year ethnographic project carried out in Norway focusing on language practices of Brazilian families raising their children multilingually. Analyses of interview data with two Brazilian parents demonstrate the relevance of examining intersectionally the participants’ orientation to categorisations such as social class, gender, and race/ethnicity. Additionally, I explore how parents make sense of their transnational, multilingual experiences, and the extent to which these experiences inform the language-related decisions they make in the home. Advancing family multilingualism research in a novel direction, I employ a southern perspective as an analytical position that: (i) assumes the situatedness of knowledge production; (ii) aims at increasing social and epistemic justice; (iii) opposes the dominance of Western-centric epistemologies; and (iv) sees the global South as a political location, not necessarily geographic, but with many overlaps. Finally, I draw on the notions of intercultural translation and equivocation to discuss the intercultural encounters parents reported. The overarching argument of this article is that forging a southern perspective from which to analyse parental language practices and beliefs offers a theoretical framework that can better address the issues engendered by parents engaged in South–North transnational, multilingual practices.
Highlights
The new directions explored by recent family language policy (FLP) studies have shed light on language practices taking place in under-examined geographical locations, where different family constellations use languages beyond the moreR
In this article my interests lie in understanding: – how Brazilian parents make sense of their transnational, multilingual experiences in Norway, and – what discourses inform parental language practices in the home as they raise their children multilingually. While these foci resonate with current research on family multilingualism (e.g. Curdt-Christiansen 2016; Moustaoui Srhir 2019; Soler and Roberts 2019), I argue that an express engagement with epistemological and ontological assumptions akin to a southern perspective (e.g. Castro-Gómez and Grosfoguel 2007; Connell 2007; Mignolo and Walsh 2018; Santos 2014, 2018) opens up the field of FLP in ways that incorporate into its agenda issues and discussions that remain untapped by current literature
The South–North entanglements illustrated by the migration trajectories examined in this study pose questions that have underpinned the endeavour undertaken here: – How do the Brazilian histories of colonialism influence the continuous structural reproduction of inequality in contemporary migratory flows? – In what ways do power relations at the intersection of social class, gender, and race/ethnicity operate in the participants’ account of intercultural encounters in Norway? – How does the lived experience of Brazilian parents abroad shape their language beliefs and language practices in the home?
Summary
The new directions explored by recent family language policy (FLP) studies have shed light on language practices taking place in under-examined geographical locations, where different family constellations use languages beyond the more. In this article my interests lie in understanding: – how Brazilian parents make sense of their transnational, multilingual experiences in Norway, and – what discourses inform parental language practices in the home as they raise their children multilingually While these foci resonate with current research on family multilingualism (e.g. Curdt-Christiansen 2016; Moustaoui Srhir 2019; Soler and Roberts 2019), I argue that an express engagement with epistemological and ontological assumptions akin to a southern perspective (e.g. Castro-Gómez and Grosfoguel 2007; Connell 2007; Mignolo and Walsh 2018; Santos 2014, 2018) opens up the field of FLP in ways that incorporate into its agenda issues and discussions that remain untapped by current literature. Before presenting some concluding thoughts, I discuss how this particular case can contribute to family multilingualism research more broadly
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