Flerspråkighet inom lärarutbildningen - ett perspektiv som saknas

Abstract

Multilingualism in teacher education – a missing perspective This article is based upon fieldwork within a comprehensive teacher education program. Questions were asked about how student teachers are prepared for work/employment in an educational system, which is characterized by pluralism in terms of multilingualism and a second language perspective? How does one speak about language and pluralism? Is a multilingual perspective in teacher education presented as a competence for some or for all? How do various actors look at ”questions of linguistic pluralism”? On the one hand, the result, i.e. the answers provided, can be seen as fairly meagre, but this does on the other hand also tell us something more generally about how issues pertaining to language and pluralism are regarded in a teacher education program. In the categorizations and interpretations that are articulated, perspectives on multilingualism and second langue acquisition (if and when they are mentioned) are in different ways often related to ”the Others” and to what can partly be referred to as a deficiency perspective. Similar talk is also heard from teacher education at other sites of learning. These topics are dealt with in the first part of the article. Thereafter follows a section about viewing multilingualism in a more general perspective, where multilingualism is also regarded as an asset – here we encounter above all various actors within the field of linguistics. Didactic aspects as well as identity and social categorization are highlighted. At the end of the article, a concluding and more comprehensive discussion about multilingualism and a second language perspective, which also focuses on steering / policy documents, is brought to the fore. Teacher education appears to be fairly national(ist) in spite of recurring talk about increasing globalization and internationalisation. To jointly regard multilingualism and intercultural education as a part of a democratic process is conspicuous by its absence. In this discussion, which also comprises the governmental inquiry, from 2008 - En hallbar lararutbildning (A sustainable teacher education, SOU 2008: 109) – attention is given to a transnational perspective on education and competence.