Linguistic dilemmas and chronic ambivalence in the classroom

Abstract

ABSTRACT This special issue brings together papers that discuss how teachers deliberate competing institutional, pedagogical and language ideological imperatives in the multilingual classroom. It does so because research on language-in-education policy often singles out teachers who resist and transform monolingual policies, or those who ignore pupils’ multilingual resources. Such accounts usefully highlight the possibility of change or the need for intervention. But they risk overlooking the many occasions where teachers waver between both types of conduct to reconcile contrary views on language, teaching, and learning. This issue argues that teacher behaviour must be explained in relation to these contrary views rather than to one of their component parts. Thus, it puts the lens, among other things, on teachers who implement monolingual policies without disregarding the value of multilingualism; on those who take up linguistic authority in congenial fashion; or on those who respect pupils’ linguistic repertoires while setting out to improve their skills in named languages. This introduction discusses some broad tendencies in earlier work on language-in-education policy, the chronic nature of contradictions in class and the ambivalence it invites, before presenting the different contributions of the issue.