What languages do you speak? A reflexive account of research with multilingual pupils and teachers

Abstract

This paper will offer a reflexive account of the research approaches used in linguistically and culturally diverse education contexts by an academic researcher from the hegemonic cultural mainstream. The discussion will cover some of the potential barriers to research with linguistically, ethnically and/or culturally diverse ‘others’ and consider why particular methodologies have been adopted in contexts with both pupils and teachers in order to overcome such barriers. The approaches discussed include critical ethnography, co-construction of research tools, digital photography and self-portraits. The paper will also consider the asymmetric nature of the researcher–researched relationship and the ways in which this asymmetry can be addressed.

KEYWORDS:

• Linguistic diversity
• research methodologies
• research relationships
• researcher reflexivity
• empowerment

Acknowledgements

Some of the content of this paper was first presented at a seminar organised by the MOSAIC Centre for Research on Multilingualism, at the University of Birmingham as part of their Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded capacity-building project entitled Researching Multilingualism, Multilingualism in Research Practice. I am very grateful to Professor Marilyn Martin-Jones for supportive and helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. All names are pseudonyms from the same linguistic background as the original respondent.

2. This collective term is used in Scottish Education to refer to French, German, Italian and Spanish.

3. This research project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (2010–2013) under its Researcher Development Initiative. The members of the research team were as follows: Deirdre Martin, Marilyn Martin-Jones, Angela Creese and Adrian Blackledge, from the MOSAIC Centre for Research on Multilingualism, University of Birmingham: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/education/projects/researching-multilingualism/index.aspx.

4. This project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) (2011–2012) under the ‘Translating Cultures’ theme. The project team included Prue Holmes, Richard Fay, Jane Andrews and Mariam Attia. http://researchingmultilingually.com.

5. Mother tongue is the term used in this document to refer to the first language spoken in the child's home. I prefer to use the term home language(s) to describe the most commonly used languages in the child's home.

6. I would usually adopt the term ‘refugee families’, as ‘asylum seeker’ is a legal construct. However, in the context of this research none of the children and their families had yet received leave to remain in Britain and were at the time of the research characterised as ‘asylum seekers’. This status had many impacts on their educational choices and opportunities.

7. In this article the term long-term pupils is used to refer to those pupils who were not newly arrived pupils from asylum-seeking families. In the context of this research, all such pupils were monolingual in English, white and had spent all of their school years in the same school where the research was conducted.

8. Atlas-ti is qualitative data analysis software which enabled analysis of photographic as well as textual data.

9. The Bridges project supports the social, educational and economic integration of refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, and anyone for whom English is a second language, living in Glasgow: http://www.bridgesprogrammes.org.uk/.