Researching linguistic transitions of newly-arrived students in Germany: insights from Institutional Ethnography and Reflexive Grounded Theory

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we make a theoretical and methodical case for combining Institutional Ethnography and Reflexive Grounded Theory to investigate linguistic transition processes of newly-arrived students in the German school system. Legitimised by a missing knowledge of German, the students are separated into preparatory classes in order to prepare them (linguistically) for the regular classes. This article develops a reflexive institutional-ethnographic approach that problematises and visualises the various voices and practices of social actors engaged in these transition processes. We elaborate the theoretical premises, methodical steps and procedures of a combined approach which allows to reconstruct the transition moment and its attendant tensions, stakeholder perspectives and embeddedness in wider social processes of migration-related multilingualism. The paper enriches the methodological landscape in language, education and migration studies and offers implications for engaging with educational research sites.

KEYWORDS:

• Grounded Theory
• Institutional Ethnography
• multilingualism
• education
• transitions
• reflexivity

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 In order to ensure the protections of our participants’ identities, all individual names used are pseudonyms.

2 The study ‘Newly-arrived students in lower-secondary education. A qualitative study on language education during the transition from preparatory to mainstream classes’ is funded by the German Research Foundation (2020–2023). For further information see: https://www.ew.uni-hamburg.de/einrichtungen/ew1/vergleichende/diver/forschung/laufende-projekte/sprabue.html.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) under grant number: FU 586/7-1.