Plurilingual pedagogies in diverse classrooms

Around 20% of students in Icelandic compulsory schools have a foreign background and they speak more than one hundred languages. Plurilingualism is linked to students´ education, school achievement, and wellbeing. The aim of this research is twofold. Firstly, to explore plurilingual pedagogies employed by Icelandic-born and immigrant teachers that enable them to build on their students’ linguistic repertoires and to scaffold students’ language, literacy, and subject learning. The second aim is to explore plurilingual students’ strategies, including utilizing their previous knowledge and drawing on their own linguistic repertoires. The research question is: How can teachers and their plurilingual students employ and benefit from plurilingual educational practices? The research is qualitative, with a multiple-case study design. It works with ten schools in different parts of Iceland. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with Icelandic-born and immigrant teachers and plurilingual students aged 13-16, analyzed with thematic analysis, are complemented by the analysis of the linguistic landscapes of the school environments. Examples of successful plurilingual pedagogies are further sought in ten video recordings from Nordic classrooms. This research contributes to the theoretical field of plurilingual pedagogies in the Nordic context and the results will inform the pedagogical practice of educators who work with plurilingual students.

This research explores how students and teachers can build upon their linguistic repertoires to promote students´ learning.