Publications

Publication details [#48097]

Carbonara, Valentina. 2022. Multilingual education in an Italian public preschool: teachers and families among mobility processes and inclusive practices. In Straszer, Boglárka, BethAnne Paulsrud and Jenny Rosén, eds. Translanguaging in the age of mobility: European perspectives. Special issue of Multilingua. Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication 41 (3): 321–340.
Publication type
Article in Special issue
Publication language
English

Abstract

This paper focuses on the integration of translanguaging practices in a public preschool situated in a small village in North-West of Italy. Mobility processes and local Italian families’ school choices have led to the raise of the number of students with an immigrant background enrolled at the studied preschool up to 85%. After a brief overview regarding mobility and translanguaging in education, particularly in relation to preschool domain, the author describes the macro and micro contexts of this ethnographic case study, then focuses on the analysis of the main learning activities designed by teachers to engage children’s multilingual repertoires. Later, applying qualitative content analysis, she outlines the main patterns and categories emerging from interviews and focus groups conducted with teachers and parents to investigate how they experienced the marginalization of immigrant minority children in their preschool and how they received the introduction of multilingual education approach. The results shows that the adoption of a translanguaging lens contributed to the educational legitimation of language diversity and to the acknowledgment of immigrant families.
Source : Based on publisher information