Transformative Interviewing and the Experiences of Multilingual Learners not Labeled “ELL” in US Schools

Authors

Theresa Catalano, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Lydiah Kananu Kiramba, University of Nebraska–LincolnFollow
Kara Mitchell Viesca, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2020

Citation

Published in Bilingual Research Journal (2020)

doi 10.1080/15235882.2020.1738287

Comments

Copyright © 2020 the National Association for Bilingual Education; published by Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. Used by permission.

Abstract

Recent research has documented the ways that schools adapt to increasingly multilingual and multicultural student bodies. This qualitative study explores the schooling experiences of nine K-12 multilinguals not identified as English language learners in US schools. Using “deep interviewing” strategies, the authors expose the racializing function of language, but also semiotic processes such as markedness, iconicity, and erasure and sociological concepts such as habitus that are revealed through analysis of the participants’ discourse about language and schooling. Additionally, the authors illustrate how transformative interviewing practices can spur development of learners’ own agency in creating more equitable learning contexts for themselves.