Wor(l)d order and coloniality in language education for migrants. Key ideas for thinking otherwise
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Francesca Dell’Olio
Francesca Dell’Olio is a member of the research group Teacher education, Critical Education, New Literacies and Multiliteracies at the University of São Paulo. She has been working as a teacher of Italian as a foreign language and in the system of migrant reception in the city of São Paulo. She has a PhD in English Language and Literature from the University of São Paulo and in Education from the University of Padua. In her recent doctoral research, based on the analysis of European and Brazilian policies, she reflected on intercultural encounters in migratory contexts, with an emphasis on forced migration.
Abstract
Migration has become an important phenomenon in the contemporary world. In receiving countries, language policies have been put into place to offer migrants education in the national language, in order to give them tools to communicate with and to create a feeling of belonging to the local community. These policies claim to be integration policies; however, they are frequently based on a concept of languages disconnected from the notions of knowledge, culture, politics and power. Languages are shaped in a specific global order and in local practices, in which power relationships that respond to a political, social and economic world system are enmeshed. This paper uses “key-ideas” constructed from data generated in classroom observations and open-ended interviews in Padova, Italy and São Paulo, Brazil as theory promoting insights, and also reflects on the concepts of language, nation and integration. I will engage in a dialogue with the readers, stimulating reflection on encounters with the “other” and on the implications of actions when situated in contexts that are based on a homogenous concept of language, nation and culture. Moreover, through the theorization of coloniality, this article aims to offer a diversified reading of these encounters, suggesting that a process of subordination of the other is put into place by hierarchizing languages and their epistemic meanings. Together with theory, some questions will be offered to stimulate readers in the process of developing their own pedagogical activities.
About the author
Francesca Dell’Olio is a member of the research group Teacher education, Critical Education, New Literacies and Multiliteracies at the University of São Paulo. She has been working as a teacher of Italian as a foreign language and in the system of migrant reception in the city of São Paulo. She has a PhD in English Language and Literature from the University of São Paulo and in Education from the University of Padua. In her recent doctoral research, based on the analysis of European and Brazilian policies, she reflected on intercultural encounters in migratory contexts, with an emphasis on forced migration.
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© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Articles
- “It comes from you”: Agency in adult asylum seekers’ language learning through Process Drama
- Language teachers’ perceptions of multilingualism and language teaching: The case of the postgraduate programme “LRM”
- Wor(l)d order and coloniality in language education for migrants. Key ideas for thinking otherwise
- Mobile language learning applications for Arabic speaking migrants – a usability perspective
- Language learning and inclusion in Italy
- Reports
- Renaissance of the Gatekeepers: Establishing a culture of welcome for refugees and asylum seekers at the University of Leicester’s English Language Teaching Unit
- Le défi de l’intégration des réfugiés avec un niveau universitaire. Le programme Horizon académique de l’Université de Genève
- Preparing adolescent refugees for study and work in the Netherlands: Start-up of an academic pre-Bachelor’s programme
- “Cultura e accoglienza”: The inclusion of asylum seeker students in university language courses. Initial experience and data
- The Cara Syria programme – combining teaching of English for Academic Purposes and academic and research skills development
- A multilingual refugee, a personal experience
- Regular Articles
- Representing language education in Australian universities: An analysis of press reporting (2007–2016)
- The motivational self of the novice language learner
- Learning about Language: Preparing pre-service subject teachers for multilingual classroom realities
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Articles
- “It comes from you”: Agency in adult asylum seekers’ language learning through Process Drama
- Language teachers’ perceptions of multilingualism and language teaching: The case of the postgraduate programme “LRM”
- Wor(l)d order and coloniality in language education for migrants. Key ideas for thinking otherwise
- Mobile language learning applications for Arabic speaking migrants – a usability perspective
- Language learning and inclusion in Italy
- Reports
- Renaissance of the Gatekeepers: Establishing a culture of welcome for refugees and asylum seekers at the University of Leicester’s English Language Teaching Unit
- Le défi de l’intégration des réfugiés avec un niveau universitaire. Le programme Horizon académique de l’Université de Genève
- Preparing adolescent refugees for study and work in the Netherlands: Start-up of an academic pre-Bachelor’s programme
- “Cultura e accoglienza”: The inclusion of asylum seeker students in university language courses. Initial experience and data
- The Cara Syria programme – combining teaching of English for Academic Purposes and academic and research skills development
- A multilingual refugee, a personal experience
- Regular Articles
- Representing language education in Australian universities: An analysis of press reporting (2007–2016)
- The motivational self of the novice language learner
- Learning about Language: Preparing pre-service subject teachers for multilingual classroom realities
