Adult migrant language education in a diversifying world

Pöyhönen, Sari; Tarnanen, Mirja; Simpson, James

doi:10.4324/9781315696010-34

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Adult migrant language education is enmeshed with migration and integration policy, and there are frequently tensions between the goals of learning as defined by policy actors, and those defined by learners themselves (Pöyhönen and Tarnanen 2015;Pöyhönen et al 2018; cf. Cooke and Peutrell 2019).…”

Section: Oravais Flyktingförläggning and Norrvalla Folkhögskola: Asylmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contesting language policy for asylum seekers in the Northern periphery: the story of Tailor F

Pöyhönen

Simpson

2020

Lang Policy

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This article is about navigating asylum, employment and language policy in a new country as an asylum seeker. Through the story of one individual, we show that profound inequalities are exacerbated when forced migrants are limited in their choice of language they might study or use. The individual is Tailor F, an Iraqi man seeking asylum, and the country is Finland, officially bilingual, with a majority language (Finnish) and a minority language (Swedish). Finland’s official bilingualism does not extend evenly to language education provided for asylum seekers, who are taught Finnish regardless of the region where they are placed. Upon arrival, Tailor F was housed in a reception centre for asylum seekers located in a Swedish-dominant rural area of the country. Through our linguistic ethnography we examine how he navigates multilingually in his early settlement, his current work and his online life. We relate his story to explicit and implicit official bilingualism in Finland and discuss his lived experiences in relation to the contexts of asylum policy and employment. Tailor F’s story shows how, through his practices, he has contested implicit language policy for asylum seekers in order to gain membership of the local Swedish-dominant community, achieve a sense of belonging, and potentially realise his aspirations for the future.

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Section: Oravais Flyktingförläggning and Norrvalla Folkhögskola: Asylmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contesting language policy for asylum seekers in the Northern periphery: the story of Tailor F

Pöyhönen

Simpson

2020

Lang Policy

Self Cite

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“…This same linguistic marginalisation follows people across borders, becoming a normalised and unquestioned reality. For many refugee families arriving in English-speaking countries, English is showcased as the route to opportunity (Pöyhönen et al, 2018), which can lead it to be viewed as a panacea (Warriner, 2007) by adult students, particularly when packaged as synonymous with helping one's child to progress. Conversely, within a decolonised, multilingual curriculum, all linguistic knowledge is highly valued and plays an integral role in enriching every subject learned at school.…”

Section: Reflectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conspiring to decolonise language teaching and learning: reflections and reactions from a reading group

et al. 2022

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Within the spirit of conspiration, this article brings together contributions from participants of the PhD-led UCL Reading and React Group ‘Colonialism(s), Neoliberalism(s) and Language Teaching and Learning’, which ran in 2019/20. Weaving together various perspectives, the article centres on the dialogic nature of the decolonial enterprise and challenges the colonial concept of monologic authorial voice. Across the reflections on participants’ own engagements with questions of decolonising language teaching and learning, we pull together three threads: the inherent coloniality of the concepts that shape the very disciplines we seek to decolonise; the need to place decolonial efforts within broader contexts and to be sceptical of projects claiming to have completed the work of decolonising language teaching and learning; and the affordances and limitations offered to us by our positionalities, which the reflexivity of the conspirational encounter has allowed us to explore in some depth. The article closes with a reflection on the process of writing this article, and with the assertion that decolonising the curriculum is a multifaceted and open-ended process of dialogue and conspiration between practitioners and researchers alike.

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“…This, according to the reception centre directors, was due to the fact that the Finnish Immigration Services, the national agency coordinating asylum policies, required local authorities to provide schooling of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers in Finnish, even in Swedish-dominant areas. Learning Finnish would enable more opportunities to settle in Finland should a positive decision be received (Pöyhönen et. al.…”

Section: Most Of the Conversations In The Group Home Between The Counmentioning

confidence: 99%

3. Belonging, Trust and Relationships: Collaborative Photography with Unaccompanied Minors

Pöyhönen¹,

Kokkonen²,

Tarnanen³

et al. 2020

Translanguaging as Transformation

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Adult migrant language education in a diversifying world

Cited by 7 publications

References 24 publications

Contesting language policy for asylum seekers in the Northern periphery: the story of Tailor F

Contesting language policy for asylum seekers in the Northern periphery: the story of Tailor F

Conspiring to decolonise language teaching and learning: reflections and reactions from a reading group

3. Belonging, Trust and Relationships: Collaborative Photography with Unaccompanied Minors

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