Construction of difference and homogeneity: Teacher narratives about diversity in the Luxembourgish school system

Abstract

The school environment of the 21st century is shaped by rapidly changing social and societal conditions that teachers need to adapt to, increasing linguistic, cultural and ethnic diversity among other things. The development of attitudes to cope with these constant societal transformations is one of the main challenges of teacher professionalization today. In this chapter, we concentrate on the self-positioning and argumentation patterns of two Luxembourgish primary school teachers. We focus on the question how these teachers construct differences and homogeneity, what kind of categories and norms they rely on (e.g. performance, sociocultural background, and language) and in how far mechanisms of in- and exclusion become visible.With its trilingual tradition and school system (mainly Luxembourgish, French and German), and at the same time a highly diverse society with more than 170 nationalities, Luxembourg represents a particularly interesting case. As the recent PISA studies have repeatedly shown, the Luxembourgish school system (including its traditional trilingualism and strong orientation on language education) produces a high degree of inequality, and represents an important challenge especially for children of migration.With our study, which is based on in-depth interviews and which adopts an analytical approach combining elements of content and discourse analysis, we found a tendency towards a backward oriented idealized orientation of the past and a high degree of insecurity. We also show which ambivalences the teachers are confronted with and their efforts to deal with these ambivalences.We hope to contribute to a deeper understanding of how teachers position themselves vis a vis the existing diversity in schools, and which discourse and argumentation patterns they rely on. We see this study as part of research on teacher professionalization that will be useful for reflexive pre- and in-service teacher training.

Stories of Teachers’ Identity: Between Personal and Professional Experience

“…In their narratives, teachers may express problematic issues of student diversity in relationship to their own professional identity. Wagner and Hu (2020) showed that teachers found that the diversification of Luxembourg society led to diverse classrooms. This classroom diversification was linked to a fear of marginalization-that by giving other cultures and languages too much importance and space, it was possible to lose one's own cultural traditions and thus identity.…”

“…Keith (2010) explained that black and white racial identity in schools revealed different emotional paths that must be taken before people can understand themselves and one another. Another category that the teachers in the research by Wagner and Hu (2020) used to differentiate among themselves and their students was their sociocultural background. They referred to the social environments of their students to explain their behavior and their performance at school.…”

“…The investigated teachers relied on concepts of identity and culture. They established a specific connection between the development of identity and the fact of being rooted in a cultural and linguistic tradition (Wagner & Hu, 2020).…”

“…Importance of the culture that teachers live in portrayed in teachers' stories Teachers also might report the importance of the culture that they live in, including their mother tongue. Wagner and Hu (2020) interviewed one teacher in Luxemburg who elaborated the metaphor of being "rooted in a tradition" when she spoke about her own experience, highlighting that her socialization was based on strong "roots" that are fixed in a stable tradition. The repetitive use of several strong metaphors, such as "roots", "rooted", and "not anchored in any culture" was obvious and seemed to reflect a strong emotional involvement and a tendency to essentialize identity, language, and culture.…”

Multilingualism as a resource for learning – insights from a multidisciplinary research project

“…Deep-rooted values and beliefs, related for example to who belongs to an "in-group" or "out-group", have an impact on learning. They play an important role in communication and interaction in educational institutions, for both teachers (Wagner and Hu 2020) and pupils/students. The contributions by Tavares and Obojska show very clearly that experiences in early school life (such as bullying or other kinds of discrimination) are consequential and can affect self-confidence, in some cases through individuals' entire lives and professional careers.…”