Exploring the Linguistic and Cultural Identities of Transnational Background Children in Catalonia, Spain
This article explores linguistic and cultural identities as they emerge in ethnographic data from plurilingual children with transnational and ethnic minority backgrounds in Catalonia, Spain. The particular sociolinguistic and multicultural context where these young people currently live, characteri...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-10-01
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| Series: | Societies |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/13/10/221 |
| _version_ | 1797572272060366848 |
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| author | Claudia Vallejo Rubinstein Valeria Tonioli |
| author_facet | Claudia Vallejo Rubinstein Valeria Tonioli |
| author_sort | Claudia Vallejo Rubinstein |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article explores linguistic and cultural identities as they emerge in ethnographic data from plurilingual children with transnational and ethnic minority backgrounds in Catalonia, Spain. The particular sociolinguistic and multicultural context where these young people currently live, characterised by the coexistence of local, national and heritage languages with unequal social status, as well as their own trajectories and experiences of socialisation, implies that they often forge complex “in-between” linguistic and cultural identities and senses of belonging. To reflect on these complexities, we analyse multimodal data from transnational- and minority-background children as they participate in an autobiographical activity aimed at promoting linguistically and culturally inclusive pedagogical approaches and participatory action research (PAR). The analysis shows that children’s identity constructions fluently intertwine elements from their “home” and “host” languages and cultures with features characteristic of child/youth popular cultures, and with adscriptions to diverse real and imagined communities. These hybrid articulations, which can be described as plurilingual and transcultural, foreground how identity is both an individual and a social process, transversed by different axes, including cultural and ethnic referents, linguistic repertoires, historic, family and personal trajectories, urban cultures and the influence of friends and peers, among others. The identification of these emergent traits in our data foregrounds both the particularities and commonalities of pupils’ identity construction, which challenges and reshapes traditional understandings of identity. Finally, this work aims to illustrate how transnational children’s complex senses of being and belonging can be recognised and supported through inclusive pedagogical proposals as the one described herein. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T20:53:52Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9823e1030d144de6a3204d6334c8f432 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2075-4698 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T20:53:52Z |
| publishDate | 2023-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Societies |
| spelling | doaj.art-9823e1030d144de6a3204d6334c8f4322023-11-19T18:07:26ZengMDPI AGSocieties2075-46982023-10-01131022110.3390/soc13100221Exploring the Linguistic and Cultural Identities of Transnational Background Children in Catalonia, SpainClaudia Vallejo Rubinstein0Valeria Tonioli1Department of Translation, Interpreting and East Asian Studies, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, SpainDepartment of Translation, Interpreting and East Asian Studies, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, SpainThis article explores linguistic and cultural identities as they emerge in ethnographic data from plurilingual children with transnational and ethnic minority backgrounds in Catalonia, Spain. The particular sociolinguistic and multicultural context where these young people currently live, characterised by the coexistence of local, national and heritage languages with unequal social status, as well as their own trajectories and experiences of socialisation, implies that they often forge complex “in-between” linguistic and cultural identities and senses of belonging. To reflect on these complexities, we analyse multimodal data from transnational- and minority-background children as they participate in an autobiographical activity aimed at promoting linguistically and culturally inclusive pedagogical approaches and participatory action research (PAR). The analysis shows that children’s identity constructions fluently intertwine elements from their “home” and “host” languages and cultures with features characteristic of child/youth popular cultures, and with adscriptions to diverse real and imagined communities. These hybrid articulations, which can be described as plurilingual and transcultural, foreground how identity is both an individual and a social process, transversed by different axes, including cultural and ethnic referents, linguistic repertoires, historic, family and personal trajectories, urban cultures and the influence of friends and peers, among others. The identification of these emergent traits in our data foregrounds both the particularities and commonalities of pupils’ identity construction, which challenges and reshapes traditional understandings of identity. Finally, this work aims to illustrate how transnational children’s complex senses of being and belonging can be recognised and supported through inclusive pedagogical proposals as the one described herein.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/13/10/221linguistic and cultural identitiesplurilingualism“transculturación”inclusive pedagogiestransnational background childrenparticipatory action research (PAR) |
| spellingShingle | Claudia Vallejo Rubinstein Valeria Tonioli Exploring the Linguistic and Cultural Identities of Transnational Background Children in Catalonia, Spain Societies linguistic and cultural identities plurilingualism “transculturación” inclusive pedagogies transnational background children participatory action research (PAR) |
| title | Exploring the Linguistic and Cultural Identities of Transnational Background Children in Catalonia, Spain |
| title_full | Exploring the Linguistic and Cultural Identities of Transnational Background Children in Catalonia, Spain |
| title_fullStr | Exploring the Linguistic and Cultural Identities of Transnational Background Children in Catalonia, Spain |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exploring the Linguistic and Cultural Identities of Transnational Background Children in Catalonia, Spain |
| title_short | Exploring the Linguistic and Cultural Identities of Transnational Background Children in Catalonia, Spain |
| title_sort | exploring the linguistic and cultural identities of transnational background children in catalonia spain |
| topic | linguistic and cultural identities plurilingualism “transculturación” inclusive pedagogies transnational background children participatory action research (PAR) |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/13/10/221 |
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