Marta Guarda

ISBN: 978-3-032-16439-1

This book explores the need for a change in perspectives towards linguistic diversity and pluri/multilingual education, and highlights the role of teachers, students, caregivers, and researchers, as agents of social cohesion in today’s complex societies. The book examines how a change in perspectives on the part of these social actors can challenge dominant language ideologies and trigger more equitable, just and cohesive educational environments and social communities that honour and leverage the linguistic repertoire of each individual. While the agency of students and teachers has been brought to the fore by a number of publications on pluri/multilingual education, this dimension is particularly relevant for researchers themselves, whose agency and epistemic stance are paramount in the construction and interpretation of observed phenomena. In this respect, this book tackles this aspect by means of autobiographical narratives, in which each author/researcher provides insights into experiences in their professional and/or personal life that had an impact on the way they see their agentive role in society. This book is intended for researchers, practitioners, language policy makers and graduate students with an interest in the link between pluri/multilingual education and cohesion in educational communities and the broader society.

Maria Stopfner, Marta Guarda

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-16440-7

Inbook2026

Introduction

Guarda M, Stopfner M, Meier G

This volume explores the complex interplay between linguistic diversity, pluri/multilingual education and social cohesion in contemporary societies, inspired by the question of how social agents involved in education can influence language ideologies and practices and in turn foster social cohesion. Drawing on research from a variety of different contexts, the volume illuminates the need for a change in perspectives towards understanding linguistic diversity and pluri/multilingual education through a critical lens. It highlights the role of teachers, students and other stakeholders—including researchers—as agents of change who can contribute to greater social cohesion in today’s complex societies. This Introduction first situates the work within critical, multilingual and agentive turns in socio- and applied linguistics while unpacking the key concepts of the volume, i.e. changing perspectives, agency and social cohesion. After providing an overview of the chapters that compose the volume, the Introduction concludes by highlighting the relevance and urgency of exploring the nexus between language and social cohesion within educational institutions, particularly in light of current national and international tensions.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-16440-7_1

Inbook2026

Shifting the Paradigm: Inclusive Plurilingual Education as a (Re)positioning Journey

Guarda M

This chapter stems from the concepts of educational equity and inclusion, i.e. the principles of ensuring that each student is given the means to develop to their full potential, regardless of their life circumstances and in full respect of their abilities (OECD. (2023). Equity and inclusion in education: Finding strength through diversity). Equity and inclusion are often described as vital for promoting social cohesion (Cerna et al. (2021). Promoting inclusive education for diverse societies: A conceptual framework (OECD Education Working Papers No. 260)), as they relate to its key dimensions, including social networks, belonging, shared norms and values, and access to resources (Meier & Smala. (2022). Languages and social cohesion: A transdisciplinary literature review. Routledge).

In postmigrant societies, multilingual classrooms are crucial sites for guaranteeing equity and inclusion, and this also implies recognising the linguistic resources that students bring to class as valuable capital (Cummins. (2021). Rethinking the education of multilingual learners: A critical analysis of theoretical concepts. Multilingual Matters). While schools in South Tyrol (Italy) have extensive experience in promoting the three institutional languages (Italian, German and Ladin) and English, the languages of immigrant communities still often remain unacknowledged. This underscores the need for policies and practices that embrace a language-as-resource perspective whereby plurilingual students and their families are constructed as epistemic agents (Kerfoot & Bello-Nonjengele, (2023). Towards epistemic justice: Constructing knowers in multilingual classrooms. Applied Linguistics, 44(3), 462–484) and their funds of knowledge (Moll et al. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31, 132–141) fully leveraged.

This chapter addresses this need by drawing on qualitative data from visual documentation, individual interviews and focus groups with a team of eight primary schoolteachers. Findings illustrate how the teachers’ stances and pedagogical practices evolved over the course of a 2-year research and professional development initiative on inclusive plurilingual education. The chapter also reports on the effect such development had on the teachers’ agentive (re)positioning of themselves, their students and their students’ families, and illuminates the potential of inclusive plurilingual education to foster ideological values, social networks and emotional bonds that contribute to educational equity and social cohesion.

Marta Guarda, Sabrina Colombo, Agnieszka Stawinoga

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-16440-7_8

Other2025

„One school, many languages“: A Teacher Questionnaire for Research on Plurilingual Education

Guarda M, Colombo S, Stawinoga A, Flarer H

This questionnaire was used in the spring of 2021 by the research team of the project „One school, many languages / A lezione con più lingue / Sprachenvielfalt macht Schule” (SMS 2.0) of Eurac Research in the context of a cross-sectional, explorative study on plurilingual education. Plurilingual education is understood here as any approach in which two or more languages are strategically used for teaching and learning with the aim of encouraging students to gain increased awareness of and appreciation for linguistic diversity, and to leverage the resources of their repertoires to enhance their overall learning (Guarda 2023).

The study in which this questionnaire was developed involved a selected sample of teachers of every subjects and working at all levels of education – from primary to upper secondary school – in the Italian province of South Tyrol, a historically multilingual area where three official languages (German, Italian and Ladin) now coexist with the new forms of multilingualism brought by recent migration flows. The aim of the study was to explore whether and how plurilingual education was implemented by the questionnaire respondents, as well as to identify their formative needs with regard to its implementation.

Based on this, the main research questions that informed the study are as follows:

• RQ1. With which frequency, if any, did the questionnaire respondents implement plurilingual didactic activities (PDAs) before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic? • RQ2. In case the respondents did implement PDAs, what kind of activities did they conduct in their classes? • RQ3. In case the respondents did implement PDAs, which languages and/or varieties did they involve? • RQ4. In case the respondents did not implement any PDAs in their classes, what reasons did they provide? • RQ5. What were the respondents’ formative needs with regard to plurilingual education and its implementation?

Since the study took place in a time when schools in Italy were still dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, it was hypothesised that the frequency or conditions of PDA implementation had been affected by the emergency situation. This aspect was taken into account while designing the questionnaire, and this is also why the research questions reported above make reference to experiences in times before the outbreak of the pandemic. The questionnaire includes 55 items distributed across four sections: these aimed at collecting information about the school the respondents were working in, their experience – if any - with plurilingual education, their formative needs and their biodata.

The questionnaire can be adapted to inform the design and administration of future questionnaires aimed at a deeper understanding of plurilingual education through the experiences and perspectives of schoolteachers, both in South Tyrol and in other increasingly multilingual contexts. Users acknowledge and agree that the survey is provided “as is,” without warranty of any kind, and that users assume all risks and liabilities arising from or relating to its and recipient subsidiaries’ use of and reliance upon the survey. Eurac Research makes no representations or warranties of any kind whatsoever, express or implied, at law or in equity, in connection with or with respect to the survey, including any representations or warranties in regard to quality, performance, or noninfringement.

If interested, researchers can read more about the questionnaire, as well as about the findings of the study in which the questionnaire was administered, in the following publications:

Guarda, M., Colombo, S. & Flarer, H. (2022). Plurilinguismo: uno studio esplorativo sulla didattica plurilingue. Bolzano: Eurac Research. https://sms-project.eurac.edu/report-didattica-plurilingue/?lang=it ISBN: 978-88-98857-77-7

Guarda, M., Colombo, S. & Flarer, H. (2022). Mehrsprachigkeit: Eine explorative Studie zur Mehrsprachigkeitsdidaktik. https://sms-project.eurac.edu/bericht-mehrsprachigkeitsdidaktik/?lang=de ISBN: 978-88-98857-76-0.

Guarda, M. (2023). Plurilingual education through the teachers‘ eyes: insights from South Tyrol. In: Fusco, F., Marcato, C. & Oniga, R. (eds.) Proceedings of the Third International Colloquium on Plurilingualism, 252-269. Udine: FORUM.

DOI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12124/103

Internet2025

Cosa significa migratismo?

Guarda M

Progetto: Dibattere migrazione - navigare il cambiamento sociale

Un lodevole intento di valorizzare il plurilinguismo di scrittrici e scrittori con traiettorie di migrazione, ma anche un termine che rinforza stigmi e gerarchizzazioni? Una riflessione per stimolare il dialogo tra mondo accademico e letterario.

DOI: 10.57708/BTUR-RTYGSJMI7GGRNSDZ_A

Journal article2025

Fostering Educational Change at the Intersection of Macro-Level Institutional Narratives and Micro-Level Classroom Experiences

Guarda M

This study investigated the intersection between macro-level institutional narratives on plurilingualism and language education, and the increasingly complex linguistic repertoires that students bring to their school experience in South Tyrol (Italy). The paper first outlines the main specificities of this historically multilingual substate entity, and discusses how current educational guidelines celebrate linguistic diversity while failing to explicitly acknowledge the epistemic capacity of more recently settled minoritised language communities. Zooming in at micro-level classroom experiences, the paper then looks at the educational stances of one primary school teacher who took part in a participatory action research initiative aimed at the valorisation and mobilisation of students’ complex linguistic repertoires. Over two years, the initiative fostered collaboration among teachers and researchers to co-construct strategies aligned with the principles of pedagogical translanguaging. Through qualitative analysis of data generated through individual semi-structured interviews and a short reflective text, this paper shows how the selected teacher began to reconceptualise plurilingual education in more inclusive and equitable ways, i.e., supporting both institutional and non-dominant languages and legitimising the children’s diverse knowledge bases. By highlighting the role of teachers’ agency in challenging macro-level narratives from below, the study addresses the imbalances of power between institutionalised and non-institutionalised languages, and contributes to research framing plurilingual education as a socially engaged phenomenon in increasingly multilingual contexts.

DOI: 10.3390/educsci15040472

Inbook2024

The challenge of challenging dominant language ideologies and hierarchies for inclusive plurilingual education

Guarda M, Mayr G

The chapter reports on the preliminary results of a longitudinal study into teachers’ beliefs about and practices of inclusive plurilingual education, i.e. education that leverages all the linguistic resources students bring to the classroom. The study complements a two-year professional development course with teams of primary school teachers working in South Tyrol, northern Italy. Drawing on interview data collected during the first year of the project, this chapter focuses in particular on 12 teachers working at a school where German is the main language of instruction. Findings highlight the importance of promoting teacher reflexivity and shed light on the difficulties the participants faced in challenging dominant language ideologies to achieve a genuinely inclusive and plurilingual educational stance. In doing so, the chapter contributes to the growing body of research on teachers’ readiness to work with plurilingual students in increasingly diversified educational contexts, as well as to the contextual factors that can impact on it.

DOI

DOI: 10.1163/9789004702318_003

Journal article2023

Pluralismo linguistico nella scuola e competenze didattiche: esperienze dall'Alto Adige

Guarda M, Mayr G

In Alto Adige, il trilinguismo istituzionale (tedesco, italiano, ladino) e la diglossia convivono con nuove lingue e varietà portate nel territorio grazie ai flussi migratori (Colombo et al., 2020). La crescente diversità linguistica e culturale della Provincia di Bolzano ha un forte impatto sulla vita scolastica quotidiana e pone nuove sfide agli/alle insegnanti: l’inclusione e la valorizzazione di tutte le lingue che alunni e alunne portano in classe, così come l’attivazione dei loro interi repertori linguistici per l’apprendimento, richiedono infatti abilità, motivazioni e conoscenze specifiche.
In questo contributo descriveremo COMPASS (Didactic Competences in the Multilingual Classroom), un’iniziativa di ricerca e formazione inserita nel progetto A scuola con più lingue (SMS 2.0) promosso da Eurac Research. L’iniziativa si propone di sostenere team di insegnanti delle scuole primarie di lingua italiana e tedesca nel valorizzare la crescente eterogeneità linguistica delle loro classi, e di accompagnarli nel loro percorso verso una pratica didattica plurilingue ancor più inclusiva che non si limiti solo a saltuari progetti sulla diversità.
Nel nostro contributo ci concentreremo sulla dimensione motivazionale delle competenze didattiche necessarie per una didattica attenta ai repertori linguistici degli/delle alunni/e. Oggetto del contributo è pertanto ciò che nella letteratura internazionale viene contrassegnato come teachers’ beliefs (si veda ad esempio Haukås, 2016), in altre parole quell’insieme complesso e dinamico di atteggiamenti e convinzioni che spingono un/a insegnante ad attivare le proprie conoscenze e abilità didattiche per operare nella classe plurilingue. Focalizzandoci su questa dimensione delle competenze insegnanti, in questo contributo descriveremo dapprima le due componenti dell’iniziativa COMPASS, vale a dire un percorso biennale di formazione e uno studio di ricerca longitudinale sullo sviluppo delle competenze e delle pratiche didattiche dei/delle insegnanti coinvolti nell’iniziativa. In seguito presenteremo alcuni dei risultati preliminari relativi a un team (N=20 docenti) di una delle scuole partecipanti all’iniziativa. I risultati, ottenuti dall’analisi di dati raccolti durante il primo anno di formazione tramite interviste individuali semi-strutturate e un’intervista focus group, sottolineano l’importanza di creare momenti di riflessione e scambio tra insegnanti, così come tra insegnanti e ricercatori/trici. Essi evidenziano inoltre il ruolo cruciale delle motivazioni e degli atteggiamenti degli/delle insegnanti nello sviluppo e normalizzazione di pratiche didattiche plurilingui inclusive.

DOI: 10.54103/2037-3597/21973

Inbook2023

Responding Inclusively to Linguistic Diversity in the Classroom: Preliminary Findings from the COMPASS Initiative with Primary School Teachers in South Tyrol (Italy)

Guarda M, Mayr G

The aim of this chapter is to give an overview of COMPASS (Didaktische Kompetenzen in der mehrsprachigen Klasse [Didactic Competences in Multilingual Classes]), a two-year research and professional development initiative on inclusive plurilingual education that is being carried out in South Tyrol, Italy. Launched in 2021, the initiative includes a training course for teams of primary school teachers. Its aim is to promote the development of some of the competences and tools that are necessary to leverage linguistic diversity in the classroom and embrace more inclusive and socially just forms of education. In addition to its training component, COMPASS includes a longitudinal research study aimed at documenting whether the course has any impact on the participants’ beliefs, knowledge and practices. In this contribution we will discuss some of the preliminary findings of our study by drawing on data from one school team, i.e. nine teachers of various subjects working at the same school in a suburban area of South Tyrol: focusing on the concept of the schoolscape, i.e. the display and use of language-related signs in educational environments (Brown, 2012), the chapter will discuss whether and how the participants developed a more responsive attitude to the issue of the implicit and explicit language hierarchies that are present in their educational environment, as well as whether this has an influence on the way languages are displayed and used in school.

DOI: 10.1163/9789004678545_011

Book2021

Student Perspectives on English-Medium Instruction: Insights from an Italian University

Guarda M

Marta Guarda, Sabrina Colombo, Agnieszka Stawinoga

ISBN: 9780367555726

This book offers a window into student perceptions of English-Medium Instruction (EMI), building on research from an Italian university to provide a better understanding of attitudes toward EMI in Europe and future directions for cross-country comparative research.

The volume provides context on the current situation with EMI in Italy, unpacking debates around the tensions between the increased competitiveness it brings at the higher education level with the potential detrimental impact of English on local language practices. Seeking to introduce a counterpoint to existing research on lecturer experiences, Guarda draws on a wide range of data, from online questionnaires to semi-structured interviews and a focus group, to showcase perceptions on EMI from students enrolled in English-Taught Programmes at the University of Padova over a two-year period. The resulting insights contribute to the current literature on EMI toward creating a clearer and more holistic picture of the advantages and challenges of learning through English and implications for quality improvement measures for EMI implementation in Italy, Europe and beyond.

This book will be of interest to scholars in English-Medium Instruction and applied linguistics, especially to those working on issues around language policy, bilingual education and the internationalisation of higher education.

DOI

DOI: 10.4324/9781003094098

Other2025

„One school, many languages“: A Teacher Questionnaire for Research on Plurilingual Education

Guarda M, Colombo S, Stawinoga A, Flarer H

Based on this, the main research questions that informed the study are as follows:

If interested, researchers can read more about the questionnaire, as well as about the findings of the study in which the questionnaire was administered, in the following publications: