Is mother tongue instruction culturally empowering?

In this paper, I formulate a position on the dissemination of ‘cultural empowerment’ in schools through a critical discussion of its relation to my research field, mother tongue instruction (MTI) in Sweden. In addition, I compare the ideals of the culturally empowering pedagogies and praxis of MTI,...

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Main Author: Scarlett Mannish
Format: Article
Language:Danish
Published: Malmö University Press 2024-02-01
Series:Educare
Subjects:
Online Access:https://publicera.kb.se/educare/article/view/45668
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author Scarlett Mannish
author_facet Scarlett Mannish
author_sort Scarlett Mannish
collection DOAJ
description In this paper, I formulate a position on the dissemination of ‘cultural empowerment’ in schools through a critical discussion of its relation to my research field, mother tongue instruction (MTI) in Sweden. In addition, I compare the ideals of the culturally empowering pedagogies and praxis of MTI, which I see as related through the underlying utopian visions of the multilingual and multicultural school. Both are forms of education which place a focus on the validity and importance of students’ individuality and their pre-existing knowledges from outside the curriculum. In discussing the marginalisation of MTI via the discourse of its threat to ‘Swedishness’, I hope to highlight some of the underlying problems inherent in cultural empowerment as an individualising practice carried out within the universalising framework that is the state education project. The implementation of MTI demonstrates a need for change targeted not only at the level of teachers and researchers but also at a level where legitimacy is granted to such change.
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spelling doaj-art-ffdf1065b2a64875969a3ca73283b14d2025-08-20T02:06:35ZdanMalmö University PressEducare2004-51902024-02-01110.24834/educare.2024.1.854Is mother tongue instruction culturally empowering? Scarlett Mannish0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2416-2640Stockholm University In this paper, I formulate a position on the dissemination of ‘cultural empowerment’ in schools through a critical discussion of its relation to my research field, mother tongue instruction (MTI) in Sweden. In addition, I compare the ideals of the culturally empowering pedagogies and praxis of MTI, which I see as related through the underlying utopian visions of the multilingual and multicultural school. Both are forms of education which place a focus on the validity and importance of students’ individuality and their pre-existing knowledges from outside the curriculum. In discussing the marginalisation of MTI via the discourse of its threat to ‘Swedishness’, I hope to highlight some of the underlying problems inherent in cultural empowerment as an individualising practice carried out within the universalising framework that is the state education project. The implementation of MTI demonstrates a need for change targeted not only at the level of teachers and researchers but also at a level where legitimacy is granted to such change. https://publicera.kb.se/educare/article/view/45668mother tongue instructionculturally empowering educationculturally relevant pedagogyagencylegitimacy
spellingShingle Scarlett Mannish
Is mother tongue instruction culturally empowering?
Educare
mother tongue instruction
culturally empowering education
culturally relevant pedagogy
agency
legitimacy
title Is mother tongue instruction culturally empowering?
title_full Is mother tongue instruction culturally empowering?
title_fullStr Is mother tongue instruction culturally empowering?
title_full_unstemmed Is mother tongue instruction culturally empowering?
title_short Is mother tongue instruction culturally empowering?
title_sort is mother tongue instruction culturally empowering
topic mother tongue instruction
culturally empowering education
culturally relevant pedagogy
agency
legitimacy
url https://publicera.kb.se/educare/article/view/45668
work_keys_str_mv AT scarlettmannish ismothertongueinstructionculturallyempowering