Superdiverse and multilingual, but still languageless: How unconscious and unintended raciolinguistic attitudes in school-based parent cafés can co-promote exclusion

Alexei Medvedev; Anke Grotlüschen

doi:10.3384/rela.2000-7426.5895

Authors

Alexei Medvedev University of Hamburg and Koordinierungsstelle Weiterbildung und Beschäftigung e.V. https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6821-5747
Anke Grotlüschen University of Hamburg https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3072-1741

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3384/rela.2000-7426.5895

Keywords:

school parent cafés, raciolinguicism, monolingual habitus, migrant parents, perpetual foreigners

Abstract

It is widely emphasized that there are existing gaps between parents who understand themselves as residents and parents who are positioned as immigrants or even ‘perpetual foreigners’. This qualitative study illustrates how unconscious and unintended raciolinguistic attitudes position some groups of parents and keep them excluded despite the programmatic idea of school-based parent cafés, legitimized by governmental strategies of better inclusion. The theories of raciolinguicism and monolingual habitus are further explored to understand intertwined mechanisms of creating groups. The analysis was planned and carried out using the Grounded Theory based on interviews. As the main findings, it is argued that German is understood as the language that leaves parents with another first language languageless with no or just limited communication skills. In certain school-related contexts, the monolingual habitus of German can be replaced by another dominant language. The study also showcases the phenomenon of (self)othering that can occur unintendedly in parent cafés.

References

Aarsand, L. (2014). Parental self-work. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 5(1), 67-80.

Akbaba, Y. (2024, March 13). Sprache Macht (Un)Ordnung [Language Enables (Dis)Order] [Video]. 29. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft, Halle. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQArKKHfSqk

Akbaba, Y., & Heinemann, A. (Eds.). (2023). Erziehungswissenschaften dekolonisieren: Theoretische Debatten und praxisorientierte Impulse [Decolonizing Educational Sciences: Theoretical Debates and Practice-oriented Impulses]. Beltz Juventa.

Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power. Harvard University Press.

Dean, I. (2021). Elternengagement an einer Berlin-Neuköllner Grundschule im Spannungsfeld rassistischer und klassistischer Machtverhältnisse [Parental Involvement at a Primary School in Berlin-Neukölln Amid Conflicting Racist and Classist Power Relations]. In L. Chamakalayil, O. Ivanova-Chessex, B. Leutwyler, & W. Scharathow (Eds.), Eltern und pädagogische Institutionen: Macht- und ungleichheitskritische Perspektiven (pp. 109-128). Beltz.

Desjardins, R. (2017). Political economy of adult learning systems: Comparative study of strategies, policies and constraints. Bloomsbury Academic.

Doğmuș, A., Kourabas, V., & Rose, N. (2022). Beredtes Schweigen über Rassismus: Be- und Entlastung von Lehrer*innen im Sprechen über Rassismus und das Potential von Rassismushinweisen [Eloquent Silence on Racism: The Burden and Relief of Teachers When Talking About Racism and the Potential of Reporting Racism]. In O. Ivanova-Chessex, S. Shure, & A. Steinbach (Eds.), Lehrer*innenbildung: (Re-)Visionen für die Migrationsgesellschaft (pp. 168-185). Beltz Juventa.

Dusi, P. & Addi-Raccah, A. (2025). Decolonising Thought and Knowledge: Unmasking Deficit Thinking in Education. 14th Biennial conference of the European Research Network About Parents in Education (ERNAPE), Verona, Italy, June 6.

El-Mafaalani, A. (2021). Wozu Rassismus? Von der Erfindung der Menschenrassen bis zum rassismuskritischen Widerstand [Why Racism? From the Invention of Human Races to Anti-racist Resistance]. Kiepenheuer & Witsch. https://www.book2look.com/book/9783462002232

Faircloth, C. (2023). Intensive Parenting and the Expansion of Parenting. In E. Lee, J. Bristow, C. Faircloth, & J. Macvarish (Eds.), Parenting Culture Studies (pp. 33-67). Springer International Publishing.

Flores, N., & Rosa, J. (2015). Undoing appropriateness: Raciolinguistic ideologies and language diversity in education. Harvard Educational Review, 85(2), 149-171.

Flores, N., & Rosa, J. (2023). Undoing raciolinguistics. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 27(5), 421-427.

Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. (2010). Grounded Theory. Strategien qualitativer Forschung. Hans Huber.

Gogolin, I. (1994). Der monolinguale Habitus der multilingualen Schule [The Monolingual Habitus of the Multilingual School]. Waxmann.

Grotlüschen, A. (2025). „Wir müssen hingehen“. Ansprachewege und Motivationen zur Grundbildungsteilnahme im Projekt „Literalität im Alltag - vernetzt in evangelischer Erwachsenenbildung“ [“We have to go”: Approaches and Motivations for Participating in Basic Education in the Project “Literacy in everyday life – networked in Protestant adult education”]. In S. Botters, M. Glatz, & C. Sturm (Eds.), Alphabetisierung und Grundbildung in Evangelischer Erwachsenenbildung: Auf gutem Grund (pp. 139-159). Waxmann.

Grotlüschen, A., & Buddeberg, K. (2020). PIAAC and the South - Is Southering the new Othering? Global Expansion of dominant Discourses on Adult Literacy. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 49(3), 1-15.

Hackstein, P., Micheel, B., & Stöbe-Blossey, S. (2023). Familiengrundschulzentren im Sozialraum: Gelingensbedingungen für eine kontextsensible Zusammenarbeit zwsichen Grundschule und Familien [Family Elementary School Centers in the Social Space: Conditions for Successful Context-sensitive Cooperation Between Elementary Schools and Families]. In M. Forell, G. Bellenberg, L. Gerhards, & L. Schleenbecker (Eds.), Schule als Sozialraum im Sozialraum: Theoretische und empirische Erkundung sozialräumlicher Dimensionen von Schule (pp. 98-107). Waxmann.

Hall, S. (2008). Rassismus und kulturelle Identität. Ausgewählte Schriften, 2 [Racism and Cultural Identity]. Argument-Verlag.

Heinemann, A. M. B. (2014). Teilnahme an Weiterbildung in der Migrationsgesellschaft [Participation in Continuing Education in the Migration Society]. (Vol. 33). transcript Verlag.

Heinemann, A. M. B., & Dirim, I. (2016). „Die sprechen bestimmt (schlecht) über mich“ [“They're definitely talking (badly) about me”]. In E. Arslan & K. Bozay (Eds.), Symbolische Ordnung und Bildungsungleichheit in der Migrationsgesellschaft (pp. 199-214). Springer Fachmedien.

Heinemann, A. M. B., & Sarabi, S. A. (2020). Paternalistic benevolence – Enabling violence. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 11(3), 309-320.

Jansson, D. R. (2017). The Work of Southering: “Southern Justice” and the Moral Landscape of Uneven Racism. Southeastern Geographer, 57(2), 131-150.

Macha, H. (2017). Die neue Körperlichkeit in der Eltern- und Familienbildung [The New Physicality in Parent and Family Education]. Forum Erwachsenenbildung, 1, 45-48.

Mallows, D. (2008). Effective and inclusive practices in family literacy, language and numeracy: Family literacy, language and numeracy: a practitioner handbook. CfBT Education Trust.

Medvedev, A. (2013). Germany’s School-Based Parent Cafés: A New Hype or a Sustainable Way to Update Home-School Policies? International Journal about Parents in Education, 7(2), 59-68.

Medvedev, A. (2020). Heterogene Eltern. Die Kooperation von Eltern und Schule neu denken und umsetzen [Diverse Parents. Rethinking and Implementing Cooperation Between Parents and Schools]. Beltz Juventa.

Medvedev, A. (in press). Between Superdiversity and Doing Diversity: School-Based Parent Cafés as Places of Parent Education. International Review of Education (REVI).

Oelkers, N. (2012). The Redistribution of Responsibility Between State and Parents: Family in the Context of Post-Welfare-State Transformation. In M. Richter & S. Andresen (Eds.), Children’s Well-Being: Indicators and Research. The Politicization of Parenthood, 5, 101-110. Springer Netherlands.

Piller, I. (2016). Linguistic Diversity and Social Justice: An Introduction to Applied Sociolinguistics. Oxford University Press.

Rosa, J., & Flores M. (2017). Unsettling race and language: Toward a raciolinguistic perspective. Language in Society, 46(5), 621-647.

Rosa, J., & Flores M. (2020). Reimagining Race and Language: From Raciolinguistic Ideologies to a Raciolinguistic Perspective. In H. Samy Alim (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Language and Race (pp. 90-107). Oxford University Press.

Rosa, J. (2019). “They’re Bilingual… That Means They Don’t Know the Language”: The Ideology of Languagelessness in Practice, Policy, and Theory. In J. Rosa (Ed.), Looking like a Language, Sounding like a Race: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and the Learning of Latinidad (pp. 124-143). Oxford University Press.

Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. Pantheon.

Schuppener, S., Leonhardt, N., & Kruschel, R. (2023). Inklusive Schule im Sozialraum. Entwicklungsprozesse durch Kooperation und Interprofessionalität in herausfordernder Lage. [Inclusive Schooling in the Social Space. Development Processes Through Cooperation and Interprofessionality in Challenging Situations]. Springer VS.

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1996). Grounded Theory. Grundlagen qualitativer Sozialforschung. Beltz.

Terkessidis, M. (1998). Psychologie des Rassismus [Psychology of Racism]. Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

Vertovec, S. (2024). Superdiversität. Migration und soziale Komplexität [Superdiversity. Migration and Social Complexity]. Suhrkamp.

von Kotze, A., & Walters, S. (2023). Taking risks: Exploring ecofeminist, climate-just popular education. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 14(1), 17-33.

Wittpoth, J. (2004). Gerahmte Subjektivität [Framed Subjectivity]. In P. Faulstich & J. Ludwig (Eds.), Expansives Lernen (pp. 256-262). Schneider.

Wu, A. (2023). Perpetual Foreigner Stereotype: Third Class Americans. In Asian American Educators and Microaggressions (pp. 41-60). Palgrave Macmillan.