NW 07/20/31: Multiliteracies in Intercultural & Multilingual Education: Bridging Identities, Practices & Learning Environments

Network
Joint Special Call: NW 07 Social Justice and Intercultural Education / NW 20 Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments / NW 31 LEd – Network on Language and Education

Title
Multiliteracies in Intercultural and Multilingual Education: Bridging Identities, Practices and Learning Environments

Abstract
Multiliteracies as a concept takes up and theorises social trends that have been identified as key developments in societies as well as central terms in intercultural and multilingual education: cultural hybridity and multimodality, i.e., “the increasing salience of multiple modes of meaning – linguistic, visual, auditory, and so on, and the increasing tendency for texts to be multimodal” (Fairclough, 2000, p. 171). With this joint special call, we invite educational researchers to submit papers on (multi)literacy skills, new modalities and innovative learning environments, identities and biographies of multilinguals, digital media, and (multi)literacy practices.

The Call
Migration-related diversity in educational contexts has become more evident nowadays in modern and globalized societies. Indeed, diversity is part of any educational setting in which teachers and educators, therefore, need to be endowed with the means to operate at cognitive, emotional, and relational levels in linguistically and culturally complex settings (Portera, 2014). Educators, in particular, need to find ways in which communication and interaction among students, teachers, counselors, and other educational actors facilitate social cohesion, prevent discrimination, and enhance inclusion through interculturality (Papadopoulou et al., 2022).

As a response to these demands, the concept of multiliteracies, coined by the New London Group in 1996, was developed to enable students to participate fully in our dynamic, technological, and culturally diverse societies (Mills, 2009). This concept takes up and theorises social trends that have been identified as key developments in societies twenty years ago: cultural hybridity and multimodality, i.e., “the increasing salience of multiple modes of meaning – linguistic, visual, auditory, and so on, and the increasing tendency for texts to be multimodal” (Fairclough, 2000, p. 171). Multiliteracies, as a critical and innovative concept, has found its way into intercultural and multilingual education as well as into education policy. Both literacy and multilingualism are defined by the European Commission as a key competence for lifelong learning. Among the eight competences, which are considered equally important and aspects essential to one domain will support competence development in another, we aim to focus on deeper into the following ones with this joint special call: literacy competence, multilingualism, cultural awareness and expression competence (European Commission, 2019, p. 5).

We, therefore, welcome papers that focus on formal, non-formal, and informal learning in different environments, such as family, school, workplace, neighborhood, and other communities, and are striving to 

• understand the structure of (multi)literacy skills in linguistically diverse contexts
• uncover the characteristics of their acquisition and learning under conditions of migration
• explore new modalities, tools, and innovative learning environments for deep learning
• use multiliteracies framework to analyse identities and biographies of multilinguals
• reconstruct which multiliterate practices are appreciated or are rejected and excluded in educational settings
• focus on digital media and (multi)literacy practices

By bringing together current research from three EERA networks, we will create an interdisciplinary perspective on multiliterate identities, skills, and practices in diverse learning environments. In addition, the joint sessions will invite researchers for a reflection of single empirical findings on multiliteracies from a global perspective. This may contribute to a common framework with which we inspire and empower educators and policymakers to implement culturally sustaining curricula and pedagogy in linguistically diverse contexts within Europe and beyond.

The papers that will be submitted to this call will be considered for an Edited Volume in the EERA Book Series.

Contact Person(s)
NW 07: Lisa Rosen, rosen(at)uni-landau.de
NW 20: Carmen Carmona Rodríguez, carmen.carmona(at)uv.es
NW 31: Irina Usanova, irina.usanova(at)uni-hamburg.de

References
European Commission, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (2019). Key competences for lifelong learning. Publications Office, data.europa.eu/doi/10.2766/569540

Fairclough, N. (2000). Multiliteracies and language: Orders of discourse and intertextuality. In B. Cope and M. Kalantzis (eds.), Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures (pp. 162–181). Routledge.

Mills, K. (2009). Multiliteracies: Interrogating Competing Discourses. Language and Education, 23(2), 103–116.

New London Group (1996). A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures. Harvard Educational Review 66(1), 60–92.

Papadopoulou, K., Palaiologou, N., & Karanikola, Z. (2022). Insights into Teachers’ Intercultural and Global Competence within Multicultural Educational Settings. Education Sciences, 12(8), 1–18.

Portera, A. (2014). Intercultural competence in education, counselling and psychotherapy. Intercultural Education, 25(2), 157–174.