Conducting multilingual classroom research with refugee children in Cyprus: critically reflecting on methodological decisions

Georgiou, Alexandra (2022) Conducting multilingual classroom research with refugee children in Cyprus: critically reflecting on methodological decisions. In: The Politics of Researching Multilingually. Researching Multilingually, 6. Multilingual Matters, Bristol, UK, pp. 111-130. ISBN 9781800410152

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Abstract

Research within language education and migration that draws on multi- lingual frameworks requires the researcher to become part of the research process and to work with participants to fully understand their views in order to represent them (Drury, 2007; Due et al., 2016). However, a prob- lem arises when the researcher does not share the same language as the participants. What happens, for example, in research examining the expe- riences of bilingual children in formal schooling where the researcher is a speaker of English, the participants are speakers of Pahari and the researcher needs to conduct fieldwork, including interviews and analysis of multilingual data sets (Drury, 2007)? The problem becomes more apparent when the participants are marginalised refugee children from war-torn areas of the world. It is important that education researchers take theoretically and methodologically informed decisions in politically charged and linguistically and culturally diverse contexts when examin- ing issues of language and participation, as such choices can work towards an inclusive research practice that does not exclude minority and vulner- able groups of people. Although the aforementioned studies implicitly provide guidance for conducting multilingual classroom research, they do not explicitly explain how their own theoretical positions can shape their methodological decisions and the impact of these in redressing power rela- tions between researcher and participants.

Item Type: Book Section
Identifier: 10.21832/9781800410152-009
Additional Information: Georgiou, A. 2022. 5. Conducting Multilingual Classroom Research with Refugee Children in Cyprus: Critically Reflecting on Methodological Decisions. In: Holmes, P., Reynolds, J. and Ganassin, S. ed. The Politics of Researching Multilingually. Bristol, Blue Ridge Summit: Multilingual Matters, pp. 111-130. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781800410152-009
Keywords: Sociolinguistics; Research methods: general; Bilingualism & multilingualism
Subjects: Education
Education > Teaching and learning
Social sciences > Communication and culture
Related URLs:
Depositing User: Alexandra Georgiou
Date Deposited: 11 May 2022 15:29
Last Modified: 31 Dec 2023 02:45
URI: https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/9068

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