Translanguaging art: multilingual practices of contemporary artists and their implications for language pedagogy

Futro, Dobrochna (2023) Translanguaging art: multilingual practices of contemporary artists and their implications for language pedagogy. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Migration and the global movement of people and languages have become significant factors in everyday life. Nevertheless, the monolingual paradigm prevails in the public debate, uptake of languages in UK schools declines, minority languages education receives limited governmental support, and misconceptions about multilingualism proliferate.

New pedagogical realities brought to the classroom by the cultural and racial diversity of the world call for new pedagogies. The urgent need to address this situation has been recognised by the AHRC Open World Research Initiative seeking to establish a new and exciting vision for languages research.

This thesis presents a research project that inscribed itself into this ambitious endeavour, exploring the possibility of using insights gained from researching how contemporary art engages with multilingualism to design new approaches to language learning. The research presented in this study was carried out in two stages. Stage one involved an analysis of how works by the Polish-born artists Małgorzata Dawidek, Krzysztof Wodiczko and Monika Szydłowska, through their engagement with languaging in multilingual and migratory contexts, could create different spaces of learning. Stage two built on the findings from stage one to develop and test a pedagogical model that aimed to unlock the transformative potential of contemporary art for language learning and teaching in multilingual, often migratory, contexts. This part of the research was carried out in two primary schools in Scotland with pupils aged 9-12 as my co-researchers.

The research is framed by theories informing contemporary discourses on migration and multilingualism (Gramling) and is anchored within the theory and pedagogy of translanguaging (Li Wei, Garcia). Its overarching methodological principles are drawn from critical pedagogy (bell), art-based linguistic ethnography (Bradley), exploratory practice (Allwright), and participatory research grounded in art practice (Marshall, Sullivan, Ingold). This approach enabled children’s lived experiences of languaging, minoritized languages and art to be kept at the core of the enquiry whilst bringing to the fore concepts of art-practice-as-research and art-as-pedagogy (Sullivan, Lucero).

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Additional Information: Due to copyright issues this thesis is not available for viewing.
• Subjects: L Education > LB Theory and practice of education; N Fine Arts > NX Arts in general; P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > Comparative Literature
• Funder's Name: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
• Supervisor's Name: Grossman, Dr. Elwira, Phipps, Professor Alison and Farrar, Dr. Jennifer
• Date of Award: 2023
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2023-83922
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 09 Nov 2023 11:08
• Last Modified: 10 Nov 2023 09:34
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.83922
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/83922