Early Literacy Education in Multilingual Primary School Classrooms: Possible Shifts Towards Empowerment and Citizenship

Abstract

This article concerns the often-debated issue of fair and equal literacy education for all children regardless of their backgrounds or living conditions. Theoretically, this paper draws on the concept of empowerment in combination with insights of multimodal translanguaging pedagogies. During 2020–22, an intervention study, was conducted at a multilingual and highly diverse primary school in Sweden. Three interventions were planned and reflected on in close collaboration between the school leaders, the four lead teachers at the school and the researchers. Drawing on data from two multilingual Primary School classrooms during two interventions, documented in two online logbooks and two video observations, the study presented in this article aimed to identify opportunities for empowerment when learning to write and read in these contexts. Two examples of potential empowering classroom activities were identified and analysed in relation to the pedagogical shifts that were made regarding the teaching design, and the reasons for these shifts. The first example concerns multilingual perspectives on phonemes and their connections to alphabetical script, while the second example concerns poetry writing enhancing multicultural and multilingual identities, and the use of role models to achieve this. The result elucidates dimensions of empowerment when discussing and comparing sounds, letters and words, drawing on various systems for written language, and through the shared reading and discussion of multicultural poems, and their own poetry making. Notably, dimensions of empowerment were facilitated through the identity investments of students, which recognized their linguistic, cultural, and social backgrounds. Students were invited to contribute in diverse ways and at varying levels, allowing them to engage more deeply and authentically with the learning process.