Exploring multilingualism as a complex, context-related, societal and individual phenomenon, this book centres around perspectives on how multiple languages are made (in)visible within educational settings in the Global North. The authors of each chapter compare and contrast findings across geographical contexts with the goal of understanding the facets of multilingualism that, on the one hand, conform across contexts, and on the other, diverge context-specifically. The chapters range from contributions with a focus on national/state planning for the development of sustainable multilingual and intercultural educational policies, to chapters that deal with multilingual practices and identities of students and student teachers as well as the consequences for language practices, strategies and policies in diversifying societies. This cross-contextual, comparative and interdisciplinary exploration of multilingualism will be of great interest to researchers, administrators, practitioners and students within the fields of multilingual education, sociolinguistics, youth culture and identity studies. The book is open access under a CC BY NC ND licence.
Siv Björklund is Full Professor of Swedish Immersion and Multilingualism at the Faculty of Education and Welfare Studies at Åbo Akademi University, Finland. During her academic career, she has been actively involved in developing immersion and other bi- and multilingual education programs both in Finland and internationally. Her research encompasses individual, institutional and societal bi- and multilingual issues. Her recent research projects focus on the relation between praxis, ideology and identity in multilingual settings, dominant language constellations, bi- and multilingual pedagogies, writing in a second language, and minority speakers.
Mikaela Björklund is City Manager of Närpes and a researcher at Åbo Akademi University, Finland. Her research focuses on multilingualism and multiculturalism in education in the Nordic contries, as well as CLIL, linguistic schoolscapes and Dominant Language Constellations.