Translanguaging in Science Education (Sociocultural Explorations of Science Education, 27)

This edited volume explores diverse translanguaging practices in multilingual science classrooms in Hong Kong, Lebanon, Luxembourg, South Africa, Sweden and the United States. It presents novel opportunities for using students’ home, first or minority languages as meaning-making tools in science education. It also invites to explore the use of language resources and other multimodal resources, such as gestures and body language. In addition, it discusses and problematizes contingent hindrances and obstacles that may arise from these practices within various contexts around the world. This includes reviewing different theoretical starting points that may be challenged by such an approach. These issues are explored from different perspectives and methodological focus, as well as in several educational contexts, including primary, middle, secondary levels, higher education, as well as in after-school programs for refugee teenagers. Within these contexts, the book highlights and sharesa range of educational tools and activities in science education, such as teacher-led classroom-talk, language-focused teaching, teachers’ use of meta-language, teachers’ scaffolding strategies, small-group interactions, and computer-supported collaborative learning.

Anders Jakobsson has been a professor of science education at Malmö University for many years and has served as a professor at several other universities in Sweden. He has been responsible for a number of research projects and is research leader for a large research program on Literacy and Inclusive Subject Teaching in a Multilingual Society (LIT) at Malmö University. He has also been a member of the Swedish Research Council (UVK).

Pia Nygård Larsson is associate professor in Swedish as a second language and education at Malmö University. Her research is related to teaching and learning from the perspective of classroom discourse and disciplinary literacy. Nygård Larsson has participated in several research projects in the area of science education and literacy in multilingual classrooms, and she is participating in the Disciplinary Literacy and Inclusive Teaching research program at Malmö University.

Annika Karlsson is a lecturer in science education at Malmö University. Her research is related to teaching and learning in multilingual science classrooms, and how language resources are used for meaning-making. She is particularly interested in multilingual students’ use of their linguistic repertoires in translanguaging science classrooms and its implications for students’ learning and empowerment in science education. Karlsson participates in the Disciplinary Literacy and Inclusive Teaching research program at Malmö University.