Race, Language, and Subjectivation

Many school students in Germany are plurilingual and use German and further languages in their daily lives. This use is differently approached and valued. Not only languages spoken, but race, too, plays a role in how language use is addressed in schools. Interviews that were conducted and analyzed with a Grounded Theory approach show that subject positions assigned to students concerning plurilingualism shape how they reflect on experiences in school from a retrospective focus. By turning to a raciolinguistic perspective and drawing on subjectivation theory, the terms used to signify dominantly found re-positionings are 'raciolinguistic norm' and 'raciolinguistic Other'. The results highlight the necessity of focusing in more detail on how listening positionalities shape language use in society and in schools specifically.

About the author

Liesa Rühlmann is a research assistant at the Faculty of Education at Universität Bielefeld, Germany. Her main research interests include multilingualism, raciolinguistics, racism (critique), subjectivation and pedagogical professionalism.