VAKKI Publications (Dec 2020)
Att kommunicera språkmedvetenhet utifrån en europeisk utbildningspolicy till blivande klasslärare
Abstract
Educational policy is created in cooperation between policy actors both within and outside Finland. The concept policy includes both the documents where decisions are stated and the beliefs and practices that occur when these decisions are transformed to social actions in practice. However, there is not always any clear linear path from policymakers to those who are targeted with the policy, and the policy needs to be communicated to the wider audiences. In this study, I will examine the policy concept of language awareness. The analysis is conducted as nexus analysis (Scollon & Scollon 2004). In nexus analysis the focus lays on the microlevel as social actions are examined. The analysis itself involves navigating between the various discourses in place, historical body of the participants and the surrounding interaction order. Navigating these aspects help to gain a deeper understanding of the social action at hands. The social action in focus for this study is how to write a weekly letter to the families in basic education. This is a task that should be taught with the linguistic and cultural diversity in mind according to student teachers at Åbo Akademi university. The analysis shows that there is a clear policy intention supporting the student request both on the national and on the European level. The problem seems to lay in the responsibility and ability for communicating the policy through teacher education. The results call for examining the intended meaning of the concept language awareness as a policy construct as well as analysing, which social actions within the limited timeframes of research-based teacher education can support the uptake of the concept.
