This presentation focusses on the teacher’s role in the construction of the multilingual identity of culturally and linguistically diverse parents in the context of their children’s school. Preliminary reflections based on qualitative data show the importance of teachers in facilitating parents’ possibilities of school involvement and empowering them as multilingual subjects.
Previous research show that the presence of parents and their active role in their children's education is vital for students' success (e.g. Rapp & Duncan, 2011; Turney & Kao, 2009). Particularly, in relation to a selective educational system, such as in Austria, the role of parental involvement by multilingual families is indispensable to guarantee children's good performance in school (Schnell, 2015). However, when multilingual parents are themselves learning the local language, they are reconstructing their multilingual self (Block, 2007), which might also have a role in their possibilities of school involvement. The importance of including this topic into teacher education is also evidenced (Clarck, 2013), as the teachers play a crucial role in building the bridge between parents and schools, and promoting a culturally responsive educational environment. The study consists of analyzing the construction of the multilingual identity of parents in the context of their children's kindergarten and/or schools. Therefore, I conduct an extended case study with 7 parents, by collecting data from diary entries, interviews and observations of parent-school meetings for a period of 12 months. This specific presentation, from the viewpoint of the discourse analysis, aims to explore how the positioning of teachers plays a role in the construction of the multilingual parent's identity and possibilities of parental involvement. The study is still in the phase of data collection, but, so far, it is already possible to observe the discursive construction of the image of the teacher as the one who gives or suppresses the voice of multilingual parents, facilitating or limiting their access to the school environment. Besides that, from the parents' perspective, the teachers' multilingual competences and linguistic sensibility often appear as decisive in building a positive relationship with them and empowering them as multilingual subjects.
