In this communication, we present examples of our ethnographic research in Catalan out-of-school programs. By documenting plurilingual/pluriliteracy practices involving immigrant background students, their families and local agents, we highlight the potential of those settings that focus on plurilingual children’s abilities and position them as competent towards more socially just education.
A large body of research has demonstrated that the plurilingualisms and pluriliteracies that migrant background children bring to classrooms are often not those valued in formal schooling (Moore & Vallejo 2018), a mismatch that plays a role in poor academic trajectories. Research has also highlighted the role of non-formal educational programs in building on students' historical, cultural and social 'funds of knowledge' (Moll et al. 1992) and 'funds of identity' (Esteban-Guitart & Moll 2014), while also bridging across different social, cultural and family milieus (Subero et al. 2017), promoting what García et al. describe as transcollaboration: the creation of 'extended learning support communities beyond the traditional school structure' (2013: 814). As a consequence of all this, non-formal educational settings have the potential to promote 'third spaces' (Gutiérrez 2008) where students can engage in creative and meaningful ways and actively display skills that don't usually have a place in mainstream education. In this paper, we present examples from our ethnographic research in non-formal educational settings in Catalonia, where extensive strains on public education have significantly expanded volunteer-based initiatives to provide support for 'at risk' students. These examples are framed as 'best practices' of inclusive, plurilingual education, as part of our work on the LISTIAC project (listiac.org). By documenting interactional practices involving migrant background students along with their families and local agents, we will highlight the benefits of those initiatives that focus on children's abilities and position them as competent, as opposed to institutional categorizations that justify their allocation in these programs on claims of deficiency. We will particularly focus on how, by allowing more flexible language uses, non-formal educational settings can challenge monolingual/one-language-only ideologies and practices, and praise plurilingual students' 'flexible bilingualism' as socially valuable and beneficial for learning (Blackledge & Creese 2010). Through such dynamics, we claim, non-formal settings have the potential to re-arrange power imbalances inherent to formal education, contributing to create more socially just educational spaces.
