Revista de Educacion
Volume 352, 2010, Pages 289-308

Bilingual and intercultural strategies on transmigrant families [Estrategias bilingües e interculturales en familias transmigrantes] (Article)

García-Cano M.* , González E.M. , Ruiz F. , Márquez E. , Muriel C. , Dietz G. , Pozo M.T.
  • a Universidad de Granada, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Departamento de Antropología Social, Campus Cartuja, s/n. 18071, Granada, Spain
  • b Universidad de Murcia, Facultad de Educación, Departamento de Didáctica y Organización Social, Murcia, Spain
  • c Universidad de Granada, Facultad de Educación y Humanidades de Melilla, Métodos de Investigación y Diagnóstico en Educación (MIDE), Melilla, Spain
  • d Institute for the International Education of Students, IES-Abroad, Spain
  • e Universidad de Granada, Laboratorio de Estudios Interculturales, Granada, Spain
  • f Universidad Veracruzana, Instituto de Investigación Educativa, Veracruz, Mexico
  • g Universidad de Granada, Métodos de Investigación y Diagnóstico en Educación, Granada, Spain

Abstract

This article presents the results of a research project whose aim is to analyze and identify the bilingual and intercultural strategies employed by the Spanish-German transmigrant families. Through the use of a biographical-narrative approach, we have reconstructed the migratory phases and itineraries of there families, emphasizing the parents' underlying discourses on strategies, objectives and their subjacent theories on their children's bilingual practices as well as on their specific interest on keeping and strengthening their children's bilingual and intercultural competences. After presenting the analyzed empirical data, the results obtained are grouped into four broad dimensions: a) «bilingual practice», i.e. those strategies adopted by families to promote and strengthen bilingualism; b) interculturality life world theories, i.e. the ideas and levels of analysis about perceiving and accepting cultural diversity; c) «social networks», i.e. active participation in kin, labor, leisure or other social networks which, according to their discourse, foster transmigration, bilingualism and intercultural competences; and d) «cosmopolitanism» as a particular kind of discourse chosen by the interviewed families and which -without regard to their actual practices- reflect positive motives, values and attitudes identified with cultural and linguistic diversity, no matter if they are used or not.

Author Keywords

intercultural communication Family mobility Migration Diversity Cultural background

Index Keywords

[No Keywords available]
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-77957736106&partnerID=40&md5=5bf8b0b285275de6ef2951af64671f93
ISSN: 00348082
Cited by: 5
Original Language: Spanish