Anglonormativity in Norwegian language education policy and in the educational trajectories of immigrant adolescents

Abstract

In the Nordic countries, policy debates about English often highlight the threat of domain loss for national languages, but the high status of English may also have a differential impact on people in Nordic societies. This article investigates a policy gap in Norwegian upper secondary education, whereby an advanced English subject requirement may hinder graduation for immigrant adolescents with little previous English instruction, despite English not being the medium of education in Norway. The aim of the study is to examine the impact of the upper secondary English requirement and of sheltered instruction as a local policy solution for such students. I use nexus analysis (Hult, 2015) to analyze ethnographic data from one upper secondary school that created an ad hoc sheltered English class. Data include field notes, classroom video and audio recordings, language portraits, and interviews with one school leader, one teacher, and six students. I draw on decolonial theory (e.g., García et al., 2021; Santos, 2007), notably Anglonormativity (McKinney, 2017), to trace discursive, interactional, and personal policy scales. I found that the sheltered class reflected discourses of integration and Anglonormativity, but nonetheless offered greater affordances for participation than a mainstream English class. Furthermore, comparing the emphasis on English remediation with students’ broader repertoires surfaced possibilities for reframing students as resourceful multilingual learners. I discuss policy options that might better address underlying issues of epistemic justice, compared to solutions limited to increasing students’ proficiency in languages of power like English.

Navigating language discordance in public health care in rural South Africa: a qualitative descriptive study of occupational therapists’ perspectives

“…While health professionals have a range of strategies to address language discordance, the participants identified systemic factors perpetuating it beyond their control. Anglonormativity was drawn on to explain the dominance of English in educational trajectories where the language was positioned in an ideological and political position of power [ 64 ]. “Anglonormativity then refers to the expectation that people will be and should be proficient in English, and are deficient, even deviant, if they are not” 65:80 .…”

Mellom barken og veden

“…I Norge har saerlig engelsk stadig større utbredelse og nytteverdi, både i skolesammenheng og i samfunnet for øvrig (Beiler, 2021(Beiler, , 2023Iversen, 2021b). Både norsk og engelsk har følgelig høy verdi i det norske arbeidsmarkedet (Rørstad et al, 2018), og saerlig i høystatusbransjer (Røyneland et al, 2018, s. 17).…”

“…I mange sammenhenger, også i den norske konteksten, er det som anses som prestisjefylte språk og språkkombinasjoner vest-europeiske språk -med engelsk i spissen (f.eks. Beiler, 2021Beiler, , 2023Brevik & Rindal, 2020;Gardner, 2012). Posisjoneringer overfor flerspråklighet er sjelden svart-hvitt, også i norsk utdanningskontekst, og det er derfor nødvendig å utdype eventuelle delte holdningsposisjoner.…”

Sailing Souls: Colonial Philadelphia's German Merchants and the Development of the Transatlantic Passenger Trade

“…23 While William Penn, as proprietor of Pennsylvania, had helped guide legislation through the colonial Assembly in 1709 to create a naturalization process, it received royal assent because it applied only within the colony's bounds. 24 This new law helped ensure continental European migrants to Pennsylvania could pass on real property to their heirs, but they remained barred from engaging in international and intra-colonial trade. Caspar Wistar sought a way around this restriction when he petitioned for naturalization in 1723.…”