Controversial topics and answerability: planned and contingent approaches in Swedish language classes for refugees

This paper employs the Bakhtinian dialogic concept of answerability to explore teachers’ planned and contingent approaches to addressing controversial topics in the immigrant second language classroom. Based on a narrative... [ view full abstract ]

This paper employs the Bakhtinian dialogic concept of answerability to explore teachers’ planned and contingent approaches to addressing controversial topics in the immigrant second language classroom. Based on a narrative study involving teachers of Swedish for Immigrants in Sweden, the paper explores a complex context where values-based education is mandatory but is often considered controversial by immigrant students. In addition, in a cohort primarily consisting of refugees, difficult topics involving intercultural tensions and recent trauma often arise during classroom discussions and interactions, and need to be addressed contingently by the language teacher. The language classroom is also situated within a broader societal and political context where immigration is hotly debated and integration – often interpreted as assimilation – is receiving significant attention as the antidote to an increasingly segregated society. The paper is based on a study which employed narrative frames, picture prompts and interviews to explore teachers’ dialogic interaction with the concept of integration, and how this translated into values-based and critical approaches in the classroom. 

A variety of theoretical approaches have been used to explore cultural and ideological tensions in the classroom, including intercultural communicative approaches, critical language teaching, and studies around controversial topics and emotion. Increasingly, critical approaches, where conflicting narratives and discourses are explored, are encouraged while prescriptive teaching of culture is considered a hegemonic practice to be avoided. Rather than viewing values teaching and critical teaching as dichotomous, this paper argues that the promotion of local values in the language classroom is not simply done in compliance with institutional mandates, but is motivated by the teacher’s sense of answerability to the student group and to society. Similarly, decisions regarding the avoidance or critical exploration of controversial topics – whether planned or contingent – are also based on dialogic answerability, and include considerations such as immediate physical safety as well as long-term resolution and integration.