Pedagogical Translanguaging in Adult Basic Education

Pedagogical translanguaging has gained prominence as a critical and inclusive approach to education across various ages and contexts, but its potential has been less explored in adult basic education (ABE). In this article, we report on a study conducted at an ABE center in Norway in three linguistically diverse classes, in order to explore the dynamics of pedagogical translanguaging among adult students with limited formal education from a variety of national, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. The study followed an ethnographic monitoring design, involving collaboration with five teachers, including one multilingual teacher. Our analysis focuses on the teachers’ roles within translanguaging pedagogy (see García, 2017). First, we analyze teachers’ mapping of students’ resources, as they took on the role of detectives. Second, we examine the teachers’ roles as builders of an environment where translanguaging could occur, particularly through grouping students strategically. While in some studies in more linguistically homogenous settings, affordances for translanguaging seem to vary according to the teacher’s proficiency in a widely shared language, in our case, differences in opportunities varied by students’ language background and how widespread this was in the student group and in the wider immigrant population. We argue that pedagogical translanguaging may surface tensions related to such differences, at the same time that it may provide adult students with better opportunities to engage in learning.