The multilingual ethos of a monolingual classroom: an action research on openness and approach to difference in kindergarten
The present study started from the idea of looking for local dialects in a kindergarten class where all children (17 total) have Greek as their first language. Directly related to the exploration of linguistic diversity was the aim of highlighting diversity and polyphony within an ostensible linguistic homogeneity. The absence of children’s connection to places of origin and, consequently, to local linguistic idioms led to a reorientation of the research and a focus on issues of difference and otherness as a component of either group or society. Thus, an educational action research was carried out in order to investigate, on the one hand, the attitudes of children of this age towards issues of diversity. On the other hand, to look for ways in which the role and work of teachers can make use of the “flexibility” of children of early school age in terms of explorations and opinions and therefore develop a conversation towards issues of diversity and discrimination. The contents in the present action research were drawn from materials on critical intercultural education and critical language awareness. The educational processes were formed on the principles of educational action research and critical pedagogy, setting up an educational condition based on the ‘pluralities’ of our voices and our multiple tropes in order to broaden the horizon of everyone’s identity processes. This work could be seen as an attempt to trace the need for an educational logic that looks beyond ethnic linguistic and cultural homogeneity and that is enriched by difference whether this is illuminated by the presence of students of immigrant background or not. Such an educational process could accommodate the coexistence of different versions of ourselves, which the present world has set aside and which have ultimately been eliminated precisely through the logic of “us” and “others”.