Abstract
The presentation will briefly introduce the project "Educational Transitions in the Context of Linguistic Minoritization (EduLiM)", which explores the significance of language(s) for different actors during preschool-school transitions in South Tyrol. More specifically, the presentation will focus on family experiences and practices collected using ethnographic methods such as participant observation and interviews.
The ongoing family ethnography has revealed several challenges and insights. One significant challenge is gaining the trust of families who may feel scrutinized or vulnerable due to their diverse linguistic backgrounds. Researchers must navigate sensitivities and build rapport with these families to ensure accurate and respectful representation of their experiences. Coordinating observation sessions with the busy schedules of families and aligning these with researchers' availability poses considerable logistical difficulties. These challenges require flexibility and adaptability from the researchers to capture authentic and comprehensive data, often taking more time than anticipated.
However, there have been significant epiphanies as well. It was possible to gain deeper insights into the resilience and adaptive strategies of families as they navigate the transition from preschool to school. Several unspoken realities emerged, highlighting how families cultivate supportive learning environments during transitions despite facing an unsupportive and exclusionary system. These preliminary findings provide valuable insights into the relationship between language and education in multilingual settings. They underscore the importance of considering how families and their children are constructed as linguistically minoritized to inform the development of more inclusive and supportive policies and practices.