Linguistic and cultural diversity has been a consistently salient feature of the post-colonial and settler-colonial countries of Latin America; in contrast, in many European countries the diversity of school communities has increased and become salient more recently due to new immigration as well as internal migration and urbanization. In some countries, such as Norway, heightened recognition of existing minority groups also contributes to the diversity which educators aim to include in their classrooms. As Norwegian society becomes more diverse, new challenges have emerged and educators and scholars are increasingly engaged in research on multilingual and intercultural education.
While there are numerous differences among the historical and contemporary conditions of schooling in different countries across Latin America, and between these countries and Norway, there are also shared concerns for providing inclusive education to a shifting student community. Despite these important areas of shared interest among Latin American and Norwegian Education scholars, little dialogue and collaboration exists at present among these groups. The seminar aimed to strengthen knowledge of Latin American Education scholarship among scholars in Norway, in particular in the areas of multilingual and intercultural education. In addition to sparking new exchanges and enriching the work of participating scholars, the seminar also aimed to raise the awareness of Norwegian students, researchers, and the general public about the important contributions of Latin American scholarship to Educational theory and practice.
During the two-day seminar, scholars from Norway and Latin-America addressed the historical trajectory of multilingual and/ or intercultural education in different contexts, what are approaches, challenges, and successes that characterize the provision of multilingual and/ or intercultural education, and how their work as scholars can contribute most effectively to enhancing the quality of education in our changing societies.
The seminar was organized by the Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan, with support from the Norwegian Latin America Research Network.
The full list of speakers and a program with abstracts can be found in a list of previous events at Multiling.