Abstract
In this chapter we focus on teachers’ views on migration-related multilingualism in Greek complementary schools in Montreal. By doing so, we are referring to an international comparative study entitled “Educational Professionalism, Migration, and Multilingualism in Canada (Montreal, Quebec), Germany (Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia), and Greece (Athens and Thessaloniki)”. In April 2014, we conducted 13 theory-generating expert interviews with teachers from these schools. Three of them are so called newcomers, meaning that they migrated from Greece in the wake of the financial crisis one or two year(s) before the interviews took place and thus can be understood as recently arrived migrants. Following a grounded theory analysis, we found out that these recently migrated teachers tended to hold monoglossic views and to have deficit views with regards to the multilingualism of their students. They considered themselves as representatives and guardians of the Greek language and culture and pleaded for “Greek only” in the lesson and during the break. Their perspectives are in contrast to teachers’ views of these schools, who belonged to the second generation of migrants.
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Notes
- 1.
The state of research on Greek complementary schools can be found at Chatzidaki (2019), particularly relevant for our analyses are, on the one hand, her considerations that “in the case of most teachers leaving Greece to teach Greek-origin students, views towards cultural and linguistic diversity are heavily influenced by the monolingual and monocultural ‘ethos’ prevailing among Greek citizens and fueled by the supposed superiority of the (Ancient) Greek language and the ‘glorious past’ of the Greeks”. And secondly, Chatzidaki (2019) works out in the state of research that this “stance reveals itself in many studies exploring teachers’ views towards their immigrant students’ bilingualism”.
- 2.
For a short overview of Greek-language education in the Diaspora and especially in Germany we would like to refer to the chapter by Chatzidaki (2019).
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Panagiotopoulou, J.A., Rosen, L. (2019). Recently Arrived Migrants as Teachers in Greek Complementary Schools in Montreal: Views on Multilingualism. In: Panagiotopoulou, J., Rosen, L., Kirsch, C., Chatzidaki, A. (eds) 'New' Migration of Families from Greece to Europe and Canada. Inklusion und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-25521-3_12
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