Immigrant teachers’ integration and transformation of the linguistic market in Israel

Abstract

Immigrant teachers – although discussed in different disciplines and from different perspectives, their potential to transform the educational approach towards multilingualism remains unknown. The present paper addresses this lacuna by focusing on language beliefs in one specific group: new immigrant teachers. Arriving as professionals and integrated in the regular school system, their language expertise constitutes a potential resource in the classroom, at school and for the society in general. Yet, this group of teachers is extremely small, as their access to regular education systems is usually limited. This paper presents a qualitative study framed by a specific historical and national context – the Israeli policy on ‘New Immigrant Teacher Absorption.’ Based on Bourdieu's Theory of Practice and drawing on data from linguistic biographies, the study focused on teachers’ experience as immigrant language speaker. The results allow deep insights into how immigrant teachers come to perceive their migration-induced multilingualism as a capital and emphasize the importance of political measures in this process.

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