‘Good parenting’ and linguistic responsibility: challenging linguistic hierarchisations in German-language ECEC in South Tyrol, Italy

Abstract

Using a linguistic ethnography in German-language ECEC in South Tyrol, Italy, this paper investigates teacher and parents’ perspectives of ‘good parenting’ and of responsibility in relation to language education. Interviews with teachers revealed that the ideological orientation towards language-as-right, as regulated by South Tyrol, is dressed up and legitimised through neoliberal discourses and leads to a linguistic responsibilisation of language-minoritised parents. By contrast, parents assume different forms of linguistic responsibility to enhance their children’s inclusion in society: By assuming the institutional language as family language, making considerable economic investments, and by challenging dominant perspectives of minoritised parents. The article concludes with implications for more democratic relationships with language-minoritised parents.

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