Multilingual Pedagogies for Anticolonial TESOL? An Analysis of Pre-service Teachers’ Voices from Finland

Abstract

In this chapter, we bring together critical perspectives on the position of English in Finnish society and in the world with data and experiences from a Finnish teacher education context. We show how pre-service English teachers reflect on their experiences as multilingual language users and future educators and interpret this data from a focus group interview against the backdrop of the position of English in Finland and the larger context of the colonial enterprise that Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) is. We align with anticolonial scholars like Motha (2014), who have who have outlined the entrenchedness of coloniality in the field of TESOL and ask about the potential of teacher education studies like LAMP (Language Aware Multilingual Pedagogy) to equip teachers with tools to turn their classroom into spaces where multiple languages are not merely tolerated but actively promoted, and where the difficult heritage of TESOL is acknowledged and dealt with in ways that open spaces for decolonizing practices. Our study shows that language awareness and cultural sensitivity are normalized and familiar ideas to the students and could support an effort to challenge images of Finns as white and Finnish-speaking. This could in turn normalize an image of Finland that is racially and linguistically diverse and promote pedagogies and materials that support teachers in dismantling whiteness and Finnish-speakerism as social and educational norms.