Transforming schoolscapes and weaving alliances: the (un)expected impact of translanguaging on family-school relationships in primary school

In Italy, 914.860 students have a migrant background, 4.9% increase compared to previous years (MIUR, 2024). This large number of children serves a rich cultural, linguistic and experiential background, which should be valued to promote a more equitable, inclusive and democratic education (Dewey, 1916). However, while on the one hand best practices in welcoming migrant background students are increasing (i.e. Carbonara, Scibetta, 2022), on the other migrant families often continue to be perceived as absent and disinterested, reproducing a stereotype, deeply rooted in the school system, that affects the school-family relationship (Mytton et al., 2013). This lack of alliance between schools and families puts pupils in a position of a collective vulnerability, hindering a potential break from the spiral of inequalities. Thus, a call for a good degree of coordination and communication between the school system and the family sphere is needed; one that fosters positive educational transitions (Bove, 2020) and promotes family participation (Epstein, 2001), protective factors that may counter the reproduction of inequalities. The contribution stems from an ongoing PhD on translanguaging (Williams, 1996), a multilingual approach, which aims to transform the schoolscape (Brown, 2012) to foster children's education. Specifically, this paper seeks to reflect mainly on the echo of schoolscape change on school-family relationship. The study adopts a pragmatic paradigm and a qualitative method (Creswell, 2014). The Professional-Development-Action-Research methodology (Guay, Prud’homme, 2011), conducted from January to June 2024 in one primary school in Milan, involved 6 classes and used qualitative tools such as field notes, recordings and focus groups. From the thematic analysis (Braun, Clarke, 2006) of the focus groups, the pedagogy of translanguaging emerges as a promising approach, as it redefines teachers’, children’s and parents’ attitudes towards linguistic and cultural diversity, transforms the schoolscape with multilingual documentation and promotes more autonomous and proactive participation of families.