Exploring translanguaging in academic discourse through an ecological analytic lens

This study investigates the manifestation of translanguaging in joint academic courses for Jewish and Arab students studying in a binational Israeli teacher education college. The study focuses on the lectures' and students' perspectives. Sources of data included in-depth personal and focus-group interviews with the lecturers and students. Qualitative analyses through an ecological lens revealed a number of interrelated themes suggesting that these courses create academic spaces whereby translanguaging involves the intersection of multilayered pedagogical, psychological, sociocultural and, particularly, political dimensions. The unique data, revealed in this study, demonstrate that ecological dimensions are particularly useful for capturing the nature of translanguaging in complex academic settings. The findings suggest a number of important educational implications for bilingual societies. In particular, our data highlight the necessity to adopt an inclusive language policy in multilingual higher education contexts to secure the status of minoritized languages, encouraging translanguaging in the instructional and assessment processes. Moreover, within the Israeli geopolitical context and other educational settings involving conflicts, teachers and teacher educators should acquire skills and strategies to implement translanguaging effectively as a means to realize shared societies.