Student agency in relation to space and educational discourse. The case of English online mother tongue instruction

• Published in: English in education 2022-04, Vol.56 (2), p.160-173
• Main Authors: Hedman, Christina, Mannish, Scarlett
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Classroom Environment; Collaborative agency; Cooperative Learning; COVID-19; Distance Education; distansundervisning; educational discourse; English; English Literature; English Teachers; Family Relationship; fjärrundervisning; Foreign Countries; Grade 9; Group Discussion; Language Education; modersmålsundervisning; mother tongue instruction; Native Language; Native Language Instruction; Novels; Online Courses; online distance education; Pandemics; Personal Autonomy; Second Language Learning; Secondary School Students; Self Concept; social interaction; språkdidaktik; Student Attitudes; Swedish; Teacher Student Relationship; Teaching Methods; Video Technology
• ISSN: 0425-0494; 1754-8845; 1754-8845
• DOI: 10.1080/04250494.2021.1955618

This study emerged from the abrupt shift to online distance teaching due to the Covid-19 pandemic and reports of Mother Tongue Instruction (MTI) in Sweden, where online distance teaching was initially introduced in MTI only. In Sweden, MTI is offered to students whose parents/caregivers speak languages other than Swedish on a daily basis in the home. The focus is on how agentive space, as a body-space relationship, was created by students in a 9 th grade class (ages 15-16 years) studying English MTI, in relation to both space and educational discourse. Despite the prescribed online distance teaching, many of the students collaboratively chose to assemble in a physical classroom without a supervisor on site. How the students created a new learning frame through their actions is discussed on the basis of video-recorded lessons, and two students' reflective follow-up talks. In this new - and in many respects difficult - learning space, educational discourse and educational ground rules were upheld through collaborative agency, which also facilitated expressions of identity and emotional space among the students. It is worth exploring further how schools can more efficiently draw on students' agency for language learning in similar and different contexts.