Educating for multilingualism? Language teacher students visualising future language education

In this study, we aimed to examine perspectives related to multilingualism as expressed by students in teacher education programmes for Swedish language teachers at three universities in Finland. Language teacher students’ perspectives were studied through visual narratives (n = 62), which consisted of students’ visualisations and accompanying descriptive texts in which they have imagined their professional futures (cf. Kalaja, 2016). Qualitative content analysis was used in the data analysis. The data was categorised according to the language teacher students’ perspectives concerning multilingualism in education and themselves as educators for multilingualism. The analysis revealed diverse learner-, teacher-, teaching-, and language-centred perspectives on multilingualism in language education. Differences were identified regarding, for example, whether the visual narratives explicitly stated that teachers educate their pupils for multilingualism, whether the focus was on the language(s) being taught, or whether other languages in the teacher’s or pupils’ language repertoires were considered. The findings are discussed in relation to current discourses and policies on bi/multilingualism in the Finnish context. By examining language teacher students’ perspectives, we hope to shed light on how linguistic diversity could be addressed in teacher education to equip future teachers for working life.