Italian as a Heritage Language in London: An Ethnographic Perspective on Identity and Pedagogy in a Complementary School

Whilst mainstream schools in England may encourage multilingualism by insisting on the study of foreign languages, multilingual children are not always provided with support for the maintenance of their heritage languages (HLs). In response to this shortcoming, communities often organise themselves to support their young members (Cushing et al., 2021) and set up classes in community-based organisations, also called complementary schools, which contribute towards minority language and cultural maintenance (Creese et al., 2006; Li Wei, 2006). This thesis discusses some of the salient aspects of complementary schooling based on a fourteen-month mixed-method research in the Italian community of London, taking a strong linguistic ethnographic orientation for the study of heritage language education in an Italian complementary school. It starts with the analysis of some of the challenges faced by the community in maintaining the HL to shed light on the reasons for complementary schooling. Then, it examines how children engage in and reflect on their multilingual practices and how they respond to critical pedagogies in their HL learning programmes. Throughout, it investigates the implications in terms of identity construction and negotiation as well as the role of space in language learning. The study suggests that a multilingual and critical-participatory approach (Garcia, 2009; Freire, 1970, 1998) to HL education can provide children with unique opportunities to explore, discover and experiment with their multilingual and multicultural selves. Such opportunities have the potential to legitimise minority language and identity options, which are often silenced in mainstream school, and to support the development of harmonious identities in relation to language and culture in education. Expanding on Fishman’s (1991) notion of “breathing space”, I posit that complementary schools represent a space where heritage languages, but also pedagogical practices, can breathe, creating opportunities to develop new critical and multilingual modes of teaching and learning.