"This is not a bilingual school": Raciolinguistic ideologies in Haitian children experience in a Brazilian school

This talk addresses how Haitian children are integrated in a Brazilian school, in the city of Pinhais, after 10 years of Haitian migration in the South of the country. The discussion is based on ethnographic research, which took place in a Brazilian regular school during the pandemic (2020-2021). 7 Haitian children were observed during a school-year in their interactions with their teachers and remote-study activities, while a group of 10 Brazilian teachers, coordinators and a school director were involved in debates about Haitian culture and language and how to propose significant activities to this group of students. The notions of language ideologies (Irvine, Gal, 2000), and the discussion of raciolinguistic ideologies (Rosa, 2019; Rosa, Flores, 2017) make up the theoretical core of this work. The study points how language ideologies at school are transposed by raciolinguistic ideologies, which involve not only the children’s language practice, but also their identities as black migrant children from a vulnerable country. Even though national and local policies guarantee (on paper) equal access to education in public schools, this work discusses the challenges Haitian children face in their school integration, involving their racial, linguistic, social and cultural issues.

Caroline Rodrigues is a PHD student in the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil. As an applied linguistic researcher, Caroline Rodrigues’s research theorizes multilingualism and multiculturalism in education. Specifically, she analyzes the interplay between black migrant students in Brazil, raciolinguistic ideologies and polices, and structural racial issues in Brazilian education.