“A SYSTEM THAT IS GEARED TOWARDS COMPETITION”: IDENTITY-BASED PEDAGOGIES AND STUDENT TEACHERS’ BELIEFS ABOUT RESISTING NEOLIBERAL AND NEOCONSERVATIVE STRUCTURES IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM


LISA MARIE BRINKMANN, FRANZISKA GERWERS University of Hamburg


In the global North, where neoliberal and neoconservative (henceforth N-N) structures reign, it becomes increasingly important to address (minoritized) teachers’ identities. With N-N structures, individual identities are often overlooked, leading to invisible minorities that are not considered in educational structures. By empowering those minorities through identity-based approaches, we enable student teachers to empower their future students. Identity is multifaceted and dynamic; it depends on context, surrounding discourses (and resisting them) and diversity-related aspects such as gender, sexual orientation, religion, neurodiversity, disabilities, and race (Norton, 2013). N-N structures in education tend to ignore or even undermine minoritized identities, but a counterpoint to these structures can be found in inclusion and diversity-sensitive pedagogies. Therefore, in this paper, we suggest an identity-based reimagination of teacher education. In an empirical study, we analyse how identity-based pedagogies with a focus on diversity and inclusion aspects relate to beliefs about resisting N-N structures in the educational system, focusing both on the reasons for selecting a specific aspect as well as an in-depth analysis of the participants’ beliefs. More specifically, we will answer the following research questions: Why do Spanish language student teachers select specific diversity and inclusion aspects? What are their beliefs about resisting N-N structures in the educational system?


Data was collected in one session of an introductory seminar to Spanish language pedagogies at the University of Hamburg in 2022. The session was held asynchronously via forum entries to the learning management system (LMS) of the course, to which eleven students contributed. To analyse the written data, we used content and discourse analysis.


In the following, we first describe our theoretical framework, which encompasses student teachers’ beliefs, teacher education in N-N times and places and how identity-based pedagogies allow (student) teachers to resist N-N structures in education. We then introduce the empirical study with its context and participants, the concrete session and teaching methods used (group discussion and e-portfolios), and methods for data collection and analysis. Finally, we present and discuss the results.


THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK


For our theoretical framework, we focus on the concept of teachers’ beliefs as well as recent research on (student) teachers’ beliefs about N-N ideologies and diversity before we explain characteristics of teacher education in N-N times and places.


Student teachers’ beliefs


Understanding teachers’ beliefs has long been recognized as a pivotal factor in understanding their professional behavior. Tillema (1997, p. 209) emphasizes that “it is important to acknowledge student teachers’ beliefs and to offer and discuss alternative conceptions to which student teachers can revert and in which they can find support in building their teaching identities and professional lives”. This focus on student teachers is seen as an avenue to work with their existing conceptions, allowing for customized training tailored to their specific needs. Borg’s (2003) conceptualization of teacher cognition and Baumert and Kunter’s (2011) notion of teacher professionalization both position teachers’ beliefs as integral components of their professional identities and competencies, alongside other aspects such as motivational orientations, self-regulatory skills or professional knowledge. We can summarize some central notions regarding beliefs: according to Pajares (1992, p. 316), they are convictions that teachers believe to be true; they are consistent; they result from social experiences; and they include cognitive, affective and conative dimensions (Bohner, 2003; Borg, 2017; Pajares, 1992; Reusser & Pauli, 2014). Furthermore, teachers’ beliefs and their practices share a reciprocal relationship, although it has been shown that “the strength of this relationship may vary across individuals and contexts as well as the type of beliefs and practices being assessed” (Buehl & Beck, 2015, p. 70).


In teacher education programs, identifying student teachers’ beliefs has been seen as a “starting point” for improving and tailoring programs to meet individual needs (Stenberg et al., 2014). Recent research on teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism and multilingual approaches in the classroom has shown how training courses can have an impact on teachers’ beliefs (Gorter & Arocena, 2020; Portolés & Martí, 2020). However, the understanding that “[teachers’] beliefs are shaped by interactions with others in the environment in which they work and the collective beliefs that grow out of these interactions” (Tschannen-Moran et al., 2014, p. 301) adds a layer of complexity to the development of such training courses. Teachers’ beliefs have also been connected to policy implementation (Sabarwal, Abu-Jawdeh & Kapoor, 2022), seeing as teachers mediate between politics and students. This social ontology of beliefs underscores the dynamic and intricate nature of teachers’ belief systems, necessitating a nuanced approach to research and analysis (Burns et al., 2015; Gerwers et al., 2022; Svalberg, 2015).


A more social lens on teachers’ beliefs also allows for a deeper understanding of why some (student) teachers can maintain inaccurate, inappropriate, or incomplete beliefs. Melo-Pfeifer’s (2021) proposition for fostering self-reflection and changing beliefs involves confrontation with situations that entail uncertainty. Nevertheless, it is important to point out a challenge in this process, acknowledging that schools may perpetuate certain behaviors and beliefs, such as racist or classist attitudes, due to entrenched cultural assumptions: “the school … upholds traditional assumptions about culture, social capital and skills necessary to succeed in the global neoliberal labor market” (Rodriguez & Magill, 2016, pp. 17-18). Thus, competencies that are deemed less important in this market, such as languages or inclusivity, often suffer as a result. Furthermore, teachers seem to have pre-existing beliefs regarding socially disadvantaged students, which might lead to a pessimistic mindset when teaching those students (Sabarwal, Abu-Jawdeh & Kapoor, 2022). This goes in line with teachers’ deficit-oriented perception of minority students’ language competences (Vikøya & Haukås, 2023).


Zembylas and Chubbuck (2015) extend this discourse by suggesting an exploration of beliefs about teacher identity, where identity, beliefs and politics intersect. This perspective, they argue,


promotes a more holistic understanding of teacher identity that does not ignore the influence of power relations and politics in teacher identity; and … recognizes the prospects of developing a critical and transformative orientation towards the conceptualization of teacher identity (p. 187).

On the basis of their study of pre-service teachers’ conceptions about N-N framing of schooling, Brown et al. (2022) have also highlighted the importance of making pre-service teachers aware that “teaching is a political act” (p. 475) and that future teachers need to develop a “sense of action” (p. 475) in order to resist existing structures.


In conclusion, understanding teachers’ beliefs, their connection to practices, and their formation within complex social contexts is crucial for examining their relevance to N-N structures in education.

Teacher education in N-N times and places


Main features of today’s globalized and digitalized world, which include its sociotechnical structures and the influence of neoliberalism, characterized by deregulation and free markets, cannot help but shape various aspects of society, including language learning (Darvin, 2023; Darvin & Norton, 2015). This context intertwines with forces like migration, technology, and media, impacting language practices and identities (Block et al., 2012). As Darvin and Norton (2015) note, technology facilitates access to valuable digitally-mediated information in the knowledge economy, but it is also accompanied by a cost as its mechanisms are intricately linked to profit structures. In this wider context, language learning is marked by critical areas of tension that are inter alia:


To further explain these areas and their interconnectedness, we can note that in these circumstances, language learning raises questions about the linguistic effects of globalization, such as the emergence of multilingualism and the consequent formation of diverse identities. Neoliberalism’s influence on market dynamics and the resulting emphasis on individualism further impact language learning and teaching (Norton & De Costa, 2018). A critical examination of neoliberalism, as presented by Block et al. (2012), reveals it as a construct denoting advanced capitalism and the rule of the free market, built upon economic common sense. Neoliberalism and neoconservatism, often described as "twin legacies”, have led to educational reforms that contribute to greater social inequality. The educational arena is particularly significant for neoliberal thinking, serving both as a field for corporate designs and as a means of instilling market values in future generations (Block et al., 2012, p. 7). Scales describe learners’ identities and language practices over time, illustrating the dynamic nature of changing identities linked to shifting language practices and translanguaging (Norton & De Costa, 2018). Moreover, neoliberalism both as a social system and as an ideology permeates discourse, being simultaneously reproduced and reinforced by it1 (Block et al., 2012).


Building upon Williams’ (1996) concept of translanguaging originating in Wales, where different languages were used for receptive and productive purposes, García and Wei (2014) further developed this concept to “refer to both the complex language practices of plurilingual individuals and communities, as well as the pedagogical approaches that use those complex practices” (p. 20). For them, translanguaging is a process that uses all available communicative means across all the learners’ languages (and dialects). The focus is not on the languages themselves, but on the practices of the individuals. Furthermore, “pedagogical translanguaging takes the focus on multilingualism as its point of departure, and it is also based on the concepts of prior knowledge, scaffolding and connected growers” (Cenoz & Gorter, 2021, p. 25). Using translanguaging practices in the classroom thus means to give permission and encourage students to use their whole linguistic repertoire, and to incorporate the languages learned in school into their linguistic repertoire, always aiming at the students’ linguistic and academic development in multilingual contexts. Thereby, pedagogical translanguaging is always planned by the teacher (Cenoz & Gorter, 2021).


When analyzing teacher education in N-N times, the role of capital – not only in the form of economic capital – needs to be discussed. Following Bourdieu (1986), capital is understood as divided into cultural, social and economic capital. Economic capital presents itself in the form of money or other (real estate) assets while cultural capital is related to educational qualifications – and, in its embodied form also cultural goods such as books. Furthermore, social capital includes resources linked to social relationships (Bourdieu, 1986). Bourdieu’s theories of cultural and social reproduction argue that students’ unequal educational trajectories can partly be explained by their cultural (parental) capital, and that power structures reproduce themselves, favoring meritocracy (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977). In this regard, De Graaf, De Graaf and Kraayakamp (2000) found reading activities to be influential for educational outcomes, and that cultural (parental) capital in this form is especially important in children of lower or middle socioeconomic backgrounds. However, not all forms of increasing cultural capital may lead to the reduction of social class inequalities (Stopforth & Gayle, 2022).


A critical observation made by Block et al. (2012) identifies a blind spot in language identity research, concerning political economy and its impact on all social activities, including language practices. Thus, within the field of language education teachers are recognized as political actors engaging in the politicized activity of education (Block et al., 2012). This is in line with Freire’s (1975) understanding of education of the oppressed, in which a “bank education” that only serves to maintain or increase injustice is rejected by empowering those affected by the injustices. For Freire (1975, 1994), teachers are political militants as they facilitate change for the individual through education.


Working on student teachers’ identities can therefore serve to contrast neoconservative and neoliberal structures in educational systems. This can be achieved through identity-based pedagogies, which refer to the “purposeful involvement of educators with students’ identity-related processes or contents” (Schachter & Rich, 2011, p. 222). The overall aim is to empower learners and dismantle ideologies that prevent them from fully embracing their identity (Norton, 2013). In student teachers’ identity, race, ethnology, language and ideologies, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, social class, neurodiversity, physical characteristics, and others intersect (Melo-Pfeifer & Tavares, 2024).


In a study on student teachers, De Costa (2016) describes the importance of ideologies since they structure sociocultural experiences. They can have a negative or a positive impact on one’s identity and one’s language learning. Nevertheless, ideologies are not fixed, they can be negotiated in interactions where the individual agentively decides about their position (De Costa, 2016). An enlightening example and analysis of identity-based pedagogies can be found in Prada (2021). The author describes the transformation of beliefs of one of his students in terms of ideologies of Spanish(es). The student took part in a heritage language course in which students engaged critically with underlying ideologies of language, especially Spanish and English, and the impact of the ideologies on their identities. Using a sort of diary, the student reflects after each session on the changes to his beliefs that happened thanks to the course sessions. Schwartz (2023) applies such critical examinations on the Spanish language teacher, provoking reflections on teachers’ and students’ race and language and how hierarchies of White Spanish teachers teaching students of color (Latinx) can be disrupted. All these examples follow diversity-sensitive and inclusive pedagogies.


Contemporary language learning operates within neoliberal frameworks, perpetuating social injustices and marginalizing identities. Teaching transforms into a political endeavor, with identity-based pedagogies challenging prevailing ideologies to empower learners.


EMPIRICAL STUDY


In examining student teachers’ beliefs, we showed connections to their practices, professionalization, and the impact of power. In N-N times, power dynamics marginalize communities and perpetuate social injustice against which diversity-sensitive pedagogies offer resistance. This empirical study therefore aims to answer the following research questions:



Context and participants


Our study takes place within the context of a three-month course on Spanish language pedagogies for undergraduate students in the summer term of 2022 at the University of Hamburg, which is the first discipline-related (Spanish language pedagogies) course in the undergraduate program. The course aimed at getting students to:


The course accompanies a lecture in which the theoretical bases are provided. The course complements and deepens the input from the lecture, applying practical analysis, theoretical discussions, and guided reflections.


The lecturer in the course, Lisa Marie Brinkmann, aimed at a diversity-sensitive approach that was ensured inter alia through translanguaging practices, i.e. permission and encouragement to use students’ whole linguistic repertoire (García & Wei, 2014), challenging the monolingual habitus (Gogolin, 1994); hybrid or online (asynchronous) sessions, allowing parents with sick children or people with reduced mobility to take part in the sessions; trigger warnings before each session and approached topics; and, a welcoming message in which different diversity aspects were mentioned to be respected and valued in the course. The course took place every week of the semester.


Eleven students (nine females and two males) who were studying Spanish to become a teacher participated in the course that is obligatory for them. They come from diverse backgrounds, with ten of them having a migrant background, and different language levels (either Spanish being their first language, having been raised bilingual, having learned the language during long stays in a Spanish-speaking country, or having learned the language through formal instruction). The students were advised that the data of the course would be used for research. All students gave their consent. Even though the students did not receive a grade for their post, there is a power hierarchy that the instructor was aware of. The feedback the students received by the instructor foresaw thanking them, answering their open questions, adding new information or adapting their information to other contexts, adding new questions to reflect on, and, if applicable, adjusting the wording.


Session


This study uses material from the 5th session of the course. The session was dedicated to teaching and learning success in a foreign language: interlinking factors and complexity and was taught online, asynchronously. Validity and reliability of the data is given since the aim of the discussion forum can answer the specific research questions and the students are represented because most of them involved wrote up to three to five posts. One important element of ensuring success in language learning is an inclusive classroom. To explore inclusion and diversity-sensitive pedagogies, students used a variety of methods and topics. First, they were asked to choose from different media templates (podcast episodes, videos, scientific papers, practice-oriented papers; all of them offered content in German, some in English) and topics in (language) teaching (inter alia gender-bias, neurodiversity, special needs in learning, special needs in hearing, social class, racism), henceforth called inputs. Then, they had to define inclusion or differentiation based on the selected input. Finally, they were asked to reflect on possible approaches to deal with diversity. They published their results in an online forum in their LMS. In the forum, they also had to react to at least one other contribution from a student in the course, to gain insight into at least two areas of diversity and inclusion-related topics. After publishing their results, they also received feedback from the lecturer aimed at evaluating their work and encouraging further reflective questions.


Methods


To collect the data we used an online focus group (Brinkmann & Melo-Pfeifer, 2023) anchored in the online forum. The online focus group is characterized by participants who come together out of a shared interest in a topic, in this case diversity and inclusion. The students have known each other for at least five weeks (since the start of the course), though some were friends or knew each other before. The interactions in the online focus group were managed through two distinct mechanisms: first, students were asked to comment on at least one other student’s contribution; and second, the lecturer pointed out to the students’ other discussion threads linked to theirs. For each contribution there was a single thread, with between two (thread-creating student and lecturer) and seven contributions (thread-creating student, three other students and lecturer). The forum turned multimodal, as the lecturer and the students attached images, texts or excerpts to which we do not refer in the results since they do not contain the main meaning. The data was analyzed using content and discourse analysis (Hardy et al., 2004). The raw data was read several times to identify inductive (data-based) categories. The categories were divided into main and subcategories. The excerpts of selected subcategories were then analyzed in terms of the discourse used, underlying beliefs, and word choice.


RESULTS


The participants chose different diversity or inclusion-related topics for their discussion:


In three different forum entries students analyzed inclusion on a more global scale and on the basis of three different input options. These were not analyzed as choosing a specific diversity or inclusion aspects but rather as more general entries.


In the following, we will first answer the question of why they chose their topic (RQ1), before examining their beliefs about resisting N-N structures in the educational system (RQ2).


Why do Spanish language student teachers select specific diversity and inclusion aspects?


The answer to the first research question can be found in two main categories: identity-based reasons and interest-driven reasons.


Identity-based reasons


The first category of identity-based reasons denotes personal experiences that the participants or their children have had around neurodiversity, racism, and poverty. We included the participants’ children in this category as student teachers who are parents feel responsible for their own children and thus indirectly affected by their experiences. Some of the student teachers explicitly stated that they or their children were affected by a discrimination category, others described it more implicitly, e.g. through personal examples. One Spanish-German bilingual student, Normán2, gives an example of discrimination by repeating words he once received: “‘Normán, you speak good German already!’ In most cases, this has no negative ulterior motive, but leads to people not being included within a system”3. German is Normán’s first language, but by complimenting his proficiency the person was excluding him from the group of native German speakers and his identity was perceived differently from that of the person speaking. This example was so impactful that he repeated it at another point in the forum. His identity and the discrimination experiences were relevant to his topic choice.


Another implicit identity-related diversity aspect is racism and its ongoing discussion, which three student teachers engaged in. Alice explains how this discussion was the first time that she had seen racism and education coming together in a lecture. She found the connection of particular interest, to the extent that she chose two different inputs (a video and a text) to approach it. As a Black student, racism is likely to have been something she has had to deal with in both her personal and professional lives. As she says: “I wanted to know exactly what was meant by racism-critical educational work, clearly you had an idea that it was about issues like racism and education, yet the combination of the two words was appealing”. In this sentence, the adverb “exactly” shows how important it is for her to have an understanding about anti-racial education. In combination with the verb “want”, she expresses that she wishes to get ideas on how to construct a diversity-sensitive and discrimination-free classroom atmosphere. The link between education and racism seems particularly relevant to her as she might both identify with anti-racist ideas, but also because of her skin color, and the fact she is studying to become a teacher.4 The other two contributors to this forum discussion, Carolina and Tanja, link racism to heritage languages and migration background, which also reflect their own identities. It can be assumed that they both chose to comment on Alice’s forum entry because they saw themselves reflected in the words Alice used and wanted to contribute to the discussion. They relate to teachers with a migrant background and the potential they have in the educational system. Luana, another participant, chose to dedicate her entry to migration background and she also named the reason for selection as a “personal relation”.


The students who explicitly explained the selection of an input with identity-based reasons also mentioned their interest in exploring mechanisms for coping with it. The attributes used to describe this opportunity are “curious”, “interesting”, “informed” and “wanted to know”. Karim says: “I chose the video … because I have had more or less the same experiences, but I also find it difficult to work against this as a teacher”. In this case, the student employs the first-person singular. To describe the identity-based reason he draws on his experiences that are comparable to those presented in the input. He relativizes “more or less the same” to indicate that even within one diversity category, in this case poverty, there is diversity and a range of experiences can be had. Regarding the same subject (poverty), the participant Tanja explains:


This matter affected me personally when I was a child (7 years old) and I emigrated to Germany with my family. When I arrived in Germany, the first few years were not very easy, as there were changes or further training in my parents’ professions and, despite working, there simply wasn’t much money available with three children. This topic touches my heart.

Tanja shares her experiences of being affected by poverty when she was young. The temporal adverbs (“when”) give the impression of sharing a story with the others. She explains her own situation, underlined by first person singular and the adverb “personally”. Her family and parents played an important role in her experiencing poverty as a child (repeated three times). It may be due to her family and her inner child that she expresses affection when saying that the topic “touches my heart”.


Regarding neurodiversity, the students do not mention whether they are directly affected by it or not. Nevertheless, one of them, Carolina, relates to her own children. She says: “Your article immediately appealed to me, as my son has ADD and I am constantly on the lookout for new findings about this”. Carolina employs the first-person singular in this statement (me, my, I), which shows how closely ADD is linked to her identity. It is a stable interest of hers (“constantly”) and she adds one aspect after the other, from the impact the forum entry about ADD had on her, to the consecutive reasons for this. Furthermore, while discussing another topic, one of the students, Karim, mentions that he is affected by aphantasia. He explains that “I simply can’t imagine things. When I close my eyes and try to imagine something, I see everything in black”. Karim too shares his personal experiences and three students (the highest number in this study) contribute to the forum discussion by further inquiring. He answers: “But sometimes I still don’t know how to deal with it in certain situations. As already mentioned, I only found out a few months ago that I have this ‘disorder’”. In the two excerpts, the first person singular and direct descriptions or explanations are used. In the second excerpt, the conjunction “but” and the adverb “still not” show how challenging it can be to cope with aphantasia in some moments. He describes his aphantasia as a “disorder”, whereas it could also be perceived as something that makes him special, especially his affinity for objectivity, and that he has or chooses other ways of understanding the world.


Interest-driven reasons


The interest-driven topics selected by the students cover inclusion in general, Spanish as a heritage language, neurodiversity, and physical disability. More concretely, the interest is reducing a knowledge gap (linked to what Evelyn calls “curiosity”), treating an underexplored topic, or approaching a relevant theme. Regarding ADD, the participant Maral says:


I think that too little attention is paid to neurodiverse pupils and the difficulties they face within the school system. There is still a lot of stigma around ADD because there is too little education about it. As a future teacher, it is therefore very important for me to be informed about it.

Maral considers the responsibility she has as a future teacher, underlined by the adverbial construction “very important for me”. Her perception, expressed through the first-person singular, is that information about neurodiversity in education is “too little” (repeated twice). Similarly, regarding dyslexia Cristina says:


these difficulties are also important in foreign language lessons … . That’s why I really wanted to know how dyslexia affects Spanish lessons and what teachers can do or should avoid.

In her past studies Cristina had been introduced to dyslexia, but the application to language education was missing. She selected the topic to close this knowledge gap and because of its relevance for her as a future teacher. As Alice above, she emphasizes her wish to go into detail (“want”), employing the adverb “really”.


Another relevant reason, mentioned by Oliwia, is that “schools and society are characterized by diversity”. This observation highlights the inherent diversity in our environment and therefore the importance of taking it into account and dealing with it. Another student, Bahar, reflects on the relevance of diversity and inclusion in general:


I found many topics very relevant. … The articles on inclusion are also interesting. However, I have long had the feeling that there is a discrepancy between the current situation and the desired ideal of teaching and learning in German schools.

Bahar perceives a discrepancy between the theory and practice of inclusion, which causes the supposedly negative feeling of not wanting to delve into more theories and ideals that in practice would not work. She is not undermining the importance of inclusion but rather highlighting it, as she uses the quantifiers “many” and “very”. In the end, she decided on a video on rethinking school to better adapt to the future.


The interest-driven reasons encompass reflections on the relevance and importance of the themes, the desire to know more about them, but also the impact of diversity in society on pedagogies and school structures.

What are student teachers’ beliefs about resisting N-N structures in the educational system?


The answer to the second research question can be found in beliefs about capital, othering and equity, and one’s perceived (limited) agency. We start by describing each main category and corresponding subcategories, followed by the discussion.


Capital


Following Bourdieu (1986), the students refer mostly to economic capital (in forum entries on poverty), but also to cultural and symbolic capital. In N-N times, the distribution of capital in society diverges more and more. The student teachers’ beliefs on resisting this unjust distribution of capital appear in the deconstruction of the impact of capital on education and the presentation of harsh realities that should be avoided through education.


The understanding of capital as fundamental for success asserts that children's poverty acts as “a barrier to education” (Karim). According to Karim, Normán, and Tanja, parental capital significantly influences one’s school trajectory, attributing poverty not to personal shortcomings but to a lack of social support from the state. They point out that salaries in certain sectors remain low and unemployment “benefits” are inadequate.


Furthermore, the participants discern variations in children’s hobbies and habitus based on parental capital. Normán categorizes tennis as a “sport for the ‘rich’”, expressing his regret that many children, including himself, desire sports opportunities but face unfair limitations. He puts “rich” in inverted commas, suggesting uncertainty about the exact referent.


Tanja draws on the general impact of poverty on a child. She says:


The other consequences of these children living in poverty are also noted, for example, the lack of security, the lack of opportunities to shape their youth … and the lack of cultural events, which means that cultural capital cannot be built up. The lives of these children are also predetermined, as they usually receive little educational support at home and it is very likely that they will not attend grammar school and will not be able to go to a university.

As the start of this sentence indicates, she had already explained about other consequences of poverty in the previous sentences. She describes a child “living in poverty”, which alludes to the fact that poverty is a circumstance not the child’s fault. The consequences are described as “lacks”, which shows how (the lack of) capital influences needs such as security. She also specifies how the lack of economic capital influences the lack of cultural capital. The impact of a lack of cultural capital can be noticed in education and thus also in the children’s lives. In the current educational system, a lack of support at home – due to the lack of cultural capital (education) of the parents, which may also be a key factor for not achieving economic capital – leads to barriers in the child’s education. This raises the question of how a child from a family that cannot afford to buy extra materials, cannot pay for tutoring, cannot afford music lessons, where both parents have to work and the child has to look after their siblings and share a room with only one desk and many distractions, is supposed to do just as well in school as a child not facing these challenges.


Karim responds to Tanja, highlighting the inherent injustice of homework when he did not understand something in the classroom: “I had classmates who understood the material immediately after a few tutoring sessions and these students generally also had better grades”.


Karim perceives a differentiation and injustice regarding his peers’ opportunities to receive tutoring sessions. It seems that he is not completely aware of how tutoring sessions function, since he has never had any, because “immediately” contradicts “after a few sessions”. Eventually, this difference results in his peers “generally” having better grades, which shows his perception of systemic issues in this regard. Support in learning is also an important factor for Bahar, who calls for a change in the “learning culture”.


The students identify habitus, cultural and economic capital as sources of injustices. They believe that revealing N-N structures is a form of resisting them in education.


Othering and equity


The students refer to dismantling othering and providing equity as being central beliefs about resisting N-N structures in education. The emerging subcategories are human rights and empowerment.

Exploring the deconstruction of othering reveals its presence in discussions on racism and neurodiversity. Carolina, discussing children with ADD, emphasizes that “they have to make more effort if they want to be ‘like the other kids’”. The use of inverted commas around “like the other kids” suggests ambiguity in Carolina’s perception or a struggle to articulate her feelings. This effort stems from a societal pressure towards homogeneity, a desire to conform rather than embrace differences, which perpetuates unequal starting positions and demands additional support for students facing those challenges.


Normán highlights othering in examples of seemingly innocuous discrimination, such as the repetition of compliments about his proficiency in German, showcasing the disparity between self-perception and external judgment. He speaks about power-sharing, explaining how one can use privilege to combat discrimination and racism:


I think this is a very interesting approach to fighting inequalities because you put yourself in the role of the ‘victim’ and fight for each other, which, for me, is what an equal life is all about and what we humans should actually live by.

Normán uses a vocabulary of battle (“victim,” “fight”) and indicates that everyone has a role to play in a society of equity. He calls for collective commitment, expressing that equity is intrinsic to humanity and a principle everyone should uphold.


Alice looks at othering from a historical perspective. She explains her lessons learned from the inputs:


Racism arose in the course of the Enlightenment, also in European colonization, to be able to economically and culturally legitimize the dominance of Whites. … Another form of discrimination is structural discrimination, which is based on a human-made social structuring system and was set up to secure the interests of White people.

For Alice, it is important to demonstrate the development of racism from its origins in the Enlightenment and colonization and its impact on the unequal and unfairly legitimized distribution of cultural and economic capital depending on skin color. This leads Alice to a structural understanding of discrimination. The use of juridical vocabulary such as “legitimize” and “secure” underlines the “human-made”, not natural, structures. To emphasize the human-made structure she capitalizes the adjective “White”, which is common in German academic literature.

Another way of ensuring equity in education, apart from dismantling othering, is explicitly highlighting existing inequities. Tanja refers to the importance of talking about poverty so that children affected by poverty know that it is not their fault and “that they no longer feel like failures ... Wealthier children also need to be educated so that they do not treat poor children worse”. The participant differentiates between poor and wealthier children but says clearly that both need education on the topic (“also”). Still, the consequences of such education would be different: empowerment for the poor children and reduction of discrimination by the wealthy children. Tanja continues explaining the fear of being stigmatized as poor, of “social exclusion, social inferiority and a lack of prospects … material deprivation and social isolation but also unequal educational and development opportunities”.


She lists the many unfair and unequal conditions of being poor, often in combination with the adjective “social”, referring to conditions that are human-made and anchored in society.


Finally, the participants mention “human rights” (Normán) and respecting the constitution, because “diversity is associated with the constitution” (Alice). Respecting diversity allows for what Normán calls a “peaceful and fair school career/life”. He equates school, career, and life, knowing about the fundamental influence one’s education has on one’s life. These two participants also refer to empowerment. They define it as “support, to address the experiences children have been through, and to find a way of dealing with them” (Alice) and as an “exchange between those affected within a safe space. … The main goal of empowerment is therefore not just the subject, but the collective” (Normán). The last statement highlights the importance of collective structures in society, especially in the realm of diversity and resisting N-N structures in education.


Agency


In our study, agency is the most essential concept in student teachers’ beliefs about resisting N-N structures in education. The beliefs analyzed range from limitations on agency and tensions between the N-N and inclusive structures to activism and intention to take action.


The participants expressed uncertainty about their future roles as teachers, mindful of the restriction that German teachers as civil servants are not allowed to strike. In thinking about alternative forms of protest, Karim questions “to what extent we can campaign for this problem [poverty], i.e. to what extent the policy actually allows something like this and whether it would be possible to campaign for it in our own school”. Karim's language is uncertain and non-specific, using phrases like “something like this” and “campaign for this/it”. Tensions between neoliberal-neoconservative and inclusive structures further complicate matters, as Carolina observes,


the schools (especially at secondary level) don’t offer that much leeway, and therefore UDL [= Universal Design of Learning] would be a constant battle against the system. What can you do as a teacher if the school absolutely demands a written exam as proof of performance? In the end, some students want to pass the Abitur5 and they have to find their way around the standards. That’s why I find it difficult to implement, which doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying. Maybe something like this is easier to implement in primary school?

Carolina asks two questions, demonstrating her uncertainty. The first one regards the limitations of agency and the second the possibility of outsourcing agency. First, she draws on an incompatibility between the school system and inclusive and diversity-sensitive pedagogies, a “battle” making them “difficult to implement”. This idea of limited agency is again echoed when she says “worth trying”, but not doing. She seems to appreciate the idea even though she doesn’t see herself implementing it, as she concludes by outsourcing her own agency to primary schools. There is a sort of ambiguity, underlined through the use of “however”, “if”, and double negative (doesn’t mean it’s not).


In another entry, Bahar describes the educational system as “a system that is geared towards competition. What is needed, however, is the power of Us. Pupils should take responsibility for their lives, for the lives of others and our planet. This requires courage to act”. Bahar employs several abstract and generic nouns (“competition”, “power”, “responsibility”, “lives”, “others”, “courage”) and makes a noun out of the first-person plural pronoun starting with a capital letter (“Us”). Her statement is content-loaded in that she presents ideas and requirements of a participative educational system, in which students acknowledge their own responsibility for learning, life, and environment. Such a participative education requires agency or in her words: “courage to act”. Bahar’s ideas resonate with Luana, who shares similar views on the need for collaboration over competition. Alice and Oliwia also discuss participative teaching, considering students’ previous knowledge, competences, and languages.

Agency is about responsibility and intention to take action, not just for students but also for “ministry officials and teachers” (Alice). The students relate politics and school actors to become agents to reduce inequalities. Alice says:


You have to ask yourself the question, especially as a teacher, what happens in the classroom that is relevant to racism and how do you act when this happens. Finally, you should also look at your materials and consider whether these materials are reproducing racist material and how you can avoid this.

The participant refers to reflective thinking, self-questioning as well as concrete acting. She uses the general form of “you”, indicating that everybody has to take responsibility for their anti-racist actions, and the verb “should” to show that for her, it is the only reasonable and human way to act. Carolina replies to Alice by stating that inclusive pedagogies are a “clear opportunity for us as teachers to change the racist tradition and contribute to enabling a different form of socialization”. The turn from a discriminatory “tradition”, i.e. something stable and maintained, towards another socialization is expressed through the verbs “change” and “enable”.


Combining the findings from RQ1 and RQ2, we can say that student teachers’ beliefs about capital, equity, othering, and agency in resisting N-N structures in education are primarily expressed by individuals with personal experiences of poverty (Karim and Tanja) and those implicitly identifying as victims of racism (Normán and Alice). Identity emerges as a crucial factor shaping beliefs about resistance to N-N structures in education.


DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION


Regarding our first research question, the student teachers’ approaches to selecting diversity and inclusion aspects were driven by a blend of identity-based reasons and interest-driven motivations and influenced by personal experiences and identities related to discrimination, racism, poverty, and other diversity aspects. Beyond identity-related reasons, students were motivated by curiosity and a sense of responsibility as future educators. The underrepresentation of discussions on neurodiversity and the missing disclosure of such experiences reflects the social stigma surrounding psychological issues and underscores the impact of power relations (Zembylas and Chubbuck, 2015) as well as sociocultural experiences (De Costa, 2016) in shaping ideologies.


In the context of language education and N-N influences, the connection between beliefs and identity gained prominence. The discussion on identity-based pedagogies (Schachter & Rich, 2011) is aligned with Zembylas and Chubbuck’s (2015) perspective, emphasizing the interconnectedness of teachers’ personal and professional identities. Forum entries focusing on racism, migration background, and poverty highlighted students’ recognition of the impact of these issues on their identities. The important role of using students’ entire language repertoire and thus embracing the personal (migration/linguistic) background, highlighted in the translanguaging concept (García & Wei, 2014), offers insight on how to include heritage languages into the classroom and thus foster identity-based pedagogies.


In short, personal identity, lived experience, curiosity, and a sense of responsibility significantly shaped the participants’ selections of diversity and inclusion aspects. The recognition of beliefs as integral components of identity highlights the complexity of agency in identity-based pedagogies. This emphasizes the need for teacher education programs to acknowledge and address the interconnectedness of personal and professional identities, encouraging a more holistic approach to training that encompasses diverse perspectives and experiences. It also proved important to offer safe spaces for the disclosure of student teachers’ personal experiences and identities by being inclusive and diversity-sensitive.


Considering the second research question, the student teachers showed diverse beliefs regarding N-N structures in the educational system that we have organized into three categories: capital, othering and equity, and agency. Drawing from Bourdieu’s (1986) framework we can say that the student teachers’ beliefs regarding capital reveal a critical awareness of economic disparities impacting education. The student teachers highlight the influence of economic capital on education, particularly in terms of poverty acting as a barrier to learning, and they assign responsibility to N-N structures in education for such barriers. Similarly, the students recognize what Bourdieu (1986) calls convertibility of capital, explaining how economic capital often translates to cultural and social capital. Their beliefs align with how the lack of parental capital has already been shown to negatively impact students’ educational paths (De Graaf et al., 2000; Stopforth and Gayle, 2022).


The students critically analyze the “myth of education” (El-Mafalaani, 2020) and the concept of meritocracy, unveiling the inherent problems in the German educational system that reproduce injustices. They recognize that the system not only reflects existing societal disparities, such as habitus and parental support, but more significantly that it fails to address these issues. Instead, the structures within the educational system tend to favor those who already enjoy substantial support, thereby reinforcing instead of rectifying the inequalities present in the system. This analysis is the first step to enable the students to resist the structures supporting those inequalities (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977; Brown et al., 2022).


The participants articulate an intention to dismantle othering, emphasizing the importance of human rights and empowerment. For them, equity means embracing “human rights” and the constitution, reinforcing the commitment to fostering a peaceful and fair educational environment. These findings align with literature that emphasizes the pervasive influence of neoliberalism in education, which has led to educational reforms contributing to social inequality (Block et al., 2012). The participants’ awareness of the human-made structures shaping discrimination and inequality suggests a critical engagement with the political economy of language identity research, acknowledging the role of teachers as political actors within the educational system (Block et al., 2012; Freire, 1975).


Finally, agency emerges as a central concept in student teachers’ beliefs about resisting N-N structures. The participants grapple with the limitations imposed by civil servant roles and explore alternative forms of activism and intentionality in their future teaching practices. This resonates partly with the fact that “teachers are said to be responsible for educating the future generations, but this assertion should be taken carefully because they are not the only agents at play within the school system” (Melo-Pfeifer & Tavares, 2024, p. 22). For student teachers, educating the future generation involves a participative educational system that empowers students, promoting a collective approach over competitive dynamics, and overcoming market values (Block et al., 2012). The ideas behind competitive systems can be interpreted as a problem of individualism in the global North (Tavares, 2023), which is linked to N-N structures.

The student teachers also demonstrated awareness regarding intersectionality issues, as their beliefs displayed a nuanced understanding of how various aspects of identity intersect with and influence educational experiences. This could be investigated in future research.


To conclude, identity-based pedagogies become tools for empowerment and dismantling ideologies that hinder inclusive identity development (Schachter & Rich, 2011). Our study emphasizes the pivotal role of student teachers in shaping an inclusive and equitable educational landscape, highlighting the need for ongoing critical engagement with those structures that perpetuate inequality. As these emerging educators navigate their professional paths, their beliefs can be tools for transformative action within the educational sphere. Student teachers believe (in)equalities to result from unequal distributed capital. To reduce this dependence, agency is required and becomes a key affordance for teacher education programs. Programs could provide opportunities for student teachers to confront situations of uncertainty (Melo-Pfeifer, 2021) to cultivate a sense of agency among student teachers, empowering them to enact change and resist systemic injustices. This requires a shift from a prescriptive approach to an inquiry- and identity-based pedagogy that encourages critical thinking.


We thus encourage teacher educators to give future teachers the necessary tools to counter N-N structures in educational contexts and recommend teachers to include identity-based pedagogies into their teaching. This could be in the form of fostering translanguaging practices in the classroom as well as critically reflecting on their own actions and how they might be influenced by pre-conceived notions about disadvantaged students. This study contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics involved in student teachers’ belief systems, urging teacher education programs to embrace a holistic approach that encompasses diverse perspectives and experiences.


Regarding the student teachers’ identity and their beliefs, it would be interesting to research their investment in identity- and diversity-based aspects of education. Finally, investigating student teachers’ beliefs about potentials and challenges of inclusion and diversity-sensitive pedagogies more in depth could reveal further insights into student teachers’ identity-related beliefs about resisting N-N structures in the educational system.


NOTES


  1. English is understood as a dominant ideology supporting global capitalism.

  2. All names have been changed to preserve participant anonymity.

  3. All examples are retrieved from the forum and translated from German into English.

  4. It is interesting to note that she does not explicitly state a link to her identity, which may however be tied to the fact that, as a Black person, she should not be obliged to educate others about racism.

  5. Qualification exams at the end of secondary education in Germany.



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