Institutional Dynamics of Inclusion and Exclusion: Child Language Brokers in the School-Child-Family Triad

Our study investigates how students' roles as language brokers within their families impact their experiences in the institutional setting of the school, particularly within the school-child-family triad. Focusing on participants' perceptions of their translation efforts in school contexts, we explore how these roles influence their relationships with parents, teachers, and peers, as well as how these dynamics affect their experiences within the educational system. Ultimately, we highlight how institutional arrangements within schools—such as localized policies, routines, and practices—either facilitate or hinder the social inclusion of multilingual, newly arrived migrant children and youth, sometimes leading to their exclusion from meaningful participation in educational opportunities.

Employing qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews with individuals who served as language mediators during childhood and focus groups with newly arrived parents and students, we investigate the dynamics of multilingualism and language brokering in German school settings within postmigrant contexts (cf. Foroutan 2019; Yildiz 2015) from an intersectional perspective (cf. Haschemi Yekani & Nowicka 2022). Key questions guiding our investigation include: How do different students perceive their roles as translators in school settings, and how do institutional responses—such as support or neglect—affect their experiences? To what extent does their mediation role influence their relationships across family and educational environments?

Drawing on Meyer and Rowan’s (1977) concept of neo-institutionalism, we explore how organizational rules are translated into institutional actions and delineate how institutional arrangements within the school-family-child triad enact processes of inclusion and exclusion. Our analysis specifically investigates whether these arrangements reinforce or counteract exclusionary practices, particularly for children and youth from multilingual, newly arrived migrant families within the school-child-family triad. Additionally, we aim to identify solutions and best practices that could enhance inclusive approaches within educational institutions, fostering a more equitable learning environment for all students.