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Top1. Introduction
The project surrounding the creation of the Valisette franco-allemande/Die deutsch-französische Kinderkiste1 pedagogical toolkit was part of an in-depth research initiative led by the Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO/OFAJ) and piloted by a team of four researchers.2
This article will analyse representations of interculturality in the two contexts studied based on the discourse of teacher trainers – called “multipliers” – gathered during focus groups. These teacher trainers are professionals employed by the French National Education system and German early childhood education networks who received specific training from FGYO on using the Valisette before in turn organizing training courses at their respective workplaces. In most cases, the trainers3 had previously worked with FGYO and agreed with the choices and philosophy of the organization. They served as an interface in the FGYO project. As trainers, they help facilitate acceptance and adoption of the toolkit; they also organize training courses on its use and propose additional related activities, meaning they promote a conception of neighbouring languages/cultures in the realm of institutional early-childhood education. In this respect, their discourse was particularly interesting for our research since it involved re-compositions by those involved and these were necessarily incomplete given that the notion of interculturality is polysemic and even polemic.
The topic of interculturality is relevant to numerous fields including linguistics, anthropology, literature, the medical world, education and even applied geomatics and tourism (Gadal and Samsonova, 2014: 229). Its relevance in the field of language teaching means that there are endless possibilities for researchers to explore. The concept is understood differently in different geographical and sociological spheres and is referred to by terms as varied as Cultural Studies, multiculturalism and cultures, and can be imbued “with both English-style multiculturalism and French republicanism,” according to Vatz Laaroussi (2014: 269, translated here). It is in its reified, folklore-inspired side and through its association with the notion of nationalism that interculturality is most strongly contested in the scientific sphere (Dervin, 2014). Our observations adhere to a framework that opposes “differentialism-culturalism,” as criticized by Dervin (2009a), and an approach that embraces the “moving identity of a subject” (ibid., translated here).
In an attempt to be comprehensive, we will examine how the Valisette resource affects the views of teacher trainers involved in interculturality and Franco-German cooperation. So, how do French and German teacher trainers seize on the notion of interculturality as an approach to develop when using the FGYO play-based, educational toolkit? This question introduces the idea that it is indispensable to closely combine a multi-dimensional methodological and theoretical framework that allows interculturality to be objectified. We therefore wanted to examine the meanings that intermediary practitioners – i.e. teacher trainers – gave to the notion of interculturality. Our findings underscore that the methodological stakes are high. We do not intend to generalize, nor to overlook aspects that do not fit neatly into categories. Lavanchy, Gajardo and Dervin (2011: 13) have emphasized that methodological issues must consider “the exceptions, instabilities and misappropriations.”