The Ideation, Naturalization, and Invisibilization of Discourses in Italy's Tracked Secondary Education: A Critical Scalar Account
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| Title: | The Ideation, Naturalization, and Invisibilization of Discourses in Italy's Tracked Secondary Education: A Critical Scalar Account |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Andrea R. Leone-Pizzighella (ORCID |
| Source: | Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication. 2025 44(6):729-753. |
| Availability: | De Gruyter Mouton. Available from: Walter de Gruyter, Inc. 121 High Street, Third Floor, Boston, MA 02110. Tel: 857-284-7073; Fax: 857-284-7358; e-mail: service@degruyter.com; Web site: http://www.degruyter.com |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 25 |
| Publication Date: | 2025 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Evaluative |
| Education Level: | Secondary Education |
| Descriptors: | Foreign Countries, Educational Policy, Secondary Schools, Secondary Education, Track System (Education), Social Class, Vertical Organization |
| Geographic Terms: | Italy |
| DOI: | 10.1515/multi-2024-0224 |
| ISSN: | 0167-8507 1613-3684 |
| Abstract: | The present paper analyzes the Discourses underpinning the tracked secondary education system in Italy through the lens of sociolinguistic scales (Blommaert 2007. Sociolinguistic scales. "Intercultural Pragmatics" 4(1). 1-19). Via an examination of education policy documents, historical accounts of policy discourse, classroom discourse data, ethnographic fieldnotes, ministerial websites, and literary texts, this paper considers how the "Discourse" of classism (with a capital "D", á la Gee 1990. "Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses, critical perspectives on literacy and education". London & New York: Routledge) which underlies the foundations of the tracked school system in Italy has gradually become naturalized and then 'invisible' (that is, hegemonic) as it has traveled through scales of political and social speech and texts ("discourse" with a lowercase "d"). This paper considers an alternative view of scales not as spatiotemporal spaces, places, or settings, but as types of metadiscursive labor (Carr 2006. "Secrets keep you sick": Metalinguistic labor in a drug treatment program for homeless women. "Language in Society" 35(05). 631-653). This paper also discusses the role of critique, drawing on Pietikäinen's (2016. Critical debates: Discourse, boundaries and social change. "Sociolinguistics: Theoretical Debates") concepts of emancipatory, ethnographic, and carnivalesque critique, in rendering visible and available for re-scaling the Discourses which become invisible over time. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Entry Date: | 2026 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1491647 |
| Database: | ERIC |
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