Doing difference in early language teaching. An ethnographic study on differentiation and constructions of difference in inclusive German primary schools

The article is dedicated to the question of how spaces of possibility for diversity-sensitive differentiation are constituted in English lessons at German primary schools and how these are dealt with in terms of individual participation and involvement. The study is based on the DiEG research project, which investigates processes of differentiation and the construction of difference in early language teaching, using an ethnographic, reconstructive research approach. Results show that English lessons are characterised by a range of opportunities for differentiation, which enable pupils to participate in and individually approach the language and subject matter. At the same time, lessons are subject to constant fields of tension and antinomies that pervade the teaching process. They reveal spaces of possibility that are to be interpreted as a conditional structure of participation and belonging, which are always determined by the relational arrangement and positioning of the people involved.