The perspective of raciolinguistics (Flores & Rosa, 2015) underlines the significance of considering race when researching language (use). In Germany, this theoretical perspective has only been applied recently and can be described as an innovation. Conceptualizations are recognizable especially in Education research, where the focus has largely been on the construction of raciolinguistic Others.

In my presentation, I discuss how former students were positioned and re-position themselves as speaking subjects in schools in Germany based on a retrospective interview study (Rühlmann, 2023). I found that (non-)racialized speaker positionalities are of relevance in how language use is (not) normalized, supported, or acknowledged in schools. These experiences shape speaker positionality and language use, with racialized former students having experienced ignorance, devaluation or even banning of languages. White interviewees, however, experienced support or normalization, marking them as the raciolinguistic norm. The results highlight the necessity of focusing in more detail on how listening positionalities shape language use in society and in schools specifically.

I argue that it is essential that constructions of raciolinguistic normality are analyzed in more depth. This approach emphasizes that every form of language use is embedded in powerful discourses, in which the “white listening subject” (Flores & Rosa, 2015) shapes (im-)possibilities of speaking and speaker positionality. I suggest spaces for critical (self-)reflection both in teacher education as well as in research processes in order not to solidify but to confront raciolinguistic ideologies.