Educational encounters through food, drink, and Arabic

Abstract

This article investigates how food and drink may facilitate educational and relational encounters with Arabic-speaking adult students and open up possibilities for transpositioning (Hawkins & Tiwari, 2024; Li Wei & Lee, 2024) in adult basic education (ABE). Drawing on sensory ethnography (Pink, 2015), we analyze how food, drink, and communication across Arabic, Nordic languages, and English created joint emplacement and relational reciprocity in adult basic education settings in Finland and Norway. Adult students from South-West Asia and North Africa used educational spaces to act as teachers and hosts, in settings where they are often positioned as guests or even social clients. These encounters may allow for greater reciprocity than what is common in adult migrant education, as food and drink connect to transnational histories, affective and sociomaterial realities, and lived experiences.