Handan Çağlayan started in Diyarbekir and investigated how language is used by different Kurdish families in everyday life. Her study Same Home Different Languages based on field research does more than just show us under what circumstances Kurdish was passed from one generation to another; it also depicts how this process was interrupted.
In many ways, this study contributes significantly to the current political debates and the academic literature in this field.
First of all, Same Home Different Languages contributes to the literature on the subject in the sense that it presents the issue of native language in the context of Turkey and specifically in regards to the Kurdish language. The study approaches this subject not only from the perspective of education but also using a broader
framework incorporating relations with the other spheres of everyday life; it does not focus only on the consequences of the ban on the mother tongue but also presents which social, psychological, and political effects have occurred as a result of the interruption in the intergenerational transmission of language.
Another important feature of this work is the fact that it was prepared by listening to and documenting the voices of the people who are usually the object of debates around mother tongue. As a significant part of the studies on the subject of native language focus on the language policies of the state and how they are applied, they usually intentionally or unwittingly ignore or overlook the resistance and struggle against these policies. Handan Çağlayan, by discussing- ing how the long-term struggle of the Kurdish movement has been reflected in the sphere of language and what it has gained for Kurdish, brings the discussion on a mother tongue to the fair context which politically and historically discerns the truth. Along with this debate, she presents the political developments that have occurred during field research. They are important from the perspective of presenting the setting in which the debates on native language have taken place.
Moreover, the field research and interviews were conducted in different locations and addressed the situation of intergenerational use of language in villages, towns, and in the context of migration. A significant number of studies are conducted without considering the context of any place or with a particular focus on only one location. This study, however, presents a more comprehensive picture not limited to a single location as the interviews were conducted in villages, the poor neighborhoods of city centers and affluent districts at the same time; as well as with families who migrated to western Turkey because of war, the evacuations of their villages or for economic reasons.
The study approaches the subject of native language in everyday life also from the gender perspective contributing important data to the debate in this field. So far studies have failed to sufficiently analyze topics such as the use of language in the context of social classes and possible differences between users as well as the features of intergenerational language transmission in neighborhoods inhabited by families belonging to different social groups.