Bilingual children as policy agents : Language policy and education policy in minority language medium Early Childhood Education and Care

AbstractThe current study examines bilingual children as language policy agents in the interplay between official language policy and education policy at three Swedish-medium preschools in Finland. For this purpose we monitored nine Finnish-Swedish bilingual children aged 3 to 5 years for 18 months. The preschools were located in three different parts of Finland, in milieux with varying degrees of language dominance. The children were video recorded during their normal daytime routines in early childhood education and care. Three types of communicative situations were analyzed: an educator-led small group activity, free play with friends, and an activity in which one child was playing alone…

Language-aware operational culture : Developing in-service training for early childhood education and care

This study examines how practitioners of minority-medium Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Finland reflect on language awareness (LA) in their professional learning communities (PLCs). The study is conducted within in-service training for ECEC practitioners and it also highlights how these practitioner reflections can be of use and support developing future in-service training within the action research framework. The data include nine group discussions on a reflection task, with 41 primary participants and 165 secondary participants from each primary participant’s respective PLC. As a starting point, the researchertrainers identified six language-policy themes on LA in national …

The early childhood education and care partnership for bilingualism in minority language schooling : collaboration between bilingual families and pedagogical practitioners

Educational partnerships occur at the intersection of early childhood education and care (ECEC), families, and the surrounding community, and have been shown to play a significant role in student success rates in education. There is, however, a gap in research on the role and potential of ‘partnership’ in the case of bilingual families with children enrolled in monolingual minority language ECEC. This study aimed to fill this void by examining parental and practitioner discourses on partnership and on obligations, desires, abilities, and competencies involved in acting on a bilingual childhood in the context of monolingual minority ECEC. Parents in nine Finnish–Swedish bilingual families an…

Kaksikielisten lasten kielipoliittinen toimijuus päiväkodissa ja kotona

Kielipolitiikasta puhuttaessa unohtuu helposti lasten toimijuuden tarkastelu osana yhteisen kielipolitiikan luomista. Esittelen tässä artikkelissa 3–5-vuotiaiden lasten toimijuutta ja lasten toimintaympäristöjä. Artikkeli pohjautuu hankkeeseen, johon osallistuu yhdeksän kaksikielistä perhettä (suomi-ruotsi) ja kolme ruotsinkielistä päiväkotia. Tutkimuksessa keskitytään erityisesti lasten toimijuuteen kaksikielisessä kodissa ja ruotsinkielisessä päiväkodissa. Tarkastelen alla millä tavoin lapset muokkaavat ympäristönsä kielipolitiikkaa omilla valinnoillaan ja teoillaan. nonPeerReviewed

Språkpolicy vid svenskspråkiga daghem i Finland: tvåspråkiga barns handlingar och agens

The aim of this article is to examine communicative actions of nine Swedish-Finnish bilingual children enrolled in Swedish-medium early childhood education and care in Finland. We discuss the interplay between declared monolingual language policy, and the ideology of supporting the language background of the bilingual child. As a result we found a dual practiced language policy. With the agency and actions of bilingual children we could identify both monolingual policy being practiced, but also a bilingual policy being constructed at the same time. Neither of the practiced dual policies seemed to be explicitly resisted either by the children or the pedagogical practitioners. The communicati…

Relationships and linguistically sensitive teaching : Developing teacher practicum at Åbo Akademi University

Project “Linguistically sensitive teaching in all classrooms” (Listiac) aims to make an impact on initial teacher education systems in Europe through action research. In line with European policies, the seven partner countries including Finland, Spain (the autonomous Basque country and Catalonia), Belgium, France, Slovenia, Lithuania and Portugal work together in providing competences and skills needed for handling linguistic diversity in our schools. Diversity education has been regarded nearly everywhere as an isolated ‘add-on’ course or study module (EC 2017). Thus, it has remained insufficiently mainstreamed as an integrated component of teaching practice. Listiac addresses this imbalan…

Parental discourses of language ideology and linguistic identity in multilingual Finland

Finland is officially a bilingual country but it is in practice multilingual. In the current study, we examined how mothers and fathers of mixed-language families linguistically identified themselves and others, and how ideological discourses and concepts historically and socially situated in Finland circulated through the parents’ talk. The parents of three families in which at least Finnish, Swedish and English were used on a daily basis were interviewed. A discourse nexus approach showed that the concept of ‘mother tongue(s)’ played a central role and that although all family members were in practice multilingual, there was a strong tendency across the couples to identify themselves and …

Kaksisuuntaista kieleen sosiaalistumista kaksikielisissä perheissä

The present study focuses on the language socialization of parents in six bilingual families. The aim is to investigate how parents describe their linguistic identity and what kinds of changes over time can be traced in these identities. The present study is part of a wider ethnographic project which aims to deepen our understanding of how conceptions of language, bilingualism and bilingual development are manifested and negotiated in different situations and by different stakeholders in Finnish-Swedish bilingualism in Finland. The analysis identifies four major categories of bilingualism: language identity, realization, expanding language skills and frustration. The results show that child…

Kielitietoista eurooppalaista opettajankoulutusta kehittämässä : projektet ”Språkmedveten undervisning i alla klassrum”

By assuring equal conditions to all students, they can achieve educational success, regardless of their first language, culture, social background, origin and age. This is the aim of the project Linguistically sensitive teaching in all classrooms (Listiac); we believe in supporting all teachers in becoming more linguistically sensitive to enable opportunities for equally successful schooling for all students in Europe. An important part of the process is to influence European initial teacher education curricula; we believe that reflection about and awareness of linguistically sensitive teaching should be better integrated during all stages of initial teacher education. The reflection should…

Reforming the national core curriculum for bilingual education in Finland

This article explores the discourses surrounding the act of writing Section 10 Bilingual education in the new Finnish national core curriculum, which will be implemented in 2016. This section will set the parameters for programs that integrate language and content learning, where a minimum of two languages are used for instruction in content subjects. The main research questions discussed in this article are how and why certain discourses are expressed, or left unexpressed, in the final draft version of the curriculum. The data for qualitative analysis consists of participatory observations and minutes of meetings in the working group assembled for writing the draft.

Svenskan i Finland 16

Kieli-, kulttuuri- ja katsomustietoisuus koulutuksen ja kasvatuksen kentällä