Jean Conteh

Families, pupils and teachers learning together in a multilingual British city

Abstract This article focuses on multilingual primary-aged children and their families in a post-industrial city in England. Such pupils, sometimes identified in education policy as ‘underachieving’, often have rich experiences of learning that are hidden from their mainstream teachers and unrecognised in national assessment régimes. The article draws on the concept of ‘funds of knowledge’ and cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) to reveal the complex and continual interplay of the global and the local in the lives of the children and their families, and expose the tensions between the policy goals in education of promoting ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’. Findings from longitudinal case studies, using linguistic ethnography methodology, track the experiences of the pupils in home, community and mainstream and complementary schools, showing the range of their learning experiences across languages and cultures. They reveal the potential contributions of their home and community learning experiences to their success in the mainstream. This has important implications for policy and practice related to multilingualism in education in England. To understand the constructions of ‘official’ underachievement of children such as those in the study, we need to understand how they experience directly in their lives the outcomes of confused and sometimes contradictory education policies.

‘Safe spaces’? Sites of bilingualism for young learners in home, school and community

Abstract Drawing together the work of two researchers engaged in ongoing, longitudinal research with practitioners in early years and bilingual complementary settings, this article argues that bilingual learners in the early years need and are entitled to particular kinds of ‘safe spaces’ to succeed in their education. Historical and policy contexts, and the theories that underpin this stance are discussed, along with their implications for learning. The central argument is supported, and links are made across the contexts considered, by revealing vignettes from the research of the ways in which educators mediate languages and learning with young bilingual learners in home, community and educational settings. International comparisons are drawn. Implications for the professional roles and knowledge of educators, and for initial teacher education are made, with practical examples which synthesise the issues and illuminate the theoretical frameworks discussed.

Investigating pupil talk in multilingual contexts: socio-cultural learning, teaching and researching

This article is about a small-scale research project which aimed to investigate in one local authority (LA) in England some of the outcomes of the nationwide PNS/EMA (Primary National Strategy/Ethnic Minority Achievement) pilot project, begun in 65 LAs in England in January 2004. The research project itself was conducted in the summer term of 2006 by a university-based researcher and two EAL (English as an additional language) consultants, who had been working with schools in Bradford since 2004.

A multilingual learning community: Researching funds of knowledge with children, families and teachers

Abstract This article describes the learning which takes place between children, teachers and parents in a multilingual learning community. It centres on a community-based, supplementary/complementary Saturday class where – slightly differently from the usual pattern – the aim is not heritage language maintenance as such, but to enhance the pupils’ mainstream school learning and their chances for success by promoting a “bilingual pedagogy”. This recognises the funds of knowledge that the children bring to their learning and affords opportunities for them to use their home languages in their learning. The article is based on findings from ethnographic case study research, which traces the experiences of language and learning in the home, complementary class and mainstream school of twelve children who have attended the class regularly for at least a year, and often more. In order to illuminate the scope of the data as well as the tensions entailed from different perspectives, the article foregrounds the individual voices of participants in the research. The theoretical frameworks related to language and learning that explain the findings include ecological perspectives, funds of knowledge and the dimensions of time across the generations. The key argument of the article is that the multilingual learning community has grown from and links with the history of the community as a whole. The article ends with some conclusions in relation to mainstream education and implications for the future.

Children Learning Multilingually in Home, Community and School Contexts in Britain

Our chapter presents findings from ongoing, longitudinal, qualitative research with primary-aged children, their families and teachers in a post-industrial, multilingual city in the north of England. The children are all multilingual in languages including Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali, Polish, Slovakian and English, with Punjabi and Urdu as the predominant languages. They attend different mainstream schools, and all attend a complementary, bilingual Saturday class, begun in 2003 and currently funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. The complementary class teachers, themselves bilingual and qualified mainstream primary teachers, aim to promote the children’s learning through a bilingual pedagogy which includes working with their families to benefit from ‘funds of knowledge’ (Gonzalez et al., Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities and classrooms. Routledge, New York, 2005).

Teaching and learning as a socio-cultural process

The theme selected for this special issue of Education 3–13 is wide-ranging and important, with great relevance for research, policy and practice in primary education today. In this editorial, we trace its origins and highlight what we consider are some of its main developments. Following this, we indicate the ways in which the different contributors have developed the theme in their articles. Studies of teaching and learning which claim to be socio-cultural are many and varied. Their essential link, perhaps, is that they all attempt to reveal the complex relationships between ‘culture and cognition’ (Cole 1985, 146). But culture is a notoriously slippery concept. In understanding its effects on teaching and learning, Cole argues for recognition of the links between academic disciplines rather than dwelling on what divides them. He traces the origins of the socio-cultural approach from Vygotsky and his associates, who proposed that any higher psychological function appears twice:

Bilingualism in Mainstream Primary Classrooms

The author acknowledges the invaluable contributions of Safina Hussain and Ishrat Dad to the writing of this chapter.

From the Margins to the Centre: Multilingual Teachers in a Monolingual System: Professional Identities, Skills and Knowledge

This chapter considers multilingualism in the education system in England from the perspectives of multilingual professionals working in mainstream primary and secondary schools. The main argument is that multilingualism must be regarded as a pedagogic resource for teachers as well as learners in order to promote academic achievement for learners, professional recognition for teachers and social justice for all. Despite the huge changes in British society over the recent years, which have led to the ever-increasing numbers of ‘EAL’ (English as an additional language) pupils in mainstream schools, language diversity is still largely regarded as a ‘problem’ in education (Safford and Drury 2013). ‘EAL’ is the term used in policy to categorise those pupils in state-funded schools in England whose first language is other than English. The latest statistics show that the number of such pupils now surpasses 1 million, with 18.7 per cent of pupils in primary schools and 14.3 per cent in secondary schools categorised as EAL. Despite this, teacher expertise and confidence related to language and cultural diversity is still very limited. Moreover, the numbers of qualified multilingual, minority ethnic teachers have not really changed over recent years. The latest available figures (DfE 2014), which indicate ethnicity using National Census categories rather than language, show that about 12.5 per cent of teachers are not from ‘White British’ backgrounds, which is a crude indication at best. Since 2004, many skilled and experienced education practitioners have moved to the UK from EU accession countries. Because many lack accredited qualifications to become teachers, they currently fill low-status posts in schools. They are often given responsibility for EAL learners, but, in most settings, they do not have the professional status, nor the development opportunities to use their expertise to the fullest.