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

Multilingua ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mari Bergroth ◽  
Åsa Palviainen
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Free Play ◽  
National Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
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. Representative dialogs were selected to illustrate the children’s agency in constructing and enacting bilingual and/or monolingual language policies. Our analysis shows, firstly, that official national language policies can be enacted in different ways depending on the wider practice structures of the site; and, secondly, that each bilingual child has a unique agency and an active role in the construction of not only the monolingual policy but also a bilingual policy within the frames of early childhood education and care.

Seeing through the metaphor: The OECD quality toolbox for early childhood

Semiotica ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (212) ◽  
pp. 97-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Farquhar ◽  
Peter Fitzsimons
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Creative Play ◽  
Government Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractThis paper explores the idea of metaphor as a persuasive device, using as an example a recent OECD publication purporting to be a quality toolbox for early childhood education and care. Leaving aside the problematic notion of quality, we argue that there is a serious problem with the idea of education as something that can be done with a toolbox, particularly in the formative stages of young children’s education. We suggest that the OECD selection of the toolbox as a metaphor is a way of inserting international economic imperatives into local government education policy, in ways that the citizenry is not aware of. As with any metaphor for education, the selection highlights some aspects while hiding others, a concealment that can’t be exposed by intensifying one’s gaze without a change in perspective. To examine the extent of what remains hidden by the toolbox, we engage in creative play with some different metaphors for education, arguing that particular metaphors may serve to obfuscate rather than clarify, an artifice that is not acceptable from a body as influential and far-reaching as the OECD.

scholarly journals Negotiating and appropriating the 'one person, one language' policy within the complex reality of a multilingual crèche in Strasbourg

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eloise Caporal-Ebersold ◽  
Andrea Young
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
The One ◽  
Children's Interests ◽  
The City

The aim of this article is to analyse the early childhood education and care (ECEC) language policy in the city of Strasbourg, focusing on an ethnographic case study of a newly established bilingual English–French crèche in the city. In France, establishing an early childhood education structure – more specifically, a day care centre catering to young children – involves close coordination with national, departmental, and local government entities. Associations that embark on this process go through a long administrative process. Taking this fact into consideration, we maintain that to understand the language policy in ECEC, it is imperative to examine the overlapping participation of different government entities and services from the national, regional, departmental, city, and local levels. Our data reveal that the conceptualization of the language policy at a newly created bilingual crèche structure was highly influenced by top-down language policies and pervading language ideologies. Yet, the crèche personnel needed to interpret, negotiate, and appropriate this policy in order to consider its feasibility and to take into account the children's interests and welfare within the normal functioning of this early years structure.

scholarly journals Young children as actors of institutional language policies and practices in day care centres

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-180
Author(s):  
Kevin Simoes Lourêiro ◽  
Sascha Neumann
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Day Care ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Structural Condition ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Language Practices ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Day Care Centres

AbstractAs children’s agency in influencing institutional language practices is often not carefully reflected in early childhood education curricula, the objective of this paper is to offer meaningful insights about how institutional language policies are both reproduced and transformed by children’s everyday use of language. For this purpose, we will combine conceptual resources from social theory, sociolinguistics and childhood studies in order to analyse children’s linguistic behaviour by applying a structure-agency perspective as a relational approach. Drawing on data from ethnographic field research within institutional day care centres in Luxembourg, our findings demonstrate that the status of children as actors in institutional language practices is strongly connected to institutional policies as a structural condition. However, this does not mean that children just enact these language policies, because they are actors of both maintaining, undermining and alternating them. In this respect, especially the translanguaging of children and caregivers plays a crucial role in the Luxembourgish context as it allows to build a bridge between the official institutional language policy and the individual linguistic repertoires. Considering the goal of establishing a plurilingual environment in early childhood education which now is paramount to the educational language policy of the Luxembourgish government, this article suggests that translanguaging practices should be considered as one of the key starting points to create a plurilingual ecology in and through everyday practice in the day care centres.

scholarly journals Using Images to Capture Faculty’s Beliefs About Play and Learning in Early Childhood Education and Care Settings

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marleah Blom ◽  
Miranda D'Amico
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Free Play ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Photo Elicitation ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Qualitative Research Study ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care

Findings are presented from a qualitative research study that used photo-elicitation methods to explore faculty members’ beliefs about play and learning for children in Early Childhood Education and Care environments when teaching preservice early childhood educators in recognized post-secondary Early Childhood Education programs in Canada. Participants believe that play is a vehicle for learning, advocate for children’s free play in Early Childhood Education and Care settings as well as express concerns about the decline of play in children’s lives. Implications of findings and the benefits of using images to elicit teacher beliefs in research will be discussed. Research on faculty members’ beliefs is limited and findings come at an opportune time as advocacy for play in the early years is needed.

Social Investment and Childcare Expansion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarita León
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Perfect Match ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
Conceptual Level ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care

The chapter first examines at a conceptual level the links between theories of social investment and childcare expansion. Although ‘the perfect match’ between the two is often taken for granted in the specialized literature as well as in policy papers, it is here argued that a more nuance approach that ‘unpacks’ this relationship is needed. The chapter will then look for elements of variation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) expansion. Despite an increase in spending over the last two decades in many European and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, wide variation still exists in the way in which ECEC develops. A trade-off is often observed between coverage and quality of provision. A crucial dividing line that determines, to a large extent, the quality of provision in ECEC is the increasing differentiation between preschool education for children aged 3 and above and childcare for younger children.

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