Collaboration Of Pre- And Primary School Teachers For An Integrated Language Education At The Transition From Pre- To Primary School

Author(s):

Tanja Salem(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

31. LEd – Network on Language and Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

31 SES 10, Teaching for Language Education

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-04

15:30-17:00

Room:

B006 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Ola Hendar

Contribution

At the beginning of the century, the German educational policy implemented (new) strategies to improve the educational opportunities of multilingual children with a migrant background. At first, there was a concentration on further developing early childhood education in German kindergartens (pre-schools) and primary schools with a focus on German language education. Another field of development was the transition from kindergarten to primary school.

One of the measures to increase the educational opportunities of children and adolescents (with a migrant background) was the model programme 'FörMig' (= supporting children and youth with a migrant background; 2004-2009; transfer phase 2010-2013), which was implemented in ten federal states in Germany and generated practice in “integrated and continuous language education” (ICLE), i.e. it combined the foci on (German) language education and transitions. The programme called attention to the major significance that 'academic language' (= Bildungssprache) has for learning throughout the education cycle (Gogolin et al., 2011). Meanwhile, the implementation of an ICLE is a nationwide (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge, 2010) and European educational aim (EUCIM-TE). The subject of my interdisciplinary, qualitative case study is the collaboration of pre- and primary school teachers for an ICLE at the transition from pre- to primary school.

Research on collaboration of pre- and primary schools and teachers is highly fragmented, and there is no research on the special case of collaboration of early childhood-practitioners for an ICLE. Thus, the study integrates and combines different theoretical perspectives. It is based on the discourse on educational equality from an intercultural education point of view (Gogolin/ Salem, 2014), that focuses on terms and conditions for an educational practice that is confronted with linguistic diversity and aims to respond to challenges that arise from this situation, without excluding certain groups of children. Also research from an ecological perspective of human development and biographical transitions (Bronfenbrenner/ Morris, 2006; Faust, 2008) is included. From this point of view, collaboration of pre- and primary school teachers serves to promote children’s skills and knowledge acquisition, but there are institutional as well as individual differences, e.g. the pedagogical orientations, which are supposed to hinder the collaboration. Moreover, research on networks and collaboration in the education system (Gräsel et al., 2006; van Santen/ Seckinger, 2003; Helsper 2006) is integrated. It points to the relevance of individual characteristics (e.g. knowledge and skills for collaboration itself and the subject of collaboration, pedagogical orientations) and institutional characteristics and conditions (such as the ‘institutional culture’ and structures) for collaboration. Likewise, (inter-) national research on the quality of the education system is taken into account (Holtappels, 2009; CoRe 2011). Here, inter-individual and inter-institutional collaboration are aspects of educational quality. In summary, it can be stated that collaboration is a multidimensional construct. Under which conditions which aspects of collaboration are important for an ICLE is an open question, which guides this study.

Thus, it focuses on individual characteristics, institutional environment and their interrelations. The research questions are: How do pre- and primary school teachers collaborate? Under which conditions do they collaborate? How good do they collaborate under these conditions?

The aim of this work is to find out which aspects of collaboration conduce to an ICLE in which way. Thereby, the study aims to extend the theoretical knowledge on collaboration of pre- and primary school teachers. Moreover, the results can provide concrete evidence for the implementation of an ICLE at the transition from pre- to primary school, which is not only relevant to Germany, but to other European countries with transitions through the educational cycle (Ahtola et al., 2011; EUCIM-TE).

Method

Against the theoretical background it seems appropriate to combine an inductive, subject centred approach with a deductive to take into account the existing empirical findings and hypothesis. Therefore both, quantitative and qualitative research methods were used (triangulation). Accordingly, existing quantitative questionnaires, questions for qualitative guided interviews, and frameworks for ethnographic observations were adapted (Abs et al., 2007; Kauffeld, 2001; von Bülow, 2011). The study took place in the context of a Hamburg based FörMig transfer project (17 participating schools and 28 kindergartens). Kindergartens and schools worked together in small, so called ‘development partnerships’ (up to four institutions). The sample was built following the approach of the maximum contrast. For this, I could draw on results of the project evaluation (Institute for Teacher Training and School Development Hamburg). Within the evaluation, both the language development of the children has been surveyed longitudinally, as well as the institutional development of the participating institutions (e.g. change of the educational concept/ the school programme). Thus, four cases (partnerships; pre- and primary school teachers; headmasters N=18) have been included: two ‘good’ partnerships in which the children showed the highest, and two ‘underachieving’ partnerships in which the children showed the lowest language learning progress compared to the average. The thesis behind using this approach is that the collaboration practices, individual and institutional characteristics in ‘good’ partnerships differ systematically from those in ‘underachieving’ partnerships. Sequence of data collection: After the acquisition of the partnerships 1) a questionnaire for the teachers was used to study the collaboration practices, attitudes towards collaboration and a continuous language education and competences of the practitioners. At the same time, headmasters received a questionnaire with the focus on institutional conditions for (inter-institutional) collaboration and ICLE. In the next step, 2) an ethnographic observation of a partnership meeting (each partnership) followed, considering objectives, contents, climate and interaction. Following this, 3), a qualitative guided interview with each practitioner and headmaster with the focus on the pedagogical orientations regarding collaboration and ICLE was lead to deepen, validate and correct (if necessary) the knowledge generated from the first two steps. This was followed by 4), another observation of a partnership meeting with the same foci, under the assumption that collaboration meetings are designed differently depending on the objectives etc.. The last step was 5) a communicative validation of the analysed interviews (structural content analysis, Mayring, 2010).

Expected Outcomes

Currently, the analysis is in progress. Therefore, a qualitative structural analysis is realised (Mayring 2010; Helsper/ Hummrich/ Kramer, 2010). Thus, e.g. descriptive results from the statistical analysis of the questionnaires will be triangulated with the results from the qualitative structured content analysis of the ethnographic observations. First results generated from the analysis of the guided interviews lead in one 'good' and one 'underachieving' partnership shows differences between these cases. In the good partnership, the pedagogical orientations of pre- and primary school teachers and headmasters, respectively highly overlap. They share the same aims regarding the education of children and regarding an ICLE. They know the language education practices, approaches and methods used in their partner institutions, they adopt methods, respectively and the collaborating practitioners have an equivalent status (pre-school teacher and primary school teacher, 'experts' in German language education). By contrast, the primary school teacher from the ‘underachieving’ partnerships draws a hard line regarding the functions of the respective institution and teachers. There is an imbalance regarding the commitment for the collaboration for an ICLE as well as a lack of knowledge of the respective language education practices, approaches and methods. Likewise, the school headmaster finds an ICLE important, but they tolerate the collaboration for it rather than they promote its implementation. Also, the collaborating practitioners have different status (one pre-school headmaster and a school teacher). It is expected that the ongoing analyses, which will be finished in spring 2014, can underpin and extend these first results. The results will contribute to extend the knowledge on the importance of different aspects of collaboration and to find out which conditions, individual and institutional characteristics and cooperation practices promote an ICLE at the transition from pre- to primary school, which is also relevant to European countries with transitions through the educational cycle.

References

Abs, Hermann Josef/ Diedrich, Martina /Sickmann, Helge /Klieme, Eckhard (2007): Evaluation im BLK-Modellprogramm Demokratie lernen und leben: Skalen zur Befragung von Schüler/-innen, Lehrer/-innen und Schulleitungen. Dokumentation der Erhebungsinstrumente 2006. – Frankfurt am Main. Ahtola, Annarilla/ Silinskas, Gintautas/ Poikonen, Pirjo-Liisa/ Kontoniemi, Marita/ Niemi, Pekka/ Nurmi, Jari-Erik (2011): Transition to formal schooling: Do transition practices matter for academic performance? In: Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 26, 3, S. 268-277. Bronfenbrenner, Urie/ Morris, Pamela A. (2006): The Bioecological Model of Human Development. In: Handbook of Child Psychology (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) 1: 793–828. Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (Hrsg.) (2010): Bundesweites Integrationsprogramm. Angebote der Integrationsförderung in Deutschland – Empfehlungen zu ihrer Weiterentwicklung. – Nürnberg. CoRe (2011): http://www.vbjk.be/en/node/3559 (1.2.2014) EUCIM-TE: URL: http://www.eucim-te.eu/32340 (1.2.2014) Faust, Gabriele (2008): Übergänge gestalten - Übergänge bewältigen. Zum Übergang vom Kindergarten in die Grundschule. In: Thole, Werner/ Roßbach, Hans-Günther/ Fölling-Albers, Maria/Tippelt, Rudolf (Hrsg.): Bildung und Kindheit. Pädagogik der Frühen Kindheit in Wissenschaft und Lehre. – Opladen, S. 225-240 Gogolin et al.(2011): Förderung von Kindern und Jugendlichen mit Migrationshintergrund FÖRMIG. Bilanz und Perspektiven eines Modellprogramms. – Münster. Gogolin, Ingrid/ Salem, Tanja (2014): Germany. In: Germany. In: Stevens, Peter/ Dwarkin, Gary (Eds.): The Palgrave Handbook of Race and Ethnic Inequalities in Education. - Palgrave. Gräsel, Cornelia/ Fußangel, Kathrin/ Pröbstel, Christian (2006): Lehrkräfte zur Kooperation anregen - eine Aufgabe für Sisyphos? Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 52 (2006) 2, S. 205-219. Helsper, Werner (2006): Kompetenzen von Lehrkräften – eine Fundierung von Lehrerarbeit? In: Hinz, Renate/ Pütz, Tanja (Hrsg.): Professionelles Handeln in der Grundschule. – Baltmannsweiler, S. 15-31. Helsper, Werner/ Hummrich, Merle/ Kramer, Rolf-Torsten (Hrsg.) (2010): Qualitative Mehrebenenanalyse. In: Friebertshäuser, Barbara/ Langer, Antje/ Prengel, Annedore (2013): Handbuch Qualitative Forschungsmethoden in der Erziehungswissenschaft. 4. Auflage. – Weinheim, S. 119-135. Holtappels, Heinz Günter (2009): Qualitätsmodelle – Theorie und Konzeptionen. In: Kamski, Ilse/ Holtappels, Heinz Günter/ Schnetzer, Thomas (Hrsg.): Qualität von Ganztagsschule – Konzepte und Orientierungen für die Praxis. - Waxmann, S. 11-25. Kauffeld, Simone (2001): Der Fragebogen zur Arbeit im Team (F-A-T). In: Zeitschrift für Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologie, 45 (1), S. 26-33. Mayring, Phillip (2010): Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Grundlagen und Techniken. 11., aktualisierte und überarbeitete Auflage. – Weinheim und Basel. Santen, Erik van/Seckinger, Mike (2003): Kooperation: Mythos und Realität einer Praxis. Eine empirische Studie zur interinstitutionellen Zusammenarbeit am Beispiel der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe. – München. von Bülow, Katrin (2011): Anschlussfähigkeit von Kindergarten und Grundschule. – Bad Heilbrunn.

Author Information

Tanja Salem (presenting / submitting)

University of Hamburg

Intercultural and International Comparative Education

Hamburg

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