Parents' and Children's Understanding of a Multilingual and an Intercultural Education

Author(s):

Barbara Gross(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

07. Social Justice and Intercultural Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

07 SES 05 B, Teachers' and Parents' Views on Multilingual and Intercultural Education

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-24

13:30-15:00

Room:

NM-G215

Chair:

Eunice Macedo

Contribution

Today, multilingual and intercultural education are an essential part of school curricula. Language diversity can be considered an important prerequisite for the success of intercultural education, as knowledge of another language can contribute to the understanding of different cultural practices and diverse cultural perspectives. It can also contribute to the development of respect, openness, acceptance of different ways of life and beliefs, inclusion and tolerance for cultural difference (Davis, 2004). Nevertheless, pupils need opportunities for interaction and communication to develop these social skills. The opportunity to communicate is an external factor which is often overlooked (De Angelis, 2014). Europeanisation and globalisation will increase the contact with people from other countries and this is something for which young Europeans have to be prepared. Language teachers certainly have a special role to play. As Jedynak (2011) indicated, pupils should be prepared for intercultural contacts and it is the role of schools to prepare them to develop attitudes, skills and knowledge. Therefore, schools have to promote multilingualism and interculturalism. But, what when institutions are - through divided school systems for ethnic groups - barriers for this promotion? In this paper an example of a border region within Italy (South Tyrol), which is characterised by a specific linguistic situation, living German (62 %) Italian (23,4), Ladin (4,1 %) and other language speakers (10,2 %) (ASTAT, 2011) together in a kind of 'parallel worlds', will be analysed. The South Tyrolean school system is distinctly marked by a multilingual language policy. The main aim of the language policy is to educate for a multilingual and multicultural society (Egger, 2001), although schools are divided in linguistic groups. In other words, South Tyrol has an entirely separate German, Italian and Ladin school system from kindergarten to the end of secondary school (Baur, Mezzalira, & Pichler, 2008). Engaging in intercultural education means encouraging a positive insertion of all students in schools and, therefore, in society (Fiorucci, 2015). Most teachers claimed for the need of multilingual schools in South Tyrol, where the prerequisite of different cultures living together is given. In past researches, second language teachers specified that the preconditions for success in language learning and the success of intercultural education are not given. An improvement requires changes in culture and school organisation (Baur et al., 2009). But, how do children and parents perceive a multilingual and intercultural education? This paper takes into account the internal diversity of a multilingual region as well as its historical and cultural complexity. It is aimed to understand how children perceive their reality in monolingual schools in multilingual societies, how they see other cultures and which changes they desire. In addition, the research aims to study if children's and their parents' understandings coincide.

The question is divided into four subareas:

1. How do children perceive the opportunity of learning languages and its connection with other cultures?

2. What type of understanding do children and parents have in regard to the relationship between culture and language?

3. Do the children's and parents' understanding of a multilingual and intercultural school coincide?

4. Do curricular and extra-curricular learning opportunities in relation to multilingualism and interculturalism complement each other?

Method

The perspective taken in this study is that of the child engaging with the researcher and co-constructing the meanings of the engaged field (Greene & Hogan, 2005). The study is based on 27 random-selected school classes in one Italian region, where different official languages co-exist. Half of them are German and half are Italian schools. Also the interviewed pupils from these classes were selected randomly. The schools which participated are located in rural areas as well as in cities, including the whole territory of the province. Participation was voluntary and the children understood that they could refuse to answer any question and terminate the interview at any time. Interviewees were informed about the purpose of the research. In addition they had assurance that the interview would not be shared with parents, classmates and teachers. 27 pupils participated individually in a semi-structured interview at their respective schools. The interviews were conducted in the pupils' native language. Consequently also their parents were interviewed. The interviews with parents - in some cases both parents wished to participate - were conducted at the respective school of their child or at university. Participants were asked questions about their experiences, attitudes, values and beliefs. Questions were often followed by additional questions to probe for detailed explanations. The researcher took detailed field notes and had the permission to tape-record the sessions. Interviews continued until the point of theoretical saturation was reached (Sandelowski, 2008). All interviews were recorded and subsequently transcribed. Simple transcripts (according to Kuckartz, Dresing, Rädiker, & Stefer, 2008) were used. Qualitative data analysis software (MAXQDA) was used to organise data. These data were analysed using the constant comparative method developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967; Strauss, 1987; Glaser, 1992).

Expected Outcomes

The study provides insights into pupils' and parents' perceptions of multilingualism and interculturalism. It could be observed that pupils often do not recognise the reality of other languages and cultures, if they have no contact and interaction with people from other cultures or people who speak other languages. Parents express the desire of a strengthened collaboration of the different school systems and of a greater exchange and communication with other cultures and languages. They recognise the importance of knowing other languages. Parents express the difficulties of schools in dealing with diversity. The results show that there is a lack of continuity in curricular and extra-curricular opportunities for children in relation to multilingual and intercultural education. As a result, an increased networking of curricular and extra-curricular learning possibilities could contribute to a less divided society.

References

Autonome Provinz Bozen-Sudtirol - Südtirol Landesinstitut für Statistik - ASTAT (Ed.). (2011). Volkszählung 2011. Censimento della popolazione 2011. Retrieved from www.provinz.bz.it/astat Baur, S., Civegna, K., Delfauro, K., Innerhofer, A., Karlegger, A., Keiner, E., & Plunger, N. (2009). Lehrer/innen zweiter Klasse?: Arbeitsbedingungen und Arbeitszufriedenheit von Lehrkräften im Fach Deutsch als Zweitsprache an italienischen Grundschulen Südtirols. Bozen/Bolzano: Bozen-Bolzano University Press. Baur, S., Mezzalira, G., & Pichler. W. (2008). La lingua degli altri. Aspetti della politica linguistica e scolastica in Alto Adige-Südtirol dal 1945 ad oggi. The Language of the Other. Aspects of Educational and Language Policies in South-Tyrol from 1945 to the Present Day. Milano: Franco Angeli. Davis, T. (2004). Speech to mark the 2004. European Day of Languages. Retrieved from http://www.languageswithoutlimits.co.uk/languagesplus.html De Angelis, G. (2014) A multilingual approach to analysing standardized test results: immigrant primary school children and the role of languages spoken in a bi-/multilingual community, Intercultural Education, 25:1, 14-28, DOI: 10.1080/14675986.2014.883167 Egger, K. (2001) Sprachlandschaft im Wandel. Südtirol auf dem Weg zur Mehrsprachigkeit. Bozen: Athesia. Fiorucci, M. (2015). The school and the Intercultural perspective. Pedagogia Oggi, 2, 77-90. Glaser, B. G. & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago: Aldine. Glaser, B. G. (1992). Emergence vs. Forcing. Basics of Grounded Theory Analysis. Mill Valley: Sociology Press. Greene, S., & Hogan, D. (2005,) Researching Children Experience: Approaches and Methods. London: Sage. Jedynak, M. (2011). The Attitudes of English Teachers Towards Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence. In J. Arabski, & A. Wojtaszek (Eds.), Aspects of Culture in Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Learning, Second Language Learning and Teaching [E-reader version, if applicaple] (pp. 63 - 77) doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-20201-8_6 Kuckartz, U., Dresing, T., Rädiker, S., & Stefer, C. (2008): Qualitative Evaluation – Der Einstieg in die Praxis. 2. Ed. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften Sandelowski, M. (2008). Theoretical saturation. In L. M. Given (Ed.), The Sage encyclopedia of qualitative methods (Vol. 1, pp. 875–876). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Strauss, A. L. (1987). Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Author Information

Barbara Gross (presenting / submitting)

Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy

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