Session Information
Contribution
@font-face { font-family: "Times"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }
This paper highlights the use of ethnography in researching issues relating to home language maintenance in immigrant countries such as Australia. This paper is relevant to other immigrant countries including the 'new immigrant countries' such as Ireland, where issues aroung the maintenance of home language are often contested.
The particular focus of this research is on the maintenance of home language among families with young children. The context for the research was informal playgroups in Sydney. In Australia, some 40% of children reach school age without attending formal pre-schools. Aboriginal and immigrant groups are greatly overrepresented in this statistic. For these children, informal playgroups, funded from a range of government and non-government sources are important sites for learning. For children who speak a language other than English in the home, the playgroups also offer an opportunity to strengthen and support the use of the home language and connection to heritage cultures.
In the first part, the paper will briefly describe nature and significance of the informal sector in Australia and its importance for children who will enter school with no other prior to school experience. Secondly, in its main focus, the paper will draw on case studies based on six supported playgroups in Sydney. The families involved are from the Aboriginal, Tongan, Maori and Chinese speaking communities and include a mix of newly arrived and established families.
The ethnographic aspects of this study are highlighted and evaluated. The paper will focus particularly on the participatory aspects of this study, its duration and its focus on communities attempts to maintain or reclaim linguistic resources.
Using data from observations, interviews with mothers and carers as well as interviews with play-group workers, literacy specialists and community workers, this paper will examine the language-maintenance challenges facing these families and will examine home literacy practices that may not be recognized fully in school settings.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Blackledge, A. Creese, A. Baraç, T. Bhatt, A. Hamid, S. Li Wei, et al. (2008). Contesting language as heritage: Negotiation of identities in late modernity. Applied Linguistics, 29, 4, 533-533. Carspecken, P. (1996). Critical Ethnography in Educational Research: A Theoretical and Practical Guide. New York: Routledge/Falmer.Clarke, P. (2009). Supporting children learning English as a Second Language in the early years (birth to six years). Melbourne: Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority Cummins, J. (2008). Introduction to Volume5: Bilingual Education, in J.Cummins and N.H.Hornberger (eds) Encyclopedia of Language and Education, 2nd edition, Vol 5: Bilingual Education. New York: Springer, xiii-xxiii Dobrenov-Major, M. Kearney, J. Birch, G. & Cowley, T. (2004). Bridging the gap between home and school: The Samoan bilingual cultural maintenance program, Educating: Weaving Research into Practice, 2,13-21 Feinstein, L. (2003). Inequality in Early Cognitive Development of British Children in the 1970 Cohort. Economica, 70, 73-97 Gorinski, R. & Fraser, C. (2006). Literature Review on the Effective Engagement of Pasifika Parents & Communities in Education (PISCPL). Wellington: Ministry of Education Jones Diaz, C. & Harvey, N. (2007). Other words, other worlds: Bilingual identites and literacy, in L. Makin, C. Jones Diaz. C. McLachlan (eds) Literacies in childhood. Changing views, challenging practice. Sydney: Elsevier. Jones Díaz, C. (2006). Diaspora, hybridity and growing up bilingual in a globalized world. Paper at the Australian Association for Research in Education conference Dissent: Constructive Solutions. Parramatta: NSW 27th Nov -1st Dec. Tuwai-Smith, L. (1999). Decolonizing Methodologies. Research on Indigenous Peoples, London: Zed Books.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.