Reflecting on the Provision for Equipping the School Workforce in England for a Multilingual School Population: Research Conducted with Experts

Author(s):

Dina Mehmedbegovic(submitting)Dina Mehmedbegovic(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2011

Network:

1. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 04 B, Considering Epistemology and Epistemic Beliefs

Paper Session

Time:

2011-09-14

08:30-10:00

Room:

JK 31/239,1 FL., 25

Chair:

Dina Mehmedbegovic

Contribution

England as a country with high rates of immigration has been addressing the issue of English as an Additional Language (EAL) since 1966. While in the 1960s the waves of immigration were linked to the Commonwealth ties and history, more recently the main influx of immigrants is from the countries of the European Union.

Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) in England mostly arrive in schools having had very little input, often one lecture, on working with EAL learners. In urban contexts such as London, Manchester, Birmingham they are likely to have majority of their lessons with highly multilingual learners. In such contexts their ITT (Initial Teacher Training) is a seriously insufficient preparation for the reality of many schools. This issue has been raised by NQTs themselves with the then TTA (Teaching Training Agency) (TTA NQTs survey, 2003). The Teaching Development Agency (TDA), TTA’s successor, has responded to these concerns by supporting the development of the Multiverse Website for NQTs which provides examples of good practice and relevant research findings. However, according to a NALDIC report existing training and support do not appropriately equip teachers: “Many class and subject teachers are struggling to offer the kind of language conscious pedagogy necessary to enable EAL learners to engage with the language and content of the curriculum.” (NALDIC, 2006).

For practitioners at the senior level and headteachers, the situation is somewhat similar. There is no compulsory EAL module in the NPQH (National Professional Qualification for Headship) training. Even though there is a compulsory module on racial and cultural diversity, again it cannot be taken for granted that multilingualism will be sufficiently covered. The data and evidence collected in a study with four London headteachers provides an insight in absence of professional development specifically addressing multilingualism (Mehmedbegovic, 2008). Securing sufficient input on multilingualism for future headteachers currently going through training and for existing heads through professional development is of vital importance in the system where headteachers have almost unlimited autonomy to decide how to utilise funds allocated to schools for bilingual children. London schools especially cannot afford a leadership vacuum in this area as without good leadership existing pockets of good practice in using first languages in the curriculum and supporting children to develop bilingually can easily be lost. This is a serious issue for the leadership of schools with multilingual pupil intake which need heads who will champion good practice that enhances acquisition of English and multilingualism.

In 2007, TDA envisaged an EAL Workforce Strategy encompassing all members of the teaching workforce across all key stages; those who have a classroom role (teaching and supporting learning), including EAL specialists and mainstream staff, as well as school leaders. The contract was awarded to a consortium led by the Institute of Education. Currently, with the change of Government and forthcoming cuts in the education budget, the future of this strategy is uncertain.

This paper reports on the research conducted with lead professionals in the field in preparations for the identification of key priorities and strategy development.

Method

The research was conducted with a group of lead professionals in the field, who were jointly identified by: the research team, TDA and a wider advisory group for this project. In this process the professional role, experience and peer recommendations were taken into account. As a result twelve lead professionals contributed in face to face semi structured interviews and an additional group of seven provided responses to interview questions in writing. The participants’ profiles covered a wide range of roles: teacher educators, researchers, representatives of relevant professional organisations, advisers at the national and local level, inspectors and academics contributing to the national policy development processes.

Expected Outcomes

There was a perception among interviewees that across the country there are fewer and fewer EAL specialists and that training a new cohort had become a pressing need. Not having enough specialist staff was perceived by one interviewed expert as undermining the principles of mainstreaming and inclusion: ‘Provision trickles down into schools to be a pale imitation of what is imagined by policy makers. Providing in-class support once a week to a new arrival is a prime example of mainstreaming EAL when the number of staff is insufficient to make that model efficient.’ This view was echoed by a number of other interviewees who talked about lack of staff to implement relevant National Strategy initiatives and cascade materials and models of good practice. Materials and strategies without a sufficient number of specialists to implement them were judged as insufficient for delivering the necessary transformation in practice. Raising the level of professional knowledge relevant to EAL children was identified as key to an appropriate use of available funding and long-term success of any local or national initiative. This research is highly relevant to all areas of the European Union receiving an increased influx of immigrants.

References

CILT (2006) Positively Plurilingual, CILT Report Council of Europe (2001) Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Council of Europe (2003) Action Plan for Language Learning and Language Diversity, Council of Europe Policy Documents, Brussels DfES (2000) National Secondary Literacy and Numeracy Strategy DfES (2002) National Languages Strategy DfES (2004) Charted London Teacher Standard DfES (2006a) Guidance on collection and recording of data on pupils languages Education Act, Section 11 (1966) Excellence in Schools (1997) White Paper Gillborn, D & Mirza, HS (2001) Educational Inequality: Mapping Race, Class and Gender, OFSTED, London London Challenge (2006) London‟s Key Issues Mehmedbegovic, D (2008) Leading increasingly linguistically diverse schools, Educate, Special Issue, October 2008 Vol 8, No 2, The Journal of Doctoral Research in Education, IOE, London NALDIC (2006) www.naldic.org.uk/docs/news/archive/news OfSTED (2001) Managing support for the attainment from minority ethnic groups, DfES, England Tossi, A & Leung, C (1999) Rethinking language Education: From a Monolingual to a Multilingual Perspective, CILT, London

Author Information

Dina Mehmedbegovic (submitting)

Institute of Education, University of London

London

Dina Mehmedbegovic (presenting / submitting)

Institute of Education, University of London, United Kingdom

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