Complementary Schools for Multilingual, Minority Ethnic Children in the UK: Policies and practices Li Wei Applied Linguistics & Communication Birkbeck College [email protected]
Mar 28, 2015
Complementary Schools for Multilingual, Minority Ethnic Children in the UK: Policies and practices
Li Wei
Applied Linguistics & Communication
Birkbeck College
Acknowledgement
“Investigating multilingualism in complementary schools in four communities” (ESRC, RES-000-23-1180): Angela Creese, Taskin Baraç, Arvind Bhatt, Adrian Blackledge, Shahela Hamid, Li Wei, Vally Lytra, Peter Martin, Chao-jung Wu, and Dilek Yağcıoğlu-Ali
History of CSs, including types and purposes of CSs
Policies regarding CSs Policies of CSs themselves Pedagogical, socio-cultural practices in CSs Issues for research and policy considerations
Terminology
Community Supplementary Heritage (Language) Complementary – voluntary organisations set up by
minority ethnic communities to provide education of their children outside the regular day school context. They complement, rather than replace, “mainstream” schooling.
The content of the teaching is “cultural” (language), not covering the full range of curriculum subjects.
History
Informal reports of home schooling for Black and other immigrant children in 50s
First “schools” were private collectives of families, providing literacy teaching.
1950s “Black” schools To tackle perceived underachievement of Black
children Taught by Black teachers – the role model issue Generally seen as a response to the failing of the
mainstream education system of minority ethnic children
Continued till today but on a much smaller scale, focussing on recent immigrants
Often associated with churches and community organisations
1970s Muslim schools Gender issue and sex education Beginning of Faith schools (for non-Christian
faiths) – equality issue
Huge public debate: i) truly democratic society should allow all types of schools to exist; ii) there has to be a common standard/norm for all schools; iii) if mainstream schools fully meet the needs of minority ethnic children, there would be no need for CSs
1997, official recognition of two Muslim schools (voluntary aided)
The vast majority of CSs are language and culture schools/classes
Over 2,000, varying in size and purpose
Key social network for the community Under-explored in terms of research
Policies regarding CSs
Who’s responsible for them? ContinYou: National Resource Centre for
Supplementary Education (England) “Community learning organisation”, a charity,
partially funded by the DCSF and by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation
No formal registration or inspection No funding going to CSs directly No formal teacher training programme
for CSs
CILT: National Centre for Languages The Language focus/bias Limited funding for activities
Individual communities have orgnisations for their own schools, but no national organisation for the schools across different communities
Problems: no sharing of good practice; fighting for the same, limited resource
CSs’ own policies
Purpose of CSs: language (esp. literacy) and cultural teaching
An alternative version of Monolingual ideology – OLON or OLAT
No recognition of Multilingual identities of the children
Do provide an important site for social interaction within the community
Typical set-up
Physical location varies Restrictions of use in rented premises A mixture of social service and
education Parents run, parents teach, parents pay
Practices
Language as Culture and Language as Heritage Textbooks usually imported from “home” countries;
contents not always appropriate for children in Britain Teachers share little social experience with the
children While insisting on the children speaking the ethnic
languages, they switch to English for explanation and classroom management – “translation as explanation method” (implications – power relations)
Pedagogical, socio-cultural issues
Whole class teaching; teacher centred; often gender segregated
Set textbooks Translation Nationalism through symbolic teaching – folk tales,
anthems, traditional drafts, dance and music, celebration of festivals
Tendency to teach standard, national languages only (linguistic hierarchies)
Contrasting versions of same historical events
How do the children respond?
The children normally have a good receptive ability in the ethnic languages and many can also speak the languages fluently when they want to
Most of them don’t read or write in the ethnic languages
They value CSs as an important social network, with peers of similar social background
In the meantime, they are a new generation of British citizens
They are multilingual and multicultural and want to be regarded as such!
They contest the various monolingual and unicultural identities imposed on them, by the wider society and by their own communities
They reject the monolingual ideologies in the classroom, some of the traditional pedagogical approaches, and some of the cultural contents of the teaching
Issues for research and policy
The role of CSs in identity development and community cohesion for the ethnic minority children
How are CSs connected with the “mainstream” education?
Public awareness of CSs; mainstream school teachers’ awareness
How mainstream school teachers react to their pupils attending alternative schooling.
How do the CSs themselves respond to changes in British society and globalisation (technology, economy, social changes in “home countries”)?
In terms of teaching and learning, what can CSs and mainstream schools learn from each other – many “underachieving” minority ethnic pupils are “high achievers” in CSs.
At the heart of debate over identity, community cohesion, citizenship, Britishness, globalisation
Thank you!