Applied Linguistics Research and Good Practices for Multicultural and Multilingual Classrooms 1536196118, 9781536196115

Table of contents :
Contents
Introduction – Supporting and Empowering Multilingual and Multicultural Classrooms
References
Chapter 1
Educational Practices in Multicultural and Multilingual Preschools in Iceland and Partnerships with Parents
Abstract
Introduction
Theoretical Framework
Educational Practices in Multicultural and Multilingual Contexts
Educational Partnerships of Schools, Families and Communities
Methodology
The Preschools
Findings
Multicultural and Multilingual Practices in the Preschools
Multilingualism at Home
Educational Partnerships of Parents, Preschools and Community
Discussion
References
About the Author
Chapter 2
Pre-Service Primary School Teacher’s Preparedness to Work in a Multilingual Environment
Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Results
NHL Stenden Bachelor’s Program “International Teacher Education for Primary Schools”
Ukrainian Professional Standard for the “Primary School Teacher” (2018)
Matrix of the Primary School Teacher Preparedness to Work in the Multilingual Environment
Discussion
References
About the Authors
Chapter 3
The Hidden Curriculum in Multicultural and Multilingual Classrooms
Abstract
Introduction
Theoretical Perspectives
The Concept and Function of ‘Hidden Curriculum’
Methodology
Data and Method
Results
Observation Tool Results
Questionnaire Results
Discussion
Conclusion
References
About the Authors
Chapter 4
Raising Language Awareness and Intercultural Sensitivity in Mixed Classrooms
Abstract
Introduction
Theoretical Framework
The Project
Aims and Objectives
Participants
Procedures
Activity 1: How to Say ‘Goodmorning’/’Hello’ in Other Languages
Activity 2: The Language Quiz
Activity 3: Find the Language of the Song
Activity 4: Proverbs in Many Languages - Guess the Greek Proverb
Closing Activity
Conclusion
References
About the Authors
Chapter 5
Supporting Teachers in Refugee Children’s Education
Abstract
Introduction
Theoretical and Evidence-Based Foundations of the Teacher Education Program
The Content of Teacher Education
The Process of Teacher Education
Enacting Spaces for Transformative Shifts in Teacher Thinking and Practice
Discussion
References
About the Author
Chapter 6
The Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP) of UNICEF for Teaching History in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classrooms in Greece
The Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP) of UNICEF
Educational Needs of the Target-Group
Methods Used for the Development of the Educational Material
Pilot-Testing of the Teaching Material
Discussion
References
About the Authors
Chapter 7
Language Diversity in Class: The Case of Dialectal Variation
Abstract
Introduction
Dialectal Variants and Linguistic Diversity
Studies on the Role and Value of Dialects
Organizing the Teaching of Geographical Varieties: The Case of the Dialect of Crete
Synopsis
References
About the Author
Chapter 8
Translanguaging in Multilingual Classrooms in Cyprus
Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Participants
Materials and Procedure
Results
Discussion
References
About the Author
Chapter 9
Translanguaging as a Pedagogical Practice in Primary Education: Approaching, Managing and Teaching Diverse Classrooms
Abstract
Introduction
Towards an Understanding of Translanguaging
Translanguaging and Intercultural Communication
The Project
Rationale of the Project
Implementation Procedures
Knowledge Process 1: Experiencing
Stage 1. Experiencing the Known
Stage 2. Experiencing the New
Knowledge Process 2: Conceptualizing
Stage 1. Conceptualizing by Naming
Stage 2. Conceptualizing with Theory
Knowledge Process 3: Analyzing
Stage 1. Analyzing Functionally
Stage 2. Analyzing Critically
Knowledge Process 4: Application
Stage 1. Applying Appropriately
Stage 2. Applying Creatively
Findings
Participants
Pre- and Post- Language Assessment
Teachers’ Journal
Students’ Portfolios
Indicative Students’ Works
Indicative Work 1. The Albanian Travel Agent!
Indicative Work 2. A Craft for Thought
Discussion
References
Chapter 10
“We Should Not Bury Our Language by Our Hands”: Crafting Creative Translanguaging Spaces in Higher Education in the UAE
Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Participants, Research Questions and Method
Findings
References
About the Authors
Chapter 11
The Socialization of Students in the EFL Classroom according to Their Cultural and Religious Background
Abstract
Introduction
Literature Review
Methodology
Data Analysis
Students’ Findings
Social Competence in the EFL
Religio-Cultural Material in the EFL
Students and Social Inclusion
Teachers’ Findings
Social Competence and Social Inclusion in the EFL
Religio-Cultural Material in the EFL
Discussion
Students’ Attitudes
Teachers’ Attitudes
Conclusion
References
About the Authors
Index
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LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS

APPLIED LINGUISTICS RESEARCH AND GOOD PRACTICES FOR MULTICULTURAL AND MULTILINGUAL CLASSROOMS

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LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS Additional books and e-books in this series can be found on Nova’s website under the Series tab.

LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS

APPLIED LINGUISTICS RESEARCH AND GOOD PRACTICES FOR MULTICULTURAL AND MULTILINGUAL CLASSROOMS ISAAK PAPADOPOULOS AND

SMARAGDA PAPADOPOULOU EDITORS

Copyright © 2021 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic, magnetic, tape, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the Publisher. We have partnered with Copyright Clearance Center to make it easy for you to obtain permissions to reuse content from this publication. Simply navigate to this publication’s page on Nova’s website and locate the “Get Permission” button below the title description. This button is linked directly to the title’s permission page on copyright.com. Alternatively, you can visit copyright.com and search by title, ISBN, or ISSN. For further questions about using the service on copyright.com, please contact: Copyright Clearance Center Phone: +1-(978) 750-8400 Fax: +1-(978) 750-4470 E-mail: [email protected].

NOTICE TO THE READER The Publisher has taken reasonable care in the preparation of this book, but makes no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of information contained in this book. The Publisher shall not be liable for any special, consequential, or exemplary damages resulting, in whole or in part, from the readers’ use of, or reliance upon, this material. Any parts of this book based on government reports are so indicated and copyright is claimed for those parts to the extent applicable to compilations of such works. Independent verification should be sought for any data, advice or recommendations contained in this book. In addition, no responsibility is assumed by the Publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property arising from any methods, products, instructions, ideas or otherwise contained in this publication. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered herein. It is sold with the clear understanding that the Publisher is not engaged in rendering legal or any other professional services. If legal or any other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent person should be sought. FROM A DECLARATION OF PARTICIPANTS JOINTLY ADOPTED BY A COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION AND A COMMITTEE OF PUBLISHERS. Additional color graphics may be available in the e-book version of this book.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data ISBN: H%RRN

Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. † New York

CONTENTS Introduction – Supporting and Empowering Multilingual and Multicultural Classrooms Isaak Papadopoulos and Smaragda Papadopoulou Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Educational Practices in Multicultural and Multilingual Preschools in Iceland and Partnerships with Parents Hanna Ragnarsdóttir Pre-Service Primary School Teacher’s Preparedness to Work in a Multilingual Environment Olga Kotenko and Tetiana Holovatenko The Hidden Curriculum in Multicultural and Multilingual Classrooms Mary Koutselini and Sylvana Savva Raising Language Awareness and Intercultural Sensitivity in Mixed Classrooms Aspasia Chatzidaki, Dionysia Kontogianni, Theodosia Michelakaki and Paraskevi Thomou

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1

19

39

55

vi Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Index

Contents Supporting Teachers in Refugee Children’s Education Sofia Avgitidou

77

The Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP) of UNICEF for Teaching History in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classrooms in Greece Aikaterini Arampatzi, Panayotis Gatsotis, Anastasios Matos and Despina P. Papadopoulou

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Language Diversity in Class: The Case of Dialectal Variation Marina Tzakosta

113

Translanguaging in Multilingual Classrooms in Cyprus Sviatlana Karpava

131

Translanguaging as a Pedagogical Practice in Primary Education: Approaching, Managing and Teaching Diverse Classrooms Isaak Papadopoulos “We Should Not Bury Our Language by Our Hands”: Crafting Creative Translanguaging Spaces in Higher Education in the UAE Telma Gharibian Steinhagen and Fatma Said The Socialization of Students in the EFL Classroom according to Their Cultural and Religious Background Georgia Liassa and Vasilios Zorbas

147

169

185 203

In: Applied Linguistics Research … ISBN: 978-1-53619-611-5 Editors: Isaak Papadopoulos et al. © 2021 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

INTRODUCTION – SUPPORTING AND EMPOWERING MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL CLASSROOMS Isaak Papadopoulos1 and Smaragda Papadopoulou2 1

Center of Greek Education, Greece 2 University of Ioannina, Greece

Within a diverse world, classrooms with diversity are not considered to be a major challenge, especially when researchers and teachers are making a joint attempt to accommodate this diversity of skills, competences, knowledge, expertise, feeling, languages and cultures. Not only does current research show that linguistic and cultural diversity is welcomed in modern classrooms of the 21st century, but it also underlines that this type of diversity is promoted and further used as an important tool facilitating learning and communication. To put it in another way, teachers and researchers internationally seem to have placed this diversity at the center of their attention and this book is only an example of best practices and pieces of research around the world towards supporting such classrooms which have been seen as cross-roads of languages and cultures.

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This context of linguistic and cultural diversity has intensified the need for developing students intercultural competencies, which may be of vital important later on. Indeed, within a globalized world, education at school is and should be combined with providing students with ample opportunities for discovering the “other” while interacting with it directly or indirectly in a supportive and encouraging environment. Especially, in such culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms, students need to be equipped with intercultural competencies as well as linguistic competencies that will facilitate their co-existence, interaction and collaboration with classmates from other countries. In particular, current literature underlines the need to raising even from an early age, students’ intercultural awareness, which is related to the ability of a person to understand similarities and differences of others’ cultures, underlining the importance of mutual understandings even from a superficial perspective (Papadopoulos, 2020), intercultural sensitivity, which refers to the emotional desire of a student to acknowledge, appreciate, and accept cultural differences (Fritz et al., 2002). Promoting collaboration and communication within linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms entails promoting students' ability to develop, maintain and modify interdependent relationships to achieve their goals (Kreijns, 2004). There are many actions that can be taken by teachers to promote students' intercultural competence. Teaching should focus on encouraging students to interact appropriately and effectively in multicultural contexts, to develop intercultural skills and intercultural communication skills, including: (i) communication as a tool for building social/cultural identity through message negotiation; and ii) communication as a transmitter of cultural and social relations (Chen, 2014; Ward, et al., 2011). Nevertheless, students 'language and communication difficulties are likely to greatly limit the effectiveness of group members' interaction, which can make it difficult to develop the relevant interpersonal skills of groups (Baker & Clark, 2010). In the context of classes with linguistic and cultural diversity, each student brings to the classroom different ways and practices of literacy, approaches/ways of working and different perspectives/

Introduction

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worldviews, which can be reasons for stimulating various misinterpretations and/or conflicts. According to Bernaus (2007), intercultural skills are not limited to the socio-emotional and linguistic-communication aspects related to a person's willingness to participate in a conversation with another speaker but also to the effective use of experiences and knowledge of specific cultural elements. In fact, intercultural competence also covers the areas of learning strategies and interaction management. The first area deals with the ability to apply the necessary techniques for communication management. The second relates to language contact situations in which speakers use different language codes and utilize strategies appropriate to manage communication and communicate their message effectively in linguistic events characterized by linguistic and cultural diversity. Therefore, the need to use intercultural communication strategies is evident in the speakers' contact with people from other cultural backgrounds. According to the current literature, various strategies are used during interactions with speakers of other languages and cultures. Within such a context, with the development of such strategies, people develop and strengthen their intercultural profile and intercultural behavior, which will facilitate their daily interaction with people in this diverse context. Thus, this particular book has been developed to cover various aspects of approaching and supporting multilingual and multicultural classrooms. In particular, through a selection of 11 chapters, an attempt is made to shed light into experiences in the field. In the first chapter “Educational practices in multicultural and multilingual preschools in Iceland and partnerships with parents”, Hanna Ragnarsdottir attempts to provide a detailed exploration of diverse educational practices in multicultural and multilingual settings in Icelandic preschools focusing on the way such practices create contexts and spaces of social justice for diverse learners. Supplementarily, the author investigated the way the under-research preschools communicate with parents with regard to their heritage language practices and placing special emphasis on the opportunities and the challenges that are related to the relationship between school and home environment.

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Olga Kotenko and Tetiana Holovatenko, in their chapter “Pre-service primary school teacher’s preparedness to work in a multilingual environment” make a preliminary attempt to shape the structure of preservice primary school teachers’ preparedness to work in the multilingual environment, having distinguished the following criteria of the primary school teacher preparedness: motivational, reflexive, functionally-operative, and cognitive criteria. Mary Koutselini and Sylvana Savva in their chapter “The hidden curriculum in multicultural and multilingual classrooms” provide a detailed description of a study related to the multicultural and multilingual context of the primary education in Cyprus. The authors focus on the hidden curriculum, its forms and outcomes in one elementary school in Cyprus with 342 students with a migrant background. In the following chapter “Raising language awareness and intercultural sensitivity in mixed classrooms”, Aspasia Chatzidaki, Dionysia Kontogianni, Theodosia Michelakaki and Paraskevi Thomou provide a thorough description of an intercultural education programme which was implemented by faculty members of the Departments of Primary and Preschool Education of the University. The project was organized on the occasion of the European Day of Languages (26 September) and the International Mother Tongue Day (20 February) and aimed at promoting and celebrating multilingualism and interculturalism in education and society. Sofia Avgitidou in her chapter “Supporting teachers in refugee children’s education” provides a reflective and descriptive account of a teacher education program addressed to refugee children in Greece. The author focuses on and describes the content, the processes and the outcomes of a specific module of this teacher education program placing special emphasis on the effective strategies and policies for the social inclusion of refugee children. In the following chapter “Accelerated learning programme (ALP) of UNICEF for teaching history in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms in Greece”, a group of scholars, Aikaterini Arampatzi, Panayotis Gatsotis, Anastasios Matos and Despina P. Papadopoulou, dealt with the development of new teaching material for teaching the subject of History to

Introduction

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refugee students of 13-15 years old. An attempt was made by the research to develop user-friendly, flexible, and multimodal teaching material based on innovative approaches/methods such as Content & Language Integrated Learning, Differentiated Learning, Easy-to-read, Social Constructivism and the “Big Six” historical concepts model. Marina Tzakosta in her chapter “Language diversity in class: the case of dialectal variation” places dialects in the context of linguistic diversity underlining the danger of their linguistic death. Meanwhile, she suggests that systematic exposure of dialects play an important role in language education as vehicles of cultural heritage and cultivation of linguistic awareness Sviatlana Karpava, in her chapter “Translanguaging in Multilingual Classrooms in Cyprus”, presents a multidimensional study conducted with the purpose to investigate the translanguaging practices of students and teachers in multilingual classrooms in Cyprus focusing also on classroom discourse and communication patterns. The author followed a mixedmethod approach and carried out her research on students at the communitybased Russian heritage language school in Cyprus. In the chapter titled “Translanguaging as a pedagogical practice in primary education: approaching, managing and teaching diverse classrooms”, Isaak Papadopoulos presents an educational project implemented on a multilingual classroom of students coming from Balkan countries. In particular, the project aimed at developing students’ skills in Greek language as well as raising their cultural awareness of the Greek culture and the cultures of these students’ countries of origin, making use of translanguaging as a pedagogical practice which facilitate both teaching and learning procedures. Telma Gharibian Steinhagen and Fatma Said in their chapter “We should not bury our language by our hands: Crafting creative translanguaging spaces in Higher education in the UAE” provide a detailed description of an intervention in UAE higher education classrooms. They focus on translanguaging spaces within a context where undergraduate students are offered academic papers in English and Arabic and are provided the space to learn information through their languages.

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Georgia Liassa and Vasilios Zorbas, in their chapter “The socialization of students in the EFL classroom according to their cultural and religious background” attempted to investigate the views and attitudes of English teachers and students in public primary schools in Greece with a focus on the incorporation of religio-cultural material, seeing socialization strategies and religion as a cross-cultural and cross-thematic approach to English language teaching.

REFERENCES Baker, T., & Clark, J. (2010) Cooperative learning: A double edged sword: A Co- operative learning model for use with diverse student groups. Intercultural Education, 21(3), 257-268. Bernaus, M. (2007). Plurilingual and Pluricultural Awareness in Language Teacher Education: A Training Kit (Vol. 253). Council of Europe. Chen, G.Μ. (2014). Intercultural Communication Competence: Summary of 30-year Research and Directions for Future Study. In X. Dai, & Ch. Guo-Ming. (Eds.). Intercultural Communication Competence Conceptualization and its Development in Cultural Contexts and Interactions (pp. 14-40). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Fritz, W., Möllenberg, A., & Chen, G.M. (2002). Measuring intercultural sensitivity in different cultural contexts. Intercultural Communication Studies, 11(2), 165-176. Kreijns, K. (2004). Sociable cscl environments: Social affordance sociability and social presence. Educational Technology Expertice Center (OTEC). Maastricht: Open University. Papadopoulos, I. (2020). From translanguaging pedagogy to classroom pedagogy: Supporting literacy, communication and cooperative creativity. Thessaloniki: Disigma Publications Ward, C., Wilson, J., & Fischer, R. (2011). Assessing the predictive validity of cultural intelligence over time, Personality and Individual Differences, 51, 138-142.

In: Applied Linguistics Research … ISBN: 978-1-53619-611-5 Editors: Isaak Papadopoulos et al. © 2021 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 1

EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES IN MULTICULTURAL AND MULTILINGUAL PRESCHOOLS IN ICELAND AND PARTNERSHIPS WITH PARENTS Hanna Ragnarsdóttir* University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland

ABSTRACT The aims of the study are to explore diverse educational practices in multicultural and multilingual settings in Icelandic preschools and how these practices create contexts and spaces of social justice for diverse learners. Furthermore, to explore how these preschools communicate with parents about their heritage language practices and what opportunities and challenges home-school relationships bring for the children. The theoretical framework includes writings on diverse culturally and linguistically responsive educational practices (Banks, 2013; ChumakHorbatsch, 2012; Cummins, 2004; Gay, 2010; Nieto, 2010). Data was collected in 2020 in semi-structured interviews with teachers, parents and * Corresponding Author’s E-mail: [email protected].

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Hanna Ragnarsdóttir principals in three preschools in different areas of Iceland. The findings indicate that diverse educational approaches and practices are implemented in the three preschools but that these are mostly led by dedicated individuals rather than being organized and implemented overall in the preschools. This creates some challenges and results in different educational contexts being developed for diverse children, where children have different opportunities. Furthermore, although many of the parents are dedicated in supporting their children’s learning and apply diverse methods at home for teaching and educational support, there is a lack of systematic communication between the preschools and homes in bridging between educational practices. In conclusion, the children would benefit from a more thorough home-school cooperation and communication of educational practices as well as a more structured overall organization of practices within the schools.

Keywords: multiculturalism, multilingualism, preschool education

INTRODUCTION The population of Iceland has become increasingly diverse in recent decades in terms of languages and backgrounds. The ratio of non-Icelandic citizens to the total population of 364,134 (Statistics Iceland, 2020a), was 13.5 per cent in 2020 (Statistics Iceland, 2020b). The diversification of Iceland’s population is reflected in student populations at all education levels. Thus, in 2019, 14.5% of all preschool children had heritage languages other than Icelandic (Statistics Iceland, 2020c). The backgrounds of the population and heritage language groups in Iceland are diverse (for more detail, see Statistics Iceland, 2020d). Preschools in Iceland are defined as the first school level and operated by municipalities. Children start preschool on average at the age of 1 to 2 until the age of 5 or 6 and most children in Iceland attend preschools. Educational policies and curriculum guides in Iceland emphasize equity and inclusion. A fundamental principle of the Icelandic education system is that everyone must have equal access to education irrespective of sex, economic status, geographic location, religion, disability, and cultural or social background. The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (n.d.) issued

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National Curriculum Guides for preschools, compulsory schools, and upper secondary schools in 2011. Six fundamental pillars underpin educational policy in the National Curriculum Guides on which the curriculum guidelines are based. These are literacy, sustainability, health and welfare, democracy and human rights, equality, and creativity. Each of these pillars derives from the acts on preschool, compulsory school, and upper-secondary school. Literacy, democracy and human rights, and equality are all related to multiculturalism and multilingualism. The aims of the study are to explore diverse educational practices in multicultural and multilingual settings in Icelandic preschools and how these practices create contexts and spaces of social justice for diverse learners.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The theoretical framework of the study includes writings on educational practices in multicultural and multilingual contexts, as well as educational partnerships of schools, families and communities.

Educational Practices in Multicultural and Multilingual Contexts The main theoretical focus of this study is critical multiculturalism, multicultural and multilingual education and culturally responsive pedagogy (Banks, J. A. 2013; Cummins, 2004; Gay, 2010; Nieto, 2010). According to James Banks (2013) and Sonia Nieto (2010), educational systems generally and schools particularly need to critically address inequalities and ensure voice, dialogue, equality, empowerment and social justice for their individual students and teachers. Culturally responsive teaching entails building on and using the frames of reference, prior experiences, cultural knowledge and performance styles of diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to, meaningful and effective for them (Gay, 2010). This entails that teachers implementing culturally

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responsive teaching have a holistic approach towards the child rather than focusing on a limited ability of the child or his or her deficit. Related to these are approaches of bi- and multilingualism for individuals and societies which have been explored and discussed by many scholars (ChumakHorbatsch, 2012; Cummins, 2004; García & Wei, 2014; Ragnarsdóttir & Schmidt, 2014). Cummins (2001) a prominent scholar in the area of bilingualism claims that in order to create learning spaces that respond to the needs of linguistically and culturally diverse groups of children and their families, schools need to develop ways to implement inclusive and socially just practices where diverse backgrounds and identities are welcomed. Chumak-Horbatsch (2012) similarly argues that monolingual practices implemented in multilingual settings silence immigrant children’s voices, often with serious consequences. Children quickly feel and understand that their language has no meaning, is sometimes not allowed and that their way of speaking is less important than that of the children speaking the majority language of the preschool. Chumak-Horbatsch notes that inclusive linguistic practices are needed to enhance the learning of all children in linguistically and culturally diverse learning contexts. Such practices focus on multilingual, multiliterate and multicultural lives of children on a daily basis and provide language and literacy materials in the home languages while maintaining close cooperation with parents. The parents of many young children wish for them to learn the new or majority language while developing and expanding their home language and literacy (ChumakHorbatsch 2012). Devarakonda (2013) has similarly maintained that it is important that children in early childhood settings and their parents are encouraged to be firmly rooted in their own culture and/or bicultural. She claims that in order to develop inclusive practices, it is important to build on children’s prior experiences and knowledge.

Educational Partnerships of Schools, Families and Communities As school communities in many countries become increasingly diverse, scholars argue that there is an urgent need to respond to this diversity and

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reach out to parents to support bilingualism and multilingualism of families. This includes developing inclusive multicultural and multilingual practices in schools. Furthermore, active educational partnerships of schools and immigrant families are likely to counteract their marginalization (Ragnarsdóttir, 2018). However, these partnerships must take into account the diversity of families. Robinson and Díaz (2006) warn against positioning children and families within discourses of deficit. They note that some families who come from minority socio-cultural backgrounds are perceived as being culturally or linguistically deprived and that it is crucial that early childhood educators build on the cultural, linguistic and social capital of children, families and staff from diverse backgrounds. Cherry A. M. Banks (2013) notes that the diversity of parent and community groups may be reflected in different expectations, experiences, interaction styles, and concerns and that this can complicate parent involvement in schools. This requires an understanding of the circumstances of the families and their worldviews. However, she argues that if parents are not involved in schools, educators will lose an important voice for school improvement. Parents can provide teachers with unique and important views of their children and provide various resources and parent involvement in schools can also benefit the family members themselves. Epstein’s (2001) work on school, family and community partnerships has emphasized that there are no quick-fix solutions, but rather multiple methods for establishing and maintaining communication with diverse families. She notes that successful partnerships between schools and families will also benefit from empowering school cultures and holistic approaches towards diversity of children and families. Critical multiculturalism, multicultural and multilingual education and culturally responsive pedagogy are related approaches which have proved to be successful in developing empowering school communities for all children.

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METHODOLOGY The project is a qualitative research study with schools and families. This chapter introduces and discusses multicultural and multilingual educational practices in three Icelandic preschools in three municipalities as well as educational partnerships with parents and communities. Data was collected in 2020 and included semi-structured interviews with four teachers who were also heads of divisions and four principals in the three preschools. The chapter also draws on interviews with altogether seven parents who had children in the three preschools. The families had different heritage languages and belong to both small and large language groups in Iceland. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were used for data collection, chosen to elicit the views of the participants as clearly and accurately as possible (Flick, 2006; Kvale, 2007). The analytical process took place concurrently, using qualitative procedures of content analyses, coding and comparison (Creswell, 2009). The interviews with the preschool principals and preschool teachers were conducted in Icelandic. Excerpts from these interviews in this chapter have been translated into English by the author. The interviews with the parents were conducted in English. Data collection also included content analysis of national curriculum guides, law and regulations on education, in addition to municipal and school policies. The project follows the usual practices of ethics in relation to research on Humans: Respect of the rights, interests and dignity of the participants and related persons. The research was carried out in accordance with the Data Protection Authority; the Act no. 90/2018 on Data Protection and the Processing of Personal Data and the University of Iceland Scientific Ethical Guidelines (Vísindasiðareglur Háskóla Íslands, 2014). An informed consent form was prepared in Icelandic and English, languages understood by and presented to the prospective participants and informed consent was obtained from all participants. The educational offices in the selected municipalities were contacted for permission to conduct research in the preschools that were purposefully selected for the project on the basis of the diversity of the children. Preschool principals in the selected preschools were contacted for permission to invite teachers to participate in the research. The preschool

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principals were asked to select parents with diverse backgrounds other than Icelandic. For confidentiality, no names of participants are used in this chapter. The parents who all gave their consent to participate in the research have lived in Iceland from two to twelve years and speak from one to three different languages at home. The parents all understand and speak some Icelandic but do not use it at home.

THE PRESCHOOLS All three preschools have diverse groups of children and staff in terms of backgrounds and languages. Their main policies and visions are presented on their websites. Preschool 1 (P1) is located in a small rural community in Iceland. It has three divisions and around 30% of the children have other backgrounds and languages than Icelandic. There are 15 employees, there of 30% of diverse backgrounds, other than Icelandic. The preschool policy emphasizes the wellbeing of all children, creativity, diversity and multiculturalism. This includes close cooperation with parents and the local community. Preschool 2 (P2) is located in a small town in Iceland. There are four divisions in the preschool and around 30% of the children have other backgrounds and languages than Icelandic. There are 28 employees in the preschool, including 35% of diverse backgrounds, other than Icelandic. The preschool policy emphasizes respect, play and joy, with a particular focus on languages and language acquisition in diverse languages and cooperation with parents. Preschool 3 (P3) is located in the capital area of Iceland. It is a large preschool with six divisions and around 70% of the children have other backgrounds and languages than Icelandic. The heritage languages of the children are altogether 16. Around 50% of the employees have diverse backgrounds, other than Icelandic. The preschool policy emphasizes language acquisition in Icelandic and supports diverse languages, multiculturalism and close cooperation with parents and the local community.

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FINDINGS Main themes derived from the data were the following: Multicultural and multilingual practices in the preschools; multilingualism at home and educational partnerships of parents, preschools and community.

Multicultural and Multilingual Practices in the Preschools All three preschools emphasized multicultural and multilingual practices to respond to the diversity of the children. However, their policies and implementations of these differed. Furthermore, the principals had different views on how multicultural and multilingual practices should be carried out. The principal of P3 described her general vision in the following way: … that the children should enjoy their day, every day, that they come (to the preschool) happy and are received in a good way and greeted in a good way … and that the staff feel good here and feel … that they make a difference.

When asked whether they had a language policy in the preschool, the same principal replied: We don´t have a formal language policy but … of course Icelandic is the language that we … speak here in the preschool and this is what we emphasize in all our work, but I do not forbid the children or staff to speak in their heritage languages … not at all … we are teaching the children that … they are free to speak their language with their friends … but … when perhaps the third child enters the group and it does not speak the same language as the other two, then they all change to Icelandic so that everyone understands ….

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P1 emphasized educational practices where all children are involved, rather than special teaching for individual children and small groups. A principal said about this: We of course try to have all the children together in their group, not separately, ... in special teaching ... we think it is important ... this is not special teaching for children of foreign backgrounds, here they don´t need special teaching, perhaps a little extra support in Icelandic ... so here the material is very accessible and visible in the preschool divisions. ... there is group work, reading books ... a lot of singing and talking ... working together ... letters and numbers are visible in the divisions.

The principal of P2 supported the emphasis on inclusive approaches but also emphasized that the staff needed to make sure that they were using every opportunity to support the bi- and multilingual children’s language development. She noted: ... we have the opportunity and we should work in as small groups as we can to make sure that ... no child is left out ... in the preschool we have the opportunity to do this because we should have enough staff ... we of course emphasize play and ... I do not want to control who they should play with ... I think they should be able to choose ... but we must join them and talk to them ... we must make an effort as they need more input.

According to the preschool teachers and principals in P1, an emphasis was put on supporting all the children’s languages and applying culturally and linguistically responsive practices. A preschool teacher in P1 emphasized that while all languages were welcomed and appreciated in the preschool the main language used in the preschool was Icelandic. The preschool also actively supported the children’s first languages. The preschool teacher described how she tried to encourage the children who speak many languages and be proud of this: We were talking about ... what languages we speak at home and she just ... “yes, I know this language and that language and that language” and

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Hanna Ragnarsdóttir I said, yes you speak four languages! ... she was very proud of this ... when I asked her to say, ... how do I say green in (one of her languages), how about in (another of her languages), so you could see that she felt that this was a bit silly, but still it made her proud.

Another preschool teacher in P1 described how they presented the daily schedule in a visual way for the children in all divisions, so that they would learn about the schedule from the start and feel secure and safe. Furthermore, the teachers printed out words in the different first languages of the children and placed these on various objects and places in the preschool to support language awareness and language use of all the children. The principal of P3 described some examples of their practices in supporting diverse cultures and languages. These included making words in different languages available in the preschool as well as other approaches: ... we also have ... star of the day, ... then one child in each division ... is a star of the day and then they bring some favourite toy from home, ... a picture of the family and the parents are invited for coffee or breakfast ... and then the child can shine a little and tell about themselved ... they often breing interesting things from home ... particularly the older ones who have even had assistance from their parents ... perhaps bring something related to their culture ... it is often very nice.

The principal of P2 described how they emphasized support for the language acquisition and development of bi- and multilingual children in the preschool. She noted: I was emphasizing that we should regard these as strength but at the same time we need to make a special effort because children at this age ... when there is language acquisition in more than one language, it slows down the language acquisition and it means more work for us ... I put a lot of emphasis on that we respect all languages ... there is no one single language which dominates here, we speak ten or more languages here in the preschool. Because my opinion is that our heritage language is such a large part of our self image and I always say when the children begin here in the preschool they come here 18 months old or 2 years, and one is Polish

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and has been in a Polish context only and the other one is Icelandic, then they stand on equal footing ... I explained this to my staff ... they may both be equally strong linguistically, but now one of these children is going to learn Icelandic as well and therefore (this child’s) language acquisition will slow down and we need to make an effort. In the beginning I needed to help the stafff to understand that we must reach out to the children ... because they only speak Polish ... what can we do ... we must speak to them in Icelandic and make connections, get other children to join the play.

Diverse approaches were used in the three preschools to encourage and support multilingualism. The principal of P3 described examples of these. She explained: ... we often ask, if we are ... learning new words or if they are curious about some strange words, particularly the older ones of course, you know, this word means this in Icelandic, how do we say it in Polish? How do we say it in Spanish? So, ... we use ... the diversity in a positive way, to learn ... you know, from each other, so that they feel that their language is important, it is ... important that they also feel ... I can speak Icelandic and Polish, it is rather great .... we want to emphasize that it is great to be able to speak many languages, but not that ... the Icelandic children who speak only Icelandic feel ... that they are less important ... you know it is this fine line that you have to find ... all languages are welcome here ... but our main language in the preschool is Icelandic and we are trying to learn this well ... so we can do well in compulsory school when we have finished here (preschool) ... we also talk about this to parents when they start that they should speak their heritage language at home with the child ... so that they will have a firm basis in their heritage language and learn Icelandic in the preschool ... so that they ... connect between ... the languages.

The preschool staff also explained how they encouraged the children to help and support each other, emphasizing support for children that were starting and needed help to understand Icelandic and the preschool context. The principal of P3 explained how they approached the children to ask for their support:

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Hanna Ragnarsdóttir We try to teach them that we need to help each other, you know, “Alex was starting today and he only speaks Polish … we need to help him to learn how to be in the preschool and you must help us, we need to help him to learn Icelandic so that we can be here all together,” … and they are incredible, they take their role very seriously.

To summarize, while the preschools did not all have very clear language policies or multicultural policies, they used diverse educational practices to support children’s and families’ multilingualism and build on their diverse cultures.

Multilingualism at Home The parents in the study were aware of issues related to multilingualism and some of them had read articles and research related to multilingualism. They all agreed that the preschool’s role was to teach their children Icelandic but that the parents themselves should teach their children their home languages. One of the mothers said: I mean I think from my point of view, since I am (xxx) I think it’s my job to teach my daughter (my heritage language) and support that and we never wanted to like... just because we don’t speak the same language to make her speak English. And we don’t really like teach her English. It is just something what she picks up hearing us and hearing some children in the kindergarten and cartoons what we let her to watch. So, for us it was obvious that we have to do because that’s ok if we don’t leave home, but we visit our family and we keep in touch on skype, so we want her to communicate with the parents and grandparents. And it is very good for somebody to be multilingual.

Although the parents thought that it was their role to teach their children their heritage languages and the preschools’ role to teach them Icelandic, they appreciated that their children’s preschool supported the children’s

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heritage languages by encouraging their use although there was no actual teaching in these languages in the preschool. All the parents had clear ideas about supporting their children’s bi- or multilingualism through various practices at home. One mother described this: Whenever we went home, at the beginning, we brought a lot of books with us and we are buying when we have the chance and we read from the books. … we bought books in (my heritage language) with rhymes and poems to help her and sometimes we try to play games with the letters also. She likes music so she is listening to songs in different languages. … we were reading to her every night since she was a baby. .... We let her listen to stories in (his heritage language) and (my heritage language) and songs and she is watching cartoons in the original languages.

Other parents had found audiobooks on the internet in their heritage languages for their children to listen to. Some of the parents had enrolled their children in a heritage language local or online educational programme. The parents found it very important that their children could communicate with their families abroad and saw this as a way to strengthen their development of their heritage language as well as keeping contact with their cultural heritage.

Educational Partnerships of Parents, Preschools and Community The parents generally felt that they had good cooperation with the preschools and that they could openly discuss any matters with the staff. One mother said: I think we are happy. So, we have something more we would like to ask there is no problem to find the time and they listen to us and they understand us, and they help us if they can.

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The communication between the parents, the teachers and the principals took place in the preschool, by phone or by email. The preschools also used online tools such as Facebook groups, messenger, text messages and different apps to communicate with parents. Furthermore, the parents talked about having easy access if they needed to talk to either a teacher or principal in person about their children. The principals and the preschool teachers agreed that the communication with parents was generally good and that they tried to keep it open and flexible. In some cases the preschool staff helped the parents in different matters. The principal of P3 described how she has assisted the parents in various ways: I have booked appointments for them at dentists ... phoned their employers to confirm that their child is ill ... I want them to feel that if they need assistance they can come and ask and I can help ... if not, I will direct them to where I think they could possible get assistance.

Furthermore, the teachers and principals emphasized that they all encouraged the parents to speak to their children in their first languages to support their multilingualism. In case of challenges in communication because of language differences the principals explained that in regular formal meetings, interpreters were used if the parents wanted and agreed to this. In more informal communication, both parents and staff used online apps and software to help them communicate, such as Google translate. The principals noted that many parents who did not speak Icelandic spoke English, so in some cases English was used. The preschool staff noted that there were some cases of challenges in communication related to different languages and cultures. The principal of P3 explained how she tried to build bridges to these parents: … generally, it is the language which makes things a little difficult, but of course it can also be culture, you know, some parents, or some cultures … regard me as being at another level than the parents … I find this very uncomfortable … it is … because I am a boss of a kind … so I

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have tried to … just tell them that we are … all the same, you know, I am me and you are you … I try to be a little … relaxed and let them know they can always be in touch …

The preschool principals emphasized the importance of organizing cooperation with their local communities to support the children and families. This included cooperation with heritage language groups and compulsory schools. The principal of P3 noted that partnerships with other schools in the area had been established a long time ago and that these had been very fruitful. She gave examples of how children in the fifth grade in the compulsory school in the neighbourhood visited once a year and read for the preschool children in different languages. Furthermore, heritage language groups in the community were invited to use the facilities of the preschool for meetings and teaching.

DISCUSSION The findings indicate that the preschools have develop various linguistically and culturally appropriate practices, and that they respect and build on resources that the children and families bring to the schools as Devarakonda (2013) and Gay (2010) have emphasized. The principals reach out to parents and develop multiple methods for establishing and maintaining partnerships with the diverse families as Epstein (2001) has emphasized. Thus, the principals counteract the view of parents being perceived as being culturally or linguistically deprived (Robinson & Díaz, 2006). However, the preschools do not implement clear multicultural or multilingual policies as discussed by J. A. Banks (2013) and Nieto (2010); their practices are rather flexible and driven by dedicated individuals. This can create some challenges and can result in different educational contexts being developed for diverse children, where they have different opportunities. While the preschools welcome diverse cultures and languages, and attempt to build on the resources that the children and families bring, multilingual approaches as discussed by Cummins (2001,

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2004) and Chumak-Horbatsch (2012) could be more systematically implemented. Furthermore, although many of the parents are dedicated in supporting their children’s learning and apply diverse methods at home for teaching and educational support, there is a lack of systematic communication between the preschools and homes in bridging between educational practices. In conclusion, the children would benefit from a more thorough and strategic partnership between the preschools and families and communication of educational practices as well as a more structured overall organization of practices within the schools.

REFERENCES Banks, C. A. M. (2013). Communities, families, and educators working together for school improvement. J. A. Banks & C. A. M. Banks (Eds.), Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives (8th ed., pp. 331–348). John Wiley & Sons. Banks, J. A. (2013). Multicultural education: Characteristics and goals. J.A. Banks & C. A. M. Banks (Eds.), Multicultural education. Issues and perspectives (8th ed., pp. 3–23). John Wiley & Sons. Chumak-Horbatsch, R. (2012). Linguistically appropriate practice: A guide for working with young immigrant children. University of Toronto Press. Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage. Cummins, J. (2001). Bilingual children’s mother tongue: Why is it important for education? Sprogforum, 19, 15–20. Cummins, J. (2004). Language, power and pedagogy. Bilingual children in the crossfire (3rd ed.). Multilingual Matters. Devarakonda, C. (2013). Diversity and inclusion in early childhood: An introduction. Sage. Epstein, J. L. (2001). School, family and community partnerships: Preparing educators and improving schools. Westview Press. Flick, U. (2006). An introduction to qualitative research (3rd edition). Sage.

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García, O., & Wei, L. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. Palgrave MacMillan. Gay, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice, Multicultural education series (2nd ed.). Teachers College Press. Kvale, S. (2007). Doing interviews. Sage. Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. (n.d.). National Curriculum Guides. https://eng.menntamalaraduneyti.is/publications/curriculum/. Nieto, S. (2010). The light in their eyes. Creating multicultural learning communities (10th anniversary ed.). Teachers College Press. Ragnarsdóttir, H. (2018). Building empowering multilingual learning communities in Icelandic schools. P. P. Trifonas & T. Aravossitas (Eds.), Handbook of research and practice in heritage language education. Springer International Handbooks of Education, Springer. Ragnarsdóttir, H., & Schmidt, C. (Eds.). (2014). Learning spaces for social justice: International perspectives on exemplary practices from preschool to secondary school. Institute of Education Press and Trentham Books. Robinson, K. H., & Díaz, C. J. (2006). Diversity and difference in early childhood education: Issues for theory and practice. Open University Press. Statistics Iceland. (2020a). Population. https://px.hagstofa.is/pxen/pxweb/ en/Ibuar/Ibuar__mannfjoldi__3_bakgrunnur__Faedingarland/MAN121 03.px/table/tableViewLayout1/?rxid=937f622d-9c17-423c-a6c4fa82cecd271d. Statistics Iceland. (2020b). Foreign citizens. Percent of total population. https://www.statice.is/statistics/population/inhabitants/background/. Statistics Iceland. (2020c). Children in pre-primary institutions having another mother tongue than Icelandic 2019. https://px.hagstofa.is/pxen/ pxweb/en/Samfelag/Samfelag__skolamal__1_leikskolastig__0_lsNem endur/SKO01000.px/table/tableViewLayout1/?rxid=e714dd74-c94e48e1-bee6-0d5f03a6ceaa.

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Statistics Iceland. (2020d). Population by country of birth, sex and age 1 January 2020. https://px.hagstofa.is/pxen/pxweb/en/Ibuar/Ibuar__ mannfjoldi__3_bakgrunnur__Faedingarland/MAN12103.px Vísindasiðareglur Háskóla Íslands [University of Iceland Ethical Guidelines]. (2014). https://www.hi.is/sites/default/files/atli/pdf/log_ og_reglur/vshi_sidareglur_16_1_2014.pdf.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Hanna Ragnarsdóttir is a professor at the School of Education, University of Iceland. She completed a BA degree in anthropology and history from the University of Iceland in 1984, an MSc degree in anthropology from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1986, and a Dr.philos in education from the University of Oslo in 2007. Her research has mainly focused on immigrants and refugees (children, adults, and families) in Icelandic society and schools, heritage language research, bi- and plurilingualism, multicultural education, multilingual education and school reform. Recently published books include Ragnarsdóttir, H. & Lefever, S. (Eds.) (2018). Icelandic studies on diversity and social justice in education. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing and Ragnarsdóttir, H. & Kulbrandstad, L. A. (Eds.) (2018). Learning spaces for inclusion and social justice: Success stories from four Nordic countries. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

In: Applied Linguistics Research … ISBN: 978-1-53619-611-5 Editors: Isaak Papadopoulos et al. © 2021 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 2

PRE-SERVICE PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER’S PREPAREDNESS TO WORK IN A MULTILINGUAL ENVIRONMENT Olga Kotenko and Tetiana Holovatenko* Foreign Languages and Methodologies Department, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Kyiv, Ukraine

ABSTRACT This chapter is devoted to the notion of multilingualism in primary school teacher training. Authors make a preliminary attempt to shape the structure of pre-service primary school teachers’ preparedness to work in the multilingual environment. Literature analysis allows us to state that there is lack of research on pre-school teacher training to work in a multilingual environment. Based on the literature review, the analysis of European “soft law” regulations on multilingualism and the experience of European universities providing multilingual teacher training, we have distinguished the following criteria of the primary school teacher’s preparedness: motivational, reflexive, functionally-operative, and cognitive criteria. A motivational criterion is demonstrated by the interest *

Corresponding Author’s E-mail: [email protected].

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Olga Kotenko and Tetiana Holovatenko in learning foreign languages, interest in using technologies of working in a multilingual environment, as well as willingness to work as a primary school teacher in a multilingual environment. A cognitive criterion is demonstrated through the knowledge of the legislative framework of organizing the educational process in a multilingual environment; knowledge of foreign languages, state language and teaching methodology; knowledge of technologies of organizing the multilingual educational environment. A reflexive criterion is manifested through understanding primary school teacher’s role in a multilingual environment and demonstrating a developed system of personal values, allowing teachers to work in a multilingual environment effectively. Moreover, this criterion is demonstrated through the further development of both foreign language and teaching skills; the ability to identify areas of professional development of a primary school teacher in a multilingual environment; the ability to assess personal teaching activities. According to the functional and operational criterion, primary school teachers are able to carry out the educational process considering the multilingualism of the environment; teachers can identify problems which occur in a multilingual environment and solve them; teachers are able to create a multilingual educational environment and develop skills of teaching foreign languages and teaching state language as a foreign language. Further research into specific contents of pre-service primary school teacher training to work in a multilingual environment is needed. Developing a questionnaire for preservice primary school teachers to assess their level of preparedness to work in the multilingual environment is necessary.

Keywords: teacher education, multilingualism, preparedness criteria

INTRODUCTION The Ukrainian educational system has undergone serious legislative changes in the last decade. The education reform has covered all the stages of education. In addition, the reform of the general secondary education (ISCED 1-3) has raised the issue of languages in education. It turns out that school leavers with a minority language background fall behind in the nation-wide testing that all school leavers have to pass (Liliya Hrynevych on the Language Article of the Law “On Education” at the US Department of State, 2018). To solve the issue, three models aiming to meet the needs of language minorities were to be implemented since 2020. However changes

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in the school curriculum showed the gap between pre-service teachers’ preparedness to implement models of multilingual education, and state standards of multilingual education. Thus, we consider it necessary to find out how to bridge the gap and model the structure of pre-service teachers’ preparedness to work in a multilingual environment. Most findings regarding pre-service teacher training to work in the multilingual environment showed that pre-service teachers should have not only knowledge and skills necessary for foreign language teachers, but they should also speak the second foreign language, be able to create a multilingual environment in their classroom, and be open towards other cultures (Cenoz & Genesee, 1998, p. 131). We can find similar views on teachers’ multilingualism competences in the research of H.-J. Krumm and H. Reich (Council of the European Union, 2018, p. 25). These researchers have defined 4 multilingual competences necessary for teachers: 1) 2) 3) 4)

Knowledge about multilingualism; Ability to act in multilngual environment; Knowledge about learning languages and teaching them, and Ability to handle linguistic diversity (Council of the European Union, 2018, p. 25).

However, these competences are not specific to training primary school teachers and should be further adapted. A further attempt to find out the structure of teachers’ preparedness to implement multilingual education was made by G. Meier, using the multilingual socialisation approach (Meier, 2018, pp. 111-113). In her research the scholar identifies 5 domains of multilingual socialisation: 1) Creating a multilingual educational environment; 2) Thinking about languages, language ideologies and attitudes; 3) Making connections between languages to study form (e.g., grammar);

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Olga Kotenko and Tetiana Holovatenko 4) Making connections between languages for real communication, and 5) Multilingual approach to (self-)evaluation.

We consider these domains to be comprehensive in terms of approaching multilingualism in classrooms. However, to the author’s best knowledge, there are very few publications addressing the issue of primary school teachers’ preparedness to work in a multilingual environment. Addressing the issue of preparing future primary school teachers, it is necessary to identify what is considered under the notion of “prepared-ness”. Researchers have always seen this notion as a multidimensional concept. For instance, Ukrainian researches define it as “… a state of mobilization of the psychological and psychophysiological systems of a person that ensure the performance of certain activities” (National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, 2008, pp. 137-138). If we put the domains of multilingual education suggested by G. Meier into the matrix of teachers’ preparadness, it can reflect the multilingual component of teachers’ preparadness. The matrix should reflect the structure of preparedness and its indicators. Ukrainian researcher V. Kremin identifies 4 criteria of preparedness to carry out pedagogical activities: motivational, operational, sociopsychological, and psychophysiological. The scholar defines the motivational criterion of preparedness as a system of qualities that encourage pedagogical activities (motives for gaining knowledge, selfrealization, etc.). The operational criterion of preparedness is defined through the level of individual proficiency in performing actions, applying knowledge, skills, and ways to gain experience in a particular professional activity. V. Kremin characterizes the socio-psychological criterion of preparedness through the ability to organize professional activities, build constructive relationships in the team, and the ability to avoid conflicts. The psychophysiological criterion of preparedness is described as the preparedness of an individual to act in a professional way (National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, 2008, pp. 137-138). We would agree with the following structure and specify it in terms of the aim of our research.

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In the foreign educational discourse, the concept of preparedness for teaching activities is expressed through the notions of “profession-ready teachers” and/or “classroom ready teachers”. For example, Zhu Gang sees preparedness as a way to bridge the gap between theory and practice through the introduction of a “collaborative and reflexive model of teacher training” (Zhu, 2014, p. 15). The scholar identifies three components of future teachers’ preparedness: cooperation to build a community of professional teachers, which provides a “supportive circle” for the pre-service teacher; self-reflection through the observation of lessons, with their subsequent analysis in personal pedagogical journal; and practical training in schools (Zhu, 2014, pp. 15-18). The structure proposed by the scientist can be divided into 3 blocks of preparedness, which are also generally accepted in the Ukrainian educational discourse: motivational, reflexive, and activitybased blocks. In the Australian educational discourse, views on the preparedness of the future teacher are united by a common goal – “Classroom ready teacher” –, that is set by the Ministry of Education. Teacher’s preparedness is considered the result of a complex of factors. They include the introduction of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, the accreditation of educational programs, the selection of students for pedagogical specialties, taking into account the current state of education in the construction of educational programs and the emphasis on practical training (Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group, 2014, pp. 1-13). For the moment, we find it difficult to implement such an approach in training pre-service primary school teachers to work in a multilingual environment, because there is a lack of legal provisions to implement large-scale multilingual education across the country. Thus, considering the research we reviewed, the aim of this paper is to design a matrix of pre-service primary school teacher preparedness to work in a multilingual environment. In this paper we offer a comprehensive view on the teacher’s functions, European approaches towards preparing primary teachers to work in multilingual environment, and Ukrainian recommendations on multilingual education.

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METHODS This chapter aims at identifying the interrelation between criteria of teachers’ preparedness to work in a multilingual environment and its indicators. Applying comparative education constructivist methodology, we want to bridge the gap between expectations towards teachers working in a multilingual environment and the actual process of pre-service teacher preparation. To achieve the aim, we analyze the European experience of modeling multilingual programs for teachers and typical functions of a primary school teacher. We present the result of the research as a comprehensive matrix of preservice teacher preparedness to work in the multilingual environment.

RESULTS As we mentioned before, Ukraine has just introduced models of multilingual education in the primary and secondary education. Thus, there is a gap between actual teacher training curriculums and raising standards towards teachers implementing multilingual education. Thus, we would suggest learning from the European experience of designing multilingual education programs first.

NHL Stenden Bachelor’s Program “International Teacher Education for Primary Schools” This Bachelor’s program is designed specifically for primary school teachers who want to work in international classrooms. During the first two years, learning English and Mathematics, Educational Studies and Democratic Citizenship are the focus of attention. Students practice their language at C1 level and at the same time, they learn how to teach languages

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at school. Throughout the year, they have a concurrent practice at international and local primary schools. The next two years are devoted to learning how to carry out practical research and learning the specialization subjects (on campus or abroad). There is also a concurrent internship at an international or bilingual school in Europe and beyond. The analysis of the curriculum allowed us to identify the main areas of focus in multilingual education: teaching research skills, raising proficiency in languages, and obtaining practical experience (NHL Stenden Brochure International Teacher Education for Primary Schools, 2020). These areas are important in the professional development, so we would include them into the matrix of primary school teacher preparedness.

Ukrainian Professional Standard for the “Primary School Teacher” (2018) Recent changes in Ukrainian legislation led to the adoption of the professional standard for primary school teachers. According to it, primary school teachers perform the following functions: planning and carrying out the educational process, supporting the educational process, creating the educational environment, reflexing and continuous professional development, carrying out pedagogical researches, giving methodological support to colleagues on the organization and development of primary school students, generalization of personal teaching activities and sharing it with other teachers, assessing results of primary school teachers’ activities (Professional standard for the profession “Primary school teacher”, 2018, p. 3). The function “Planning and carrying out the educational process” includes teacher’s self-development ability through reading professional literature, the ability to stick to the legislative provision regarding the educational process in primary schools, the ability to plan the educational process and personal self-development, the ability to work with teacher trainers on planning the educational process, the ability to carry out the diagnostics of primary school students, and the ability to carry out the educational process.

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The function “Supporting the educational process” includes the following competences: the ability to set the goal and tasks of the educational process, the ability to choose approaches, methods and principles of education according to lesson aims and tasks and learners’ individual characteristics, the ability to apply theoretical knowledge into practice, the ability to use approaches and methodologies of educational branches according to the State Standard of Primary Education, the ability to carry out formative and summative assessment, the ability to monitor the dynamics of the child’s personal development in the educational process, the ability to provide support to parents in the educational process and to organize cooperation with parents, and ability to cooperate with other educational institutions. The function “Creating the educational environment” includes the ability to create a safe and comfortable environment, the ability to create a health-friendly, personal, and creative development of students, the ability to organize the educational process according to the State standard of primary education, the ability to stick to the rules, value orientations and traditions of the educational institution. Teacher’s function “Reflexing and continuous professional development” includes the ability to perform the role of the primary school teacher and the system of values and tasks of the professional activities of a teacher, the ability to analyze personal professional activities and implement the aims of the educational institution, the ability to identify strengths and weaknesses of personal teaching activities, the ability to assess results of pedagogical influences on assuring the quality of education in primary schools; awareness of the necessity for self-development and additional professional competences, the ability to plan personal self-development, the ability to take part in creative teaching groups, the ability to implement innovations in the pedagogical process, the ability to keep track of the physical, psychological, spiritual and social health of a teacher. The function “Carrying out pedagogical researches” comprises the following competencies: the ability to identify the research problem, the aim and its tasks, the ability to review the literature, the ability to develop the concept of the research, the ability to design tasks according to the aim of

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the research, the ability to test the developed system and solve the research problem, the ability to assess the effectiveness of the developed systems, and the ability to draw conclusionsfrom the research. As other functions provided by the Standard (giving methodological support to colleagues on the organization and development of primary school students, generalization of personal teaching activities and sharing it with other teachers, assessing results of primary school teachers’ activities) are typical for in-service teachers and teacher trainers, we would not focus our attention on them. The analysis of the professional standard and European experience in teacher training showed a focus on developing research skills and the ability to implement theory into the practice of teaching. We find it necessary to implement these functions into the matrix of the primary school teacher’s preparedness. However, these functions should be represented by indicators, which are specific to the multilingual environment.

Matrix of the Primary School Teacher Preparedness to Work in the Multilingual Environment Based on the analysis of literature on the structure of preparedness of a future primary school teacher to work in a multilingual environment, we identified motivational, reflexive, cognitive and operational-functional criteria for pre-service primary school teachers’ preparedness. We would suggest considering the preparedness of a future primary school teacher through the prism of functional and cognitive preparedness. Further on, we shall analyze each criteria and indicators they are represented with. The motivational criterion of preparedness reveals the degree of formation of the internal need of future primary school teachers to work in a multilingual environment. A generalized indicator of this criterion will be the desire to work as a primary school teacher in a multilingual environment and to improve professionally due to internal and external factors.

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Figure 1 shows the matrix of motivational criterion for primary school teachers’ preparedness to work in a multilingual environment, reflecting the hierarchy of motives of a future primary school teacher. The core of motivation is the interrelation between external and internal factors influencing it. By external factors, we mean the desire to receive a higher salary, to get higher qualifications, the desire to avoid negative experience as a primary school teacher in a multilingual environment, the desire to achieve social prestige and respect from others. By internal factors, we understand the desire to enjoy the process and result of working as a primary school teacher in a multilingual environment, understanding the possibility of full self-realization as a primary school teacher in a multilingual environment. The motivational criterion also involves a teacher’s desire to work in the multilingual environment, to pursue continuous professional development, and to show an interest in learning foreign languages. The formation of educational and cognitive motives of the future primary school teacher, the desire for professional development, as well as the desire to fulfill their own abilities and personal qualities, also become important. Therefore, we tried to present this criterion of preparedness as a hierarchy of professionally oriented motives, interests, attitudes, and needs to master knowledge of the organization of a multilingual educational process in the primary school (Figure 1). In our opinion, the motivational component of the preparedness of future primary school teachers is closely related to the teachers’ motivation for professional development and introspection of the personal qualities of a future teacher. Scholars define professional reflection as the correlation of one’s “thyself” with what the teaching profession requires. A. Fedorova says that the concept of professional reflection comprises personal reflection (the ability to learn thyself, analyze cause-and-effect connections, having doubts, value orientations, developing yourself) and professional reflection (the use of the above-mentioned abilities in professional life) (Fedorova, 2017, p. 192).

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The motivational criterion characterizes the degree of formation of the internal need of future primary school teachers to work in a multilingual environment .

Indicators: 1. Interest in mastering foreign languages; 2. Interest in mastering the pedagogical technologies of working in a multilingual environment; 3. Interest and desire to workas a primary school teacher in a multilingual environment due to internal factors.

The high level characterizes students with a strong interest in learning several foreign languages other than the state language, who encourage children to use their linguistic repertoire. Students are open to dialogue and cooperation with representatives of different cultures in the educational environment. They show interest in the development of their intercultural communication skills. In the future, they would like to work in a multilingual primary school environment.

The average level characterizes students with a strong interest in learning several foreign languages other than the state language. Students often encourage children to use their linguistic repertoire. They demonstrate a situational interest in working in a multilingual educational environment as primary school teachers, show a situational interest in the professional development of their intercultural communication skills, and have an internal motivation to improve their own teaching.skills.

The low level characterizes students who show an occasional interest in learning several foreign languages other than the state language, and sometimes encourage children to use their linguistic repertoire in classrooms. They demonstrate a situational interest to work in a multilingual educational environment as primary school teachers, have unstable motives for choosing a profession, and show an episodic interest in their own professional growth.

Figure 1. The matrix of motivational criterion of primary school teachers’ preparedness to work in a multilingual environment.

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Olga Kotenko and Tetiana Holovatenko The reflexive criterion characterizes the formation of critical divergent thinking; the development of skills of self-regulation and control over one’s own emotional state; selfawareness of one’s own “thyself” in a multicultural world; analysis of one’s own professional activity, behavior and emotional state in a multilingual environment; and, as

a result, the desire for further professional development.

Indicators: 1. Awareness of the role of a future primary school teacher and the presence of a system of values necessary for working in a multilingual environment; 2. Awareness of the necessity for further professional development and continuous improvement of foreign language communicative and methodological competence of the future primary school teacher; 3. Ability to determine the nearest zone of their professional development based on introspection of their own pedagogical activities, taking into account the requirements for modern lessons that take place in a multilingual environment, and 4. Ability to carry out self-assessment of social activities.

A high level characterizes students who have a well-formed hierarchy of values of primary school teachers. It is used to build the educational process in a multilingual environment and to demonstrate flexibility in solving problems of the diverse environment. Students are able to analyze, evaluate, and adjust their own activities to the classroom they teach in; they constantly strive for professional development, have well-developed skills of self-control and self-organization.

The average level characterizes students who are aware of their role in a multilingual environment and show flexibility as primary school teachers. Students understand the importance of showing a tolerant attitude towards representatives of other cultures, but communicate with them from time to time. Students are able to carry out a general analysis and assessment of their own activities, but they correct their own behavior only based on the recommendations of the mentor. The desire for self-improvement is not sufficiently developed and has a situational character.

A low level characterizes students who systematically fail to adhere to the values necessary for working in a multilingual environment. Students analyze, evaluate and correct their own behavior with the sufficient support of a mentor. They rarely communicate with representatives of other cultures with episodic demonstration of tolerance towards them. The desire for self-improvement is not developed.

Figure 2. The matrix of the reflexive criterion of primary school teachers’ preparedness to work in a multilingual environment.

Similarly F. Korthagen defines reflection as an integral link in the transition from theory to practice. The scholar offers a five-component cyclical structure of pedagogical reflection: action – analysis of action – awareness of the main aspects of action – thinking about alternative ways of

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action in a given situation – using an alternative solution, which is actually a new action and the beginning of the cycle (Korthagen, 2014, p. 76). Summing up the analyzed views on pedagogical reflection, we note that this process takes place at three levels: emotional, mental and behavioral. Therefore, the content of the reflexive criterion of the preparedness of a future primary school teacher to work in the multilingual environment can be characterized by the formation of critical divergent thinking; by developed skills of self-regulation and control over emotions; by selfawareness in a multicultural world; by the analysis of professional activities and behavior in a multilingual environment; and, as a result, by the desire for further professional development. Speaking about the reflexive component of pedagogical activities (Figure 2), it is important to take into account the value dimension of future teaching activities. Values act as a guide in the professional activities and therefore allow a reflexive analysis of teacher’s own activities based on values. Values that are important for the future primary school teacher in a multilingual environment canbe split into those aiming at teachers themselves, at the educational environment and at teachers’ own pedagogical activities. These values include self-demand, justice, objectivity, flexibility, initiative, openness to change, patriotism, respect for one’s own culture and tolerant attitude towards representatives of other nationalities, native speakers of other languages, cultures and traditions of other peoples. Since working as a primary school teacher in a multilingual environment involves constant contact with representatives of other cultures and adjusting the individual work plan in accordance with the diverse environment in which the teacher works, we consider it necessary for the future primary school teacher to master the techniques of self-evaluation and correction of their activities.

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Olga Kotenko and Tetiana Holovatenko The functional and operational criterion characterizes the degree of formation of the ability of a future primary school teacher to apply professional knowledge, skills and abilities in practice to solve professional tasks and perform the functions of a primary school teacher in a multilingual environment. Indicators: 1. Ability to plan and implement the diversity-oriented educational process in primary schools; 2. Independence in identifying problems that arise in a multilingual environment and their independent solution; 3. Ability to create a multilingual educational environment in primary schools, and 4. Ability to teach a foreign language to primary school children and teach Ukrainian as a foreign language.

The high level characterizes students who are able to organize the educational process in the primary school creatively, taking into account the multilingualism of the environment. Students independently identify a pedagogical problem, form a hypothesis and test it in a multilingual educational environment; they also offer several ways to solve a pedagogical problem in atypical situations of pedagogical communication. Students have experience in designing a multilingual educational environment in primary schools. At a high professional level, they deliver foreign language lessons/ lessons of Ukrainian as a foreign language / non-language lessons in a foreign language.

The average level characterizes students who are able to organize the educational process in primary schools at a sufficiently high level in typical situations of a multilingual educational environment. Students independently identify and formulate a pedagogical problem that arises in a multilingual educational environment and offer several ways to solve it in typical situations of pedagogical communication. Students have experience in designing typical situations of a multilingual educational environment. Foreign language lessons/non-language foreign language lessons/lessons of Ukrainian as a foreign language are delivered at the basic methodological level.

The low level characterizes students who are able to organize the educational process in primary schools in typical situations of a multilingual educational environment under the guidance of a teacher/mentor/practice supervisor. With the help of the teacher, they identify a pedagogical problem that arises in a multilingual educational environment and offer one solution to the pedagogical problem in typical situations of pedagogical communication. With the help of a teacher/mentor/supervisor, the student creates a multilingual environment in the primary school. Methodological skills are poorly developed. The student prefers to deliver lessons according to the existing model/template.

Figure 3. The matrix of functional and operational criterion of primary school teachers’ preparedness to work in a multilingual environment.

The functional and operational criterion of future primary school teacher’s preparedness to work in a multilingual environment characterizes

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the degree of formation of the ability of a future primary school teacher to use knowledge, skills and abilities in solving professional tasks and performing the functions of a primary school teacher in a multilingual environment. In Figure 3, we identified research and practice as a core in developing future teachers’ ability to work in a multilingual environment. Working in a multilingual environment, first and foremost, involves the ability to create a multilingual environment, to engage students’ language experience in the classroom, the ability to design multilingual educational programs, and to implement multilingual technologies with the target audience. Talking about this criterion, we find it necessary to mention that primary school teachers in Ukraine are trained according to the generalist model (Kotenko & Holovatenko, 2020, pp. 105-108). It means that primary school teachers can teach all subjects at primary school level, including foreign languages. At the same time, teachers working in a multilingual environment should be able to involve students from various cultural backgrounds in the educational process, as well as those who belong to language minorities. As a result, we think that besides being able to teach foreign languages and nonlanguage subjects, it is also necessary to be able to teach Ukrainian as a foreign language. The cognitive criterion of preparedness to work in a multilingual environment characterizes the level of knowledge of the legislative provision and knowledge of documents that regulate the organization of a multilingual environment, as well as knowledge of the terminology and professional disciplines that allow the future primary school teachers to work in a multilingual educational environment (Figure 4). Among the technologies that primary school students can implement, there are CLIL, translanguaging, immersion and submersion. It is important for future teachers to know the advantages and disadvantages of each technology and to be able to implement them (functional and operational criterion).

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Olga Kotenko and Tetiana Holovatenko The cognitive criterion characterizes the level of knowledge of the regulatory framework on the organization of the multilingual environment; as well as knowledge of the terminology, professional disciplines that allow the future teacher to work in a multilingual educational environment.

Indicators: 1. Knowledge of the legislative provisions for the organization of a multilingual educational process 2. Knowledge of foreign languages and methods of teaching foreign languages 3. Knowledge of the state language and methods of teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language 4. Knowledge of technologies for the organization of a multilingual educational environment.

A high level characterizes students with deep knowledge of the legislative framework for the organization of a multilingual educational process in primary schools. Students speak a foreign language at B2 level and above, and communicate fluently in the state language. Students have thorough and complete knowledge of the methodology of teaching foreign languages and of methods of teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language. Future teachers have systematic knowledge of technologies used in a multilingual educational environment.

The average level characterizes students with a basic level of orientation in the legislative framework for the organization of a multilingual educational process in primary schools. Students speak a foreign language at B1-B2 level, know basic methodological categories, and the basics of teaching foreign languages to primary school students. They are fluent in the state language and know the basics of teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language to primary school students. They have a basic knowledge of technologies used in a multilingual educational environment.

The low level characterizes students with fragmented and unsystematic knowledge of the legislative framework for the organization of a multilingual educational process in primary schools. They have an insufficient level of proficiency in foreign language teaching methods to deliver lessons in a primary school. They are fluent in the state language, but have unsystematic ideas about the main approaches and system of teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language. They have fragmentary knowledge of technologies for the organization of a multilingual educational environment in primary schools.

Figure 4. The matrix of cognitive criterion of primary school teachers’ preparedness to work in a multilingual environment.

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There are three additive multilingual models, which aim at broadening students’ linguistic repertoire and recommended for implementation in the Ukrainian multilingual environment. According to the Law “On Complete Secondary Education” (2020), students learn the state language only as a subject in primary schools. All other subjects are taught in a minority language. Thus, it is crucial for pre-service teachers, who get their education mostly in Ukrainian, to be able to teach Ukrainian as a foreign language and be able to communicate in the minority language.

DISCUSSION The results indicate that pre-service primary school teachers’ preparedness comprises a complex of criteria and specific indicators, which represent all the components of the teacher training. The matrix of the primary school teachers’ preparedness to work in a multilingual environment includes motivational, reflexive, functional and operational, and cognitive preparedness. The core of the matrix consists of the European approaches to designing educational programs aiming at preparing teachers to work in a multilingual environment. Specific features include focus on learning languages, research and practice in various multilingual environments. The Ukrainian professional standard for primary school teachers does not specify the functions of teachers in a multilingual environment but applying the competencies necessary for teachers who implement multilingual education fills in this gap (Council of the European Union, 2018, p. 25) (Meier, 2018, pp. 111-113). Thus, the matrix we developed supports the ideas of J. Cenoz, F. Genesee, H.-J. Krumm, H. Reich and G. Meier on multilingualism in education. However, based on these researches, the matrix we suggested is tailored to the needs of pre-service primary school teachers in Ukraine. This matrix should be taken into account when developing legislative provisions on multilingual education, revising and updating university teacher training programs, and finding out the current level of pre-service

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primary school teachers’ preparedness to work in a multilingual environment through the diagnostic procedures. Among the limitations of the research, we would identify the lack of research on specific work-related aspects of primary school teachers in a multilingual environment. Consequently, further research is needed on the practical implications of the suggested matrix in the teacher training process.

REFERENCES Cenoz, J., & Genesee, F. (1998). Beyond Bilingualism. Multilingualism and Multilingual Education. Clavedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Council of the European Union. (2018). Proposal for A Council Recommendation on A Comprehensive Approach to the Teaching and Learning of Languages. available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CONSIL:ST_9229_2018_ADD_2&qid=1 545728473839&from=EN accessed on 10 January 2021. Fedorova, A. (2017). Peculiarities Of The Pedagogical Reflexion Of A Teacher [Osoblyvosti pedahohichnoi refleksii pedahoha]. Pedagogical skills of the higher school lecturer [Pedahohichna maisternist vykladacha vyshchoi shkoly] (5), 191-203. Korthagen, F. (2014). Promoting Core Reflection In Teacher Education: Deepening Professional Growth. In L. Orland-Barak, & C. Craig, International Teacher Education: Promising pedagogies (Part A) (pp. 73-89). Bingley, UK: Emerald. Kotenko, O., & Holovatenko, T. (2020). Models Of Foreign Language Primary School Teacher Training in the EU. In Innovative Scientific Researches: European Development Trends and Regional Aspect (pp. 92-115). Riga, Latvia: Publishing House “Baltija Publishing”. Kremin, V. H. (Eds.) (2008) Entsyklopediia osvity [Encyclopedia of Education], National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, (Editor-in-Chief), Kyiv, Yurinkom Inter, 2008. 1040. Liliya Hrynevych on the Language Article of the Law “On Education” at the US Department of State. (2018). Retrieved available at from

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Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine: https://mon.gov.ua/ua/ news/liliya-grinevich-rozpovila-pro-movnu-stattyu-zakonu-pro-osvituv-derzhdepi-ssha, accessed on 10 January 2021. Meier, G. (2018). Multilingual socialisation in education: Introducing the M-SOC approach. Language Education and Multilingualism: the Langscape Journal, Issue 1. pp. 103-125. NHL Stenden Brochure International Teacher Education for Primary Schools. (2020). available at https://www.nhlstenden.com/sites/ default/files/brochures_20202021_english/2000730stend_iteps_brochure_2020-2021.pdf, accessed on 10 January 2021. Professional Standard For The Profession “Primary School Teacher”. (2018). Available at Retrieved from https://nus.org.ua/news/ zatverdzheno-profstandart-vchytelya-pochatkovyh-klasiv-nush-shhopotribno-znaty-ta-vmity/ accessed on 10 January 2021. Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group. (2014). Action Now: Classroom Ready Teachers. available at Retrieved from https://www. aitsl.edu.au/tools-resources/resource/action-now-classroom-readyteachers, accessed on 10 January 2021. Zhu, G. (2014). Collaborative And Reflective Student Teaching For Profession-Ready Teachers. Leaders of Learners(6), 15-18.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Olga Kotenko has of over 30 scientific publications on students` foreign languages teaching problems. Has long-term experience of organizing foreign language training process. The expert in control, evaluation and development of analysis mechanisms for optimization of pedagogical specialties students` foreign language training at the University. The initiator of scientific and methodological activities aimed at implementing the European Union experience in the system of foreign language teacher training in Ukraine. Participated in British Council “Higher Education Leadership Development Programme” (2016-2017) and coordinated the project of European Vagerland Centre “Development of civic and social

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competencies in the system of teacher training in Ukraine” (2017-2018), participated in the project “High school teacher competence in change” with the support of the International Visegrad Fund and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and “Modernization of higher pedagogical education using innovative instruments of teaching” (MoPED) funded by Erasmus+. She carries out a scientific research to get the PhD degree on “The system of teachers training to primary school children`s foreign languages learning in the EU”.

Tetiana Holovatenko has been a PhD student researching the topic “Tendencies of Pre-Service Primary School Teacher Training to Work in Multilingual Environment in Benelux Countries”. Author of articles on comparative education devoted to implementation of the European experience into the system of primary school foreign language teacher training in Ukraine. In her Master’s thesis dwelled on foreign language primary school teacher training in Germany (2016). She went through academic mobility in the Czech Republic (2019) on teacher training. Author of 5 certified e-learning courses on MOODLE platform for primary school teachers.

In: Applied Linguistics Research … ISBN: 978-1-53619-611-5 Editors: Isaak Papadopoulos et al. © 2021 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 3

THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM IN MULTICULTURAL AND MULTILINGUAL CLASSROOMS Mary Koutselini1, and Sylvana Savva2 1

University of Cyprus, Department of Education, Cyprus 2 Cyprus Ministry of Education, Cyprus

ABSTRACT This chapter presents the results of a case study in multicultural and multilingual classrooms in Cyprus. The project aimed at investigating the hidden curriculum, its forms and outcomes in one primary school in Cyprus with 342 students with a migrant background. Due to the absence of research instruments, new tools were developed: one questionnaire for the teachers; and an observation tool for the classroom. According to the research results, the hidden curriculum appears in multicultural classrooms, which affects students’ well-being and development. The hidden curriculum (Jackson, 1968; Hargreaves, 1978) operates against the declared objectives of acceptance, inclusion and equality and it has negative side effects to both native and non-native students. 

Corresponding Author’s E-mail: [email protected].

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Mary Koutselini and Sylvana Savva Intersectionality of ethnicity, appearance and performance enhances the side effects of the hidden curriculum which appears during teaching and student–teacher discourse. The discrepancy between the official policy concerning intercultural education and praxis at schools is critically discussed.

Keywords: hidden curriculum, multicultural classrooms, equality, migrant background, intersectionality

INTRODUCTION It is difficult to fulfil the aims and objectives of multiculturalism and multilingualism in contemporary classrooms, especially in countries and school systems where multiculturalism is a new phenomenon. This is the case in Cyprus, where multicultural classrooms occurred after the accession of Cyprus to the European Union and have been extended over the last 10 years. It is worth noting that until 2004 only Greek Cypriot students were enrolled in Greek Cypriot schools. The transition has not been easy and despite the declarations of the Ministry of Education (2017), the aim of creating multicultural schools where all students can enjoy equality, equity and social acceptance has not really been achieved. According to research results (i.e., Savva & Koutselini, 2015), a hidden curriculum appears in the multicultural classrooms of primary schools in Cyprus, and it consists of unstated academic and social norms that affect both students’ development and creativity (Snyder, 1971). Nowadays in classrooms all over the world, multiculturalism is the rule rather than the exception (European Commission, 2008). Moreover, according to the bibliography (Koutselini, 2013; Giroux, 1983; Apple, 1979; Hargreaves, 1978), alongside with the official curriculum within the school system, there also exists a para-curriculum or hidden curriculum which contributes to the reproduction of values and beliefs beyond and/or in contrast to the rhetoric of the official curriculum. The hidden curriculum in the school environment consists of all the actions, attitudes and behaviors that emerge from students and teachers within teaching and the school

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environment and are not determined by the official curriculum or by the extra-curricular activities of the school. As Jay put it (2003), the hidden curriculum jeopardizes multicultural education’s expected outcomes and, according to Nieto (2000), endangers inclusive education. It must also be clarified that the para-curriculum remains hidden from actors, students and teachers, since they are not aware of the side effects of their behavior (Koutselini, 2013). The Cyprus Ministry of Education (2017) commitment to the smooth integration of pupils with a migrant background into the Cyprus educational system. As stated by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Cyprus, children with a migrant background are defined as children who have experienced immigration themselves or have immigrant parents. Immigrant students attend the lessons of the regular grade according to their age without prior contact with the Greek language. For the linguistic support of immigrant students, an intensive learning program of Greek as a second language is provided in primary schools through the method of pulling out the students from the regular classroom so that they can attend the language program. Students with migrant background from a variety of European and non- European countries (i.e., Russia, Romania, Poland, Syria, Iran, and Turkey) have enrolled in Cyprus’ primary schools. It is important to reveal the hidden curriculum, so that students, teachers, parents and stakeholders in general, are able to face it and minimize its negative consequences. The results of a research project in multicultural and multilingual classrooms are presented. The aim of this paper is to offer a descriptve presentation and discussion of the forms and results of the hidden curriculum in a primary school in Cyprus with students of migrant background.

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES The Concept and Function of ‘Hidden Curriculum’ Philip Jackson (1968:33) created the term ‘hidden curriculum’ or ‘unstudied curriculum’ in his ethnographic research book ‘Life in

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Classrooms.’ He observed the behaviors and procedures of the classroom life and he described the values, trends, feelings and expectations of students and teachers as they emerged in the classrooms and the school environment, as well as the power differences between them. His concept of the hidden curriculum includes the dimension of socialization and aspects of expected behaviors that are not overtly expressed in the official curriculum. Hargreaves (1978) argues that there is no hidden curriculum in classrooms today since this has been made evident by research. Based on this argument, he calls the phenomena that occur in the classrooms and contradict educational policy and the expected learning outcomes ‘paracurricular.’ The paracurriculum is not hidden because it can be observed. A hidden curriculum (Koutselini, 2013) is a side effect of schooling, with unintentional results during teaching and the implementation of the official curriculum. Thus, the content and the expected learning outcomes constitute the overt curriculum, whereas teaching (the methods and process of delivering the curriculum) may produce parallel but implicit results, which are not mentioned in the curriculum, or different, contradicting and unexpected outcomes. Portelli (1993) highlights four key concepts of the hidden curriculum: a) a set of informal expectations, b) the total of non-intentional learning results, c) the suggestive messages arising from the structure of school life and d) the hidden curriculum created by the students. From another point of view, Skelton (1997) supports that we should investigate and interpret the hidden curriculum beyond a singular paradigmatic framework, unveiling different perspectives, the functionalist, the liberal, the critical, and the postmodern ones. According to Michael Apple (1990), schooling and curricula aim to reproduce the power relationships in the society and at controlling the status quo concerning the distribution of goods and power. Concerning the power of the hidden curriculum to ‘control,’ Giroux and Penna (2012) reveal the ‘dynamics of the hidden curriculum,’ arguing that schooling prepares students for the workplace and the hegemonic political sphere, a function that has been ignored by social studies curriculum developers. Although the modes of operating and the results of the hidden curriculum have been

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ignored, Giroux (1983) supports the idea of resistance and that schools as cultural agents are able to resist domination. It is obvious that different ideologies interpret differently the function, intention and the results of the hidden curriculum and the role of the school. According to some interpretations, the hidden curriculum is not always unintentional and it conveys political ambitions and changes, whereas for others it is a means for sound and expected socialization, with schools possessing either passive or resistant roles.

METHODOLOGY Data and Method For the purposes of the research, one teacher’s questionnaire and an observation tool for the classroom after pilot testing were developed. The data were collected in the school year 2013-2014. During this school year, 1200 teacher questionnaires were sent to teachers of primary schools in different districts in Cyprus and from these, 455 completed questionnaires were collected. Random stratified sampling was used for the selection of primary schools. The participation of the teachers was voluntary. The time needed for the completion of the questionnaire was 25 minutes. For the study of the hidden curriculum in schools with immigrant students, a school with 342 students was selected, where one third of the students had a migrant background. Five teachers who wished to participate in the research and taught in the higher two classes were selected. The SPSS statistical package was used to analyze the data. In particular, descriptive statistical techniques were used to describe the behavior of both the sample and the groups. In addition, inductive statistics were used and more specifically (a) the t-test (paired – samples t-test) for statistically significant differences between groups and (b) the Variance Analysis of an independent variable or two independent variables (one-way ANOVA or two-way ANOVA) to confirm statistically significant differences between the student groups.

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For the data from the observation tool one-way ANOVA and two-way ANOVA was used, as well as a t-test of independent samples. For the data from the teacher’s questionnaire one-way ANOVA and two-way ANOVA as well as a t-test of independent and paired samples was used. Moreover, for the teacher’s questionnaire Factor Analysis was used for the quantitative data and the Constant Comparative Method was used for the qualitative data. In this study, intersectionality is followed as a methodological and interpretative framework. During intersectional examination, instead of examining gender, race, class, and nation as separate social hierarchies, researchers examine how these sections or systems mutually enhance one another or, in the words of the sociologist Stuart Hall, how they “articulate” with one another (Slack, 1996). By examining the ways in which gender, race and nation intersect, researchers can note new forms of discrimination and inequalities. Twelve (12) observations of each teacher who participated in the survey were made, so a total of 60 observations were conducted noting: a. Relationships between Greek Cypriot students and students with a different ethnic background, taking also into account the variable of gender. b. Relationships between teachers and students (Greek Cypriots and students from a different ethnic group and in relation to gender). c. Teachers’ attitudes towards students from a different ethnicity and in relation to gender. In the first part of the observation tool, the class, the subject, the lesson and the date were recorded. In the second part, the layout of the class was sketched and the observer noted down for each student in the class how many times he/she speaks, if they are sent encouraging or disparaging messages from the teacher, if he/she is unruly or undisciplined in the classroom, if he/she cooperates with other students and if his/her classmates send negative/positive comments to him/her. There was also a third part where the observer could write down comments and extracts from the students’ and teacher’ discourse and verbal and non-verbal messages.

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RESULTS Observation Tool Results In order to investigate whether there were differentiations between the students according to their nationality and gender, a two-way ANOVA analysis was carried out for each statement of the observation key. When there was a statistically significant association between the two independent variables gender and ethnicity, then a one-way ANOVA analysis was performed, with the new variable representing different combinations of gender and ethnicity. When there was no statistically significant interaction of the two independent variables then a one-way ANOVA analysis of the independent variable was carried out, for nationality if this was statistically significant or a comparison of the average of two independent samples (ttest) in case the gender was statistically significant. The results obtained from analyses of data from the observation tools showed that for some statements gender and ethnicity appeared to affect each other. With regard to the behavior of students in the classroom, Cypriot boys with high performance ( = 3,082, SD = 1,636) and Cypriot girls with high performance appear to be more involved in the activities of the course ( = 2,557, SD = 1,396). On the contrary, Roma students are not involved at all. In that statement it appeared not to affect gender or ethnicity separately but together. The analyses showed that there was a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) between high-performance Cypriot boys ( = 3,082, SD = 1,636) and high-performance Cypriot girls ( = 2,557, SD = 1,396) and all other groups of students based on nationality and gender. Moreover, as far as teachers are concerned, it appeared that they themselves gave Cypriot boys with high performance ( = 3,786, SD = 1,862) and girls with high performance ( = 3,147, SD = 1,641) the chance to speak in the classroom more often, and fewer chances to speak were given to Cypriot girls with low performance ( = 1,409, SD = 1,022) and Cypriot boys with low performance ( = 1,459, SD = 1,073). On the other hand, Roma girls and boys were not given the chance to speak at all during the

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lesson. In that statement it appeared not to affect gender or ethnicity separately but together. The analyses showed that there was a statistically significant difference between high-performing Cypriot boys ( = 3,786, SD = 1,862) (p < 0.05) and all other groups of students based on nationality and gender. The results also show that teachers made positive comments on the right answers and constructive comments on incorrect or incomplete responses more often to Cypriot boys with high performance ( = 1,672, SD = 1,091) and Cypriot girls with high performance ( = 1,311, SD = 0,922) followed by Cypriot girls with low performance ( = 0.983, SD = 0.695) and Cypriot boys with low performance ( = 0.950, SD = 0,739). The Kurdish boys ( = 0,500, SD = 0,507), the European girls ( = 0,469, SD = 0,581) and the European boys ( = 0,244, SD = 0.434) received positive comments on correct responses and constructive comments on incorrect or incomplete responses less frequently, with the English-speaking boys ( = 0.120, SD = 0.331) and girls ( = 0.108, SD = 0.314) receiving the least feedback. No positive comments were made to the Roma boys and girls. In that statement it appeared not to affect gender or ethnicity separately but together. Cypriot boys with high performance and the highest average were shown to have statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) with all groups of students based on nationality and gender. The results show that in the survey sample, Cypriot boys with low performance ( = 0.262, SD = 0.544) and Roma boys ( = 0.280, SD = 0.541) receive derogatory messages from the teacher more often than Cypriot boys ( = 0.016, SD = 0.128) and Cypriot girls with high performance ( = 0.049, SD = 0.218). In this statement it appeared not to affect gender or ethnicity separately but together. The analyses showed that there was a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) among Cypriot boys with low performance ( = 0.262, SD = 0.544) and (a) Kurdish boys ( = 0.001, SD = 0.001), b) European boys ( = 0.001, SD = 0.001), (c) European girls ( = 0.001, SD = 0.001), (d) English-speaking girls ( = 0.001,SD = 0.001) and (e) Cypriot boys with high performance ( = 0.016, SD = 0.128).

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The verbal and non-verbal messages from the teacher were more encouraging for Cypriot boys and Cypriot girls with high performance ( = 1,377, SD = 1,201). Less often, the Cypriot boys and girls with low performance ( = 0.778, SD = 0.755) received encouraging messages from the teachers, followed by Kurdish boys ( = 0.388, SD = 0.549) and European boys and girls ( = 0.193, SD = 0.422). Also, from all the observations, in only one did the English-speaking boys and girls receive encouraging messages. It is striking to note that Roma boys and girls did not receive any encouraging messages from teachers. In this statement only nationality appeared to affect the findings. The analyses showed that there were statistically significant differences between Cypriot pupils with high performance ( = 1.3770, SD = 1.201) (p < 0.05) and all other groups of pupils based on nationality. Finally, the results showed that Cypriot boys and girls commented negatively on the participation of Roma boys and girls. In this statement nationality appeared to play an important role. Analyses showed that there was a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) between Roma boys and girls ( = 0.270,SD = 0.450) and all groups based on nationality and performance: (a) Kurdish boys and girls ( = 0.001, SD = 0.001),(b) European boys and girls ( = 0.030, SD = 0.173), (c) English-speaking boys and girls ( = 0.032,SD = 0.178), (d) Cypriot boys and girls with high performance ( = 0.024,SD = 0.155) and (e) Cypriot boys and girls with low performance ( = 0.049,SD = 0.218). The data from the observations show that there is a hidden curriculum, both in the relationships between children, as well as between teachers and students. Greek Cypriots sometimes seem to underestimate students who are from a different nationality than their own. Teachers also seem to encourage and provide feedback more often to Cypriot boys and girls. The results also show that the behavior of students and teachers in the classroom is often not influenced by gender or ethnicity as separate entities, but when they are working in tandem.

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Questionnaire Results The teacher questionnaire was developed in two strands and a two-factor analysis of variance was conducted. The first strand of the questionnaire included statements on teachers’ perceptions of the characteristics of students of different nationalities. The second strand included statements on (a) whether there are different perceptions in relation to gender, (b) perceptions of external effects on learning, (c) perceptions of an appropriate response to diversity, (c) teachers’ knowledge of intercultural education and (d) the need for teacher training in intercultural education. The first factor analysis revealed 8 factors and the second 7 factors. The grouping of factors as derived from the factor analysis was as expected. An internal reliability check was then carried out which showed that all factors have high internal reliability (Gronbach’s alpha = .80) and could therefore be used in further analyses. Quantitative analysis of the teacher questionnaire (one-way ANOVA) showed that teachers have different perceptions of students’ characteristics according to their nationality. More specifically, it appeared that teachers believe that Greek Cypriot students cooperate more with European and English-speaking students and less with Arabs, Kurdish and Roma students. In addition, teachers believe to a greater extent that Greek Cypriot students perform better at school than other groups of students on the basis of nationality (Roma, Kurds, English speakers, Europeans). They also probably disagree that Roma, Kurds and Arab speakers are learning satisfactorily. Furthermore, teachers are more in agreement with the view that Greek Cypriot students want to learn and participate in the lesson as opposed to other groups on the basis of nationality. Moreover, teachers probably agree that English-speaking and European students want to learn and participate. In addition, teachers do not believe/rather disagree that girls are more disciplined, perform better or learn better than boys regardless of nationality. Teachers believe that the educational system in Cyprus helps Greek Cypriot students to learn more than students from other nationalities. Also, teachers believe that parents of Greek Cypriots are more interested in their children’s learning than parents of children from other nationalities (t-test for

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dependent samples). Moreover, teachers probably agree that teachers have a better attitude towards Greek Cypriot students than other groups of pupils on the basis of nationality and it seems that teachers probably agree that in the classroom there are negative prejudices between students towards Roma, Kurdish students and Arab-speaking students. The results also showed that there is a link between whether teachers have a Master’s degree in Intercultural Education or have attended relative conferences and some of the factors in the questionnaire. The results of the quantitative analysis showed that teachers probably disagree that they are adequately prepared and that they have the appropriate knowledge to teach in multicultural classes. The qualitative analysis showed that the majority of teachers are not satisfied with the educational policy towards immigrant students so far, and they referred to some suggestions for improvement, such as the need to create reception classes and the need for teacher support. In addition, most teachers do not use intercultural activities in their classroom.

DISCUSSION The results show the difference between the rhetoric of official policy papers and school practice. While the policy documents of the Ministry of Education stress that the general aim is to create the conditions that ensure equal access and success for all students, in practice this is not achieved. This study can reinforce the Cyprus educational system and the policy papers concerning intercultural education even though the scope of the research was limited to only one case study in a Cypriot school, and also bearing in mind that it is important to avoid making hasty overgeneralizations. The classification of students into socially accepted and rejected groups because of their ethnicity, nationality, language, external appearance, and performance reflects the stratification of students with a migrant background to workers and assistants, thus pre-determining their future position in the society. Can schools, teachers, and students resist making such classifications? Students do not seem to react or to be able to fight for their own right for respect and equal opportunities. Neither can the

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school do so, since teachers are not aware of the results of the paracurriculum, which remains hidden to them. The structure of the classrooms facilitates disapproval of the minorities who cannot speak the teaching language and do not have as good a performance as the native students. Poor academic achievement is a vehicle of segregation that isolates groups of students and contributes to classroom stratification, thus signaling future job stratification. To prevent this, teachers have suggested the establishment of host classes where students could learn the language before attending regular classes. Democratic schools are schools in which no child is excluded (Koutselini & Agathangelou, 2009), marginalized, stigmatized, despised and made to feel unhappy due to differences of origin, color, gender, and performance. It is a school of total respect for human dignity and, furthermore, a school in which students have the right and the ability to experience childhood and youth as their most creative and happy periods of their life. This is not the case according to the results of this study, despite the fact that equal opportunities for all children have been declared in the official curriculum. Equality guarantees the legal right to education for all children, but it does not establish equity or the right to have the support one needs in multicultural and multilingual classrooms. The official curriculum as a policy document remains in the sphere of promises and expectations without providing the means for its realization. The pull-out program for the acquisition of the Greek language, without host classrooms for migrant or ethnic students before their induction into the regular classrooms, has proved to be an insufficient measure for preparing students to fulfil the expected learning outcomes. Consequently, their expected low performance affects and intersects with their nationality, ethnicity and their different appearance, creating grounds for negative attitudes towards them. Language is the main vehicle for socialization and learning and the key through which identity is formed and communicated. Preventing students with a migrant background from communicating by using the teaching language prevents their development and inhibits them

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from communicating to others who they are, so as to allow others’ appreciation of their identity. The hidden curriculum threatens the inclusive ethos and marginalizes ‘different’ students because schools, teachers and students are not able to become responsive to their needs. Thus, students with migrant background are prevented from becoming accepted members of the classroom society.

CONCLUSION David Hargreaves (1978, p. 97) asked the question: ‘From whom, one wonders, is the hidden curriculum now hidden?’. This study proves that the hidden curriculum remains unseen for teachers and students who experience multicultural classrooms as a new phenomenon, without having any support other than the vague rhetoric of the policy papers. Cypriot teachers have asked for further support and they have proposed the establishment of host classrooms for students with a migrant background, hence expressing through this request their incapability of handling the situation. Having observed the above, the reader should take into account that immigration in Cyprus is a rather new phenomenon in comparison with other European countries, an occurrence taking place in the last fifteen years. Students in primary schools are usually newcomers and immigrants, and they attend lessons in Greek without having lived in or communicated in the social environment. Moreover, the fact that students with a migrant background are always the minority in the primary school classrooms makes social and learning exclusion and isolation easier; it also reflects the social exclusion that takes place in society more generally. A large proportion of the parents of students are immigrants who remain a discriminatory part of the society, as nonpermanent habitants, usually asylum seekers, or workers for five years and eventually non-citizens. As Sadler (1900) argued many decades ago, what happens in the society affects what happens at schools.

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REFERENCES Apple, M. (1979). Ideology and Curriculum. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Cyprus Ministry of Education. (2017). Policy Paper on the Integration of Pupils with Migrant Background to the Cyprus Educational System. Retrieved March 5, 2021 from, https://www.pi.ac.cy/pi/files/ epimorfosi/entaxi/policy_paper.pdf. European Commission (2008). Migration and Mobility: Challenges and Opportunities for EU Education systems. Retrieved February 8, 2021, from http://europa.eu/education/school21/com423_en.pdf. Giroux, H. A. (1983). Theory and Resistance in Education. London: Heinemann. Giroux, A., & Penna, N. (1979). Social Education in the Classroom: The Dynamics of the Hidden Curriculum, Giroux, A., & Penna, N. (1979) Social Education in the Classroom: The Dynamics of the Hidden Curriculum, Theory & Research in Social Education, 7(1), 21-42, doi: 10.1080/00933104.1979.10506048 Hargreaves, D. (1978). Power and the Paracurriculum. In C. Richards (ed). Power and the Curriculum. Driffield: Nafferton Books. Jackson, P. (1968). Life in Classrooms. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Jay, M. (2003). Critical Race Theory, Multicultural Education, and the Hidden Curriculum of Hegemony. Multicultural Perspectives, 5 (4), 3-9. Koutselini, M., & Agathangelou, S. (2009). Human rights and teaching: equity as praxis in mixed ability classrooms. In P. Cunningham (Eds.), Proceedings of the Eleventh Conference of the Children’s Identity and Citizenship in Europe (CICE) Thematic Network: Human Rights and Citizenship Education (pp. 237 – 244) (CD-ROM). London: CiCe Publication. Koutselini, M. (2013). Curriculum and Teaching. Athens: Pedio (in Greek). Nieto, S. (2000). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education (3rded.). New York: Longman.

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Portelli, J. (1993). Exposing the hidden curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 25(4), 343-358. Sadler, M. (1900). How Far Can We Learn Anything of Practical Value from the Study of Foreign Systems of Education? Guilford. Republished in Comparative Education Review, 7 (3), 307-314 in 1964. Savva, S., & Koutselini, M. (2015). The hidden curriculum in multicultural classrooms and the need for teacher education. Teacher Professionalism and Educational Change: Possibilities for policy and practice, 11-12 September 2015, European University, Cyprus. Skelton, A. (1997). Studying Hidden Curricula: developing a perspective in the light of postmodern insights, Curriculum Studies, 5(2), 177-193. Snyder, B. R. (1971). The Hidden Curriculum. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Mary Koutselini is Em. Professor with specialization in Curriculum Theory and Educational policy. She is the president of the Cyprus Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation (CYQAA) and Chair holder of the UNESCO chair in Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment of the University of Cyprus. She is also the Coordinator of 20 International, European and National Research programs in the areas of her specialization and an active member of a number of national, European and international academic associations and editorial boards of scientific journals. She served as head person of the Center of Learning of the University of Cyprus, of the Department of Education and as external evaluator of Universities, Research, and academic staff in Cyprus and abroad. She also participates as an expert in national and international working groups and advisory boards and networks. She has authored 25 books and more than 200 articles and invited chapters in scientific refereed journals and books.

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Sylvana Savva is a graduate of the Department of Education Sciences (BA in Primary Education) of the University of Cyprus (2001-2005) with “Excellent”. She also holds a postgraduate-master degree in “Curriculum and Instruction” of the University of Cyprus (2005-2007) with “Excellent”. She worked as a research assistant (2005-2012) at the department of Education of the University of Cyprus and has been working as a teacher in primary schools in Cyprus since 2008. In 2018 has finished the doctoral program (PhD) “Curriculum Development, Comparative Pedagogy and Instruction” at the University of Cyprus. She participated and presented in conferences. Her research interests are para-curriculum/ hidden curriculum, intercultural education, multiculturalism, differentiation of teaching, equality of education, curriculum development and evaluation.

In: Applied Linguistics Research … ISBN: 978-1-53619-611-5 Editors: Isaak Papadopoulos et al. © 2021 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 4

RAISING LANGUAGE AWARENESS AND INTERCULTURAL SENSITIVITY IN MIXED CLASSROOMS Aspasia Chatzidaki*, Dionysia Kontogianni, Theodosia Michelakaki and Paraskevi Thomou University of Crete, Greece

ABSTRACT This chapter reports on an intercultural education project implemented by faculty members of the Departments of Primary and Preschool Education of the University of Crete in 2017 and 2018. On the occasion of the European Day of Languages (26 September) and the International Mother Tongue Day (20 February), the researchers invited primary school classes from local schools to join them in projects celebrating multilingualism and interculturalism. The theoretical frameworks underpinning the projects were the Language Awareness approach principles (Hélot & Young, 2006a;b) as well as models of intercultural competence (Βennet, 2004; Deardorff, 2006). The researchers designed

*

Corresponding Author’s E-mail: [email protected].

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A. Chatzidaki, D. Kontogianni, Th. Michelakaki et al. activities inspired basically by the material available at the ECML website for the celebration of the European Day of Languages. Then, following a collaboration with undergraduate and postgraduate students of their Departments who led the projects with the primary school pupils on both occasions. The projects aimed at (a) raising both University students’ and pupils’ awareness and sensitivity on linguistic and cultural diversity, (b) encouraging pupils with a different linguistic background to feel pride in their cultural heritage, and (c) contributing to the creation of an integrative class environment. Although the projects were too short in duration to guarantee any long-term effects, they were nevertheless important as an initial attempt towards these goals. Moreover, the class teachers had the opportunity to see the impact such activities had on enhancing immigrant students’ participation and engagement in class activities and it is hoped that they will adopt such approaches as part of their teaching practices.

Keywords: language awareness, intercultural sensitivity, metalinguistic skills, schoolchildren, university students

INTRODUCTION The increase of migration movement towards Greece since the early ‘90s has brought about important changes in the school population in Greece. In the 2000s, a mean percentage of 10% of all primary and secondary school students had parents who had migrated to Greece mainly from the Balkans and the former Soviet Union but also from a large number of Asian and African states (Sella-Mazi, 2015). Although the authorities have taken measures supposedly aiming to ensure these students’ successful integration into the Greek educational system, such measures focused mostly on helping new arrivals achieve a basic level of Greek language skills as soon as possible in ‘Reception classes’ (Ζagka, Kessidou & Mattheoudakis, 2014). Despite the official rhetoric on “intercultural education,” the Greek educational system remains largely ethnocentric and continues to serve as a mechanism promoting cultural homogenization (Αndroussou, 2005). The scant attention paid to immigrant students’ linguistic and cultural capital is evident in numerous studies. Even well-intentioned teachers are

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negatively affected by widespread but erroneous beliefs regarding bilingualism and the relationship between their students’ languages; such beliefs often lead them to consider students’ home languages as a hindrance to the learning of Greek instead of treating them as a resource (Gkaintartzi & Tsokalidou, 2011, Gkaintartzi, Kiliari & Tsokalidou, 2014). As a result, they may even prohibit the use of these languages in the classroom on the grounds that Greek is the only ‘legitimate’ school language in their new surroundings (Gkaintartzi, Chatzidaki & Tsokalidou, 2014; Sakka, 2010). Moreover, even when teachers claim to acknowledge the families’ right to speak their own language at home, they do not necessarily agree that the Greek state should help such students maintain and develop their home languages (Mattheoudakis, Chatzidaki & Maligkoudi,, 2017). In such circumstances, the provision of a solid teacher education for diversity is of paramount importance. This chapter presents two projects carried out by faculty and students of the School of Education, University of Crete with the aim to enhance both schoolchildren’s and student teachers’ contact with diversity and contribute to their developing intercultural competence and language awareness through experiential learning and teaching. the objectives of the project were to: a. raise both University students’ and pupils’ awareness on language diversity through observation and reflection on aspects of multilingualism b. increase their intercultural sensitivity c. explore and improve pupils’ attitudes towards other languages and cultures, d. encourage pupils with a different language background to feel pride in their cultural heritage and linguistic resources, and e. contribute to the creation of an integrative class environment. The four faculty members collaborate in projects organized by the Centre for Intercultural and Migration Studies of the Department of Primary Education (University of Crete) and have a long experience in the design of educational material for immigrant and bilingual students and in teacher pre-

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and in-service training for diversity. Two of them have a background in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics while the other two are Intercultural Education specialists. Because of their different points of departure, they were in a position to provide complementary theoretical input and link two distinct but related perspectives to the common goal. These perspectives are discussed in the following section, while Section 3 presents the project.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The two basic concepts which shaped the selection, design and mode of implementation of the projects in question were language awareness and intercultural competence. The Language Awareness approach originated in the UK in the ‘80s (James, 1999) and has since evolved in various forms (Bolitho et al., 2003; James, 1999). The version which was found particularly useful for teacher education lies in the Language Awareness approach as shaped and used in certain French-speaking countries such as France (’Eveil au langage’) and Switzerland (‘Ouverture aux langues’) (cf. Candelier, 1998; De Pietro, 1998; Hélot & Young 2006a;b; Young, 2011). The overall goals of the approach was to help all students develop a) positive attitudes towards cultural and linguistic diversity and language learning, and b) metacognitive and metalinguistic skills which are supposed to facilitate the learning of languages, including the language used at school (Candelier, 1998). It should be pointed out that this approach targets all students irrespective of their cultural and language background. More specific objectives include that all students should: a. develop positive attitudes and views regarding other languages and cultures (more or less close to home) b. learn to ascribe value to all cultures and languages c. develop the desire to learn other languages, not limited to a few prestigious European languages

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d. develop metacognitive and metalinguistic skills through observation and reflection on languages e. develop a heightened awareness and skills for language learning, and ultimately f. achieve better results when learning new languages. This approach resonates well with recent developments about language learning promoted by the European Union, which include the promotion of intercultural competence, the second axis of our theoretical approach. Since the early 2000s the Council of Europe has advocated new approaches towards cultural and linguistic diversity which could potentially have a positive impact on the maintenance of immigrant languages and cultures. This new approach has a number of basic tenets which can be summarized as follows: 1. All European countries are multilingual. 2. Every language is plural. 3. Every school is a space open to the plurality of languages and cultures. 4. All education is plurilingual in varying degrees. 5. Every identity is plural. (Cavalli et al., 2009, pp. 4-7) Based on the above, the European Union proposes the implementation of plurilingual and intercultural education which aims to safeguard each learner’s rights to be educated on the basis of certain values promoted by the Council of Europe: social cohesion and solidarity, participatory democracy, reciprocal understanding, and the respect for and valorisation of linguistic and cultural diversity. Plurilingual and intercultural education needs to be conceived: as a global language education, across all languages of the school and in all disciplinary domains, which provides a basis for an identity open to linguistic and cultural plurality and diversity, insofar as languages are the

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A. Chatzidaki, D. Kontogianni, Th. Michelakaki et al. expression of different cultures and of differences within the same culture. (Cavalli et al., 2009, pp. 7-8)

It is important to realize that plurilingual and intercultural education is not to be mistaken for a new methodology for the teaching of languages. As it is pointed out: It is rather a change in perspective, characterised by the fact that it involves not only foreign languages but that languages in proximity, the languages of the repertoires of learners, the language(s) of schooling and of all subjects, are integral to it. (Cavalli et al., 2009, p. 8).

The objectives of this global language education are to develop plurilingual and intercultural competence (cf. Beacco & Byram, 2007). Cavalli et al., (2009, p. 8) define plurilingual competence as the ’capacity to successively acquire and use different competences in different languages, at different levels of proficiency and for different functions’. Intercultural competence, on the other hand, is defined within this particular framework as ‘a combination of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours which allow a speaker, to varying degrees, to recognize, understand, interpret and accept other ways of living and thinking beyond his or her home culture.’ (Cavali et al., 2009, [.8). The concept of intercultural competence is by no means new to the scholarly literature on intercultural education. According to Bennett (1986), for instance, intercultural competence is the ability to communicate successfully with an individual from a different cultural background. He argues that one of the prerequisites for its development is intercultural sensitivity, construed as the ability to understand diversity in complex ways (Bennett, 1986); he also suggests that intercultural sensitivity is influenced by a person’s degree of cognitive complexity (Bennett, 2004). Other factors which are conducive to the development of intercultural competence according to Bennett (2004) include mental flexibility and openness. Among the features characterising an interculturally competent individual are the respect and understanding of cultural diversity, the ability to adapt in new cultural surroundings and engage in interaction, as well as

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the development of multilingual skills (Barrett, 2013). In other words, intercultural competence involves attitudes, knowledge and understanding in addition to specific skills (Barrett et al., 2013). In a similar vein, Deardorff (2006) suggests that intercultural competence is linked to the efficient and appropriate interaction and communication which presuppose a deep cultural knowledge and a set of knowledge, attitudes, critical thinking skills and the ability to see things from a different perspective. The acquisition of all the above-mentioned skills is a lengthy and strenuous process. Individuals do not develop intercultural competence simply as a result of a university course; this achievement requires a high degree of personal involvement, experiencing diversity and continuously reflecting upon and questioning one’s beliefs and practices. The project described in this chapter was conceived as a small step in that direction.

THE PROJECT Aims and Objectives In the summer of 2017, the four faculty members decide to involve a number of their students in a project celebrating the European Day of Languages (September 26th). A similar project was carried out a few months later, on the International Mother Language Day (February 21st). The rationale behind the projects was to encourage student teachers to lead primary school pupils into a series of activities which could fall under the Language Awareness approach. For this purpose, schoolchildren were invited to the university. The aim was to help them reflect on certain aspects of their own cultural and linguistic identity which they take for granted and to understand that both languages and cultures evolve constantly through interaction (Chatzidaki, 2015; Vandenbroeck, 2004). More specific objectives, including the student teachers’ involvement as well, were to:

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A. Chatzidaki, D. Kontogianni, Th. Michelakaki et al. a. raise both University students’ and pupils’ awareness on language diversity through observation and reflection on aspects of multilingualism b. increase their intercultural sensitivity c. explore and improve pupils’ attitudes towards other languages and cultures, d. encourage pupils with a different language background to feel pride in their cultural heritage and linguistic resources, and e. contribute to the creation of an integrative class environment.

Participants The projects involved a total of 13 students from the Departments of Primary Education (n = 8) and Preschool Education (n = 5) who attended courses on Bilingualism, Greek as a Second Language and Intercultural Education and acted as mediators. Their participation in the projects was voluntary and did not constitute part of their course assignments. In the weeks prior to the project’s implementation, the faculty met with the students on several occasions in order to ensure they were able to implement the activities with school children. The faculty members located four 4th grade classes (two each time) who were eager to participate in the project. A total of 105 primary school pupils was involved. The classes belonged to four different primary schools in Rethymno area; three of them were located in the city centre and one in a semi-rural area at the city outskirts. On each of the two occasions (September 2017, February 2018), the project was carried out with one school with a low and one with a high percentage of pupils from other countries. This was intentional as we hoped that majority-group students would come in contact with immigrant children and vice versa during the break. Besides Greek, the pupils’ repertoires comprised Albanian, Bulgarian, Hindi, Punjabi, Romanian and Russian. The projects took place at the University of Crete facilities and the classes had the opportunity to visit the site as a field trip. The duration of the

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activities was approximately two hours. The basis for the material used was activities available on the website of the European Centre for Modern Languages for the celebration of the European Day of Languages (www.ecml.at). The selected activities were translated and modified to suit the age and knowledge level of 9-10 year olds. Students were assigned to each class; each student was responsible for leading one of the activities and supervising a smaller group of children. The class teachers were present during the activities as well.

Procedures In each room, the students welcomed the pupils and their teachers and introduced themselves. They introduced the topic of the project by asking questions such as: ‘What are we celebrating today?’ ‘What does that mean?’ etc. and leading pupils into a short discussion. Then, they carried out the following activities:

Activity 1: How to Say ‘Goodmorning’/’Hello’ in Other Languages The aim of this activity was to familiarize children with different language sounds and scripts and to help them realize that the same meaning can be expressed in a myriad of ways. This comparative approach was supposed to help them enhance their metalinguistic and metacognitive skills. First, children listened to greetings in various languages (‘Hello’ audio file available at the ECML website), made comments on what they had heard and offered guesses as to which languages were represented in the file. Then, they were invited to play a game through which they would learn how to say ‘Goodmorning’ or ’Hello’ in other languages. The students distributed flash cards to the pupils; the cards contained the word ‘Goodmorning’ or ‘Hello’ in another language as well as its pronunciation in Greek. The name of the language was also written on the card in Greek. Children were asked to read out the word and write it on their flash card as shown in Photo 1.

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Photo 1. Cards with Greetings.

Photo 2. Locating the countries on the map.

Each student worked with a small group of pupils and used a small world map to discuss with the children where these languages may be spoken and help them locate the country/ies on the map (Photo 2). Pupils pointed out phonemic or formal similarities between languages and the student in charge informed them that such similarities were due to their being part of the same language family. The use of metalanguage was kept to a minimum.

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For the second part of the activity, all pupils were asked to stand in front of the whole class, write the greeting on their flash card on the whiteboard and say the word out loud, while the rest of the pupils repeated after him/her. Finally, pupils were invited to write their greetings on a long stretch of paper using crayons.

Activity 2: The Language Quiz The activity was inspired by the Language Quiz available at the ECML website, which was translated and modified in order to suit the pupils’ age and knowledge level. The version of the quiz used contained questions about language diversity, different scripts used around the world (Latin, Cyrillic, etc), multilingualism in certain countries, animal sounds in different languages, loanwords from other languages into Greek. The aim of the activity was to raise language awareness in a playful way. More specifically, pupils were invited to observe differences and similarities between languages on various levels, to wonder about the potentially common origin of words and languages, understand that language contact as well as cultural contact are completely natural phenomena. For example:    

What does ‘real’ mean in the name of the Spanish football team, Real Madrid? Big, real, royal or brave? In Greek, the duck says “pa, pa, pa”. In which language does the duck say “hap, hap”? In Spanish, in Hungarian or in Romanian? What language does the word ‘manavis’ (greengrocer) come from? Italian, French, Turkish or Albanian? Which of the following languages are written from right to left? Hebrew, Japanese, Bulgarian, Arabic?

The language quiz was set on a ppt presentation, one slide containing the question (in a multiple choice format) and the next providing the answer with additional information on it. The lead student presented the question to the whole class and asked pupils to answer in a couple of minutes. For each quiz item, there was a short discussion on its content.

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Activity 3: Find the Language of the Song In this activity, pupils listened to 13 songs and were invited to guess the language they were in based on sounds, stress and intonation. The songs represented a wide variety of countries and languages, some of which were also some pupils’ home languages (Albanian, Arabic, Romanian, Russian, Arabic etc) while others were unknown to all pupils (such as French, Japanese and Xhosa). One of the aims of the activity was to raise the children’s linguistic awareness; one could notice stereotypical views about how a certain language sounds like when they offered explanations about their guesses. A second objective, however, was to expose them to a variety of musical patterns and invite them to discover commonalities or help them challenge their stereotypes (e.g., ‘African music uses drums’). Through this process, cultural borders seem to open and pupils develop positive attitudes on various kinds of music (Sakellaridis, 2010). Finally, the activity was a rather enjoyable break between more cognitively-oriented tasks. The children enjoyed listening to the songs and even started dancing on some occasions. Activity 4: Proverbs in Many Languages - Guess the Greek Proverb According to Collins English Dictionary, a proverb is a ‘short, memorable, and often condensed saying embodying, especially with bold imagery, some commonplace fact or experience.’ All languages have proverbs; they encapsulate the social, linguistic and cultural experience of their users. Although humans speak different languages, they tend to have common socio-cultural experiences. The aim of the task was for pupils to realize that different languages express the same meaning through different proverbs. An additional aim was for pupils to find the linguistic differences but, more importantly, the conceptual similarities underlying the proverbs; in other words, to notice the universality or shared conceptual motivation of proverbs across languages (Buljan & Gradečak-Erdeljić, 2013). These similarities reflect common human sociocultural experiences.

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To take just one example: the Greek proverb ‘To milo kato apo ti milja tha pesi’ (‘the apple will fall under the apple tree,’ English ‘like father like son’) has corresponding proverbs in other languages such as the following: Turkish: ‘Αrmut dibine di üşermiş’ (‘the pear falls exactly under the tree’) German: ‘Der Apfel fällt nicht weit vom Stamm’ (‘the apple does not fall far from the tree’) Romanian: ‘Aşchia nu sare departe de trunchi’ (‘the chip does not jump farther than the trunk’) Russian: ‘Kakov pop takov I prihod’ (‘like priest like church’)

All proverbs above, regardless of their linguistic resources, present a common underlying meaning: ‘humans look like humans they are ‘close’ to,’ ‘humans look like their ancestors.’ Metaphorically speaking, an entity similar to another entity is perceived as being spatially close to it. In this case, a conceptual pattern that maps SIMILAR onto CLOSE is found (Grady, 2007; for Greek language data, see Thomou, 2019). Other proverbs used in the activity were the following:    

‘vrechi kareklopodara’ (‘it rains cats and dogs’), ‘opu lalun pola kokorja arji na ksimerosi’ (‘too many cooks spoil the broth’), ‘den kanun ta rasa ton papa’ (‘don’t judge a book by its cover’), ‘opjos kai sti supa fisai ke to jaurti (‘once bitten twice shy’).

Each group of pupils was given cards containing proverbs from four or five languages which carried the same underlying meaning but expressed it in different ways. Pupils were asked to study the material at hand, try to guess the meaning of the proverb in the four languages and write down its equivalent in Greek. Next, each group presented to the other groups their proverbs and prompted them to find the corresponding Greek proverb. Finally, the whole class discussed different how languages used the same or similar metaphors to talk about common human experiences.

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Closing Activity When the activities were over, pupils were invited to draw on a large white paper spread across the floor their thoughts and feelings concerning the project or simply their names (Photo 3).

Photo 3. Drawing impressions from the project.

CONCLUSION With regard to the pupils, all of them participated enthusiastically. Immigrant children, who were given the chance to display their linguistic repertoires, seemed particularly happy. Feelings of joy and pride could be noticed on their faces when, for instance, they wrote their name in their home language or heard that a common Greek work such as ‘luludi’ (‘flower’) was actually a loanword from Albanian. The class teachers made very positive comments for the whole endeavor. In two cases, actually, they said they would make use of such language awareness raising activities in their classrooms as a means to reach out to more pupils and create a more inclusive environment. Finally, the participating students involved themselves in the project with great enthusiasm. At the stage of preparation, they looked for extra

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material for some of the activities and spend hours with their team leaders discussing aspects of the implementation. In some case, this contributed significantly to their metalinguistic awareness as they also learned new things (e.g., that the name of the country does not necessarily coincide with the name of the language spoken in that part of the world (‘Cuban,’ ’African,’ etc.) or when they learned that certain languages are written right to left, that there is no single version of Sign Language for Deaf people all over the world, etc.). In the discussion following the completion of the project, they claimed that they appreciated the chance they were given to transform theory into practice, and expressed an interest in pursuing further studies in the field of Intercultural Education and language diversity. Research with student teachers reveals that when their contact with such issues is limited to attending a course they often misinterpret the principles of Intercultural Education, fail to see the link between theory and educational practice, and find it difficult to comprehend issues linked to diversity, discrimination and inequality because of deeply-rooted stereotypical beliefs (Guo, Arthrur & Lund, 2009; Middleton, 2002; Sleeter, 2001). By contrast, their actual involvement in projects taking place in multicultural environments helps discard stereotypes and reinforces the development of positive attitudes towards cultural differences (Dimitrov et al., 2014; Holguin, 2013; Leon, 2014). The project in question was an example of a small-scale endeavor to involve student teachers in the design and implementation of activities aiming at raising language awareness and intercultural sensitivity among primary school pupils. While it is difficult to ascertain its impact on both the pupils and the students, we would like to argue that it is a step towards raising their intercultural sensitivity and developing intercultural competence.

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REFERENCES Androussou, A. (2005) ‘’Pos se lene?’’. Diergasies mias epimorfotikis paremvasis sti mionotiki ekpedefsi [‘What is your name?’ Aspects of a teacher training intervention regarding the Muslim minority education in Greece]. Athens: Gutenberg. Barrett, M. (2013). Intercultural Competence: A distinctive hallmark of Interculturalism? In M. Barrett (Eds.), Interculturalism and Multiculturalism: Similarities and Differences (pp. 147-168). Strasbourg: Council of Europe. Barrett, M., Byram, M., Lazar, I., Mompoint-Gaillard, P., & Philippou, S. (2013). Developing Intercultural Competence through Education. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. Beacco, J. C., & M. Byram (2007). From linguistic diversity to plurilingual education: Guide for the development of language education policies in Europe. Strasburg: Council of Europe, Language Policy Division. Retrieved from https://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearch Services/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId = 09000016802fc1c4 Bennett, M. J. (1986). A developmental approach to training for intercultural sensitivity. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 10(2), 179196. Bennett, M. J. (2004). Becoming Interculturally Competent. In J. Wurzel (Eds.), Toward multiculturalism: A Reader in Multicultural Education (2nd ed.) (pp.62-77). Newton, MA: Intercultural Resource Corporation. Bolitho, R., Carter, R., Hughes, R., Ivanic, R., Masuhara, H., & Tomlinson, B. (2003). Ten questions about language awareness. ELT Journal, 57 (3), 251-259. Buljan, G., & Gradečak-Erdeljić, T. (2013). Where cognitive linguistics meets paremiology: a cognitive-contrastive view of selected English and Croatian proverbs. Explorations in English Language and Linguistics 1(1), 63-83. Candelier, M. (1998). L’ éveil aux langues à l’ école primaire, le programme européen Evlang. In J. Billiez (Eds.), De la didactique des langues à la didactique au plurilinguisme. Hommage à Louise Dabène (pp. 299-

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308). Grenoble: CDL- Lidilem. [Language Awakening in Primary School, the European Evlang Program. In J. Billiez (Eds.), From language didactics to didactics in plurilingualism. Tribute to Louise Dabène] Cavalli, M., Coste, D., Crişan, A., & van de Ven, P.-H. (2009). Plurilingual and intercultural education as a project. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, Language Policy Division. Retrieved from https://rm.coe.int/ plurilingual-and-intercultural-education-as-a-project-this-text-hasbe/16805a219f. Chatzidaki, A. (2015). Aksiopiondas tin poliglosia ke tin polipolitismikotita tou sholiou mesa apo tin prosegisi tis ‘glosikis epignosis’ (Language Awareness/Eveil aux langues). [Making the best of classroom multilingualism and multiculturalism through the Language Awareness Approach]. In M. Tzakosta (Eds.), Glosiki ekmathisi ke didaskalia se polipolitismika perivalonda: ensomatosi tis glosikis apoklisis ke tis glosikis pikilias stin taksi (pp. 90-110). Athens: Gutenberg. [Language learning and teaching in multicultural environments: integration of language diversity and language diversity in the classroom] De Pietro, J. F. (1998). Demain, enseigner l’ éveil aux langues a l’ école? In J. Billiez (Eds.), De la didactique des langues à la didactique au plurilinguisme. Hommage à Louise Dabène (pp. 323-334). Grenoble: CDL- Lidilem. [Tomorrow, teach the awakening to languages at school? In J. Billiez (Eds.), From language didactics to didactics in plurilingualism. Tribute to Louise Dabène] Deardorff, D. K. (2006). Identification and assessment of Intercultural Competence as a student outcome of Internationalization. Journal of Studies in International Education, 10 (3), 241-266. Dimitrov, N., Dawson, D. L., Olsen, K. C., & Meadows, K. N. (2014). Developing the intercultural competence of graduate students. Canadian Journal of Higher Εducation, 44(3), 86-103. Gkaintartzi, A., & Tsokalidou, R. (2011). “She is a very good child but she doesn’t speak”: The invisibility of children’s bilingualism and teacher ideology. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(2), 588–601.

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Gkaintartzi, A., Chatzidaki, A., & Tsokalidou, R. (2014). Albanian Parents and the Greek Educational Context: Who is Willing to Fight for the Home Language? International Journal of Multilingual Research, 8 (4), 291-308. Gkaintartzi, A., Kiliari, A., & Tsokalidou, R. (2015). ‘Invisible’ bilingualism – ‘invisible’ language ideologies: Greek teachers' attitudes towards immigrant pupils’ heritage languages, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 18(1), 1, 60-72, doi: 10.1080/13670050.2013.877418. Grady, J. (2007). Metaphor. In D. Geeraerts & H. Cuyckens (Eds), The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics (pp. 188-213). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Guo, Y., Arthur, N., & Lund, D. (2009). Intercultural inquiry with preservice teachers. Intercultural Education, 20(6), 565 – 577. Hélot, C., & Young, A. (2006a). Bilingualism and language education in French primary schools: why and how migrant languages should be valued. In A. Hancock, S. Hermeling, J. Landon, & A. Young (Eds.), Building on Language Diversity with Υoung Children (pp. 255-279). Berlin/ Wien/ Zürich: LIT Verlag. Hélot, C., & Young, A. (2006b). Imagining multilingual education in France. A language and cultural awareness project at primary school. In O. García, T. Skutnabb-Kangas & M. Torres-Guzmán (Eds.), Imagining Multilingual Schools. Languages in Education and Globalization (pp.69-90). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Holguin, R. B. (2013). Towards the development of intercultural competence skills: a pedagogical experience with pre-service teachers. HOW, 20, 206-225. James, C. (1999). Language Awareness: Implications for the Language Curriculum. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 12 (1), 94-115. Leon, D. N. (2014). Developing intercultural competence by participating in intensive intercultural service-learning. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, Fall, 17-30. Mattheoudakis, M., Chatzidaki, A., & Maligkoudi, C. (2017). Greek teachers’ views on linguistic and cultural diversity In Agathopoulou, Ε.,

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Danavassi, Τ. & Efstathiadi, L. (Eds.), Selected papers on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics from ISTAL 2015 (International Symposium on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, 24-26 April 2015) (pp.358-371). Thessaloniki: School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Available at: http://ejournals.lib.auth.gr/thal. Middleton, V. A. (2002). Increasing pre-service teachers’ diversity beliefs and commitment. The Urban Review, 34(4), 343-361. Sakellaridis, G. (2010). Odigos diapolitismikis mousikis ekpedefsis [Intercultural Music Education Guide). Athens: Pedio. Sakka, D. (2010). Greek teachers’ cross-cultural awareness and their views on classroom cultural diversity. Hellenic Journal of Psychology, 7, 98123. Sella Mazi, E. (2015). I diglossia stin Elada. [Bilingualism in Greece]. In E. Skourtou & V. Kourtis-Kazoullis (Eds), Diglossia ke didaskalia tis Elinikis os defteris glosas [Bilingualism and Teaching Greek as a Second Language] (pp.20-69). Athens: Kallipos (digital academic textbooks). Available at https://repository.kallipos.gr/handle/ 11419/6346. Sleeter, C. E. (2001). Preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools: Research and the overwhelming presence of whiteness. Journal of Teacher Education, 32, 94-106. Thomou, P. (2019). Locatives and their metaphorical conceptualization in multi-word constructions retrieved from a corpus search. In M. Chondrogianni, S. Courtenage, G. Horrocks, A. Arvaniti & I. Tsimpli (Eds.), Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Greek Linguistics (pp. 239-246). London: University of Westminster, U.K. Vandenbroeck, Μ. (2004). Me ti matia tou Yeti. I kaliergia tou sevasmou tou ‘Alou’ stin ekpedefsi. [The View of the Yeti. Cultivating respect for the ‘Other’ in Education] (trans. G. Voyatzis, C. Yemeliaris, ed. A. Chountoumadi, A. Vafea). Athens: Nisos. Young, A. S. (2011). Talking language: Supporting emergent bilinguals through plurilingual education. In G. Androulakis, S. Mitakidou & R. Tsokalidou (Eds.), Proceedings of the 1st International conference

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‘’Crossroads of Languages and Civilizations: Learning outside school’’ (pp. 132-150). Thessaloniki. Zagka, Ε. Kesidou, Α. & Mattheoudakis, Μ. (2014). I veltiosi tou ekpedeftikou ergou ton Takseon Ipodochis sto elliniko sxolio. Pedagogikes ke glossologikes diastasis. Improvement of educational work of Reception Classes in the Greek School. Pedagogical and linguistic dimension] In A. Psaltou-Joycey, E. Agathopoulou, and M. Mattheoudakis (eds) Cross-curricular approaches to language education, (pp. 172-190). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Aspasia Chatzidaki holds a BA in Greek Philology (University of Thessaloniki, Greece), an MA in Theoretical Linguistics (University of Reading, UK), and a PhD in Sociolinguistics (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium). Since 2000 she has been a faculty member of the Department of Primary Education of the University of Crete where she is currently Professor of Bilingualism and Teaching Greek as a Second Language. She is also the Director of the Centre for Intercultural and Migration Studies of the same Department, which has implemented two major European-Union funded projects regarding Greek-language education in the Diaspora (19982008, 2011-2014). Her research interests include the study of sociolinguistic and educational aspects of bilingualism as well as Greek as a Second Language both in Greece and in diasporic communities. She has taken part in numerous research projects and teacher capacity-building seminars regarding the education of immigrant and refugee students and has published widely on these issues.

Dionysia Kontogianni is Assistant Professor of Intercultural Education at the Department of Preschool Education, University of Crete. She holds a BA in Education from the University of Ioannina and a PhD in Education

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Sciences from the University of Crete (2002). Between 2004 and 2008 she worked as a Primary School teacher. Her research interests lie in the fields of intercultural pedagogy, migration, bilingual education and Greeklanguage education in the Diaspora, issues on which she has published widely. She has also participated in various projects of the Centre for Intercultural and Migration Studies (E.DIA.M.ME.) of the University of Crete focusing on teacher training for diversity and the production of teaching material for Kindergarten pupils acquiring Greek as a Second Language.

Theodosia Michelakaki holds a PhD in Intercultural Education from the Department of Primary Education, University of Crete, where she has been teaching since 2009 as auxiliary teaching staff. She is also a member of the Centre for Intercultural and Migration Studies (E.DIA.M.ME.) of the same Department and has participated in various research and teacher-education projects carried out by the Centre since 2000. Her research interests focus on intercultural education, pedagogical approaches to diversity in education and identity development in multicultural settings.

Paraskevi Thomou (BA in Linguistics, University of Crete, MA in Linguistics, University of Crete, MA in Applied Linguistics, University of Reading, UK, PhD in Applied Linguistics, University of Crete) is Assistant Professor (“Lexicology and the teaching of Modern Greek”) at the Department of Primary Education, University of Crete. Before this post, she taught Greek as a foreign language at the same University for several years. She has also taught Linguistics at the University of the Aegean. Her research interests include Semantic aspects of Vocabulary, Phraseology of Modern Greek, Pedagogical Lexicography and Learning and Teaching of Vocabulary. She has also taken part in the production of textbooks and digital material for the Teaching of Greek as a Second Language In the framework of two EU-funded projects led by the Centre for Intercultural and Migration Studies of the University of Crete (2002-2008, 2011-2014).

In: Applied Linguistics Research … ISBN: 978-1-53619-611-5 Editors: Isaak Papadopoulos et al. © 2021 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 5

SUPPORTING TEACHERS IN REFUGEE CHILDREN’S EDUCATION Sofia Avgitidou* Department of Early Childhood Education, University of Western Macedonia, Florina, Greece

ABSTRACT This chapter provides a reflective account of a teacher education program regarding the support of refugee children’s integration in school. Content, processes and outcomes of a specific module within this teacher education program focusing on effective strategies and policies for the social inclusion of refugee children are presented. The aims included the support of teachers’ critical awareness, deconstruction of beliefs and stereotypes as well as theory and research informed planning of inclusive practices. The necessary transformation shifts in teacher thinking and practice required uncovering the general lack of homogeneity in all classrooms, challenging the deficit image of refugee children, taking into account the social and educational context of all pupils for decision making, reconsidering inclusion as a priority and a presupposition for

*

Corresponding Author’s E-mail: [email protected].

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Keywords: teacher education, refugee children, inclusion, beliefs, transformation

INTRODUCTION Greece has been a hosting country of migrants and refugees since the 1970s -1980s. The migratory situation has changed radically during the last two decades given that one of the main routes for refugees heading to EU goes through Greece. Refugee and immigrant communities have been created in the main urban centres. In addition, refugee arrivals in Greece have increased since 2015 onwards due to the crisis in Syria and Afganistan. To respond to this situation, a number of refugee reception centres are today operating in various parts of Greece. Overall, the largest part of the refugee polulation in Greece is composed of Syrians, Afghanis, Kurds, and Iraqis. Refugees and immigrants coming from the Middle East, North Africa and South-East Asian societies face significant legal problems and socio-cultural barriers (Agelopoulos, Kapetanaki, Kousaxidis, 2017) while the rise of xenophobia as well as solidarity concerning refugees co-exist in Greek society (Christopoulos, 2020). Based on the above, the need to respond to the educational needs of children from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds has been apparent in Greece from very early on. However, since October 2016 the educational system had to make the necessary adjustments to include a great number of refugee children to schools whether living in refugee reception centres or in flats. This entailed the establishment of a new institutional framework organized in Reception Facilities for Refugee Education (RFRE) during the school year 2016 - 2017.

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RFRE aimed to provide refugee children with the time to adapt to the educational system and attend an open curriculum with learning subjects that could be useful to them either if they stayed in Greece or if they were relocated (Androusou & Sfyroera, 2019). RFRE operated inside Greek schools. In addition, reception classrooms operating in Greek schools have increased since 2017 to provide allocation of a specific time for refugee children learning the Greek language while attending the rest of the program with all other pupils (Minedu -Scientific Committee, 2017). UNICEF has been engaged in the education of refugee children in Greece in co-operation with the Greek Ministry of Education since 2017. UNICEF has also funded in-service teacher education programs in cooperation with Greek Universitities. These programs named as Teacher Capacity Building for Inclusion of Refugee and Migrant Children (TEACH4INTEGRATION 1 and 2) were funded by UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office and aimed to teacher support in achieving refugee children’s school integration . The program I am referring to was run by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2019-2020). It was organized in different modules under thematic strands, namely inclusive practices for refugee pupils, creation of a positive learning environment and teaching Greek as a second language. More than 200 teachers (divided into eight groups) from all levels and types of schools participated in this program. This chapter draws from a reflective analysis of one of the teacher education modules titled “Supporting inclusion at school and in the classroom” (SISC). The analysis concerns the design of the module and its enactment in practice as well as the outcomes of teachers’ participation in it. The aim is to suggest ways of organizing the content and processes of teacher education that allow spaces for transforming their beliefs and practice concerning refugee children’s education.

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THEORETICAL AND EVIDENCE-BASED FOUNDATIONS OF THE TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAM The Content of Teacher Education Regarding the content of teacher education, prior research on refugee education in Europe, Canada, Australia, Africa and Middle East Asia was taken into account. At the same time, the content of teacher education was co-shaped by participating teachers’ prior beliefs and practices as well as their overall input during the delivery of the program. In the following, a description is attempted with regard to the way the interactions among academic theory / research and participating teachers’ beliefs and practices influenced the content of the module. The compulsory migration of refugees due to wars, financial difficulties, environmental reasons and political conflicts has led to a violation of human rights. However, school experience has been evidenced to form a stabilizing factor in the lives of refugee children, because it provides a safe space for social interactions, new acquaintances and learning opportunities, forming a key to new life opportunities and social participation (Matthews, 2008). However, participating teachers’ beliefs were not necessarily in accordance with the value of school attendance for refugee children. Teachers referred to various constraints such as the frequent instability of refugee children’s residence, lack or delayed employment of teaching staff for the reception classrooms, children’s inability to understand the language and lack of appropriate supplementary educational material to support them in overcoming these difficulties. Some of these concerns were also noted in the report of the Hellenic Observatory for Intercultural Education (HOfIE) that highlighted the complexity of refugee children’s education that arose from a number of factors affecting its course and effectiveness. These factors related both to the context, i.e., poor living conditions for refugees, frequent geographical mobility that disrupted children’s adaptation in schools, difficulties in transportation from camps to schools) and to the institutional framework (delays in guidelines for enrolment, education and evaluation of

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refugee pupils, lack of teachers’ in-service education and so on) (EPADIPE, 2018). Therefore, it was important to discuss this issue before proceeding to a detailed discussion of the goals and processes of refugee children’s education. Another important issue that was addressed in the literature was the division regarding refugee children’s school needs among, on the one hand, socio-emotional well being and inclusion and, on the other hand, learning in terms of knowledge and competence acquisition (Hayward, 2017). In another study, this division was described among prioritizing school subject content knowledge or emotional support (Pastoor, 2017). The SISC module related these two seemingly different priorities based on the principle that socio-emotional well-being and inclusion of refugee children in education is a prerequisite for children’s academic learning. Since many of the participating teachers emphasized the difficulties they faced in relation to promoting refugee children’s learning and participation in the classroom, a part of the content aimed to promote teachers’ awareness and sensitization with regard to refugee children’s difficulties to adapt to the culture of formal education. This aim was promoted with the use of specific research findings as reflective prompts for teacher reflection and discussion. These prompts had to do both with children’s fear and ignorance of school culture, the stress caused during their efforts to adjust to the school as well as their feeling of marginalization based on the lack of language comprehension or their lack of a sense of belonging in the school community (Ferfolja, Vickers, McCarthy, Naidoo & Brace, 2011; Naidoo, 2009). Research has also shown the need for teachers to attain a good knowledge of the overall social and educational context as well as prior experiences of refugee children with the use of specific questions and various tools (Van Avermaet & Gysen, 2006) in order to design a focused plan according to their varying needs and contexts. This was an important part of the SISC module, since it challenged the frequent belief of participating teachers that all refugee children had similar experiences and needs, a belief that formed dominant representations of refugee children and subsequent common expectations from them. In addition, not all participating teachers had a clear idea about the origins, prior school

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experience, level of language comprehension or special living conditions of refugee children attending in their class. Proposals of different research tools appropriate for different age groups were discussed in order to support teachers’ knowledge of refugee pupils’ prior experience and knowledge. Moreover, research tools were presented and discussed that encouraged teachers to collect data about pupils’ peer relationships, their feelings of acceptance in school and their proposals for improving inclusiveness. Thus, research tools exploring the context, prior experiences, relationships, feelings and proposals of all pupils in the class were discussed both as an informing process for teachers but also as a participatory practice with children. The trend to homogenize refugee children despite their different starting points, origins, culture, age and gender is contradictory to a basic pedagogical principle that of respect for diversity and otherness (Taylor & Sidhu, 2012). Based on this principle it was important to support participating teachers’ understanding of the diversity in their classrooms and schools before the school attendance of refugee children. Thus, homogeneity was challenged as a structural component of teachers’ beliefs regarding both its lack among native speaking students but also among refugee children. In addition, it is described in the literature how dominant representations of refugees in the media affect teachers’ and parents’ attitudes towards refugee children and their families. Media seem to represent refugees on the one hand as victims and on the other as ‘deviant subjects at risk of terrorism, criminality or welfare dependency’ (Sidhu & Christie, 2007, p. 12). Thus, educational videos presenting racist behavior in various settings were employed to detect and discuss dominant representations of refugees in the public sphere and challenge them. Teachers as citizens in the specific social context were asked to rethnink these images but also reflect upon how they were influenced by them. Further, research has shown that an emphasis on trauma and a domination of psychological approaches to refugee education tend to focus on the individual child and disregard other dimensions related to policies affecting inequalities in education (Matthews, 2008; Taylor & Sidhu, 2012). The need for teachers to have a holistic understanding of the various factors

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that affect refugee children’s inclusion and success in schools was therefore important as well as the need to be able to design an inclusive school policy that supports a justful school ethos (Taylor & Sidhu, 2012). Some of the participating teachers reported either that their teaching efforts were in vein because they were not supported by the overall school policy or that there was not a unified school policy about inclusion supporting refugee pupils’ school adjustment. Thus, various theoretical and research tools such as indexes for inclusion were discussed to act as resources for the design of an inclusive school policy. Last, in an effort to relate educational theories, research and applied examples of inclusive practices, various educational programs from different organizations, councils and Universities were presented as resources for participating teachers to design activities for their classrooms. The overall aim was to encourage teachers to proceed from a deficit model of refugee children to a model that appreciated their resources (Kaukko & Wilkinson, 2018). Moreover, the basic pedagogical principles, strategies and processes for social inclusion did not only refer to refugee children but to all children to empower teachers in informed planning and strategic actions for the inclusion of all children in schools.

The Process of Teacher Education Decisions about the processes of teacher education are equally important to decisions about its content. Aiming at teachers’ critical awareness of their beliefs and practices as well as of the context of refugee education, processes involved an expression (both oral and written) of their initial understandings concerning their educational priorities, perceived difficulties and strategies to overcome them in a climate of openness and acceptance of different opinions (Ηouston & Warner, 2000). The expressed issues, priorities and practices were used for focused reflection and discussion in small groups that showed and problematized different approaches regarding refugee education. Supporting teachers to rethink their beliefs and practice also meant providing different interpretative lenses based on related theories and

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research findings that explained both the issues of concern and the effectiveness of the strategies they employed (Van Kan, Ponte & Verloop, 2013). In addition, games such as “take a step forward” from the Council of Europe (https://www.coe.int/en/web/compass/take-a-step-forward), short videos showing either young refugee’s learning stories and experience in education (i.e., https://www.facebook.com/mazigiaolatapaidia/videos/) or scenaria involving stereotypes or racist behavior (i.e., https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=QVdOSTMqjRo) were used to enhance critical awareness of dominant social and educational beliefs and the importance and value of an inclusive education. The support of teachers as researchers was also important since various research tools for learning more about pupil’s background, peer relationships, feelings and proposals were discussed as already shown in the previous section describing the module’s content. In addition, research tools for an evaluation of the inclusive policy in their schools were not only presented but used in group activities. Specifically, teachers worked in small groups to detect the current situation in their schools with reference to an inclusive ethos and practice and then make a list with proposals for specific actions as part of an inclusive school policy. Knowing that teachers learn better when they share ideas and discuss critically each others’ ideas and experience in communities of practice (Stoll et al., 2006) a number of processes aimed to support the creation of a professional community of practice. Apart from the frequent group work and exchange of ideas, an online discussion forum was created. Teachers posted presentations of their enacted or designed educational practices in refugee education and received feedback or questions or comments by all (participating teachers and teacher educator). In this way, teachers’ professional and practical knowledge was appreciated as a resource for sharing experiences and good practices among participants (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1990). Moreover, examples from educational material designed by national, European and international agents (institutes, councils, committees, European programmes, international organizations, Universities) were discussed as resources for teacher design of practice.

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Overall, teacher education did not aim to act as an additive process of providing teachers with more information or material but to provide spaces for rethinking and transforming their beliefs and practice in an interactive context of a professional community. Reframing teachers’ thoughts and practices regarding refugee children’s education demanded guided reflection and its continuous interaction with theories, research and practice (Avgitidou, 2019).

ENACTING SPACES FOR TRANSFORMATIVE SHIFTS IN TEACHER THINKING AND PRACTICE In this section, I provide an example of the ways the above described content and processes were put into practice. This example refers to the discussion of teachers’ perceived issues of concern and their educational priorities concerning refugee children’s education. Further, I present some of the teachers’ overall evaluations of the SISC module as well as the reasons participants used to explain their evaluations. At the start of the teaching program teachers were asked to write the issues that concerned them regarding refugee children’s education on different stickers. Afterwards, a big board with different thematic titles was displayed and teachers were asked to stick their stickers under these thematic titles. These titles were prepared to highlight the focus of reference in these issues and assist in further reflection. Thus, the issues were divided according to references to themselves as teachers (i.e., I find it difficult to cope with…), Greek native speaking pupils (i.e., they do not accept refugee children), refugee pupils (i.e., they do not interact with other childen), social inclusion (i.e., difficulties to promote an inclusive climate in the class or in schools), academic achievement (i.e., learning is not easy for refugee children), the special conditions of refugee children and their families (we can never meet the parents because they can not transport easily from the camps), the parents (i.e., some parents think that their children fall behind from lessons because of the refugee children in school) or the community /

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societal beliefs (i.e., there is racism that affects children’s attitudes at school). This categorization of the issues assisted them to realize the sources of their difficulties and also the commonalities and differences among the participants’ perspectives. They were also able to realize that they might have not thought some of the issues that concerned other teachers while existing. Reflective questions assisted them to trace if some of the issues that concerned them also applied to the other pupils of their class (i.e., social inclusion or academic achievement). After finding out the dominant issues that arose from all participants’ responses, I asked teachers if they had faced any of these issues in the past, in the sense that some of the described issues might not be ‘new’ and also that they had probably prior experience that they could utilize in the present situation. Immediately after that teachers wrote down their educational priorities in the present situation. They compared these priorities in groups of two and then in groups of four. Reflective questions guiding the subsequent discussion were: “Did you find out commonalities/differences in your priorities? Why do you think is that?,” “Why did you choose the specific priorities?,” “How different would these priorities be if you did not have any refugee children in your classroom?,” “Is there any other form of heterogeneity in your classroom that you had detected before the attendance of refugee children in your class?,” “Are all the children in your classroom the same? how do they differ?” and “Did these differentiations among your pupils concern you before and in what way?.”

These reflective questions aimed to deconstruct the homogenous image of classrooms before the arrival of refugee pupils and foster the idea that school inclusion is an important matter that concerns all children and not just refugee children. Two questions concerning their replies regarding the issues of concern and their priorities further assisted their critical reflection about the image they had about refugee pupils and an understanding that this image did not

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always stem from a good knowledge of their context and prior experiences. These questions were: “What is the image that you hold of refugee children based on the ways you responded to the previous questions?” and “How did your responses relate to your specific knowledge about the context of participating children in your class?”

A following step was to use research findings that could provide new lenses to teachers’ possible reconsideration of their priorities. I used research results as ideas for further thinking, highlighting the difficulties refugee children faced while entering school. Thus, several research findings were chosen and written in cards that were shared in small groups for discussion such as “refugee children might run away when hearing the bell for the morning assembly” or “refugee children might be afraid when lining up for the morning assembly because according to their experience it is a precursor of an execution” (Ferfolja & Vickers, 2010, p. 152).

Similarly, cards included phrases such as “refugee children might experience stress due to the ignorance of the dominant language” and “refugee children might experience stress due to conflicting school experiences among their country of origin and the reception country” (Naidoo, 2009, p. 262).

Teachers reflected upon the content of these cards and reconsidered their priorities and the need to learn more about the context of refugee children and enhance their inclusion in a systematic way. Teachers’ written evaluations regarding the effects of their participation in the SISC module showed frequent transformative shifts in their thinking based on clarifying their thoughts or knowledge, considering issues that they had not think before, rethinking their prior beliefs and practice and realizing

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the importance of a holistic approach to ensure children’s inclusion in school. “I clarified some very wrong beliefs I had. The whole process also helped me to think of the difficulties refugee children face while entering the educational system. Sometimes we forget and find difficulties to understand the position of others.” “We discussed a lot of issues that I hadn’t think before. Questions such as ‘where do your draw your opinion from and the information that supports it?’ trigerred critical self-reflection.” “We clarified the strategies and the responsibility of the teachers to become facilitators of inclusive values and attitudes, starting from ourselves and disseminating this knowledge to school and society.” “I rethought that a better and systematic school planning is needed to achieve children’s inclusion at school.”

Teachers reasoned these shifts in their thinking and understanding by referring to the reflective and interactive processes of teacher education. “I liked the fact that this module was based on an interactive in-service teacher education process, we explored different opinions that are dominant in intercultural education, we proved wrong opinions that were based on conjectures and we worked collaboratively to think about techniques for refugee children’s inclusion. It was also useful to step into the shoes of refugee children and of their parents as well as be sensitized in issues that regard refugee’s inclusion both in school but also in society.” “For me it triggered my thinking on social inclusion because although I work with refugee children I did not wonder or occupy myself with some of the issues that we discussed. We had the chance to reflect in depth about our attitude and behavior regarding the inclusion of refugee children. The exchange of opinions and ideas among us was also important.” “There was a balance between the expression of our personal beliefs and emotions and the theoretical context.”

Other teachers, however, gave emphasis to the richness of ideas, educational material and proposals for action that were discussed in this

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module, explaining that it helped them to prepare better and enrich their teaching and communication with parents. “The teacher educator was very well prepared. There were many different activities, specific arguments and we listened to many opinions and ideas from other colleuagues.” “This course prepared me in orfer to talk to parents and convince them about the value of school attendance. There were also educational materials and activities for preparing native speaking pupils for their co-education with refugee pupils.”

Last, some of the participants referred to both transformative shifts such as gaining a reflective stance upon their beliefs and practices and to the enrichment of their knowledge and proposals for practice.

DISCUSSION The decision to co-shape the content of teachers’ education regarding social inclusion based on theories and research on the one hand and teachers’ prior beliefs and understandings on the other was a determinant factor in order to design a well-prepared but also a flexible support for partipating teachers. Equally important were the processes of teacher education involving various methods such as games, team-work, case-studies, interaction with education materials and research tools, participation in the design of a whole school inclusive policy as well as of educational activities. In many cases, these processes facilitated teachers’ reflection and rethinking based on theories, research findings and sharing ideas with others. Other teachers emphasized the richness of ideas, material and sources of information they gained from their participation in the program. Therefore, the outcomes of this program were not similar but were all beneficial for teachers. A number of teachers reconsidered their priorities after recognizing the difficulties refugee children face while entering school in a foreign country.

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Children’s inclusion was rethought as a presupposition for children’s learning and not only as one of many educational aims. Teachers’ belief in the value of refugee children’s participation in school as a safe, interactive environment with meaningful learning opportunities for all was empowered. Teachers were also challenged to move from a deficit image of refugee children to finding more about and supporting their resources. In the case where transformative shifts were observed in teachers’ thinking, the role of enhancing critical awareness, collaboration with other colleagues and guided reflection were all important. Opportunities for teachers to realise differentiations in refugee children’s social and educational background as well as the general lack of homogeneity in all classrooms prompted them to the important role of taking decisions after exploring the specific context and prior experience of all pupils. Theoretical and research input provided new interpretative lenses to discuss teachers’ expectations and practices. Last, analysis of the social images of refugees assisted teachers in rethinking their beliefs but also in preparing them for their communication with the parents of the school. Further research on the process of deconstructing teachers’ dominant images of refugee children’s education and at the same time assisting teachers in the construction of a holistic approach to an iclusive education for all children is necessary.

REFERENCES Agelopoulos, G., Kapetanaki, A., & Kousaxidis, K. (2017). Transit Migrants in a Country Undergoing Transition: The Case of Greece. In P. Pitkänen, M. Korpela, M. Aksakal, & K. Schmidt (Eds). Characteristics of Temporary Migration in Asian-European Transnational Social Spaces. London: Springer. Androusou, A., & Sfyroera, M. (2019). From here and from everywhere: Challenges for the Greek School. In A. Androusou, M. Sfyroera, A. Velopoulou, S. Deli, E. Didachou, E. Katsikonouti & S. Saiti (Eds.). From here and from everywhere: Educational Chnages and Pedagogical Practices for an Open School. Proceedings of the 11th Pan-

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helleinic OMEP conference http://www.omep.gr/συνέδρια/ 241‐11o‐ συνέδριο.html ISΒN 978-618-80640-7-2–ΤΕΑΠΗ – ΕΚΠΑ. ISBN 978618-84599-0-8 (in Greek). Avgitidou, S. (2019). Facilitating teachers as action researchers and reflective practitioners: new issues and proposals. Educational Action Research, 28(2), 175-191. Aydin, H., & Kaya, Y. (2017). The educational needs of and barriers faced by Syrian refugee students in Turkey: a qualitative case study. Intercultural Education, 28(5), 456-473. Block, K., Cross, S., Riggs, E., & Gibbs, L. (2014). Supporting schools to create an inclusive environment for refugee students. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 18(12), 1337-1355. Christopoulos, D., (2020). If the Refugee issue was a problem, it would have a solution. Athens: Polis (in Greek). Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (1990). Research on Teaching and Teacher Research: The Issues that Divide. Educational Researcher, 19(2), 2-11. EPADIPE (2018). Hellenic Observatory for Intercultural Education: Report for the refugee children education in Central Macedonia (July 2018). http://paratiritirio.web.auth.gr/index.php/2014-05-15-15-50-49/1702018 (in Greek). Ferfolja, T., Vickers, M. H., McCarthy, F. E., Naidoo, L., & Brace, E. (2011). Crossing Borders: African Refugees, Teachers and Schools. Altona, Vic.: Common Ground. Ferfolja, T., & Vickers, M. (2010). Supporting refugee students in school education in Greater Western Sydney. Critical Studies in Education, 51(2), 149-162. Hayward, M. (2017). Teaching as a primary therapeutic intervention for learners from refugee backgrounds. Intercultural Education, 28(2), 165181. Houston, R. W.. & Warner, A. R. (2000). Twin needs for improved teacher education. In J. D. McIntyre, & M. D. Byrd, (Eds.). Research on effective models for teacher education. Teacher Education Yearbook VIII (pp. 72-77). Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.

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Kaukko, M., & Wilkinson, J. (2018). ‘Learning how to go on’: refugee students and informal learning practices. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 24(11), 1175-1193. Matthews, J. (2008). Schooling and settlement: refugee education in Australia. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 18(1), 31– 45. Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs (MINEDU)Scientific Committee in Support of Refugee Children (2017). Refugee Education Project. https://www.minedu.gov.gr/publications/docs2017/ CENG_Epistimoniki_Epitropi_Prosfygon_YPPETH_Apotimisi_Protas eis_2016_2017_070__.pdf. Naidoo, L. (2009). Developing social inclusion through after‐school homework tutoring: a study of African refugee students in Greater Western Sydney. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 30(3), 261273. Pastoor, L. d. W. (2017). Reconceptualising refugee education: exploring the diverse learning contexts of unaccompanied young refugees upon resettlement. Intercultural Education, 28(2), 143-164. Sidhu, R., & Christie, P. (2007). Spatialising the scholarly imagination: Globalization, refugees and education. Transnational Curriculum Inquiry, 4(1), 7–17. Stoll, L., Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Wallace, M., & Thomas, S. (2006). Professional learning communities: a review of the literature. Journal of Educational Change, 7(4), 221-258. Taylor, S., & Sidhu, R. K. (2012). Supporting Refugee Students in Schools: What Constitutes Inclusive Education? International Journal of Inclusive Education 16 (1), 39–56. Van Avermaet, P., & Gysen, S. (2006). From needs to tasks: language learning needs in a task-based approach. In K. Van den Branden (Ed.). Task-based language education: from theory to practice (pp. 17–46). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Van Kan, C., Ponte, P., & Verloop, N. (2013). Ways in which teachers express what they consider to be in their pupils’ best interest. Professional development in education, 39(4), 574–595.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sofia Avgitidou (D. Phil. Sussex) is a Professor of Pedagogy and Teacher Education at the University of Western Macedonia (UoWM), Greece. Her research interests focus on peer relationships and social inclusion, social constructions of childhood, children’s play, participatory practices in education, action research, initial and continuing teacher education. She has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the Greek Open University and the University of Cyprus. She has published extensively on children’s play, social inclusion and teacher education in peer-reviewed journals, edited volumes and books. She is convener of the EECERA Special Interest Group Rethinking Play and founding member of the Hellenic Observatory of Intercultural Education.

In: Applied Linguistics Research … ISBN: 978-1-53619-611-5 Editors: Isaak Papadopoulos et al. © 2021 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 6

THE ACCELERATED LEARNING PROGRAMME (ALP) OF UNICEF FOR TEACHING HISTORY IN CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSE CLASSROOMS IN GREECE Aikaterini Arampatzi, Panayotis Gatsotis†, Anastasios Matos‡ and Despina P. Papadopoulou§ Ministry of Education, Athens, Greece

ABSTRACT Our study pertains to the development of new teaching material for the subject of History, to be used in the low Greek secondary education (Gymnasium), either in reception or in mixed classes attended mostly by refugee and immigrant children, approximately 13-15 years old, who are 

Corresponding Author’s E-mail: [email protected]. Corresponding Author’s E-mail: [email protected]. ‡ Corresponding Author’s E-mail: [email protected]. § Corresponding Author’s E-mail: [email protected]. †

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Aikaterini Arampatzi, Panayotis Gatsotis, Anastasios Matos et al. taught and learn Greek as their second language (L2). Our design aimed at the development of user-friendly, flexible, and multimodal teaching material, both in digital and printed form, in order to facilitate the inclusion of young refugees and immigrants at school, while meeting the standards of contemporary History education. Our methodology relates to Content & Language Integrated Learning, Differentiated Learning, Easy-to-read, Social Constructivism, and the “Big Six” historical concepts model. The teaching material was pilot tested and the feedback was taken into account as part of an action-research process. Our work belongs to a wider project, titled “Accelerated Learning Programme,” which enables disadvantaged children and youth to catch up with their peers, by providing a fast-track second-chance opportunity to complete formal education. It is supported by UNICEF, the Greek Language Laboratory (GLL) of the University of Thessaly, and the Greek Institute of Educational Policy (IEP)1.

Keywords: history teaching; Accelerated Learning Programme, refugee education, scaffolding, CLIL

THE ACCELERATED LEARNING PROGRAMME (ALP) OF UNICEF Remarkable changes have taken place in world education since 2000, when the six Education for All goals and the Millennium Development Goals were established (UNICEF, 2010). Since these goals were not reached by 2015, supplementary action was decided to implement the unfinished agenda. UNESCO set a more ambitious universal education programme for the period 2015-2030. The global Goal 4 of the Incheon Declaration (UNESCO, 2015), together with its associated seven targets, aimed to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” The Declaration recognized the important role of education as a main driver of development, provided guidance for implementing the Education 2030 programme, and outlined how to translate the commitments into practice at various levels. One of these commitments

1

A Greek scientific research centre supporting the Ministry of Education on issues of primary and secondary education.

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refers to lifelong learning for all, through the provision of flexible learning pathways and (re)entry points in formal, non-formal and informal education systems. In this context, the Education Accelerated Programmes (EAPs) of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) are meant to be “flexible, age-appropriate programmes, run in an accelerated time frame, which aim to provide access to education for disadvantaged, overage, out-of-school children and youth – particularly those who missed out on, or had their education interrupted due to poverty, marginalisation, conflict and crisis” (retrieved January 6, 2021 from UNHCR, Accelerated Education).

Upon their completion, these EAPs intend either to re-integrate the students into the formal schooling system or to bring them to the workforce, provided they have been well equipped with the core literacy and numeracy skills needed. The EAPs vary according to the peculiarities of each country, the employed personnel and the age range they target, although the experts try to develop guidance materials based on international standards and sound practice. However, it is always difficult to produce and gather sufficient documentation of the educational and social impact of the EAPs. The flexibility of the programmes depends on their duration, local special conditions, alternative forms of assessment, and the appropriateness of the teaching material. The amazing recent development of digital education, due to the Covid-19 crisis, has considerably widened the means to achieve the – much more desirable now– flexibility. Furthermore, the temporary closing of schools during 2020 invested the EAPs with unexpected significance. According to the 2nd principle of effective Accelerated Education Programmes (UNHCR-AEWG, 2017), curriculum, teaching material and pedagogy have to be accelerated, suitable and use relevant language of instruction. This is translated into a design for “condensed, levelled, age-appropriate, competency-based curricula,” for the “acquisition of literacy and numeracy skills as the foundation for learning,”

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and for the implementation of gender-sensitive and age-appropriate inclusive teaching practices. Inclusivity may be served by eliminating negative stereotypes and addressing issues of social (in)justice, together with motivation and active engagement through learner-centred, attractive and interesting activities. Learner-centred processes entail avoiding lecture-style teaching and facilitating learners to discover themselves, although the teachers know very well what the learners are expected to do. In this context, accelerated learning may be promoted as a liberating, active, participatory, project-based, and varied pedagogy, capable of meeting different learning styles, different types of intelligence and, ultimately, the educational needs of all, including children of religious and ethnic minorities, and children with disabilities (Myers & Pinnock, 2017, p. 26).

EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF THE TARGET-GROUP Since 2016, refugee and immigrant children in Greece began to attend reception classes at the Greek school (elementary and secondary). Valuable experience has been gained since then, regarding their learning profiles and educational needs. These children -mainly from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Syria- live in accommodation centres or housing facilities of the Greek state or the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. They are taught courses either in the afternoon Reception Structures for the Education of Refugee Children, or in the “classes of the educational priority zones” in selected schools of the country. One of the main characteristics of the specific student population is their non-systematic school attendance. This is directly related to the difficulties they face in getting acquainted with the rules of school life (Anagnostou & Nikolova, 2017). The integration of refugee and immigrant children in the Greek secondary education brings them in direct contact with the Greek language and the dominant principles and values. According to the Institute of Educational Policy, their level of Greek language proficiency is from nonexistent to A2 (elementary), which means that they cope with severe difficulties in attending the educational process. Even worse, their teachers

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lack insufficient training and support in teaching multicultural and multilingual classes. Besides, according to Mattheoudakis et al. (2017,) the majority of teachers are rather conservative, concerning multilingualism in teaching, and keep a reserved attitude towards students’ use of their mother tongue in the classroom. One of the major goals of involving refugee and immigrant children in school life is to get them back to a psycho-social normalcy. Thus, a key priority for achieving the timely inclusion of children in the regular school life involves engaging in sports, and support in extracurricular activities, to catch up with their classmates. In parallel, they are taught the Greek language for fifteen hours a week and attend the rest of the school programme. Regarding the complex needs of the refugee and immigrant children, we assume the following: 

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Many refugees, Greece is not their final destination thus, they are not willing to participate in the educational process nor to learn the language. This contributes to a significant dropout rate during the school year. Their insufficiency in using the Greek language in terms of daily communication increases, when coping with the “language” of school subjects. This undermines their participation in the learning process on equal terms with their classmates. The content of the History subject is Greek- and Euro-centred. The history of eastern nations, cultures and civilizations is rather limited and closely connected to Greek perspectives. Despite recent progress in official documents, the History curricula aim to develop the Greek national consciousness throughout the entire students’ population, while teachers' practices haven’t changed much (Frydaki & Mamoura, 2008). Research has criticized educational policies and teaching practices in European countries for not sufficiently promoting intercultural or multicultural education and postcolonial thinking. Despite serious efforts by several policymakers to implement intercultural educational programmes

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Aikaterini Arampatzi, Panayotis Gatsotis, Anastasios Matos et al. that aim to include ethnic minorities and transnational identities in the community of the nation, schools still teach an inherently ethnocentric heritage (Nordgren & Johansson, 2015, p. 2).

Therefore, in addition to supporting teachers in order to effectively adapt their teaching practices in the principles of multilingual and multicultural integration, appropriate teaching material should be created, in accordance with the following requirements:  

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The teaching material’s language level must not be above A2/B1. It must be culturally sensitive and engaging, allowing space for refugee and immigrant students to express their cultural representations. Since teaching practices in Greek classrooms do not sufficiently integrate students of different nationality, ethnicity, religion etc., the need for teaching History in a culturally sensitive way is urgent not only concerning refugee students, but non-refugee also. Important terms of the History subject and as extended passages of their textbook must be translated into the students’ mother tongues.

METHODS USED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL The “Big Six” approach (Seixas & Morton, 2012) and the “History-Lab” methodology relate to the formulation of “enquiry questions” and the consequent structuring of pupils’ answers, as parts of a learner-centred and age-appropriate education. The “enquiry questions” drive historical learning in an open, yet coherent and cohesive way, defining what the students should know at the end of each teaching unit (Mandell & Malone, 2007). Their theoretical documentation relies on the view that historical thinking resembles a detective’s research (Collingwood, 1946), while the methods of the historian should be used, properly adapted, in the context of school

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history (Rogers, 1978). They also form part of approaching the History learning as a problem to be solved through meaningful activities (Le Goff, 1988). Their use prevents the teaching process from rote-learning of readymade knowledge (Moniot, 1993). The “History-Lab” methodology relates to active methods of teaching and learning in the context of the “disciplinary tradition” of History education. VanSledright (2010) has argued for an “inquiry-approach” fostering a sense of citizenship through the development of critical historical thinking. Levstik & Barton (2010) have presented a series of case studies with children engaging successfully in disciplined historical investigations. Lesh (2011, p. 3) argues that should History teaching “be a useful and thought-provoking learning experience, it must engage students in the application of evidence to make reasoned arguments about the past” (cf. “Reading Like a Historian curriculum” retrieved January 6, 2021; Wineburg, Martin, & Monte-Sano, 2012).

As suggested by the European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a teaching tool enabling students to better understand a new schooling language (L2) (ECML, n.d.-b), different from their mother tongue. Thus, language learning can be fostered by any teaching subject, not just linguistic courses, as well as through everyday interaction with their peers. As students develop their linguistic skills, they are getting better at understanding and tackling more complex ideas (Oliver, et al. 2005). CLIL allows learners to get acquainted with language while being taught other subjects and facilitates the students’ familiarisation with each subject’s scientific language and terminology. If the teaching material is properly designed, there is a great chance that students will learn and integrate in their school, while expressing their special interests (Meyer, et al. 2015; Frigols, et al. 2011). Scaffolding is related to Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development and aims to support learners’ autonomous learning. Beacco et al. (2016) have proposed many techniques for the teaching of any subject in combination

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with language acquisition. The teacher can select the appropriate material and introduce active learning activities that focus on some linguistic elements. Then “models” (standard questions and expected answers) can be introduced, and an exemplary wording can be highlighted. Students can be asked to answer specific questions and develop their answers according to the previously given models, with teacher’s help. Next, students could do the same with different questions, but this time on their own, without their teacher’s support. Finally, a self-assessment sheet could be used to complete the class (ECML, n.d.-a). Easy-to-read method allows to adapt the content, the language, the form and the illustration of a text, to make it accessible by a particular target group, which faces difficulties in reading and in comprehending written language (Tronbacke, 1993). All kinds of text can be transcribed. In choosing among them, a teacher needs to consider the level of students' language skills, the difficulties inherent in the text itself (the topic, its scope and type, its vocabulary and its morphosyntactic structures) and the learning goals. Although easy-to-read aims to meet the needs of a particular target group, the method could be adapted to the respective needs of other groups (Arampatzi, 2013; Plain English Campaign, 2001). Images play the most important role than any other informational material in easy-to-read. An image that clearly renders what is mentioned in the text, promotes understanding and explains the text’s meaning. Otherwise, it may create confusion and make understanding difficult. Differentiated instruction is a way to respond to various educational needs of a diverse student population, regarding readiness, learning preferences and personal interests. In this process the teacher’s role is crucial, since an understanding of the learners’ profile is necessary (The Learning Exchange, 2015). According to Tomlinson (2014), teachers need to differentiate content, process and product using a variety of strategies, assessment tools and flexible classroom routines towards achieving a supportive, growth oriented and community centred classroom. As far as History is concerned, differentiated instruction aims to balance content knowledge and the proper discipline skills: critical thinking and content processing (The Learning Exchange, 2015). Scarparolo (2019)

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stated that the “Inquiry and skills” strand is related to a cycle of questioning, researching, analysing, evaluating, reflecting and communicating. An effective inquiry generally includes generating student curiosity with a strong stimulus, providing opportunities for asking questions, supporting students to locate relevant and appropriate sources, teaching them how to critically analyse sources for authenticity, accuracy and relevance, allocate time for conclusions and, finally, providing opportunities for students to communicate their findings. Having taken into account the above, the authors of the chapter structured each unit of our teaching material as following: 1. pre-organizers introducing the subject; 2. short texts presenting the core ideas; 3. multimodal historical sources connecting the subject with the core ideas; 4. questions and activities engaging students in the process of historical learning; 5. glossary explaining keywords; 6. footnotes clarifying the historical context or providing additional information.

PILOT-TESTING OF THE TEACHING MATERIAL The piloting of the educational material was scheduled for the school year 2020-2021 as a joint effort with the GLL of the University of Thessaly. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 crisis and the schools’ closing, our initial planning was overturned. Distance learning, via synchronous (Webex Meetings) and asynchronous (e-class) educational platforms, became the mainstream way of communication between students and teachers. This development caused a serious drawback, since refugee and immigrant children belong to socially and economically vulnerable groups and often lack the proper technological equipment. Instead, they often use their mobile phones to attend their classes. It was not an easy task to facilitate and

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maintain these children’s contact with school and school subjects in the first place. In addition, the experimental teaching material was not, in the beginning, designed for distance learning. Despite the difficulties, we gathered via email, as a feedback, the written reports of ten teachers (eight of Greek Language and Literature, one of Sociology, and one of German Language and Literature), working in low secondary schools (“Gymnasia”). They either read and assessed the appropriateness of a sample of the available teaching material or tested it through distance education platforms, during two teaching hours, in December 2020. According to the reports: 1. E.M. and A.C., two very experienced teachers, work in a Multicultural Education School. Their classes exclusively consist of students with a refugee biography that came from different countries and have been living in Greece for a short period of time. They did not modify the material, except for an English translation of an extended part of it. As they noted, among its most important advantages are: its formation in brief units and short sentences, the emphasis on the key terms in bold font, multimodal resources, the glossary. Yet, students who have experienced harsh conditions of life and spent a little -if any- time in Greek schools, did not respond very positively. On the other hand, students living in Greece for about two years responded much better. Although their mother tongue was not Greek, they were involved and worked through the material with enthusiasm. They filled in the spreadsheets, had a satisfactory level of participation, answered (not always correctly) to the majority of the exercises, understood the major points and tried to use them. 2. E.K., an experienced teacher, works in an urban school with reception classes for immigrant students, parallel educational support classes for students with learning disabilities, and a number of students whose native language is Albanian or Bulgarian (their parents are migrant workers). She appreciated the quite easy and comprehensive presentation of the material with many audio and

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visual sources and very useful maps. Children’s response to it was quite satisfactory. They managed to understand the prerequisite knowledge and responded well to the gap-filling exercises. The students mostly aided by the teaching material were those with a B2 language level, and those who usually have difficulties in the comprehension of the school textbook content. 3. Μ.Η., an experienced teacher, working in an urban school, used the material in a classroom with no refugees. She appraised it as suitable for her students, because they were able to understand it, proceed to the supplementary activities, and develop their historical empathy. They were particularly impressed by the activities that allowed them to express their thoughts, arguments and emotions in teacher’s attempt to experience in a creative way the “touch of the past.” During the classes, they were sufficiently focused, irrespective of their school performance. Even the students with learning difficulties responded positively. They were especially triggered by the images and the activities that allowed their involvement without any prerequisite knowledge. 4. P.P. teaches in a school in a semi-suburban area. She piloted the proposed material in classes with no refugee children, partly changing its order in the teaching process. She assessed it (especially the multimodal resources) as cohesive, simple, brief, beneficial to the learning process, and far more comprehensible than the respective content of the formal textbook. Unfortunately, students who are not usually focused on the class work, did not become more engaged. On the contrary, students with an average school performance, benefited more. 5. Α.Α., a teacher with very restricted experience in History teaching, assessed the teaching material as friendly, easy-to-understand, attractive, and suitable for refugees. She mentioned that two of her rather unwilling students were attracted to work with it, while the rest responded very well to team-working with the selected images, discussed their feelings and connected the past with present realities.

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Aikaterini Arampatzi, Panayotis Gatsotis, Anastasios Matos et al. However, her classroom consisted of students well aware of the Greek language, coming both from Greek and non-Greek families. 6. P.C., a very experienced teacher, works in a small provincial town’s school. She preferred not to try the teaching material with her refugee Afghan students, but to wait for its translation in their mother tongue, because their knowledge of the Greek language was very low, while, from the beginning of the current school year, they attended their classroom for two weeks only, due to Covid-19 crisis. Therefore, her assessment of the material relies only on her study and not on a test in the teaching praxis. She appraised it as appropriate for her students and expressed many thoughts regarding how she could contextualize and use it in her classes. 7. C.K., a very experienced teacher, tried the material in one of her current classes with refugee children. To support them, she extensively used the English language with part of the material. She avoided team-working as inappropriate in the e-learning environment, since her students would be obliged to share their answers with others through the media and she felt that this would make them feel uncomfortable. In general, she assessed the material as friendly-to-use and attractive. However, sometimes the children could not understand what they were asked to do. Therefore, she regards the material as inappropriate for self-learning and the teacher’s mediation as absolutely needed, in order to simplify difficult formulations and help the students answer the questions. 8. P.A., an experienced Greek Language and Literature teacher, works at a school where the students’ majority are Greek. She tested the sample material with a student from China, who came to Greece three years ago and dislikes History. The student needed extra help to understand the meaning of words like “plowed,” “nurture”, “complainant” etc., while she could not understand metaphorical expressions and the meaning of a picture depicting an episode of the Byzantine history. According to the teacher, the material presents difficulties for students, who have a level of proficiency in Greek

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below B2 and needs further simplification both in text and in illustration. 9. E.B., an experienced teacher working at the Experimental High School of Intercultural Education of Athens, used the same sample material as the previously cited teacher without any modifications. Her student, a boy from Egypt, also faced difficulty in understanding the meaning of the above mentioned picture, but with a little support from his teacher managed to understand it, while the difficulties in the vocabulary -if any- were far more easily overcome.

DISCUSSION Most of the teachers involved assessed the teaching material as friendlyto-use, age-appropriate, and attractive, and in some cases used English as a medium to support the learning process. A few preferred to wait for the translation of the material in their students’ mother tongue, before they use it in their classes. Some observed that they needed to simplify the text and explain to their students in greater detail what they were expected to do in the activities. Taking the above into account, we inferred that: 1. In most of the cases teachers responded positively. However: a. The teaching material could be partly reviewed to locate wording which might be further simplified to meet the needs of the students. b. Brief answers to the questions could be included in the teachers’ manual, in order to give a more precise picture of the students’ expected responses. c. The teaching material could be further adapted to meet the requirements of distance e-learning. 2. Although the teaching material was developed for refugee and/or immigrant students, it could be used in a wider range of cases.

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REFERENCES Anagnostou, D., & Nikolova, M. (2017). The integration of refugees in the educational system in Greece: Policy and management in ‘moving sand’ [in Greek]. Retrieved January 6, 2021, from Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy Arampatzi, A. (2013). Lost in translation: a student with mental disability in a general classroom. Breaking classroom silences: addressing sensitive issues in education, International Conference. Nicosia: European University of Cyprus, Department of Education Sciences. Beacco, J.-C., Fleming, M., Goullier, F., Thürman, E., & Vollmer, H. (2016). A handbook for curriculum development and teacher training. The language dimension in all subjects. Retrieved January 6, 2021, from Council of Europe. Collingwood, R. (1946). The Idea of History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ECML. (n.d.-a). Developing language awareness in subject classes. Retrieved January 6, 2021. ECML. (n.d.-b). Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). Retrieved January 6, 2021. Frigols, M. M., Marsh, D., Mehisto, P., & Wolff, D. (2011). European Framework for CLIL Teacher Education. ECML. Frydaki, E., & Mamoura, M. (2008). Exploring teachers’ value orientations in literature and history secondary classrooms. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(6) 1487-1501. Le Goff, J. (1988). La Nouvelle Histoire. Paris: Complexe. Lesh, B. (2011). “Why Won't You Just Tell Us the Answer?”: Teaching Historical Thinking in Grades 7-12. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers. Levstik, L., & Barton, K. (2010). Doing History: Investigating With Children in Elementary and Middle Schools. New York & Oxon: Routledge. Mandell, N., & Malone, B. (2007). Thinking like a Historian. Rethinking History Instruction. Wisconsin: Wisconsin Historical Society Press.

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Mattheoudakis, M., Chatzidaki, A., & Maligkoudi, C. (2017). Greek teachers’ views on linguistic and cultural diversity. Selected papers on theoretical and applied linguistics, 22, 358-371. Moniot, H. (1993). Didactique de l’histoire. Paris: Nathan. [Didactics of history] Myers, J., & Pinnock, H. (2017). Guide to the Accelerated Education Principles. A guide for Accelerated Education Programme designers, implementers, evaluators and agencies. Retrieved January 6, 2021, from UNHCR. Nordgren, K., & Johansson, M. (2015). Intercultural historical learning: a conceptual framework. J. Curriculum Studies, 47(1), pp. 1-25. Oliver, R., Haig, Y., & Rochecouste, J. (2005). Tackling Talk: Teaching and Assessing Oral Language. Perth, Western Australia: Edith Cowan University. Plain English Campaign. (2001). How to write in plain English Retrieved January 6, 2021. Rogers, P. (1978). The New History: theory into practice. The Historical Association, Teaching of History Series 44. Retrieved January 6, 2021 Scarparolo, G. (2019). A differentiated Approach to Historical Inquiry. Agora, 54(2),8-14. Seixas, P., & Morton, T. (2012). The Big Six Historical Thinking Concepts (1st edition). Toronto: Nelson Canada. The Learning Exchange. (2015). Retrieved January 6, 2021, from Knowing and responding to learners in History, Geography and Canadian and World Studies. Tomlinson, C. (2014). The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners (2nd ed.). Alexandria: VA: ASCD. Tronbacke, B. (1993). Easy to read publishing. Australasian Public Libraries and Information Services, 6(4),151. UNESCO. (2015). Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4. Retrieved January 6, 2021. UNHCR. (n.d.). Accelerated Education. Retrieved January 6, 2021.

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UNHCR-AEWG. (2017). Retrieved January 6, 2021, from Accelerated Education: 10 Principles for Effective Practice. UNICEF. (2010). The Central Role of Education in the Millennium Development Goals. Retrieved January 6, 2021. VanSledright, B. (2010). The Challenge of Rethinking History Education: On Practices, Theories, and Policy. New York & Oxon: Routledge. Wineburg, S., Martin, D., & Monte-Sano, C. (2012). Reading Like a Historian: Teaching Literacy in Middle and High School History Classrooms. New York: Teachers College Press.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Aikaterini Arampatzi is an Education Coordinator at the 1st Regional Centre of Educational Planning (RCEP) of Attica that is involved in educational planning, monitoring, coordinating and supporting the work of public, special education, vocational and private schools. She holds a PhD in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, master’s degrees in Educational Leadership and in History and Philosophy of Science, bachelor’s degrees in History-Archaeology and in Computer Information Systems. She has served as Greek language and history teacher, teacherlibrarian and as school principal in public secondary education schools. She has participated at international and Greek conferences as speaker on general and special education issues. As member of the educational team of Erasmus+ European Project Quammelot she has produced educational material for refugee/immigrant students. She is a member of the International Easy-to-Read Network, a member of the Scientific Association for The Promotion of Educational Innovation and an evaluator for Erasmus+ projects on behalf of State Scholarships Foundation.

Panayotis Gatsotis was born in Athens (1964) and works in the Greek public secondary education. He defended his postgraduate diploma – regarding contemporary european history– at the University of Athens in

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1995 and his PhD –regarding history education– at the University of the Aegean in 2005. He is the author or co-author of many books regarding history teaching (see biblionet), while he has published many articles in journals (mostly Greek and a few English) with educational, literary and historical contents. He has also participated in collective works, regarding the making of history teaching material: a history textbook in 2002, the history curricula of 2018-19 and alternative approaches (see Academia). Currently, he is a member of various scientific groups, in Greece and abroad, that promote history education. The investigation of the latter's relations with Public History, Intercultural Education and Special Education fall within the most recent orientations of his professional interests.

Anastasios Matos works in the Greek public secondary education. He has a PhD in teachers’ professional development in digital media integration in the curriculum. He holds a Master of Arts in the role of virtual communities in teachers’ professional development and a postgraduate specialization certification in the 'Pedagogical Use of ICT in Greek Secondary Education' (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki-Greece). He participated in several Greek and European research projects, on the reformation of teaching through the digital media integration and the open and exploratory teaching environments utilization to stimulate innovation and change in teaching practices. In parallel he published several papers related in the above matters, in Greek and international journals (see Academia). For the time being, he holds a supervisory role as a regional Teachers’ Coordinator.

Despina P. Papadopoulou is a historian of immigration. She has received her B.A in History from the University of Athens (1992), her M.A (D.E.A.) in History from the University of Paris 7 (1993) and her Ph.D in History from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, France (2004). She was a postdoctoral researcher in the survey “Social and economic integration of immigrants in Greece” in the framework of the

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Program “Pythagoras” in the University of Athens (2004-07). She has worked as a partner to the National Centre for Social Research in programs concerning immigration issues (2011) and as a tutor in the Greek Open University (2012-2013, 2017-2018, 2018-2019). Nowadays, she works as a teacher in the Secondary Education.

In: Applied Linguistics Research … ISBN: 978-1-53619-611-5 Editors: Isaak Papadopoulos et al. © 2021 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 7

LANGUAGE DIVERSITY IN CLASS: THE CASE OF DIALECTAL VARIATION Marina Tzakosta* Department of Preschool Education, University of Crete, Rethymno, Crete, Greece

ABSTRACT The study of Greek geographical language varieties, commonly known as dialects, is very important not only on a theoretical but also on an applied/pedagogical level. Although speakers of dialects are thought to belong to the same major national group that shares a norm, the use of dialects has weakened in the last four decades. This is fundamentally attributed to the fact that the norm, i.e., standard Modern Greek (hereafter: SMG), is considered to be the only means of social and professional development (cf. Papanastasiou, 2015). The aim of this chapter is twofold. On the one hand, I aim to underline that dialects fall within the major frame of linguistic diversity and, since they are usually non-dominant linguistic systems spoken by specific/minority groups, they are threatened by linguistic death. As linguistically diverse systems of communication, they should be defined * Corresponding Author’s E-mail: [email protected].

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Marina Tzakosta by the conditions of inter-cultural communication and anti-bias teaching (cf. Byrnes & Cortez, 1993; Farr & Daniels, 1986; Hynds & Rubin, 1988; for relevant discussions). On the other hand, I will display that the systematic exposure of dialects to the myth that the former are inferior linguistic systems, contra to various research findings, downgrade the value of dialects and the role they can play in language education as vehicles of cultural heritage and cultivation of linguistic awareness. In such a context, the relation of dialects to the norm and its place in the classroom will be discussed. More specifically, I will present research findings regarding speakers’ aspects on the value of dialects and the degree to which the latter could productively be used in education (cf. Tzakosta, 2019; 2020a; b; Tzakosta & Beteinaki, 2018; 2019a; b; Tzakosta & Koufou, 2019). The focus will be set on the dialect spoken on the island of Crete, the dialect with the larger group of speakers in Greece.

Keywords: geographical linguistic varieties, language diversity, dialects, dialectal variation, dialectal teaching

INTRODUCTION The study of linguistic/dialectal variants is important on a theoretical/typological and an applied level because of the need to preserve linguistic systems spoken and/or used by different groups of speakers who belong to the same national group. Dialects deteriorate for various reasons, the most important of which is that they are considered to decelerate the social and/or economical development of their speakers (Papanastasiou, 2015). This attitude is directly related to some other myths relevant to language in general. These myths boil down to the fact that dialects are thought of as linguistic deviations inferior to the norm which are used only in oral communication and in restricted social contexts, like the familial context. As a result, the use of both dialectal variants and the norm in school is thought to cause learning problems. Therefore, dialects are not deemed worthy to be taught and learned (cf. Arhakis et al., 2015; Papanastasiou, 2015; Kakridi, 2000). Kakridi (2000) actually argues that dialects are not responsible for the students’ learning difficulties. However, students what is actually in effect is that students who are not encouraged to to use their

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mother tongue are more prone to show learning difficulties. Speakers fail to realize (often because they are never trained to know so) that the norm (i.e., the standard language) is also a linguistic variety whose only role is to render the educational process unified (cf. Ralli, 2011). Such myths further make the impression that the norm is a superior means of communication (cf. Kakridi et al., 2000; Karantzi-Andriomenou, 2011; Papanastasiou, 2015; Kapsaski & Tzakosta, 2016; for detailed discussion). Although dialectal variants are of equal value to the norm (cf. Ralli, 2011), there are certain disadvantages related to their use in class. First, there is always some typological/grammatical distance between the norm and the dialects, and, second, dialects are charecterized by the lack of grammatical description. Therefore, they are not easy to teach and learn (Kakridi, 2000).

DIALECTAL VARIANTS AND LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY Given the above, dialects could easily be indexed among the linguistically diverse (oral and in some cases written) communication systems. More specifically, language diversity is highly related to variation and language deviation (for a detailed interesting discussion of anthropological/geographical factors affecting language diversity see Nettle 1998). Linguistic diversity presupposes the existence of a wide range of linguistic as well as social backgrounds, which are labelled by typological differences and most of which are suppressed in the name of the norm. It has been assumed that linguistic diversity is in reality so extensive that it seriously doubts the power (or even the existence) of universals, which shape the structure of languages (Evans & Levinson, 2009). In addition, linguistic diversity should be seen as being in line with cultural diversity (cf. Farr & Daniels, 1986). What is reported in the literature is that children from non-standard diverse linguistic backgrounds might be disadvantaged in a ‘mainstream’ school in which culturally and/or linguistically diverse conventions are usually not adopted (Hynds & Rubin, 1988; King et al., 2008). This implies that linguistic diversity, as a trademark of a diverse society, demands anti-

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bias teaching signalled by the principles of intercultural and multicultural communication and teaching, bilingual instruction/code switching instruction and bidialectism instruction (Byrnes & Cortez, 1993; Cho et al., 2012; Flores & Rosa, 2015; King et al., 2008; Lee, 2012; Nieto, 1992, Yiakoumetti, 2007a, b). Bidialectism is also considered to affect second language teaching (cf. Yiakoumetti & Mina, 2011). However, nothing will change, if language policies do not see language diversity as an asset to social development (cf. Tollefson & Tsui, 2014 and more references therein). In the course of the chapter, we will observe that the picture is exactly the same in multidialectal environments.

STUDIES ON THE ROLE AND VALUE OF DIALECTS Many studies have focused on the status of dialectal variants and their position and positive role in education in the last twenty years (Adger et al., 2007; Tsiplakou 2007, 2015; Tsiplakou & Hadziioannou, 2010; Tsiplakou et al., 2018). They have directly or indirectly underlined the fact that linguistic/dialectal variation is a pure example of linguistic diversity. All theses studies have shown that even the speakers of linguistic variants do not have a balanced or unified opinion regarding the status of their mother language and the role these languages could play in education as vehicles of oral history and cultural heritage. For example, native speakers of dialects believe, as already mentioned, that their mother language is inferior to the norm. Consequently, they could never expect it to be of central linguistic interest or of any use in education. However, they strongly assume that the same language preserves cultural heritage. It is important to note that these ‘language inferiority complexes’ are largely reported with speakers of dialects of northern Greece. In addition, it appears the younger the speakers the worse their attitude towards the dialect. Such attitudes change with students/pupils who have been trained to understand the value of linguistic variants. It is considered that these contradictory attitudes towards dialects are (positively or negatively) affected by the participants’ social, cultural and personal life experiences. (for detailed discussion and extensive list of

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references on these topics see Tzakosta, 2019; 2020a; b; Tzakosta & Beteinaki, 2019a; b). My strong assumption is that speakers’ atittudes towards their mother languages is influenced by the speakers’ dialectal identity. Dialectal identity is defined as the value assigned to a dialectal variant by its speakers (see Papanastasiou, 2015; Tzakosta & Beteinaki, 2018; 2019a; b; Tzakosta & Koufou, 2019; for discussion). Dialectal identity is depicted in the attitudes of all those being involved in education, such as teachers, educators and parents. In other words, linguistic ideology is highly involved in the status dialects are assigned by their native speakers and also speakers of the norm (cf. Fragoudaki, 1999; Tsitsanoudi-Mallidi & Theodoropoulos, 2015). That could very much be related to the fact the dialectal variants of the southern part of the country are more salient, because they are considered to be actively involved in the formation of the norm (see Tzakosta in press, for more discussion). Research has shown that speakers’ dialectal identity heavily depends on language instructors’ attitudes about what is ‘wrong’ and ‘right’ in language. For example, in research conducted in various areas in Crete, the biggest island of Greece with the biggest population of dialectal speakers, language instructors, who are speakers of the local dialect or other dialects, are very hesitant to use their language in class. They are rather tolerable with respect to the use of the dialect during school breaks and only during oral communication/activities in class, but they are very strict when it comes to the language used in written speech (cf. Tzakosta, 2014; Kapsaski & Tzakosta, 2016). It appears that the level of education of language instructors, their gender and years of teaching experience affect their attitudes. More specifically, the more experienced instructors are in language teaching and the higher their level of education, the more ‘open’ they are regarding the use of dialects. It also appears that women are more tolerant to the daily use of dialects in school (cf. Matthaiaki, 2019; Tzakosta & Beteinaki, 2018; 2019a; b). It is worth mentioning that the inclusion of critical literacy teaching programs – which are reported to be successful according to most studies - positively affects instructors’ and students’ attitudes (cf. Faloutsou, 2019; Papatolias, 2019; Papadopoulou, 2020).

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Attitudes towards dialectal variants is clearly positive when university students are addressed (Tzakosta & Beteinaki, 2019a; b). Participants in the research of Tzakosta & Beteinaki (2019a; b) (N = 250) seemed to attribute high value to dialects and assume that the speakers with the highest dialectal identity are those who speak Cretan Greek and Cypriot Greek. In addition, students of polytechnic schools and schools of natural sciences are more ‘open’ to the use of dialects compared to students of schools of Philosophy and Pedagogy. The latter tend to be more anchored in the satisfaction of linguistic rules without taking language use into account. In general, students believe that dialects are not breaks in the educational, professional and social development (see also Livadiotakis, 2020). It is interesting to observe how clear claims university students make regarding the need to teach or not to teach a dialect (see data in (1) and (2)) as well as their proposals for their teaching (data in (3)), although relevant university courses had not been offered till very recently (cf. Tzakosta, in press). Especially the claims in (1) reveal the myths that underline the use of dialects (data in (1) – (3) depict students’ attitudes in their exact words). 1) Why not teach a dialect?  Father says it’s not nice for girls to talk like that  I should speak the dialect only with locals  I haven’t fully acquired the dialect  Some people call us ‘peasants’  I don’t like my dialect  I feel funny when I speak my dialect  Why use it when I can get on without it?  I don’t support it as a person  Kids will get confused  There are too many dialects, difficult to teach them  The standard language won’t be taught properly  The kids will be victims of bullying  They can’t be taught because they are spoken (but not written) languages

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They are not easy to be taught It’s enough to be used in social and familial environment They are simply ‘ways of speaking’ The standard language is easier to learn They are necessary in sections/departments of linguistics Dialects don’t have clear grammatical rules Dialects are folksy, kids should be taught ‘proper’ Greek The spoken language needs to be ‘homogenized’, the linguistic system be ‘Stable’ with ‘universal’ properties and no contradictions  Dialects signal a specific geographical area, the standard language signifies a whole country  Dialects should be absorbed by the norm, not incorporated in language teaching  How is written speech going to be assessed by a speaker of a dialect or vice versa? 2) Why teach a dialect?  Only when there are speakers of a dialect in class  Only dialects of the area schools are located in should be taught  Students should get to know about the dialects but dialects shouldn’t be taught  The school shouldn’t create barriers but dialects shouldn’t be taught  Only references to the dialects mainly for historical reasons  Taught only in public schools  References only at the level of language etymology  Only at the level of oral speech  Only if students want it  For historical reasons  If a language is spoken, it should be taught  It is a mother tongue, so it should be taught  Dialects are perfect examples of tolerance and respect to diversity

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Promote dialectal identity and self-confidence of speakers of dialects  Avoid prejudices against speakers of dialects  To enrich the linguistic background of students  To achieve better communication between speakers of different varieties  To avoid dialectal loss/death and loss of values and cultural properties 3) How to teach a dialect?  Child-centered education  Experiential and interactive learning and teaching  Cooperation of school, parents and the whole society  Teachers who are speakers of a dialect should encourage the use of dialects by students  Visits of speakers of dialects at school  Get in touch with dialectal speech corpora, texts, songs, improvised couplets  Comparative teaching of dialects and the norm  Establish relationships between schools of urban and rural areas It is further worth mentioning that secondary education students argue there are certain dialects that should be taught and learned. Those are a) Cretan Greek because it is an interesting dialect with special vocabulary, and b) Griko because it is a difficult language that needs to be preserved (Tzakosta & Koufou, 2019). University students, on the other hand, claim that the dialects that should be preserved are a) Cretan Greek because it has interesting rhythm and changes from place to place, b) Pontic Greek because it is difficult, and c) Cypriot Greek because its speakers do not have inferiority complexes while the language also sounds nice (Tzakosta & Beteinaki, 2018; 2019a; b).

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ORGANIZING THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHICAL VARIETIES: THE CASE OF THE DIALECT OF CRETE Many studies make specific claims about the importance of dialectal variants in language learning and teaching (cf. Adger et al., 2007; Dina & Zarkogianni, 2009; Tsiplakou, 2007; 2015; Tsiplakou et al., 2018; Tsiplakou & Hadziioannou, 2010; and more references therein). However, the current teaching curricula have promoted but never really adopted the communicative approach to language learning and teaching (Ιnterdisciplinary Unified Framework for elementrary and secondary School, 2003). On the other hand, the new teaching curricula for Greece (Curriculum for the teaching of Modern Greek language and literature in High School without date) and Cyprus (New curricula: Modern Greek language 2010), which greatly support the productive use of dialects, primarily under the scope of critical literacy and multiliteracies (cf. Ioannidou, 2012; Ioannidou & Sophokleous, 2010; Kalantzis & Cope, 1999; Kaskamanidis & Dinas, 2004) have never really been adopted. However, there have been praiseworthy individual efforts of primary and high school teachers in Crete who have attempted to reinforce their students and pupils to write and work on ‘madinades’ (the local two-verse Cretan folk poems/songs), to participate in field work, to interview speakers of dialects and collect data, and to proceed to comparative observations between dialects, the norm and aspects of Greek taught in school (for extended list of references see Tzakosta, 2020a; b). It seems that a very effective way to incorporate dialects in the language teaching process is through mass culture texts (cf. Arhakis et al., 2015; Tsitsanoudi & Theodoropoulos, 2015) and popular TV series. In addition, there are now many organized digital platforms which serve as pools of dialectal data, like www.vocalect.eu or www.mohi.edc.uoc.gr. These platforms also offer detailed analyses and exhaustive references lists (Matthaioudaki, 2015; Tzakosta et al., 2015).

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The interested researcher or amateur can also have easy access to multimedia platforms and electronic lexicons (cf. Melissaropoulou et al., 2015; Papazachariou, 2015). The positive outcomes derived from the use of such platforms in education have already been reported (cf. Tzakosta & Koufou, 2019). Dialectal teaching presupposes the active involvement of speakers and students in class. The productive utilization of authentic dialectal could in combination with the above reveal the linguistic, historical and cultural treasures hidden in dialects. Such teaching methods are fully compatible to the philosophy underlying inter-cultural teaching methodology.

SYNOPSIS This chapter aimed to discuss and debunk the myths affecting dialectal learning and the problems reported in dialectal classes as an example of multilingual and multicultural classes. I hope to have shown that dialectal classes face the same problems as multilingual classes, especially those in which linguistically diverse and/or ‘inferior’ languages are spoken. It has been described that all speakers involved in education, like pupils/students/teachers and parents are very skeptical when it comes to the ‘free’ use of dialects which might cause communication difficulties. This scepticism is due to the negativity of the society as well as the structure and goals of the educational system towards pluralism in language. Negative attitudes towards dialectal variants may change if a) there is complete and accurate training at all levels of education, b) students get in contact with authentic dialectal texts and, therefore, realize the linguistic treasures dialects bring with them, c) it becomes common knowledge that cultivating language diversity is a means to preserve cultural diversity and preserve social balance. The best way to achieve that is through the design of relevant and approapriate language teaching materials which are compatible with intercultural and multilingual teaching communication.

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REFERENCES Adger, C. T., Wolfram, W., & Christian, D. (2007). Dialects in schools and communities. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Arhakis, A., Fterniati, A., & Tsami, V. (2015). Language variety in mass culture texts [in Greek]. In M. Tzakosta (Ed.), Teaching Modern Greek linguistic varieties and dialects in elementary and secondary education (pp. 67-94). Athens: Gutenberg – Dardanos. Byrnes, D. A., & Cortez, D. (1993). Language diversity in the classroom. In D. A. Byrnes & G. Kiger (Eds.), Common bonds: Anti-bias teaching in a diverse society (pp. 73-88). Wheaton: Association foe Childhood Educational International. Cho, J., Rios, F., Trent, A., & Mayfield, K. M. (2012). Integrating language diversity into teacher education curricula in a rural context: Candidates’ developmental perspectives and understandings. Teacher Education Quarterly, Spring 2012, 63-85. Curriculum for the teaching of Modern Greek language and literature in High School. (without date). ESPA program. Action MIS: 295450, Athens. Retrieved on July 21, 2017 from http://ebooks.edu.gr/new/ ps.php. Dinas, K. (2015). The use of dialectal variety with the pedagogy of critical literacy. The experience of a didactic attempt [in Greek]. In M. Tzakosta (Ed.), Teaching Modern Greek linguistic varieties and dialects in elementary and secondary education (pp. 167-186). Athens: Gutenberg – Dardanos. Dinas, Κ., & Zarkogianni, E. X. (2009). The didactic use of modern Greek dialects. The case of the idiom of Afantou Rodos [in Greek]. Thessaloniki: University Studio Press. Evans, N., & Levinson, S. C. (2009). The myth of language universals: Language diversity and its importance for cognitive science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32, 429-492. Faloutsou, Th. (2019). Ιnvestigating attitudes of primary school pupils regarding the linguistic variety in TV and commercial speech: didactic

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practices according to the pedagogy of multi-literacies [in Greek]. MA thesis. Patras: Hellenic Open University. Farr, M., & Daniels, H. (1986). Language diversity and writing instruction. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. Flores, N., & Rosa, J. (2015). Undoing Appropriateness: Raciolinguistic ideologies and language diversity in education. Harvard Educational Review, 85(2), 149-171. Fragoudaki, A. (1999). Language and ideology [in Greek]. Athens: Odysseas. Hynds, S., & Rubin, D. (1988). Perspectives on talk and learning. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. Ιnterdisciplinary Unified Framework for elementrary (DEPPS) and secondary School (APS). (2003). Ministerial Decision G2/21072a, FEK 303/vol. Β΄/13-3-2003. Ioannidou, Ε. (2012). Language policy in Greek Cypriot education: tensions between national and pedagogical values. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 25, 215-230. Ioannidou, E., & Sophocleous, A. (2010). “Now, is this how we are going to say it?” Comparing teachers’ language practices in primary and secondary state education in Cyprus. Linguistics and Education, 21, 298-313. Κakridi, M. (2000). Norm, linguistic variety and education [in Greek]. Glossikos Ipologistis, 2. Retrieved on July 21, 2017 www.komvos.edu. gr/periodiko/periodiko2nd/default.htm. Kalantzis, M., & Cope, Β. (1999). Multiliteracies: reinvestigation of what we mean as literacy and what we teach as literacy within global cultural diversity and the new technological communication [in Greek]. In Proceedings of the International Conference Strong and weak languages in the European Union: Aspects of linguistic imperialism (pp. 1-19). Thessaloniki: Center for the Greek Language. Kapsaski, A., & Tzakosta, M. (2016). Attitudes of high school teachers regarding the use and teaching of modern Greek dialects [in Greek]. Studies in Greek Linguistics, 36, 161-174.

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Karantzi-Andriomenou, Ch. (2011). Linguistic practices and education: aspects of the Greek experience [in Greek]. Proceedings of the 6th Conference of History in Education (pp. 446-454). Patra: University of Patras. Kaskamanidis, G., & Dinas, K. (2004). Language “recycling”: pedagogical and teaching use of Modern Greek dialects. The case of Pontic [in Greek]. Glossa, 58, 7-25. King, K. A., Schilling-Estes, N., Lou, J. J., Fogle, L., & Soukup, B. (2008). Sustaining linguistic diversity: Endangered and milority languages and language varieties. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. Lee, J. H. (2012). Implications for language diversity in instruction in the context of target language classrooms: Development of a preliminary model of the effectiveness of teacher code-switching. English Teaching: Practive and Critique, 11(4), 137-160. Livadiotakis, G. (2020). Linguistic attitutdes towards the dialect of Crete: dialektophony in the working era [in Greeek]. MA thesis. Patras: Hellenic Open University. Matthaiaki, A. (2019). “Thoro” I “vlepo”? “Groiko” I “akouo”? Attitudes of educators, parents and students regarding the use and teaching of Modern Greek dialects [in Greek]. MA thesis. Patras: Hellenic Open University. Matthaioudaki, M. (2015). Program VOCALECT: the promotion on Modern Greek dialects and the sensitization of the educational community [in Greek]. In M. Tzakosta (Ed.), Teaching Modern Greek linguistic varieties and dialects in elementary and secondary education (pp. 117-140). Athens: Gutenberg – Dardanos. Melissaropoulou, D., Galiotou, E., Dimela, E., Karanikolas, N., Papanagiotou, Ch., Xydopoulos, G., & Ralli, A. (2015). Realization of the first multimedia tri-dialectal web dictionary [in Greek]. In M. Tzakosta (Ed.), Teaching Modern Greek linguistic varieties and dialects in elementary and secondary education (pp. 259-281). Athens: Gutenberg – Dardanos. New curricula: Modern Greek language. (2010). Nikosia: Ministry of language and culture. Retrieved on May 14, 2019 from

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http://www.paideia.org.cy/upload/analytika_programmata_2010/0.sini ptikaanalitikaprogrammata.pdf. Nettle, D. (1998). Exlpaining global patterns of language diversity. J. of Anthropolofical Archeology, 17, 354-374. Nieto, S. (1992). We speak in manh tongues: Language diversity and intercultural education. In C. Diaz (Ed.), Multicultural education for the 21st century (pp. 112-136). Washington, D.C.: National Education Association. Papadopoulou, Κ. (2020). Modern Greek dialects and varieties in the high school Modern Greek literature school-books [in Greek]. MA thesis. Patras: Hellenic Open University. Papazahariou, D. (2015). Greek dialectal multimodal databases [in Greek]. In M. Tzakosta (Ed.), Teaching Modern Greek linguistic varieties and dialects in elementary and secondary education (pp. 282-299). Athens: Gutenberg – Dardanos. Papanastasiou, G. (2015). The current situation of Modern Greek dialects [in Greek]. In M. Tzakosta (Ed.), Teaching Modern Greek linguistic varieties and dialects in elementary and secondary education (pp. 2348). Athens: Gutenberg – Dardanos. Papatolias, N. (2019). The place of geographical varieties in education [in Greek]. MA thesis. Patras: Hellenic Open University. Ralli, A. (2011). Introduction. Working Papers in Linguistics, 2. Tollefson, J. W., & Tsui, A. B. M. (2014). Language diversity and language policy in educational access and equity. Review of Research in Education, 38, 119-134. Tsiplakou, S. (2007). Language variety and critical literacy: Correlations and pedagogical extensions [in Greek]. In I. Matsagouras (Ed.), School literacy: functional, critical and scientific (pp. 466-511). Athens: Grigoris. Tsiplakou, S. (2015). Teaching a dialect in a pedagogical program of critical literacy: the educational transformation of Cyprus [in Greek]. In M. Tzakosta (Ed.), Teaching Modern Greek linguistic varieties and dialects in elementary and secondary education (pp. 187-210). Athens: Gutenberg – Dardanos.

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Tsiplakou, S., Ioannidou, E., & Hadziioannou, X. (2018). Capitalizing on linguistic variation in Greek Cypriot education. Linguistics & Education, 45, 62-71. Τsiplakou, S., & Hadziioannou, Ks. (2010). Tthe teaching of the linguistic variety: a teaching intervention [in Greek]. Studies in Greek Linguistics, 30, 617-629. Τsitsanoudi – Mallidi, N., & Theodoropoulos, E. (2015). The use of dialectal varieties in contemporary ads – ideological extensions. In M. Tzakosta (Ed.), Teaching Modern Greek linguistic varieties and dialects in elementary and secondary education (pp. 211-237). Athens: Gutenberg – Dardanos. Tzakosta, M. (2014). Linguistic varieties in Greek primary education: thoughts regarding the design of a teaching plan [in Greek]. Studies in Greek Linguistics, 34, 406-414. Tzakosta, M. (2020a). How dialects can be a necessary part of language teaching at all levels of education [in Greek]. In Z. Stratidakis (Ed.), The dialect of Crete: histort, expressive depth and didactical esperimentations (pp. 71-92). Rethymno: Historical and Folk Museum of Crete. Tzakosta, M. (2020b). “Once upon a time there were the dialects”: Myths and reality regarding the use amd teaching of dialects in class [in Greek]. Revista de Estudos Hellenicos, 6, 33-41. https://www.e-publicacoes.uerj.br/index.php/ellinikovlemma/article/view/48888/32682. Tzakosta, M. (in press). Languages, dialects and societies. In D. Goutsos & S. Bella (Eds.), Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Τzakosta, M., &. Koufou, I. (2019). Reinforcing dialectal awareness of secondary education students through a program of teaching modern Greek dialects [in Greek]. In A. Ralli, P. Barkas, B. Joseph & S. Bobolas (Eds.), Proceedings of the 8th International Conference of Modern Greek dialects and linguistics conference (pp. 357-369). Girokaster University & University of Patras. Τzakosta, M., & Beteinaki, Ε. (2018). ‘Kouladrizodas tis dialektous sto sholio’: use of modern Greek dialects in teaching geographical varieties [in Greek]. Revista de Estudos Hellenicos, 4.

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Τzakosta, M., & Beteinaki, E. (2019a). The dialect of Crete as a tool of language teaching and cultural awakening [in Greek]. In M. Samatas at al. (Eds.), Crete in the 21st Century: Problems, challenges and perspectives (pp. 79-90). Athens. Τzakosta, M., & Beteinaki, E. (2019b). Attitudes of University students regarding the use and teaching of modern Greek dialects in education [in Greek]. In A. Ralli, P. Barkas, B. Joseph & S. Bobolas (Eds.), Proceedings of the 8th International Conference of Modern Greek dialects and linguistics (pp. 339-355). Girokaster University & University of Patras. Tzakosta, M., Sfakianaki, A., Patsias, A., Klidis G., & Tsigdinos, S. (2015). Digital museum of Greek oral history: an experiential tool for the preservation and educational use and folk culture [in Greek]. In M. Tzakosta (Ed.), Teaching Modern Greek linguistic varieties and dialects in elementary and secondary education (pp. 300-321). Athens: Gutenberg – Dardanos. Yiakoumetti, A. (2007a). Choice of classroom language in bidialectal communities: To include or to exclude the dialect? Cambridge Journal of Education, 37(1), 51–66. Yiakoumetti, A. (2007b). The influence of a bidialectal language intervention programme on learning of Standard Modern Greek in an urban and a rural Cypriot school. In A. Papapavlou & P. Pavlou (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and pedagogical dimensions of dialects in education (pp. 145-164). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press.Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Yiakoumetti, A., & Mina, M. (2011). The influence of first-language bidialectism in foreign language classrooms: observations from Cyprus. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 24(3), 2870297.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Marina Tzakosta is Professor of Language Development and Pedagogy of the Preschool Child at the University of Crete. She received her BA and

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MA from the Department of Philology of the University of Crete and her Ph.D. from the University of Leiden Center for Linguistics (the Netherlands). During her Ph.D. studies she was a visiting researcher at the Department of Linguistics, UMass/Amherst. She taught at the Department of Philology, University of Patras, the Department of Philology, University of Crete, and the Department of Mediterranean Studies, Aegean University. She joined the Faculty of Education of the University of Crete in 2006. She has published over 100 studies in edited volumes, peer-reviewed journals and international conference proceedings. She has also been the co-editor of two volumes and the co-author of two educational materials and a textbook. She has participated in more than 20 projects as the principal investigator or a research associate. In 2014 she was awarded a scholarship by the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation in order to create the Digital Museum of Greek Oral history (www.mohi.edc.uoc.gr). She was also sponsored by the Center for Hellenic Studies, Princeton University in order to conduct research on the modern Greek dialects (2018).

In: Applied Linguistics Research … ISBN: 978-1-53619-611-5 Editors: Isaak Papadopoulos et al. © 2021 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 8

TRANSLANGUAGING IN MULTILINGUAL CLASSROOMS IN CYPRUS Sviatlana Karpava* Department of English Studies, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate the translanguaging practices of students and teachers in multilingual classrooms in Cyprus. A mixedmethod approach was implemented; the analysis was based on classroom observations that took place throughout the year 2018-2019 in four classes (15 students in each) in the 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th grades at the communitybased Russian heritage language school, and focused on classroom discourse and communication patterns. Interviews were conducted with the teachers in order to obtain in-depth insight into the learning/teaching and interaction processes in multilingual classrooms, in line with Palmer et al., (2014), García and Li Wei (2014), and Cenoz and Gorter (2015). The classroom observations showed that both the teachers and the pupils alternated languages. The use of Greek and English scaffolded the teaching of the Russian language in Russian heritage classes. The teachers implemented translanguaging in a dynamic and functionally integrated

*

Corresponding Author’s E-mail: [email protected].

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Sviatlana Karpava manner (Lewis et al., 2012), transforming multilingual classrooms into a translanguaging space (Li Wei, 2011).

Keywords: translanguaging, multilingual classrooms, translanguaging space

INTRODUCTION Due to global migration, multilingualism and multiculturalism have become the norm (Cenoz & Gorter, 2015). Multilingual speakers live in an extremely diverse environment in which it is difficult to keep their languages separate. According to the ecological approach to language learning and teaching (Kramsch, 2008, 2009), language use is viewed as symbolic competence, and the interaction of an individual with the environment is vital. This study aims to investigate linguistic diversity in multilingual classes in Cyprus, multilingual students’ and teachers’ translanguaging practices, and their perceptions of and attitudes towards their multilingual communication and learning strategies (García, 2009; García & Kleyn, 2016). Our focus is on Russian–Cypriot Greek (CG) bilingual/multilingual children as well as their Russian-speaking teachers and their linguistic behaviour during their Russian-language classes at the community-based Russian heritage language school. The children attend public Greekspeaking schools during the week and Russian classes at weekends outside of the typical school schedule. The development of pupils’ multilingual literacy, both in majority and minority languages, has an effect on their cognitive development, linguistic and cultural identity and social maturity (Janks, 2010). As suggested by Lewis et al., (2012), translanguaging presupposes the use of both L1 and L2 that are interrelated, and thus are learned better by bilinguals. Baker (2011, p. 289) considered translanguaging to be a tremendous advantage for bilingual education due to the ‘deeper and fuller understanding of the subject matter development of the weaker language,

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home-school links and cooperation, [and the] integration of fluent speakers with early learners.’ Translanguaging goes beyond code-switching and translation; it is focused on flexible bilingualism and multiple discursive practices (García, 2009; Blackledge & Creese, 2010). Translanguaging adopts heteroglossic and dynamic perspectives on bilingualism and suggests that a bilingual person has one integrated linguistic system (Bailey, 2007; García, 2009; García & Li Wei, 2014; Otheguy et al., 2015; García & Lin, 2016). Translanguaging allows for the ‘flexibility of bilingual learners to take control of their own learning, to self-regulate when and how to use a language, depending on the context in which they’re being asked to perform’ (García & Li Wei, 2014, p. 80). Translanguaging differs from code-switching. Code-switching is focused on linguistic competence (Auer, 2005; Myers-Scotton, 2005) and presupposes two separate linguistic systems. Translanguaging is associated with flexible bilingualism and heteroglossic, dynamic linguistic behaviour (Bakhtin, 1981; Bailey, 2007), and presupposes an integrated linguistic system (Tsokalidou, 2017; Papadopoulos, 2020). Translanguaging is a pedagogical practice in line with the principles of social justice and training (García, 2009; Torpsten, 2018). Pupils and teachers in bilingual/multilingual classrooms switch the mode of language in order to negotiate meaning (García, 2009; García & Kleyn, 2016), thus promoting multilingual pupils’ identity and knowledge development (Baker, 2000; Creese & Blackledge, 2010; Cummins & Persad, 2014; García, 2012; García & Li, 2014). According to Meier and Conteh (2014), the strategic use of all linguistic resources available to multilingual pupils, taking their overall language potential into account, can enhance their thinking and learning skills and can lead to broader and deeper understanding of all school subjects, as well as a better relationship between the pupil and the diverse society (Manyak, 2004). According to Cummins (2007) and García (2012), the use of strict instructional methods and only the target language in heritage language classes may have a negative impact on the way pupils acquire knowledge. Interaction and socialising in class, amongst peers and between teachers and

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pupils, leads to the creation of a teaching/learning community, a socially and culturally supportive environment that helps to promote identity and cooperation, which are essential for language acquisition (Frank & Torpsten, 2015). Cyprus has recently become a multilingual place. The local population is bi(dia)lectal, as the people speak CG and Standard Modern Greek (SMG) (Rowe & Grohmann, 2013; Grohmann et al., 2017). There are speakers of minority languages (e.g., Armenians, Latins and Maronites), residents of British origin and immigrants from various countries in Eastern Europe, Asia and particularly the former Soviet Union (Hadjioannou et al., 2011). The Russian community in Cyprus is the largest foreign-language group (Karpava, 2015; Karpava et al., 2018). Russian has become a new lingua franca in Cyprus (Eracleous, 2015) in addition to English, which is widespread and is used for communication across the island (Buschfeld, 2013). The emerging role of Russian in Cyprus as one of the dominant and preferred foreign languages has led to some changes in educational processes and policies, as Cypriots are increasingly starting to learn Russian. In Cyprus, there are several private Russian-speaking schools, Orthodox churches, and Russian-language television and radio services. Russian is a foreign language in all the public schools and tutoring centres. The island is a popular tourist destination and the Cypriots are eager to learn Russian because it is an essential resource for finding a good job in international companies. It is obvious that the linguistic situation in Cyprus is complex and unique, and affects the language choices and dominant language constellation of the Russian immigrant population (Karpava, 2020). The aim of this study is to examine the translanguaging practices of Russian–CG bilingual children and their Russian-speaking teachers, including their perceptions of and attitudes towards their multilingual communication and learning strategies.

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METHODS Participants The participants were 60 simultaneous bilingual-bilectal Russian– Cypriot Greek children, 27 boys and 33 girls, who were born in Cyprus (father CG and mother Russian). They were observed at a public Russian Saturday school in Larnaca, Cyprus (school year 2017-2018). At the time of observation, they attended the 1st-6th grades, as follows: 1st grade, 15 children (Mean age: 8;8, range 7;7-9;8, SD 0.7), eight female and seven male; 4th grade, 15 children (Mean age: 10;8, range 9;4-12, SD 0.8), 12 female and three male; 5th grade, 15 children (Mean age: 12;12, range 9;5-14;1, SD 1.3), nine female and six male; 6th grade, 15 children (Mean age: 13;3, range from 10;5-15;1), four female and 11 male. Four teachers, who were Russian heritage speakers, were interviewed regarding their translanguaging practices/ instructional strategies in class in line with the recommendations by García and Li Wei (2014), Palmer et al., (2014) and Cenoz and Gorter (2015). Their ages ranged from 33 to 45 years (Mean=36). Their mean length of residence in Cyprus was 11.5 years (minimum seven, maximum 15), and their age of onset/exposure to CG/Greek on arrival in Cyprus ranged from 25 to 30 years (Mean=26). In terms of their level of education, all the teachers had university degrees and came from the middle socio-economic class. Their L1 was Russian, and their countries of origin were Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Their dominant language constellation was Russian, Greek and English.

Materials and Procedure We implemented a mixed-method approach because our analysis was based on parental questionnaires, classroom observations focused on classroom discourse and communication patterns, and interviews with the teachers in order to gain in-depth insights into the learning, teaching and interaction processes in multilingual classrooms. Our data sources included

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a parental questionnaire (Otwinowska-Kasztelanic & Karpava, 2015) about the families’ general background, the parents’ socio-economic status, the family language policy, attitudes towards code-switching and translanguaging and the children’s language proficiency, as well as their linguistic behaviour at home, at school and in society. In order to assess translanguaging practices of the children, Russian–CG bilinguals, we observed teaching sessions (of one and a half hours each) of the Russianlanguage classes at a Russian Saturday school in Larnaca, Cyprus (ethnic community complementary school). Observations took place throughout the year in four classes (15 students in each) and encompassed the 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th grades. Four teachers, who were Russian heritage speakers, were interviewed regarding their translanguaging practices/ instructional strategies in class in line with the recommendations by Palmer et al., (2014), García and Li Wei (2014) and Cenoz and Gorter (2015).

RESULTS The analysis of the classroom observations showed that the students in bilingual Russian–CG classes alternated between languages. Russianspeaking teachers also code-switched and use society-dominant languages, Greek or English, in order to make meaning comprehensible for the Russian heritage students. The use of Greek and English scaffolded teaching of the Russian language in the Russian heritage classes. This is in line with previous findings by Lin and Martin (2005). The analysis of the interviews with the teachers and the classroom observation data showed that the teachers code-switched (CG/SMG, Russian, English) in order to make input comprehensible to their students, as can be seen in example (1): (1) —Кажется, что это естественный процесс, я переключаюсь с одного языка на другой. Конечно, я стараюсь преподавать на русском, ведь это урок русского языка, но дети не всегда понимают, и тогда я вынуждена переводить и объяснять на греческом. У многих детей греческий язык более сильный, и во многих случаях дома они больше

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говорят по-гречески… / ‘It seems that this is a natural process, I switch from one language to the other. Of course, I try to teach in Russian as this is the lesson of the Russian language, but the children do not always understand, then I have to translate and explain in Greek. A lot of children have Greek as their dominant language and in many cases, they speak more Greek at home.’ (T1)

They followed the same pattern of interaction as their students in codeswitching or translanguaging; see example (2). The processes of interaction, socialisation and negotiation of meaning were considered important in class: (2) —Дети очень часто смешивают языки на уроке и на перемене, наверное, им так удобно, если не знают какое-то слово по-русски, могут перейти на греческий или английский. Они часто спрашивают меня на греческом. Я отвечаю на греческом, как же иначе, если ученик не понимает, но потом мы возвращаемся к русскому. Мы не всегда успеваем по программе, но главное, что детям нравится сам процесс общения на двух-трех языках на уроке со своими сверстниками…/‘The children often mix languages in the lesson and during the break, probably, it is convenient for them, if they do not know some words in Russian, they can switch to Greek or English. They often ask me questions in Greek. I answer in Greek, how can I do the opposite thing, if the students do not understand, but then we return back to Russian. We do not manage to cover all the syllabus, but the most important is that the children enjoy the process of communication in class with their peers using three languages [translanguaging].’ (T2)

Translanguaging in class can be a reflection of the communicative practices of children at home; see example (3). (3) —Я думаю, что у детей просто выработалась привычка смешивать языки дома, с мамой по-русски, с папой по-гречески, с друзьями по-разному…греческий, русский, английский, в зависимости от окружения, поэтому и в классе они себя так ведут…/ ‘I think that the children have a habit of mixing languages at home, they use Russian with their mother and Greek with their father, with their

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Sviatlana Karpava friends, it depends on the social environment…Greek, Russian, English, thus, in class they have a similar linguistic behaviour…’ (T3)

Overall, both the students and the teachers had positive attitudes towards translanguaging, as it enhances the students’ communicative and socialising skills in both the majority and minority languages, leads to a better understanding of the subject, peer collaboration and scaffolding, and increases their motivation to read and write in Russian and to use their heritage language outside of the classroom; see example (4). (4) —В целом, у меня положительное отношение к смешению языков в классе, с первого взгляда может показаться, что в классе царит хаос, но для нас это в порядке вещей, мы живем на Кипре и я не могу ожидать, что дети будут знать русский как те, кто живут в России…нужно адаптироваться, подстраиваться, играть по их правилам, но в итоге у нас хороший результат, детям нравиться учиться, они пишут и читают по-русски, помогают друг другу и даже начинают больше говорить по-русски вне стен школы…/ ‘Overall, I have a positive attitude towards translanguaging, at first glance, it can seem that we have chaos in the class, but this is normal for us, we live in Cyprus and I cannot expect that the children can know Russian the same way as their peers in Russia…we need to adapt, to play by their rules, but in the end we have a very good result, children like to learn, they can read and write in Russian, help each other and even start to speak more Russian outside the school.’ (T4)

Translanguaging can be quite challenging because it requires a good command of two or three languages, as presented in examples (5) and (6): (5) —Иногда, это довольно-таки сложно…представьте в классе 810 учеников и каждому надо уделить внимание и быть готовым ответить на том языке, на котором тебя спрашивают, иногда в моей голове происходит сбой, и я уже не знаю, на каком языке я говорю…А еще бывает, что я сама забываю, как это перевести на греческий или наоборот, так что иногда- заглядываю в словарь в телефоне…/ ‘Sometimes, it is quite difficult…can you imagine, there are 8-10 students

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in class and each of them needs attention, you should be ready to answer their questions using the language that they use, sometimes I have a “blackout” and I do not know which language I am speaking…It can also happen that I might forget of how to translate this or that word into Greek or into Russian, so sometimes I need to look it up into the dictionary…’ (6) —Да, и не забывайте о родителях, родственниках, бабушках и дедушках, они приводят детей на урок и потом забирают после урока… ну и конечно же смешиваешь языки, с русскими мамочками по-русски, а с киприотами по-гречески, а еще есть англичане или англо-киприоты, тогда по-английски…и все это в реальном времени…/ ‘Yes, and do not forget about the parents, grandmothers and grandfathers, they bring their children to school before the lesson and take them after…so, of course, I mix the languages, with Russian mums I use Russian, but with Cypriots — Greek, we also have Brits or Cypriot Brits, then — in English… and all this in real time…’

The results of the classroom observations revealed that the children mainly had difficulties with some words or terms that were unknown to them, either due to their age or due to linguistic and cultural differences between Cyprus and Russia. The following examples are from the 1st grade. Example (7) shows that the children did not know the word (turtle's) shell in Russian; therefore, the teacher had to translate it into Greek; this then initiated their conversation in Greek, but the teacher then attempted to switch back to Russian because it was a Russian lesson. The teachers at the school were of L1 Russian origin, although they have been Cyprus residents for quite a long time. It was sometimes difficult for them to translate because they were not used to the terms in L2 Greek. (7) —Панцирь носит черепаха, прячет голову от страха./The turtle wears a shell, it covers its head as it is afraid. —Κυρία τι είναι панцирь; / Miss, what is a shell? —Δεν είμαι πολύ σίγουρη πώς είναι στα Ελληνικά…είναι καβούκι χελώνας./I am not quite sure how it is translated into Greek. It is a turtle’s shell. —Α, κατάλαβα. /Ok, I understood.

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Sviatlana Karpava —Да, у черепахи есть панцирь, чтобы укрываться в момент опасности./ Yes, a turtle has a shell in order have a shelter when it is in danger.

The following example (8) is from the 4th grade. The children were not able to find the names of the particular types of birds and berries. They were not familiar with them, as not all the children visited Russia regularly and become exposed to the nature there; thus, the teacher was attempting to help them or to elicit the answer from the students who regularly visited their relatives in Russia. As the students had only heard or used these words in Greek and not in Russian, the teacher needed to translate the unknown words for her students and show relevant pictures illustrating the unknown words; thus, the use of Greek in the class helped to facilitate the children’s understanding. (8) —Целая стая куропаток живет в снегу на болоте. Днем они вылетают, ходят по болоту, клюкву выкапывают. / A whole flock of partridges live in the snow in the swamp. During the day they fly out, walk through the swamp, dig up cranberries. —Ξέρω όλες τις λέξεις εκτός από куропаток και клюкву; /I know all words except for partridges and cranberries. —Куропатки — οι πέρδικες, клюква — βακκίνια, ένας είδος μούρων, να σας δείξω τις εικόνες για να καταλάβετε. / These are partridges and these are cranberries, I will show you the pictures so that you can understand. —Теперь понятно, такого нет на Кипре./ Now, I understand, we do not have this in Cyprus.

It seems that code-switching or translanguaging is a common pragmatic practice in Russian heritage classes. Both the teachers and the students codeswitched strategically, both inter-and intra-sententially. They deliberately modified the input as a pedagogical practice to make this input comprehensible, which in turn changed the students’ output. Overall, there was a positive attitude towards translanguaging on the part of the both the teachers and the students. Translanguaging facilitates the learning process,

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and increases students’ understanding and involvement in class (Lewis et al., 2012). Russian is a heritage language; as it is a weaker language, translanguaging assists in its development. Greek or English is used to enhance the learning process and to provide a deep and full understanding of the subject. The teachers used Greek or English to greet the parents, to communicate with them and to build better cooperation between the school and home as the children came from mixed-marriage families (mother Russian, father CG or English). The heritage Russian classes were extremely heterogeneous; thus, translanguaging was used to help early or weaker learners to integrate into class, which is in line with Baker’s (2011) observations.

DISCUSSION Our results showed that both the teachers and the students in multilingual and multicultural classes in Cyprus had a positive attitude towards the fluidity of language and translanguaging, as this was a natural learning/teaching process and way of negotiating for meaning for them. Translanguaging was considered to promote multilingualism and the maintenance of the Russian language and culture, to reinforce and integrate the minority language in wider societal and educational contexts (Papadopoulos, 2020), and to develop the students’ communicative skills in the majority languages, namely Greek and English. There was an interplay amongst home, school and society translanguaging (Tsiplakou, 2016; Tsokalidou, 2017). Translanguaging pedagogies emphasise flexibility in the classroom (Cenoz & Gorter, 2015). Russian–CG children attend monolingual Greek-language schools (some of them attend private English-language schools) during the week and attend Russian heritage classes on Saturdays. This is the only way for them to acquire Russian-language literacy and not experience language shift and heritage language loss. Heritage Russian schools become a translanguaging space in which there are no dichotomies between the macro and the micro,

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the societal and the individual, and the social and the psycho in studies of bilingualism and multilingualism. A translanguaging space allows multilingual individuals to integrate social spaces that have formerly been practiced separately in different places. Translanguaging is both going between different linguistic structures, systems and modalities, and going beyond them (Li Wei, 2011). Having a translanguaging space and multilingualism at schools is a reflection of the translanguaging space at home (family language policy) and in the society (linguistic landscape).

REFERENCES Auer, P. (2005). A postscript: Code-switching and social identity. Journal of Pragmatics, 37(3), 403–410. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma. 2004.10.010. Bailey, B. (2007). Heteroglossia and boundaries. In M. Heller (Ed.), Bilingualism: A social approach (pp. 257–274). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Baker, C. (2000). The care and education of young bilinguals: An introduction for professionals. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Baker, C. (2011). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Bakhtin, M. (1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays. Austin: University of Texas Press. Blackledge, A., & Creese, A. (2010). Multilingualism: A critical perspective. London: Continuum. Buschfeld, S. (2013). English in Cyprus or Cyprus English? An empirical investigation of variety status. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Cenoz, J., & Gorter, D. (2015). Multilingual education: Between language learning and translanguaging. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Creese, A., & Blackledge, A. (2010). Translanguaging in the bilingual classroom: A pedagogy for learning and teaching. Modern Language

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Journal, 94(1),103–115. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2009.009 86.x. Cummins, J. (2007). Rethinking monolingual instructional strategies in multilingual classrooms. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 10(2), 221–240. https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/CJAL/article/ view/19743. Cummins, J., & Persad, R. (2014). Teaching through a multilingual lens: The evolution of EAL policy and practice in Canada. Education Matters, 2(1), 3–40. https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/ em/article/ view/62904. Eracleous, N. (2015). Linguistic landscape of Limassol: Russian presence. MA thesis, University of Cyprus. Frank, E., & Torpsten, A.-C. (2015). One-to-one computers and language development in a multilingual classroom. US-China Education Review A, 5(2), 77–90. https://doi.10.17265/2161-623X/2015.02.001. García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. Hoboken: Wiley. García, O. (2012). Theorizing translanguaging for educators. In C. Celic & K. Seltzer (Eds.), Translanguaging: A CUNY-NYSIEB guide for educators (pp. 1–6). New York, NY: CUNY-NYSIEB. García, O., & Lin, A. (2016). Translanguaging and bilingual education. In O. García, A. Lin & S. May (Eds.), Bilingual and multilingual education (pp. 117–130). Springer: Dordrecht. García, O., & Kleyn, T. (2016). Translanguaging with multilingual students: Learning from classroom moments. New York, NY: Routledge. García, O., & Wei, L. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. New York: Macmillan. Grohmann, K., Papadopoulou, E., & Themistocleous, C. (2017). Acquiring clitic placement in bilectal settings: Interactions between social factors. Frontiers in Communication 2(5). https://doi.10.3389/fcomm.2017. 00005. Hadjioannou, X., Tsiplakou, S., & Kappler, M. (2011). Language policy and language planning. Current Issues in Language Planning, 12(4), 503– 569. https://10.1080/14664208.2011.629113.

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Janks, H. (2010). Literacy and power. New York: Routledge. Karpava, S. (2020). Dominant language constellations of Russian speakers in Cyprus. In J. Lo Bianco & L. Aronin (Eds.), Dominant language constellations (pp. 187–209). Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Karpava, S., Ringblom, N., & Zabrodskaja, A. (2018). Language ecology in Cyprus, Sweden and Estonia: Bilingual Russian-speaking families in multicultural settings. Journal of the European Second Language Association, 2(1), 107–117. https://10.22599/jesla.41. Karpava, S. (2015). Vulnerable domains for cross-linguistic influence in L2 acquisition of Greek. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Kramsch, C. (2008). Ecological perspectives on foreign language education. Language Teaching, 41(3), 389–408. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261 444808005065. Kramsch, C. (2009). The multilingual subject: What language learners say about their experience and why it matters. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lewis, G., Jones, B., & Baker, C. (2012). Translanguaging: Origins and development from school to street and beyond. Educational Research and Evaluation: An International Journal on Theory and Practice, 18(7), 641–654. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2012.718490. Wei, L. (2011). Moment analysis and translanguaging space: Discursive construction of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(5), 1222–1235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. pragma.2010.07.035. Lin, A., & Martin, P. (2005). Decolonisation, globalisation: Language-ineducation policy and practice. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Manyak, P. (2004). “What did she say?” Transition in a primary grade English immersion class. Multicultural Perspectives, 6(1), 12–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2018.1447100. Meier, G., & Conteh, J. (2014). Conclusion. In G. Meier & J. Conteh (Eds.), The multilingual turn in language education: Opportunities and challenges (pp. 292–299). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Myers-Scotton, C. (2005). Supporting a differential access hypothesis: Code switching and other contact data. In J. Kroll & A. de Groot (Eds.),

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Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches (pp. 326–348). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Otheguy, R., García, O., & Reid, W. (2015). Clarifying translanguaging and deconstructing named languages: A perspective from linguistics. Applied Linguistics Review, 6(3), 281–307. https://10.1515/applirev2015-0014. Otwinowska, A., & Karpava, S. (2015). MILD questionnaire: Migration, identity and language discrimination/diversity. University of Warsaw and University of Central Lancashire, Cyprus. Unpublished manuscript. Palmer, D., Martínez, R. A., Mateus, S., & Henderson, K. (2014). Reframing the debate on language separation: Toward a vision for translanguaging pedagogies in the dual language classroom. The Modern Language Journal, 98(3), 757–772. https://10.1111/j.1540-4781.2014.12121.x. Papadopoulos, I. 2020. From translanguaging pedagogy to classroom pedagogy: Supporting literacy, communication, and cooperative creativity of students. Thessaloniki: Disigma Publications. Rowe, C., & Grohmann, K. (2013). Discrete bilectalism: Towards co-overt prestige and diglossic shift in Cyprus. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 224, 119–142. https://10.1515/ijsl-2013-0058. Tsiplakou, S. (2016). ‘Safe’ code-switching and translanguaging: It’s complicated. Education Sciences. Thematic Issue, 2015, 140–160. Tsokalidou, R. (2017). SiDaYes! Πέρα από τη διγλωσσία προς τη διαγλωσσικότητα/Beyond Bilingualism to Translanguaging. Athens: Gutenberg. Torpsten, A. C. (2018). Translanguaging in a Swedish multilingual classroom. Multicultural Perspectives, 20(2): 104–110. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/15210960.2018.1447100.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sviatlana Karpava is a Lecturer in Applied Linguistics/TESOL at the Department of English Studies, University of Cyprus and Coordinator of the Testing, Teaching and Translation Lab. Main research areas: applied

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linguistics, first/second/third/heritage language acquisition, bilingualism, multilingualism, sociolinguistics, teaching and education, family language policy and intercultural communication.

In: Applied Linguistics Research … ISBN: 978-1-53619-611-5 Editors: Isaak Papadopoulos et al. © 2021 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 9

TRANSLANGUAGING AS A PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICE IN PRIMARY EDUCATION: APPROACHING, MANAGING AND TEACHING DIVERSE CLASSROOMS Isaak Papadopoulos* Center of Greek Education, Greece

ABSTRACT This chapter outlines the rationale for and the purpose of designing and implementing an educational programme conducted within a classroom of 20 primary education students (9 years old). More specifically, the sample of this programme consisted of 25 students coming from Bulgaria, Albania and Romania, and had attended a six-month educational programme in Larissa city (Central Greece). The project aimed at developing students’ skills in Greek language as well as raising their intercultural awareness of the Greek culture and the cultures of these students’ countries. An attempt was made towards promoting translanguaging use so that the teacher and the students could use their * Corresponding Author’s E-mail: [email protected].

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Isaak Papadopoulos different language practices to teach and learn in deeply creative and critical ways (García, Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017). Throughout the programme, the students were introduced to aspects of Greek and their own culture through multimodal learning and teaching material provided in a multilingual framework that encourages the cultural and linguistic contact and exchange (Garcia & Wei, 2014). In order to assess the efficacy of this educational programme, the researchers made a combined use of various tools of both formative and summative assessment. More specifically, a pre- and a post- test was carried out on each student. Moreover, the teachers’ journal was also employed in an attempt to shed light into teaching and learning context while as supplementary tools, portfolios were used. Upon the processing of the data, it was revealed that students had developed some basic skills in the Greek language while they appeared to have acquired elements (e.g., verbs, nouns, expressions) of their classmates’ languages through acting within this culturally and linguistically diverse environment. In addition, they seemed to have raised their intercultural awareness through their familiarization with aspects of the target culture/s and their interaction and communication with each other.

Keywords: translanguaging, transculturing, multicultural classroom, educational programme

INTRODUCTION Towards an Understanding of Translanguaging “Translanguaging” as a term was a creation developed as a continuation of the Welsh trawsieithu, coined by Cen Williams (1994, 1996) and then translated into English as “translinguifing”. At initial stages, “translanguaging” referred to a pedagogical practice within a framework that students are encouraged to alternate languages for purposes of receptive and productive language use. The performance of “translanguaging” refers to the use of the entire linguistic repertoire of the speakers, without being restricted to social and political boundaries (Otheguy et al., 2015). More specifically, translanguaging use implies the free process of developing and utilizing the

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entire language potential of bilingual and monolingual speakers. Within such a framework, teachers allow and encourage students not only to maintain and use their previous language practices, ‘but also to expand them and develop new ones, thinking and reflecting on both languages’ (Garcia, 2014 p. 66). Besides, in her own study, Papadopoulou (2018a) emphasizes the need for the coexistence and utilization of all the practices and strategies of expression of other-language students in a modern and creative language class. Essentially, the promotion of translanguaging is an important priority as it is closely intertwined with the multiple language practices and strategies used by bilingual speakers in order to communicate and interact with their environment (Papadopoulos, 2020), to make meanings (Daniel & Pacheco, 2015), to share their personal experiences (Wei, 2011), to gain and maximize their knowledge and to gain a deeper understanding of the bilingual environment in which they operate (Garcia, 2009a. Papadopoulou, 2018b). Applying the pedagogy of translanguaging in the teaching practice can help students develop their languages, which are used in a holistic and coherent way (Cahyani et al., 2018). After all, translanguaging is used in the teaching practice, emphasizing both the positions of teachers and their practices regarding the use and utilization of students’ resources, so that they themselves can evaluate them in the context of their learning and interaction. The promotion of translanguaging and the use of pedagogy of translanguaging have been shown to improve both the teaching and learning process (Creese & Blackledge, 2010). In this context, students have the opportunity to demonstrate what they know (Garcia & Wei, 2014) while at the same time they can develop and activate ways of cultivating literacy (Garcia & Sylvan, 2011). In such a context of promoting the use of students’ languages in the classroom, the student brings and “presents” different aspects of his personal history, experiences and elements of his environment, his attitude, faith and ideology, his cognitive and physical ability through a coordinated and meaningful performance (Hua et al., 2015, p.1223).

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After all, in such a multivocal context, students are encouraged to show a willingness to understand their relationships and perceptions, promoting a greater openness to meaningful negotiation trends (Flores & Rosa, 2015) which has been receiving an increased attention from research and teaching perspective within the multicultural and multilingual context of the society and the school.

Translanguaging and Intercultural Communication Recent studies on translanguaging use and its association with intercultural communication have offered encouraging findings. In particular, in a large-scale research, Papadopoulos (2020) has identified a strong relationship between promoting/performing translanguaging in the classroom and the empowerment of intercultural communication among students. In particular, it has been shown that translanguaging can contribute to enhancing students’ curiosity towards raising their intercultural sensitivity, intercultural awareness and intercultural interaction and cooperation skills. These are important and fundamental components of the intercultural communicative competence of the people (Papadopoulos, 2020) and their association with translanguaging should not be ignored. Translanguaging use was proved to lead to students’ enhanced willingness to be involved in intercultural exchanges. More specifically, the students tend to develop their ability to understand similarities and differences of others’ cultures and languages which leads to an increased mutual understanding. Moreover, allowing students to make use of their whole linguistic and paralinguistic repertoire entails the development of multilingual and multicultural/global citizenship which presupposes the emotional desire of a person to acknowledge, appreciate, and accept cultural differences.

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THE PROJECT Rationale of the Project The development and implementation of this particular project stemmed from the fact that multiliteracies-oriented educational programs appeared to have a positive impact on the language and content knowledge of students while they seem to facilitate students’ interaction and communication. At the same time, translanguaging seems to serve beneficially for facilitating students’ language and content development while it enhances students’ collaboration while learning and being taught. This particular project aimed at developing students’ skills in Greek language as well as raising their intercultural awareness of the Greek culture and the cultures of these students’ countries within a multimodal teaching and learning environment which encouraged students’ engagement and interaction with the teacher, the classmates and the teaching/learning material opening the door to the use of the students’ linguistic resources in their L1s and the target language.

Implementation Procedures This translanguaging-oriented educational program was designed based on the principles of the multiliteracies pedagogy given that it stresses the ways of making/constructing meaning in multifarious ‘cultural, social or domain-specific backgrounds’ (Cope & Kalantzis, 2015, p.3). The pedagogy of multiliteracies underlines the importance of transformative ways of knowing, the so-called four ‘knowledge processes’: ‘experiencing, conceptualizing, analyzing and applying’ (Kalantzis & Cope, 2004, p.64). These knowledge processes served as an outline to be followed by the researcher and the teacher of this programme in their attempt to enhance literacy skills of students in a culturally diverse environment and promoting their translanguaging use throughout the programme.

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Knowledge Process 1: Experiencing The first knowledge process “experiencing” refers to learning through the person’s engagement in daily events, which offer him/her ample opportunities for coming into contact with the world. Stage 1. Experiencing the Known In the first stage, students were encouraged to activate their pre-existing knowledge. In every unit, they came in touch with items related to the related topic “e.g., My school, my neighborhood, my family etc.) and they were urged to express themselves either in English, in Greek or in their heritage language on the subject. More specifically, the students participated in various activities. Indicatively, 

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They were invited by the teacher to draw something based on their own knowledge and experience that was related to each thematic unit of the programme. (teacher’s phrases: let’s draw something about…/As zografisoume kati shetika me/…) They were encouraged to speak in English/Greek/HeritageLanguage on the subject, based on their drawing (teacher’s phrases: tell us about… .and you? And you?…) They were called to focus on one element that made a special impression on them and say it aloud (e.g., teacher’s phrases: what’s your favorite/ Pio ine to agapimeno sou/ (in Greek)…?). The students were allowed to answer only with a word in case they were not able to form a sentence. It is worth mentioning that the teacher with his body language and actions tried to help the students to understand that he asked them about their favorite “item”.

Stage 2. Experiencing the New In this stage, the students were gradually introduced to the new subject and thematic vocabulary. It was in this stage that children were urged to realize that what said in Greek/English/Heritage Language (in the previous

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stage), can be said in Greek without any differentiation in the meaning. It is a different representation in another language. More specifically, the students participated in various activities. Indicatively, 

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The students watched videos related to the topic of each thematic unit of the programme (teacher’s phrases: Let’s watch a video/As doume ena video (in Greek)…) The students listened to a song in relation to the thematic unit (teacher’s phrases: let’s listen to the song/As akousoume ena tragoudi (in Greek)… Listen!/ Akouste (in Greek)…) The students observed carefully to see something/an item or more items that had not been mentioned before in the first stage (teacher’s phrases: Oh, what’s this? Oh! And this?/Oh, ti ine afto? (in Greek)…) They participated in direct-contact activities (e.g., the teacher had a basket of fruit and invited the students to run around it while listening to a related song in Greek. As soon as the music stopped, a student took a fruit and the teacher asked: What’s this? Ti ine afto (in Greek). If the student remembered the word, he could say it, if not, the teacher said “This is an/a/ Afto ine (in Greek)… and all the students repeated it).

Knowledge Process 2: Conceptualizing The second knowledge process “conceptualizing” is related to a development of concepts and to a theoretical synthesis of them while coming into contact with these items (Cope & Kalantzis, 2015). Stage 1. Conceptualizing by Naming At this stage, students become more systematically familiar with the vocabulary of the unit. More specifically, the students participated in various activities. Indicatively,

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The teachers made use of flashcards presenting the vocabulary related to the topic of each thematic unit in Greek as well as in the students’ heritage language. The teachers utilized stickers/card games on the wall to facilitate students’ better understanding and first familiarization with the target vocabulary. Throughout this phase, the teacher asked students to say aloud the words that they saw while the students’ one-word answers were accepted due to the lack of familiarity with the vague article.

Stage 2. Conceptualizing with Theory At this stage, the students were encouraged to engage in classification and categorization activities. It was in this stage that the teachers attempted to help students see the concepts from a wider perspective, highlighting the semantic relations of concepts that can be represented in multimodal forms (Cope & Kalantzis, 2015, p.20) and in different linguistic codes, as translanguaging use was a promoted priority. More specifically, the students participated in various activities. Indicatively, 

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The students participated in visualization activities (e.g., a 4-season card was used in the classroom and children categorize some fruit based on the season) Physical games were also implemented for students (e.g., the teacher divided the students into two groups, each student had a straw in his/her mouth and the teacher placed a printed picture of a fruit on it. The student had to take at random a fruit with the straw and place it on the appropriate place) The students were also engaged in digital games that facilitated their categorization competencies based on the preferences of the students in the class. (e.g., children who prefer apple, who prefer pears, etc.).

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Knowledge Process 3: Analyzing Analyzing processes refer to the person’s actions towards examining the cause and effect, the form and the functionality as well as the relationships of items. As it is implied, analyzing calls for employing reasoning with the purpose to explain something and achieve argumentation purposes (Cope & Kalantzis, 2015) by being encouraged to make use of their whole linguistic and paralinguistic repertoire. Stage 1. Analyzing Functionally Students at this stage were encouraged to seek for logical connections, cause-effect relationships related to the items/aspects of the target culture(s) (e.g., they chose products/plants/foods that are developed/cultivated in different countries) Stage 2. Analyzing Critically At this stage, students had to think critically about the topic and come up with a personal choice. It is important that they came in contact with the entire vocabulary-syllabus of the thematic area/target-culture again and then focus on particular ones. More specifically, the students participated in various activities. Indicatively, 

Thinking tunnel (e.g., each student represented a cultural element and all the students in the class formed two parallel rows. A student was selected by the teacher and was asked to go through the tunnel. Each time he/she took a step and he/she was between his/her two classmates. Each of the two classmates mentioned a cultural element they wished from a country to the student, who thought of what element they said and what element he/she prefered, as soon as the student completed the path, he/she had to say loudly which element he/she chose and the country it is from).

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The dialogue of truth (e.g., the teacher has flashcards which he/she showed successively to the students and asked: Would you like to see….in person? The students should say Yes or No. If they say YES they should get the card and explain why).

Knowledge Process 4: Application Applying processes are related to applying experiential, conceptual and critical knowledge which has been acquired by people, who tend to be engaged in the world being equipped with such tools of knowing something of the world and offer their knowledge to it (Cope & Kalantzis, 2015). Stage 1. Applying Appropriately At this stage, students were invited to apply the knowledge they had gained within a playful but at the same time learning-centered context. More specifically, the students participated in various activities. Indicatively, 

Based on the cards they had selected above in the activity “The dialogue of truth”, they were encouraged to make a construction/craft (e.g., they created a flag, a monument etc.) and then they presented it to their classmates using jointly the Greek language as well as their heritage languages.

Stage 2. Applying Creatively Students at this stage applied the knowledge they had acquired in a new context. The activities implemented here were related to the subject but simulated real-life situations (e.g., role play related to a visit in the targetcountry). It is important to underline that in all the cases, translanguaging use was promoted and allowed.

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FINDINGS Participants The participants of this particular research were 25 students of primary education (Table 1). They were 9 years old and they came from Bulgaria, Albania and Romania. Table 1. Students’ Profile Gender Age Country of origin

Boys 45% Girls 55% 9 years old Bulgaria 32% Albania 45% Romania 23%

Analysis of multiple data sources showed an increase in both quantity and quality of persuasive strategies used as well as increased multicultural awareness.

Pre- and Post- Language Assessment In the researcher’s attempt to investigate the efficacy of this project, a pre- and a post-language assessment was applied. In particular, each student was provided with a picture depicting a neighborhood and he/she was invited to mention orally the words he/she knew in the Greek language. The same picture was also used as a tool for the post-language assessment with each student individually. Based on the pre- and post- language assessment of the students (see Table 2), it was revealed that students demonstrated an improved repertoire in the Greek language (M = 39, SD: 0.3) in comparison to the pre-assessment results (M = 5, SD: 0.4) while the one-way ANOVA test indicated that there

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were statistically significant differentiations between the pre- and the postinvestigatory performance of the learners (F (30)= 6.7452, p