Benz, Victoria. 2015. Dynamics of bilingual early childhood education: Parental attitudes and institutional realisation. PhD. Macquarie University.
Victoria Benz recently completed her PhD thesis about “Dynamics of bilingual early childhood education: Parental attitudes and institutional realisation.” The thesis is now available for download from Language on the Move here.
Congratulations, Victoria!
Abstract
Bilingual education in Australia is widely considered to be highly desirable but unsuccessful. This study seeks to explore this tension through an ethnographic investigation of a bilingual German-English programme at an early childhood education centre operating at two locations in Sydney. The study addresses the complex relationship between the childcare provider and its clientele in the socio-political context.
Four sets of data were collected for the research, namely documents, on-site observations, interviews with educators, directors and parents, as well as a demographic survey. The triangulation of these different data sets results in a holistic picture of the dynamics at
work in early childhood education. These dynamics include the complex interplay between parental attitudes and their expectations of the bilingual programme and language learning, as well as the childcare provider’s background, linguistic practices, orientation and public image. Based on this analysis, the research problematizes the ways in which Australia’s ideological environment influences and shapes the implementation and value of bilingual childcare in Sydney.
At the time of data collection, the childcare centres where the research took place had only recently been established. Therefore, programmes, policies and practices were still under development and in flux, while parents encountered bilingual education as a novel
experience. This allowed the research to focus on bilingual education as a dynamic set of tensions between opportunities and constraints. Sites of tension include language choice, internal policies, bilingual qualifications, parental involvement, centre marketing, and the German language.
Overall, the study finds that internal and external constraints militate against the success of the bilingual programme. The research has implications for language policy at family, institutional and state levels.
This work is licensed under a
The thesis is A1. May this amateur cite it in a work about i.a. an Anglo-Persian culture in Baha’i? “From Babel To Baha’i” (FB2B) needs updating as Julia isn’t PM now; it’s on hold while I work on PROOF
I quit school early and attended the University of Billiards, Poker and Pool from which Lindrum and I graduated cum laude. So, after my comment about Arabic may I link to Victoria’s work :
(The wisdom of the Bahá’í principle is not solely based on the fact that powerful languages come and go with the flow of history. For example, the Australian government in its recent and easily Googled 700 page White Paper outlining policy toward 2025 – Australia in the Asian Century (chapter 6.2) – calls on the nation’s schools to start emphasizing Bahasa Indonesian, Hindi, Japanese and Mandarin which are to receive “government funding of foundation courses in [these four] priority Asian languages.” “All Australian students will have the opportunity, and be encouraged, to undertake a continuous course of study in an Asian language…All students will have access to at least one priority Asian language…” Though not stated directly the policy paper implies, by recommending Asian languages for Aussie kids, that English is hardly the lingua franca fait accompli for the whole of Asia as opined in some circles. That Arabic’s widespread usage here & in Asia is not cited among other Asian languages worthy of Australian government financial support indicates too that more consultation may follow
Hi Paul,
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Congrats, Victoria, Ingrid!! I’m reading your wonderful and precious thesis. Politicians, educators, parents and anyone involved with language education should read it. It makes us think of the futrue of Australia. Congrats, again with all my heart.
Best wishes, Sadami
CONGRATS Victoria.
All anglo countries amount to a failure to communicate re bilingualism
Although English is currently the international language of aeronautical and marine navigation and communication, numerous fatal accidents testify to its dialectal variation and the extreme difficulty to both learn and retain it. For example, we Aussies aint known for our pronunciation of English, thus creating minor problems for American and British visitors. Imagine a Pakistani pilot guided by a Scottish air traffic controller to land his stricken aircraft. Yet, all these nationalities have English as an official language – for centuries.
Which bilingualism is the ?
It’s the Germanic influences in English & the Stalag movies I loved as a kid that enamor me to its manly guttural cadences. That our 2 boys study Italian at a Montessori school is no a load to carry either -.in our privileged status. Latin & French studies enhance my meagre knowledge of Shakespeare’s choice. As mum and dad traveled around a lot a lack of continuity re language tuition reared its ugly head even when we stabilized in 1 locality and attended 1 large school whose policy on language changed with the availability of language teachers. For most kids here in average church & state schools it really matters not which language is taught as long as continuity is there which hopefully leads one day to agreement on selection of a universal auxiliary tongue, perhaps English or Mandarin, alas, not German or Italian.