Accomplishing lessons in postcolonial classrooms: comparative perspectives from Botswana and Brunei Darussalam

Arthur, Jo; Martin, Peter W.

doi:10.1080/03050060600628009

Cited by 81 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…From additional studies conducted in Botswana on teaching and learning in the classroom, a pattern has become evident, namely, that elementary schools, secondary schools, and even teacher education institutions predominantly use teacher-centered methods (Tabulawa, 2004;Pandey and Moorad, 2006;Arthur & Martin, 2006;Major and Mangope, 2012). Pandey and Moorad (2006) also summarized teaching and learning in Botswana classrooms as follows:…”

Section: Rq2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Problem-Based Learning Pedagogies in Teacher Education: The Case of Botswana

Major¹,

Mulvihill²

2017

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

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Section: Rq2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Problem-Based Learning Pedagogies in Teacher Education: The Case of Botswana

Major¹,

Mulvihill²

2017

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

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“…According to García, '[s]chools that adopt multiple bilingual teaching have a clear language policy that includes not only the development of bilingual proficiency, but also … plurilingual values of today -multilingual awareness and linguistic tolerance' (García 2009, 309;italics García's own). This bilingual education model could be viewed as a realization of truly bilingual pedagogy (Arthur and Martin 2006;Creese and Blackledge 2010;Cummins 2005).…”

Section: Bilingual Education Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two languages in the air: a cross-cultural comparison of preschool teachers’ reflections on their flexible bilingual practices

Palviainen

Protassova

Mård-Miettinen

et al. 2016

International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

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Bilingual preschool education is under researched compared with bilingual school education. There is also a lack of research on bilingual preschool teachers' agency and how they negotiate between two languages in the classroom. We examined the language practices of five bilingual preschool teachers working within three different socio-linguistic settings, in Finland (Finnish-Swedish and Russian-Finnish contexts), and Israel (an Arabic-Hebrew context) and interviewed the teachers about their use of languages in the classroom. We found that in each context the teachers reported modifications to an initial bilingual education model over time: from a strict separation of languages, to flexible bilingual practices. A thematic analysis of the contents of the teacher reflections as they emerged through interviews revealed five shared categories:(a) the flexible use of two languages; (b) responsible code-switching; (c) contextual and linguistic supports; (d) adjustments for individual children; and (e) role-modelling.Despite the different settings and sociolinguistic conditions, the similarities in teachers' practices and the rationale they gave for applying flexible bilingual practices were significant. The shared practices across contexts may have important implications for bilingual education.Keywords: bilingual preschool education; flexible bilingual practices; teacher agency; early childhood bilingualism; language attitudes; code-switching IntroductionThe aim of this study was to compare five teachers' reflections on their own language practices and the challenges they faced in implementing bilingual language education within three contexts of preschool education in Finland (Finnish-Swedish and RussianFinnish contexts), and Israel (an Arabic-Hebrew context). Ricento and Hornberger (1996) as well as Menken and García (2010) place teachers at the very heart of language policy-making. However, little research attention has been paid to providing bilingual teachers with any deeper understanding of their own agency and their critical role in negotiating, constructing and reconstructing classroom language practices. This is especially true for the context of preschool education and young children's essential developmental and social needs.As Heller (2007) has pointed out, language practices are inseparable from beliefs about languages and attitudes towards them in the surrounding society. For this reason we also considered it important to examine how the teachers' reflections were embedded in the specific educational and socio-political context in which they expressed them, and which possibly had an impact on their language practices. The comparative contexts chosen for this study, Finland and Israel, are both bilingual countries, where Finnish and Swedish, and Hebrew and Arabic, respectively, are official languages. However, for socio-political and historical reasons, the minority languages Swedish and Arabic are differently presented in the linguistic landscape of these countries and also differ considerably in terms ...

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“…Take for example the allocation of turns at talk in a classroom, that has been investigated by Greyling (1987;cf. too Coulthard, 1985;Duff, 2002;Storch, 2004;Arthur & Martin, 2006) and others. Such is the inequality in this form of institutional talk that in conventional classrooms the teacher normally occupies two-thirds of this scarce resource, in initiating a typical exchange by eliciting information, and ending it by giving feedback to the learner's response.…”

Section: A System For Lingual Sharingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In non-associational, institutional settings for example, there is often a marked and widespread lack of an equal distribution of turns (Greyling, 1987;Coulthard, 1985;Arthur & Martin, 2006). The lecture is a case in point, for here one of the participants holds forth for almost any length of time, and moreover, has the ability to withhold from other participants any opportunity of talking, by employing a number of devices: "Let me just finish this point ..." is a technique often used to counter an interruption signal from one of the other participants, be it in the form of a cough, a raising of the hand, the clearing of a throat or any combination of these.…”

Section: Turn-taking and Conversationmentioning

confidence: 99%