Bilingual children as policy agents: Language policy and education policy in minority language medium Early Childhood Education and Care

Abstract

The current study examines bilingual children as language policy agents in the interplay between official language policy and education policy at three Swedish-medium preschools in Finland. For this purpose we monitored nine Finnish-Swedish bilingual children aged 3 to 5 years for 18 months. The preschools were located in three different parts of Finland, in milieux with varying degrees of language dominance. The children were video recorded during their normal daytime routines in early childhood education and care. Three types of communicative situations were analyzed: an educator-led small group activity, free play with friends, and an activity in which one child was playing alone. Representative dialogs were selected to illustrate the children’s agency in constructing and enacting bilingual and/or monolingual language policies. Our analysis shows, firstly, that official national language policies can be enacted in different ways depending on the wider practice structures of the site; and, secondly, that each bilingual child has a unique agency and an active role in the construction of not only the monolingual policy but also a bilingual policy within the frames of early childhood education and care.

Newly arrived children’s encounters with the cultural community of preschool

“…It also means that these children from that perspective are creative actors of the preschool's cultural community. Therefore, the result conforms to research which highlights children as agents (Boyd, Huss and Ottesjö 2017;Bergroth and Palviainen 2017). Additionally, in the interplay between the children, the seemingly natural empathic and permissive ways of the peers also become visible.…”

“…Björk-Willén 2007;Ledin and Samuelsson 2017). Within everyday contexts in preschool, children are able to exercise agency and create language policy (Boyd, Huss and Ottesjö 2017;Bergroth and Palviainen 2017).…”

The Interaction Between Family Language Policy and Educators in Early Language Education

“…In particular, the project investigated bilingual practices of Swedish-Finnish bilingual children in Swedish-medium preschools through interviews with 18 parents, 10 preschool staff, and 9 children, observations in the family settings and preschools for 6 months, and a document analysis of mass media and policy documents and curricula. The project revealed important findings including a shift to flexible bilingual practices in the classroom by taking each child's needs and interests into account (Palviainen et al 2016), the importance of establishing partnerships beginning from the early childhood years to promote bilingualism at home and in the society (Bergroth and Palviainen 2016), and the active agency of preschoolers in constructing the language policies at home and at school (Bergroth and Palviainen 2017). Overall, the findings expanded our understanding of FLP, and the partnership between families and educators.…”

12 Future prospects and visions for family language policy research

“…An increasing number of FLP studies have appeared with a focus on child agency, including those in which the child is recognised as an active co-producer of the FLP with the mandate to shape, reject and change policies (e.g., Bergroth and Palviainen 2017;Fogle 2012;Hua 2008;Kheirkhah 2016;Luykx 2005;Said and Hua Zhu 2019; this volume. Children's agency and caregivers' role in home language maintenance).…”