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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 295

Part of Session 176: Re-thinking language policy and practice in urban education (Other abstracts in this session)

Speechless in the city: Language policy and practice in early childhood education

Authors: Thomauske, Nathalie
Submitted by: Thomauske, Nathalie (University of Bielefeld / University of Paris 13, Germany)

The paper will focus on hidden agendas (Shohamy, 2006) in language policies and practices in early childhood education in France. It will give insights on the construction of the assimilation and the homogenization of ‘othered’ languages specifically of children of Color in early childhood settings in urban cities. But it will also analyze possibilities of contestation of such processes. In order to gain deeper knowledge and understanding of the French educational system and of its ‘blind spots’ it will be compared to a different educational institution in Germany situated in Berlin. 

The field of sociolinguistics and of early childhood education can benefit from perspectives sharpened by postcolonial and critical whiteness studies which help to deconstruct relationships of power such as unequal relationships between monolingual White practitioners and plurilingual children of Color. Due to the fact that Germany and France repress their colonial past they did not deal with all the consequences of their colonial history. As for example, state-organized migration policy or language education policy are still permeated nowadays by imperialist and colonial elements.

This research is  part of a larger research project entitled Children Crossing Borders which compared early childhood education and care systems in five countries (UK, US, Italy, Germany, France) in order to illuminate the values of parents who migrated recently and of practitioners. This research based on video-ethnography used a video cue showing a typical day in an early childhood setting in an urban area (Berlin, Paris) to stimulate a conversation with focus groups in different cities nationally and cross-nationally (Tobin et al. 1989).

My aim in this paper is to examine in which way there is continuity or change of these colonial or neo-colonial ideas by analyzing patterns of interpretation guiding language policies and practices. In which way can a hidden agenda of assimilation of ‘othered’ children of Color and ‘othered’ languages be traced? I will present some preliminary findings of this research focusing on the issue of being or made speechless. For example practitioners can contribute to produce inequality in early childhood education by devaluing or forbidding children to speak their home language(s) in the early childhood setting and by insisting on speaking a second language which the children might not be able to speak. Children get probably the impression that their home language(s) is/are not worth enough to talk in public and can in consequence be made speechless.

Shohamy, E. (2006): Language Policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches. London, New York: Routledge.

Tobin, J. / Wu, D. Y. H. & Davidson, D.H. (1989): Preschool in Three Cultures – Japan, China and The United States. New Haven: Yale University Press.