“I want children to see that their languages are respected”

Abstract

Demand for an understanding and appreciation of linguistic and cultural diversity in educational contexts has intensified, given increasing levels of globalization. Moreover, guidelines from educational agencies (e.g., United Nations, 2015b; U.S. Department of Education, 2017) as well as state-level preschool teaching standards call for raising awareness of languages, cultures, and diversity beginning in early childhood. However, limited research in that area suggests most U.S. pre-primary teachers are monolingual English speakers (Espinosa & Crandell, 2021). Additionally, professional development and instructional programs on language and cultural awareness in pre-primary classrooms are rare (Kearney & Barbour, 2015). These observations raise the question as to how pre-primary educators promote linguistic and cultural diversity in their classrooms. This study explores world language learning practices in state-licensed, Northeastern U.S. pre-primary schools. We administered an online survey about world language learning resources, pedagogical approaches, and classroom practices to 138 pre-primary educators and conducted individual, semi-structured interviews with 15 of the teachers. We calculated frequency distributions for survey items to determine consensus or discrepancy among teachers and applied the procedure of initial, axial, and selective coding (Friedman, 2012) to open-ended survey responses and interview transcripts to identify trends and refine themes. Findings show that teachers recognized the benefits of building language and cultural awareness. Despite limited time, training, and resources to implement such pedagogy, they included different languages and cultures in instruction. We present their practices, focusing in particular on three distinct approaches, and discuss implications for promoting pre-primary plurilingual and (inter)cultural education.