Pliability of space? Considering spatial justice and the introduction a a two-way immersion program in Estonia's kindergartens

• In Event: Highlighted session: Multilingual teaching in schools and in homes

Proposal

How are policies and spaces—from the national to the classroom levels—allowing for a rethinking of ways to use early childhood education space to advance students’ multilingualism? What is the role of space in addressing language inequalities in early childhood education? In this presentation, I critically examine the spatial organization of language across Estonia, in cities, kindergartens, and classrooms in the context of a new national initiative in Estonia to develop two-way immersion (TWI). The TWI policy, rolled out in the 2015-2016 academic year, showcases the ways schools, even at the pre-primary level, can be reimagined as spaces that intentionally bring together populations and expand learning opportunities in new ways.

An essential aspect of the TWI policy is the cultivation of a school-based language ecology (Haugen, 1972) conducive to dual-language learning. The TWI policy is also nested within an existing language environment, which largely remains stable across longer periods. In this presentation, I consider these ecologies and the way educational space is pliable. Drawing particularly on post-colonial theories (Annus, 2018; Millei et al., 2017) and concepts of space (Massey, 1999; Burke, 2001; Cook & Hemming, 2011; Horton & Kraftl, 2014; Soja 2010), I incorporate the ways enduring aspects of the Soviet era approach to kindergarten education endure to shape these 21st century TWI efforts and ecologies. I investigate, in particular, the ways the intentional language ecology points to deliberate efforts to transform kindergarten space with the intent to distribute language-learning opportunities across the Russian- and Estonian-speaking populations more equitably and effectively.

This paper draws on my qualitative, vertical-case study, which ran from 2015-2019 and incorporates ethnography and linguistic landscape methodologies spanning the different stages, policy actors, and places involved in the immersion project. In particular, the research includes observations and interviews over the first three years of the TWI program. The observations focused on classrooms, parent meetings, and class celebrations. Interviews with school directors, curriculum directors, teachers, national coordinators, and city education officials constituted the backbone of the project. Additionally, I reviewed kindergarten, city, borough development plans, local and national newspapers, language strategies.

As a result of this research, I conclude that children in Estonia are locked into limited language-learning opportunities and inequalities based on the space they occupy in the country, the city, and the kindergarten. Furthermore, I argue that reconfiguring of space for two-way immersion is dependent on existing resources and resource conservation. The opportunity to develop this program is time-sensitive as teacher corps’ language skills shift (esp. Estonians from Estonian-Russian to Estonian-English). It has become evident that space becomes more pliable as one moves from the national to the classroom level especially when we consider the evidence of the teachers’ radical and creative transformation of classroom space.

Author

• Kara Brown, University of South Carolina