An Analysis of the Student and School Level Factors on Students’ Educational Outcomes in the Philippines Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education

• In Event: Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: An Analysis of the Student and School Level Factors on Students’ Educational Outcomes in the Philippines Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education

Proposal

In 2012, the Philippines adopted mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) from kindergarten to Grade 3 and transitioned to Filipino and English in Grade 4. Beginning in Grade 4, English gradually becomes the primary language for instruction and the test. The intended objectives of MTB-MLE are to improve students’ proficiency in using test languages (market values) and raise their school belongingness and cultural identity awareness (non-market values). To identify conditions for effective MTB-MLE, this research examines to what extent student level and school level factors relate to students’ educational outcomes. Student level factors include student demographics and linguistic capital. School-level factors include teacher demographics and teaching characteristics (training, methods, and language attitudes). This study is analyzed through Bourdieu’s lens of linguistic capital and highlights the role of school-level factors in language policy to understand education equity.

This research uses the hierarchical linear modeling approach to examine such relations using Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) 2019 dataset of the Philippines. Using the SEA-PLM dataset, this study employs a two-level HLM analysis which allows the estimation of the effects of the student level and school level factors. Each of these factors associated with educational outcomes could be conceptualized as different “levels” of nesting - students (at level 1) are nested within schools (at level 2) in which each level potentially impacts educational outcomes. HLM allows researchers to investigate these nested relationships.

There are two purposes of this study: First, to examine to what extent student-level factors are related to educational outcomes and whether linguistic capital mediates such relations. Second, to examine to what extent school-level factors relate to educational outcomes and whether it moderates educational outcomes.

This study contributes to this field by examining student level and school level factors from an integrative perspective. Also, this study approaches the relationship between language and equity from a relatively under-researched theoretical lens-linguistic capital in objectified and embodied states. This will open up spaces for more informed discussions about the importance of involving linguistic capital in language policies.

Author

• Yu-Chieh Wu, University of Hawaii at Manoa