Towards an understanding of the systemic factors producing classroom-level conditions and student language and literacy outcomes

• In Event: Highlighted Session: The power of language and languages of power: understanding language of instruction policy change across six postcolonial contexts

Proposal

In this initial presentation, we will introduce the study, Language of Instruction Transitions in Education Systems (LITES), situate it within the USAID-funded SHARE activity (Sustaining Holistic and Actionable Research in Education), describe an overview of the study design, partnership structure, and methodology employed, and present a synthesis of salient and noteworthy findings.

A brief description of the aims of SHARE and research partnership model will first be presented. SHARE embraces the dual aims of advancing USAID’s education learning agendas through multi-country studies with the aim of robust localization and capacity strengthening of local research institutions. As such, the model is both novel and ambitious. A description of this approach and key lessons will briefly be shared.

We will then lay out the theoretical model used by the LITES study for how various levels of the system produce current school and classroom level conditions and practices. Specifically, we will discuss how policy priorities influence policy and program implementation, which then is mediated by school uptake and appropriation at the local level, and finally shapes the direct delivery of language in education policy and practice that influence learners’ language and literacy outcomes.

To set the stage for the following presentations, we will share a brief summary of descriptive statistics from each of the country cases quantitative data, indicating both the comparative student language and literacy outcomes as well as the teacher/classroom-level conditions that produced those outcomes. The remainder of the panel presentations will then examine the systemic conditions that produced these conditions and student outcomes.

Student outcomes of interest include:
Students’ level of decoding/reading fluency in L1/L2;
Students’ level of L1/L2 proficiency;
Students’ level of reading comprehension in L1/L2
Teacher/classroom level conditions include:
Teachers attitudes, skills, and levels of training
Teacher attitudes towards multilingual education and local language instruction;
Teachers’ sense of efficacy for multilingual instruction;
Teachers’ level of L1/L2 proficiency;
Language use patterns in the classroom;
The availability of teaching and learning materials in L1 and L2;
The degree of language match between students and the languages of instruction used

While these are important and noteworthy descriptive findings in and of themselves, they are also the outcomes that the study seems to explain through the system-level inquiry and findings on policy prioritization, implementation, and school-level appropriation, which will comprise the remaining presentations on the panel.

Authors

• TJ D'Agostino, University of Notre Dame

• Caroline Freeman, University of Notre Dame