Exploring teachers’ enactment of micro language policies in two different learning contexts in Nairobi, Kenya

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Teaching amidst a changing landscape of literacy ideologies, expectations, curricula, and pedagogies

Proposal

In this multisite ethnographic study that examined the languages and literacies of refugee children attending secular and Qur’anic schooling, a key finding highlights ways in which teachers disrupt language policies that alienate students. The children in the study were learning languages they rarely used outside their Qur’anic and secular schools. Teachers were instrumental in facilitating the learning of these languages. At Excel (the children’s secular school), teachers employed fluid language policies and remained sensitive to the children’s linguistic needs. They enacted a micro language policy that made content accessible by using languages that students had in their repertoires. At the time of the study, Kenya’s language policy stipulated using the mother tongue for students in rural areas and the language of the catchment area for those in mixed urban neighborhoods during the early years. Kenya’s language policy seems closer to one that is equity oriented when compared to the US. Yet, it left out the language needs of refugee students. Eastleigh, where the study occurred, was classified as a mixed urban neighborhood, and the catchment language designated appropriate for instruction was Kiswahili.
The assignment of Kiswahili as the language of instruction did factor the changing demographic of the area that had become populous with refugees, mainly from Somalia. The teachers at Excel enacted language practices that matched the needs of their students. All teachers used Somali, and others contextualized learning using concepts from Qur’an school . The fact that these teachers were not Somali nor Muslim, yet made the efforts to learn these literacies to provide literacy education, was telling in their regard for equity.
The teachers at the Qur’an schools did not use languages of school (English and Kiswahili). They were intentional in helping students preserve their home languages. They only spoke Somali to their students. One Maalin (Qur’an teacher) believed success in learning the Qur’an was achieved if students were taught in a language that he and his students had full access to and his philosophy is supported by empirical studies that advocate for a mother tongue-oriented approach to classroom practices related to literacy acquisition. Such studies argue for adequate pedagogical support in the students’ first language (L1) as crucial during the early acquisition process of literacy skills (Mizza, 2014). Another Maalin at a different site was also determined to make his classroom an only-Somali space. He shared that “my students are going to lose Somali if they speak in English and Arabic in school and Qur’an school all day”. Highlighting these teachers' language choices is important because we see instances where language policy gets redesigned in literacy spaces not to serve the curriculum but to serve the students and the families for whom the literacy is meant to benefit. The Qur’an teachers were committed to helping families maintain and revitalize their languages while providing access to literacy. This study showed how teachers in two different learning contexts supported children by working towards language substance as well as employing multilingual practices.

Author

• Saida Mohamed