How “side” actors provide access to research-based concepts in multilingual education

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Actors, activism, and agendas: Pathways to multilingual education policy creation and enactment across contexts

Proposal

According to the Kosonen and Benson (2021) language-in-education policy change framework, which analyzes actions from above, from below, and from the side, it is the side actors who contribute technical as well as material resources towards the implementation of L1-based multilingual education (MLE). National side actors include academics, linguists, teacher trainers, education officials and local NGOs, while international side actors include technical consultants, INGOs, UN agencies, and donors. Actions from the side range from designing and piloting MLE programs and coordinating linguistic development to supporting teacher training and placement, curriculum design, learning materials production and institutional capacity building (Kosonen & Benson, forthcoming).

Underlying these technical inputs is an internationally recognized set of theories and concepts of bi- and multilingual education. One of the most important scholars in the field since the 1970s has been Jim Cummins, known for his research and theorizing on bi- and multilingual learning in North America and Europe. We presume that side-level actors are the carriers of such concepts across countries, contexts and cultures and the interpreters of this information, both literally (into local languages) and figuratively (in relevant ways) to make it understandable to stakeholders. How well do these concepts travel, and how are they understood in low-income multilingual contexts?

The purpose of this presentation is to examine the uptake of research-based theories and concepts in MLE, specifically the scholarship of Jim Cummins, in low- and middle-income contexts where such information would not otherwise be accessed or understood. Three sources of data were analyzed for this study. The first were self-reports from Kimmo Kosonen and myself on how we have used Cummins’s concepts in our own work in sharing linguistic inputs, multilingual approaches, curricular models, pedagogical strategies, educational arguments and research studies in the Africa, Asia/Pacific and Latin America regions. The second were responses to a short survey sent in four different languages to approximately 150 side-level actors from around the world asking about their use of Cummins’s concepts and the impact of his work on MLE in their contexts. The third source of data was an analysis of references to Cummins in key documents from key scholars working in MLE, from UNESCO and from other researchers working in international development.

This study reveals that Cummins’s work on linguistic interdependence, Common Underlying Proficiency, and BICS and CALP have been widely applied across contexts to raise awareness of the monolingual habitus and to combat assimilation to dominant languages, subtractive approaches and early-exit models. While many side actors originally discovered Cummins in their studies of second language learning, they report that his scholarship opened their eyes to the importance of the home language (L1) for initial and continuing literacy and learning. His work is widely cited in international development documents addressing the need for L1-based MLE, and it has been fully or partially translated into at least six languages. Most interestingly, side actors shared local interpretations of Cummins’s concepts that provide insight into how research-based ideas travel and how they are influential across languages, cultures and contexts.

Author

• Carolyn J Benson, MLE International