Building and sustaining a searchable, open-source database on l1-based multilingual education research

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

International research on language issues in education has burgeoned in recent years, due to a combination of factors including growing recognition of linguistic diversity, critiques of using instructional languages that are foreign to learners, and emergence of a range of bi- and multilingual models that use learners’ own languages for initial and continuing literacy and learning. In the field of educational development, first language-based multilingual education (hereafter referred to as L1-based MLE) is seen as an important way to address issues in educational access, quality and equity, as seen for example in the discourse of the UNESCO Global Monitoring Reports (Benson & Wong 2015). Despite the lack of explicit mention of language in the Sustainable Development Goals, some have argued (e.g. Benson 2016; Kosonen 2017) that for education to be sustainable it must recognize and promote learners’ strongest languages.

Other scholars of L1-based MLE appear to agree. In the past decade, policy and practice in MLE has become the focus of a great deal of research. We believe that the time is ripe to engage in stocktaking regarding not only policies and practices but also the approaches taken to researching and documenting MLE worldwide.

The purpose of this panel is to document the efforts of our cross-institutional research team since 2017 to generate a multilingual database of publications on MLE that will be sustainably open-source and that can be drawn upon for a wide range of research projects. We will report on the preliminary results of our meta-study of international publications focused on MLE since 2007. Our aim in creating this database is to offer scholars open access to relevant articles, books and other relevant publications that deal with MLE policy and practice in specific contexts, not only in English but also in French, Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin. In providing preliminary annotations and coding so that the literature can be searched for specific themes, countries, research methods used and other features, we aim to create a database of international importance in facilitating access to relevant literature on the part of scholars, policymakers and practitioners.

As our first presentation on this project, this panel aims to describe how we have designed the database and to offer preliminary analyses based on our initial sorting of the publications under six categories: (1) Studies/evaluations of models in MLE; (2) Studies/evaluations of school-based MLE; (3) Studies of MLE policy; (4) Studies of MLE learner assessment; (5) Reviews/critiques of language policy in specific countries; and (6) Meta-analyses or syntheses of research in MLE. As we have annotated and coded the publications by category, we have seen the potential for future analyses to focus on, for example, the different models of MLE as represented in category 1 studies; the research methods and/or instruments used in studies in categories 2 through 4, and the overall state of the MLE research-based discourse represented in categories 5 and 6. The papers presented here represent an effort to begin synthesizing the aims and findings of each category of publication and coming to some conclusions about trends in the field as well as where gaps in the literature may be seen.

After an introduction by the project leaders of our team members and our goals, the first paper will describe the methodology we have used to establish the preliminary database. The other three papers discuss our findings so far with regard to the categories, including statistical information that indicates trends in models, methods, and discourses and some common characteristics of publications in each category, suggesting where the richest resources lie and what may be gained by mining this database. The project leaders conclude by summarizing the state of the present database, including the organization of publications by language, and by listing our ideas for making the database sustainable as an open source of MLE research. Finally, the discussant will comment, after which we hope to get feedback from the audience about the usefulness and sustainability of the database.

Sub Unit

• SIG: Language Issues

Individual Presentations

• Methodology used to create the MLE database enabling systematic review of multilingual education studies - Lajiadou Lajiadou, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Critical review of instruments of multilingual learner assessment - Erina Iwasaki, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Models of L1-based MLE: Evidence from a decade of research - Kevin M. Wong, New York University

• Language policy reviews and critiques - Carolyn J. (Carol) Benson, Teachers College, Columbia University

Discussant

• Kimmo Kosonen, SIL International