Syfte
The study investigates how political guidelines regarding multilingualism in Norwegian kindergartens have changed over the past thirty years. The researchers investigate how language policy guidelines are expressed in steering documents in the period from 1996 to 2017. The findings are linked to the development of the view of learning in the kindergarten field in recent decades.
Resultat
The analysis shows that there are controversies and inconsistencies in the language policies of the steering documents. The documents’ references to Norwegian and mother tongue as separate entities can be understood as a monoglossic language ideology. Increasing linguistic diversity makes the traditional idea of bilingual assistance more difficult to implement in hyper-diverse groups of children. By referring to linguistic and cultural diversity as an enrichment for the entire group of children, the researchers believe that the framework plan from 2017 facilitates a ‘language as a resource’ approach and a heteroglossic ideology with a dynamic view of language proficiency.
Design
Using a critical discourse analysis, the researchers review steering documents from three different periods (1996, 2004-2006 and 2016-2018). The framework plan for kindergartens is analysed in relation to two other steering documents (the grant scheme for pedagogical work with multilingual children, and an amendment to the Kindergarten Act that introduces language competence requirements for kindergarten employees). After analysing the documents separately, the researchers looked at the interaction between the documents during each period. Of particular interest to the analysis was whether the texts pointed in the same direction, i.e. whether they were based on similar or contradictory discourses.
Referenser
Giæver, K. & Tkachenko, E. (2020). «Mot en ny satsing på flerspråklighet – en analyse av språkpolitiske føringer i barnehagens styringsdokumenter». Nordic Studies in Education, 40(3):249–267.