‘Feeling at home’: empowering young children’s learning through native language and culture courses in the canton of Zurich

Zapri, D (Dimitra)
Greek Ministry of Education, Zurich

 

Submission type

Poster only

Scheduled

Hallway, 22-07-2016, 16:00 - 17:00

Keywords

native language and culture courses, Zurich, early childhood, teaching, integration, ecological theory

Summary

 

Native language and culture courses have long been established in the Zurich canton to help young migrant and diasporic generations forge a solid cultural identity and linguistic competence, as part of their gradual integration in the host country’s socio-cultural context. Being supplementary to the canton’s formal education framework, these courses feature a multi-faceted heterogeneity and time-space limitations, which are inherent to the courses’ rudimentary curriculum and organisational structure. These features reportedly result in low or fluctuating levels of communities’ commitment to those courses, thus challenging both the courses’ vision and scope and the role of educators in them.

                This presentation proposes a constructive approach to these challenges, building on my professional experience as an early childhood educator in Greek language courses in the Zurich canton since 2017. Aiming at encouraging active participation in a multicultural learning context, this approach has purposefully deployed key ecological concepts, such as Bronfenbrenner’s ‘ecological transition’ and Gibson’s ‘affordances’, to evolve into a pedagogical strategy with three main axes: family involvement, in-class group dynamics and meaningful learning scenarios. Random feedback from pupils and parents alike has so far indicated a more self-conscious involvement in the courses and an improvement in social skills and learning attitudes.

Auteurs