Facing bilingual education: kindergarten teachers’ attitudes, strategies and challenges

Abstract

This article examines how majority-language teachers coping with additive education view their roles in a bilingual framework, how they perceive issues of culture and language in young bilingual children, and how they understand the term ‘bilingual education’ in an L2 non-additive context. The study has been conducted in the context of pre-school bilingual education of second generation Russian-Hebrew speaking immigrants from the former Soviet Union in Israel. Using an ethnographic approach comprising observation, interviews and life histories, a set of behaviours and beliefs has been revealed, enabling us to compare approaches in two bilingual – Russian-Hebrew – kindergartens. This is discussed at both the micro- (teachers’ reports) and the macro- (Israeli language and educational policies) level.

Keywords:

• bilingual education
• immigrant culture
• language awareness and strategies
• majority-language teachers
• minority-language maintenance

Notes

1. Arabic-Hebrew bilingual kindergartens are different from Russian-Hebrew kindergartens. They are established for socio-political reasons and are settings for children, parents and teachers from both populations.

2. 20% of the population of Israel is Arabic L1 speakers.

3. All names of teachers and kindergartens have been changed.