Formal and informal early education of Turkish-origin children in Germany

Abstract

A lack of adequate German language skills is often discussed as a major reason for the disadvantage of children of immigrants in the German educational system. This article analyses the access to formal and informal early education of Turkish-origin children in Germany and the influence of these early education contexts on the children's German language acquisition. We use the frequency of stimulating parent–child activities as an indicator of informal education and the attendance in language instruction programmes at preschool as an indicator of formal education. The empirical results show that the frequency of parent–child activities in Turkish-origin families depends on parents’ social background and German language skills. Language instruction programmes in preschools are most frequently used by children who most likely need such programmes: children with low levels of German language skills. For the development of German language skills, parent–child activities seem to be most important.

Keywords:

• children of immigrants
• parent–child activities
• language instruction programmes
• formal and informal education
• language skills
• preschool children

Notes on contributors

Birgit Becker is associate professor of Sociology with a focus on Empirical Educational Research in the Department of Sociology, University of Frankfurt, Germany. Her research interests include education and educational inequality, socialisation and early childhood, integration of immigrants and social inequality.

Elena Boldin is a research associate in the Department of Sociology, University of Frankfurt, and at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research at the University of Mannheim. Her research interests include social and ethnic educational inequality, educational aspirations and transitions among children of immigrants.

Oliver Klein is a PhD candidate at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research at the University of Mannheim. His research interests include social and ethnic educational inequality, early skill development and socialisation in the early childhood.

Funding

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation in the Project ‘Preschool Education and Educational Careers among Migrant Children’.

Notes

1. To allow for the comparisons of coefficients in nested logistic regressions we use the decomposition method developed by Karlson, Holm and Breen (KHB method) (Karlson, Holm, & Breen, 2012).