Teachers and Polish children: capturing changes in the linguistic field. Issue 1 (2nd January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Flynn, Naomi
• Is Part Of: British journal of sociology of education. Volume 40:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 65
• Page End: 82
• Publication Date: 2019-01-02
• Subjects: English as an additional language (EAL) -- Bourdieu -- teachers' pedagogy -- Polish children -- migration; Educational sociology -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; 306.43
• DOI: 10.1080/01425692.2018.1481366
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0142-5692

Abstract

Abstract: This article presents original insights into the English learning experiences of Polish children and contributes a longitudinal perspective on teachers' relationships with them. Data from interviews conducted in 2016 with primary school teachers, Polish children and their parents are compared with outcomes from an earlier study ending in 2009, in order to examine whether teachers' practice for their Polish children has persisted or changed. Previously, findings suggested that teachers in England are constrained by a monolingually-oriented curriculum and that they identify Polish children as a 'model minority'. In the current study, interviews with teachers, parents and children were used to develop and question these findings. Using Bourdieuian notions of linguistic field, habitus and capital, data analysis illuminates: the changing responses of teachers to migration; the ways in which teachers' pedagogy has adapted for children who have English as an additional language; and the fluid nature of children's linguistic identities.