Agency requires the ability to produce a change in the world by acts which are consciously undertaken by subjects (Kogler, 2012). Recently, Menken and García (2010) have highlighted the powerful role of teachers as active language policy makers in their classrooms. Schwartz and Palviainen (2016) elaborated a concept of bilingual education partnership which focuses on how teachers and parents negotiate and work as agents for the children in order to foster their bilingual development and education. As such, in my talk I will address current data on how teachers bridge between language educational policies, classroom language practices, and parents’ family language management and children’s agency.
Mila Schwartz is Associate Professor at the Oranim Academic College of Education, Tivon (Israel). Her current research interests include studying language policy and models of early bilingual education; socio-cultural, language, and cognitive development of early sequential bilinguals; family language policy; and bilingual teachers’ pedagogical development. In this research Mila Schwartz’ focus is on two unique populations: second generation Russian-Hebrew speaking immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Arabic and Hebrew-speaking children enrolled in bilingual bi-national education in Israel. Forthcoming: Mila Schwartz (Ed.) (2018): Twenty-first century bilingual preschool education: Child’s, teachers’, and parents’ agencies in interaction. Dordrecht: Springer
Contact : peter.voss@uni.lu | http://dtucalidie.uni.lu