“It is not bilingualism. There is no communication”: Examining Greek teachers’ views towards refugee children’s bilingualism: A case study
Published:
Dec 13, 2018
Keywords:
teachers’ views refugee children teaching and methodological approaches
Abstract
Due to the massive influx of refugees to Greece in the last few years, educators are faced with new educational challenges. The present paper reports on a study of educators’ views and practices with regard to the language development of refugee children. While acknowledging the benefits of bilingualism in general, or supporting the families’ right to speak their own language at home, teachers still express concern that such practices may hinder the acquisition of the majority language and often ban the ‘other’ languages from school (Chatzidaki & Maligkoudi, 2017; Gkaintartzi, Kiliari, & Tsokalidou, 2015; Young, 2014). Our study focuses on primary teachers’ views and practices as reported in interviews conducted in a school of central Macedonia in Greece during the time period January-March 2017. The school in question had six refugee students from Syria. The findings presented and discussed here relate to the teachers’ views towards refugee students and their bilingualism as well as to their reported practices in the classroom with regard to their students’ multilingual background.
Article Details
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Maligkoudi, C., Tolakidou, P., & Chiona, S. (2018). “It is not bilingualism. There is no communication”: Examining Greek teachers’ views towards refugee children’s bilingualism: A case study. Dialogoi! Theory and Praxis in Education, 4, 95–107. https://doi.org/10.12681/dial.15521
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- Vol. 4 (2018)
- Section
- New researchers
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