'Happy Families' - a cross-phase Panjabi language and arts project

1. 'Happy Families' - a cross-phase Panjabi language and arts project Rathmore Asian Community Project, Greenwich 4th September 2010, Jennie Lee Centre (Wolverhampton) Iqbal Sanghara and Jim Anderson

2. Background • Goldsmiths, University of London project ‘Creativity in the community languages classroom: pedagogies and professional development’ funded by the Nuffield Foundation (2009-2010) • Four schools involved, two mainstream and two complementary: • Downderry School, Lewisham (Tamil) • Sarah Bonnell School, Newham (Arabic) • London Mandarin School, Hackney (Chinese) • Rathmore Asian Community Project, Greenwich (Panjabi)

3. Rathmore Asian Community Project • Panjabi complementary school set up in 1982 • Currently attended by 40-50 students aged between 6-17 • Mainly 3rd or 4th generation, range of competence in Panjabi • Aims to support children’s linguistic, cultural, social and religious development • Prepares students for GCSE, AS and A level examinations

4. Introduction and planning Task 1 • Introduction of project to students and parents (shared responsibility) • Student choice of Task 1 (composing and performing a drama) and theme (sensitive community issue: unfair treatment of young women by mother in-law when they marry and become part of husband’s family) • Development of ideas for the drama (plot, characters, scenes)

5. Scripting and rehearsals • Drafting text in Panjabi script as well as in transliterated version and in English by two ‘A’ level students • Assigning roles (3 parts played by mothers) • Rehearsing (emphasis on collaboration, e.g. older students helping younger ones)

6. In rehearsal

7. Performance to parents and community members

8. Performance to parents and community members

9. Task 2: Expansion of wedding scene from drama integrating music and dance • Two year 8 boys take responsibility for selecting music and planning dances: • Ladies’ Jago dance • Girls’ dance • Boys’ dance • Boys opt for mixture of traditional and contemporary songs

10. “I enjoyed doing this activity very much because getting to know the kids and getting to work with them.” “I have learnt how to organise other people, myself and to organise the whole performance. I have leanrt how to help the children without making them feel bad…” In rehearsal

11. Performance

12. Task 3: Bilingual story book based on drama theme • Students decide on contents and structure of comic book, work then divided up between groups. • English text translated into Panjabi by students preparing for GCSE [Slide show]

13. Key research findings • Language and literacy – communicative purpose (benefits for oracy and literacy skills), working towards performance, multiliteracy, translanguaging, language awareness. • Cognition – generating ideas, making cross-curricular links, problem solving, development of research skills (including online) • Intercultural Understanding – understanding of traditional expectations and practices within the family in Sikh culture, exploration of different cultural perspectives, making sense of culture in personal terms

14. Key research findings • Personal and social development – development of confidence and pride in identity through: • legitimising and supporting areas of students’ linguistic and cultural experience which tend to be excluded from mainstream education • encouragement of learner agency (sense of responsibility, ownership) • drawing on funds of knowledge in the home and community • collaborative ethos • community engagement – active citizenship

15. Key research findings • Pedagogy and professional development: • significant shift involved in teacher-learner roles • importance of collaborative, process oriented approach • need to provide appropriate support (scaffolding) • potential benefits of cross-curricular approaches • importance of presentation/performance to an audience, • value of involving parents /community members

16. Final thought ‘ … in the UK … the school curriculum does not fully reflect the creative achievements of all the cultural groups it serves. So many young people lack role models and learning materials with which they can readily identify. Disaffection can result. How creativity is currently defined and developed in UK education and training tends to reflect a mainly white, Western approach, rather than our diverse society. This not only puts people from minority ethnic groups at a disadvantage, it is everyone’s loss’ (Fryer, 2004: 1) (Marilyn Fryer, The Creativity Centre Educational Trust)

17. Research report and professional development resource to be mounted on Goldsmiths Centre for Language, Culture and Learning website (Multilingual Learning) http://www.gold.ac.uk/clcl/multilingual-learning/ Anderson, J. and Chung, Y-C. (2010) Community Languages, the arts and transformative pedagogy. In Race Equality Teaching, 28 (3): 16-20. http://www.gold.ac.uk/clcl/multilingual-learning/creativity/ iqbalsanghara@hotmail.com j.anderson@gold.ac.uk