Jessica Ball, MPH, PhD. School of Child and Youth Care University of Victoria, Canada

1. Voice, Visibility, VisionHearing all children’s voices: The potential of mother-tongue based multilingual preschool to advance Education for All Jessica Ball, MPH, PhD. School of Child and Youth Care University of Victoria, Canada Global Summit on Childhood Vancouver, April 12, 2014

2. Tsleil-Waututh NationCoast Salish Peoples

3. During the years I spent kayaking along the coast of British Columbia and Southeast Alaska, I observed that the local raven populations spoke in distinct dialects. Ravens from Kwakiutl, Tsimshian, Haida, and Tlingit territory sounded different from one another, especially in their characteristics ‘tok’ and ‘tlik.’ (Dyson, 2006, 136).

4. Italian is like talking to a bird. Swedish is like the bird talking. Mark Helprin

5. Language and being English has more NOUNS than most languages. Nouns refer to concrete entities Ojibwe is 80% verbs Verbs refer to the relations among entities Hopi tribes of Central America speak of time as perpetually occurring, and therefore have no words referring to chronology. The language a child learns from their ‘first teachers’ shapes the way the child experiences the world and themselves in it.

6. Voice, Visibility, Vision • Hear all children’s voices in the languages they bring with them to early education • Increase the visibility of minoritized and marginalized children • Promote a vision for sustaining the rich repositories of cultural knowledge and languages that remain in the world today.

7. Promoting participation “The protection and promotion of mother languages are keys to global citizenship and authentic mutual understanding. Recognizing local languages enables more people to make their voices heard and take an active part in their collective fate.” Irina Bokova, UNESCO

8. Languages: Connecting hearts and minds “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” Nelson Mandela

9. What are we talking about? Mother tongue: The first language(s) acquired at home that has become the child’s natural instrument of thought and communication (UNESCO)

10. The words to say it... Mother tongue: A gendered term Home language: But also for school Heritage language: Ancestral First language (L1) Mother-tongue based (MTB) Multi-lingual education (MLE) Bilingual Education (BE) MTB-MLE or MTB-BE

11. What? Mother tongue based Multilingual education (MTB-MLE) MTB-MLE is the practice of relying primarily on learners’mother tongue, and the culturally based experiences, knowledges, and literacies that the mother tongue expresses, as a foundation for learning, with some introduction of L2 in part of the curriculum, often as a formal subject of study . “First Language First”(UNESCO, 2005)

12. What’s the problem?Language politics • Some children’s mother tongue is privileged in early education. • Other children’s mother tongue is dismissed, denied, or given only token support.

13. Research supporting children’s capacity to learn multiple languages does not inform policy in most countries, or training programs for early childhood educators.

14. Early education for assimilation • The dominant language in a society is typically presented (and advertised) to children and parents as • Normative • Desired • High status • Required for success in school

15. The manufacture of marginalization • 53 million children not enrolled in school • Many millions failing early in school • Most are Indigenous children and ethnolinguistic minority girls Languages used and taught in early education often contribute to the manufacture of minoritization of children whose language is not the privileged language.

16. Closing doors through language in education policy • To minority language children • To minority language parents • To parents who want their children to become bi-multilingual • To the hope of a vibrant, multilingual society with rich culturally-based knowledge repositories embodied in language. • Having to transition to a foreign language in formal schooling is a door closer for some, and a reason for low engagement and achievement for many.

17. Subtractive education • Non-dominant languages are becoming endangered and extinct. • By 2100 at least 50% of the world’s 7000 languages will be gone. • Children arrive at our programs with a precious resource: their home language. • Many early education systems neglect or deliberately stamp out this capacity. Some even encourage parents to use the language of instruction at home so that children can be more ‘school ready.’

18. Your way is more powerful than mine . . .

19. International Mother Language Day February 21 • Growing in significance • Bangladesh: 1950-1971 Language Martyrs • Mother Language Lovers of the World, Surrey BC • Advocating the right of ethnolinguistic minority and Indigenous children in Canada to learn their mother tongue as a funded, elective subject of study in schools in BC. – a right that Canada has been all too sluggish in honouring

20. In Canada . . . 37 % of children speak French or English at home despite neither parent having a dominant mother tongue (Stats Canada, 2011)

22. I lost my talk . . . . .

23. Colonial language policies • From 450 Indigenous languages belonging to 11 language families1 • To 60 Indigenous languages2 • By 2100, projected 3 surviving Indigenous languages: • Inuktitut, Anishnaabe and Nihayaw (Cree) • English and French declared as the two ‘founding’ languages in Canada • English and French are Languages of Instruction 1 Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages (1992) 2 Statistics Canada (2008)

24. Why does this matter? • Various frameworks, including child rights • Language matters to Millenium Development Goals • Promote gender equality and empower women • Eradicate poverty and hunger • Reduce child mortality and improve maternal health • Combat HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases • Ensure sustainable development • Foster global partnerships for development • Achieve universal primary education Sandy Barron, Why language matters for MDGs, for the Multilingual Education Working Group based at UNESCO Bangkok (2012)

25. Cultural curriculum without language? • Language and culture: • cultural sensitivity • cultural safety • culturally based curriculum • cultural traditions • cultural resource people • cultural literacy • Language is the vehicle that carries culture. • Language expresses who we are as a People and as individuals. “Once our language is gone – that’s it: No more Indians!”

26. We’re taught that our language comes from the Creator and that speaking it acknowledges our connection. We’re taught that our voices is a sacred gift and that there is a lot of power in our words. When we speak, our words go around the world forever. Sharla Peltier Anishnaabe Educator

27. Early childhood education for ‘school readiness’ • Getting children ready for schools or • Getting schools ready for children? • Many early learning assessment tools assume that a child is learning only one language and is SUPPOSED to be learning the language of instruction. • Everyone else is seen as working against a handicap. • Standardized assessment tools in the dominant language often ‘prove’ that language minority children are delayed and even have language or learning disorders. Burman, E. (20008). Deconstructing developmental psychology (2nd Ed). New York: Routledge.

28. Proof of concept • Children’s first language is the most effective language of learning. • Learning in one’s home languages improves engagement in school and learner self-efficacy • Young children can learn more than one language. • Bilingual learning does not ‘take up more space’ in a child’s brain. • Bi/multilingual learning produces cognitive benefits And metalinguistic skills that make it easier for older children to learn subsequent languages • The science is unequivocal: those who refuse to believe it are simply burying their heads in the sand. Cummins, J. (2000). Language, power and pedagogy. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

29. The ‘impossibles’ Impossibilizing arguments about why MTB-MLE won’t work. Research shows that MTB-MLE promotes rather than detracts from: • National unity and security • Learner engagement and success • Ethnolinguistic minority parents’ support for education • Dominant language parents’ support IF parents are given accurate information about benefits to their child’s innate multilingual capacity, cognitive development, and future prospects • “Local languages are perfectly capable of transmitting the most modern scientific knowledge in mathematics, physics, technology and so on.” Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director General Lo Bianco, J. (2013). Language planning and student experiences: Intention, rhetoric and implementation. Multilingual Matters.

30. Quality matters: Practitioner Readiness • Fully trained early educators including skills that support practice with linguistically diverse groups of children • Implications for providing practitioners with training and mentoring in MTB-MLE • University of Victoria: First fully-career laddered Indigenous Language Revitalization Practitioner Development Stream: Certificate, Diploma, BA, MA

31. Quality of interactions • Opportunities to interact with fully proficient speakers and writers of a language is a key ingredient • Implications for who is recruited...to work with which communities • Implications for involvement of language proficient community members

32. Quality resource materials Learning materials need to provide opportunities to interact with the language • Implications for resource development and purchasing, especially literacy materials.

33. Early is good Early childhood education in the mother tongue: • Promotes children’s positive identity as learners • Opens doors to involvement of parents and grandparents • Begins to establish literacy in the mother tongue • Reinforces positive cultural identity, which in turn promotes wellness

34. Successful examples of MTB Early Education Everywhere that children speak the dominant language and the dominant language is the language of instruction! Language revitalization efforts through immersion preschools: • Papua New Guinea • Ireland • Israel • Indonesia • India • Many First Nations in Canada

35. Language nests – inspiration from Te Kohanga Reo in Aotearoa/New Zealand

36. Continuity is critical to optimize potential • Gold standard: Continuity with the mother tongue as the primary language of instruction throughout primary school, until children can read to learn • Introduce additional languages as subjects of study until children are fully proficient (literate) in their first language. • Children can readily transition to a second (or third) language as the medium of instruction after they are fully literate in their first language (e.g., in secondary school) Cummins, J. (2000). Language, power and pedagogy. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

37. Now you’re talking!Promising practices • French immersion programs, Canada • Eskasoni First Nation, Canada • First Language First, Papua New Guinea • Punana Leo, Hawaii • Te Kohanga Reo, Aotearoa/NZ • Many others....

38. Political will Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin, Wales Nursery, infant-toddler playgroups, preschool Family choices: • Welsh-medium • English medium • Bilingual • Community commitment • Government policy support for language choices • Funding for program choices

39. Promising policies • Cambodia, the Philippines, some states in India • New national language policies based on rigorous research • Recruit and train MT teachers • Teach teachers the mother language used in communities • Develop MT textbooks and other learning materials • Develop alphabets for languages without an orthography

40. The transformational potential of multi-languages Promoting mother languages in early education can be transforming for • young learners • families • teachers • communities • even policy makers and politicians! Inspire a sustainable future rich in cultural and linguistic diversity in which the voices of ALL children and families can be heard!

41. Best wishes for success and joy in the important work that you do! Migwetch (Ojibwe) Thank you HISWKE SIAM (Sencoten) Thank you good people

42. Find out more: www.ecdip.org/reports/jball@uvic.ca UNESCO (2010). Educational equity for children from diverse backgrounds: Mother tongue-based bilingual or multilingual education in the early years. Paris: UNESCO. http://www.unesco.org/en/languages-in-education/publications/ MTB-MLE Network website: http://www.mlenetwork.org/ Book Corner:  • Benson & Kosonen (Eds). (2013) Language issues in comparative education: Inclusive teaching and learning in non-dominant languages and cultures. Sense Publishers. • Skutnabb Tangas, T. (2013). Linguistic genocide – or worldwide diversity and human rights? Routledge.