2019-10-01 / VLE PAGES

Parents as teachers’ “knowledgeable partners”

Parents are rarely considered as “knowledgeable partners” (Epstein & Hollifield, 1996), although they are key-informants for teachers and children on development and learning issues. In order to sustain children’s multilingualism,

  • teachers need to recognize linguistically diverse parents and involve them as competent and knowledgeable partners;
  • parents’ linguistic experiences and backgrounds need to be recognized and made more visible and valuable at school as resources, rather than obstacles;
  • parents need to have voice and being listened to as “experts” more than subordinated and marginalized actors as far as linguistic education is concerned;
  • meaningful dialogue on the strength and challenges of educating multilingual children is needed to support children’s multilingualism.
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