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ERIC Number: EJ1055759
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Apr
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0020-7187
EISSN: N/A
Promotion of Migrant Children's Epistemic Status and Authority in Early School Life
Baraldi, Claudio
International Journal of Early Childhood, v47 n1 p5-25 Apr 2015
Migrant children may display problems of participation in school interactions with adults and peers, depending on their difficulties in speaking the host country's language and understanding its culture. This condition amplifies the general view of children as incompetent in producing and acting knowledge. This paper analyses video-recorded interactions in kindergartens in Reggio Emilia (Italy), involving migrant children, teachers and Italian children. These schools are famous worldwide for their methodology, based on treating children as competent agents. I focus on the participants' actions constructing conversational sequences and the systems that these interactional sequences construct. The analysis highlights that migrant children are given recognition as competent agents, and that their status and authority is promoted in producing and acting knowledge. Recognition and promotion of migrant children's agency, status and authority are based on forms of facilitation, coordination and negotiation, enhanced by initiatives taken by teachers and Italian children. These initiatives give particular relevance to: a. migrant children's personal expressions and display of competent agency, and b. their linguistic and cultural difficulties. Initiatives combining these two aspects promote the social construction of a form of hybrid identity, both personal and cultural, which is constructed and appraised in the interaction.
Springer. 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-348-4505; e-mail: service-ny@springer.com; Web site: http://www.springerlink.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Kindergarten; Primary Education; Early Childhood Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Italy
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A