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Linguistic and Cultural Innovation in Schools, by Jane Spiro and Eowyn Crisfield
By Jane Spiro and Eowyn Crisfield London: Palgrave Macmillan (2018) Reviewed by Susan Stewart
There is no shortage of books providing strategies and tips for working with multilingual students. Linguistic and Cultural Innovation in Schools offers us instead an opportunity to reflect on our practice as (international school) educators by taking a larger view of our schools, and by considering the particular geographical and linguistic context, as well as our unique cohort of students who all bring with them a plethora of languages and experiences. The book is principally constructed around five case studies, undertaken in schools based in Hawaii, Kenya, Singapore, the UK and the Netherlands.
The first chapter provides the reader with the background to the research process, commenting on Spiro and Crisfield’s roles as both ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ in the schools. Five questions guide the qualitative data collection; the school context, the person/event that brought about change, the process of change, the impact of the change, and what still needs to be done. The latter part of the first chapter also outlines various categorisations of bilingual education, and the theories that underpin much of the work in bilingual education.
Spiro’s account of schools in Maui, Hawaii, touches on the effect of colonisation on the linguistic and cultural diversity of the island. With a predominantly white student population and a western pedagogical model (Steiner/ Waldorf), the school set about actively teaching both the local language and traditional hula dance. Spiro talks of the challenges of finding local teachers who could connect and engage with the ‘school culture’, and could help the students connect to their host/home country and give them ‘a sense of place’. This chapter ends with some suggestions of how to create a bond between students and their host country, including growing food, observing wildlife and the urban landscape.
The Aga Khan Academy (AKA) in Mombasa (Kenya) set out to create a bilingual programme in English and Kiswahili, supporting both local/national official languages. The AKA has undergone numerous changes in language provision models, from Kiswahili being taught as a discrete subject, to a 50%-50% dual language programme, to one which includes the practice of translanguaging. Other challenges included the lack of teaching resources fit for the purpose of teaching the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme, language status issues, and a lack of representation of Kiswahili in the linguistic landscape of the school. Crisfield also notes the importance of working with the parent body when developing bilingual models.
In setting the scene for the case study of the German European School, Singapore (GESS), Crisfield notes the lack of easily available statistics on the languages within international schools and the Eurocentric offerings of languages. GESS recognised the need to support the home languages of all of their students, and a variety of initiatives were developed to support as many languages as possible. Crisfield (2018) talks of the challenges which include ‘time constraints, structural constraints, and pedagogy’. The chapter ends with brief profiles of NIST International School (Bangkok) and The International School of The Hague, to highlight other ways of supporting home languages.
The Europa School UK (ESUK), originally a European funded school, has been a non-selective British state school since 2017. ESUK teaches through the medium of English and a choice of French, German or Spanish, and is still accredited as a Type II European School. This means that ESUK is unique within the UK schooling system, where schools that offer dual language tuition are typically feepaying. Challenges include the recruitment of qualified staff, as well as enabling cooperation and co-planning between the different language streams. The impact on the local community has been positive, despite initial reservations. ESUK hopes to continue to impact the local community by becoming a language hub for others to engage with as well.
Crisfield highlights the tendency for English to be given an elevated status within the international schooling sector, by showcasing how the Early Years campus at The British School of Amsterdam made a conscious decision to move from a monolingual mindset to one which embraces the linguistic diversity in their school. Crisfield gives context to the loose label of ‘British International School’, the paucity of guidance in UK documentation on working with students acquiring English, and a mindset that prioritises English. The school’s EAL (English as an Additional Language) teacher attended the ECIS ESL (English as a Second Language) and Mother Tongue (now MLIE: Multilingual Learning in International Education) conference in 2015, and then sought out further professional development. Support from leadership was a key element in change in this school, as well as bringing in outside expertise. The final chapter of the book, entitled ‘The Path Less Travelled’, presents insights aimed at leaders, teachers and researchers, as well as concluding remarks from both authors.
Linguistic and Cultural Innovation in Schools is an academically sound piece of work which is reader-friendly, and of interest to a wide audience. It can be read from cover to cover, but each chapter is also readable on a stand-alone basis. This would be an excellent resource for anyone looking to bring about change in their own particular school setting, as well as for those formulating a written school language policy. The book challenges the reader to recognise issues such as the relative statuses of languages, including the host country language, and the realisation that a school language model cannot be transposed from one setting to another. We are reminded to consider our host country ‘local’ students, and how schools, both international and ‘local’, might learn from one another. Spiro and Crisfield do not intend for the reader to draw generalisations or to find common threads across the very diverse case studies, but rather hope that readers will be encouraged to reflect upon their own unique school settings, inspired by the innovations undertaken in the highlighted schools.
Susan Stewart is Multilingualism Lead at the International School of London, and Chair of the ECIS MLIE (Multilingual Learning in International Education) Special Interest Group.
Email: sstewart@isllondon.org
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