The Impact of Learning Kurdish ‘Mother-Tongue’ in London on Mainstream Education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25079/ukhjss.v5n1y2021.pp73-81Keywords:
Mother-Tongue, Supplementary, Mainstream Education, Community, Cultural Studies.Abstract
This study investigates the impact of a group of Kurdish children learning their mother-tongue, in two Kurdish Saturday schools in North London, and particularly the impact on the children’s integration into mainstream schooling. There are some historical issues surrounding ethnic minority children’s education that have been labelled as problematic towards their educational achievements in the United Kingdom. The responsibility of teaching the mother-tongue to those children takes place formally in supplementary or Saturday schools in their community rather than in mainstream schools. Many researches have revealed that learning their mother tongue is beneficial for children in general. In particular, this research focuses on the impacts on Kurdish children in mainstream education, since the number of children from diverse backgrounds is increasing, including the number of children from the Kurdish community. Mixed method research has been undertaken to examine this issue, including a semi- structured questionnaire and group interview used to collect data, as this research depended on students’ as well as parents’ views in integrating their child in some state schools. The findings revealed that learning the mother-tongue is beneficial for children from diverse backgrounds and that supplementary schools play a vital role in learning the mother-tongue on children’s attitude in mainstream education.
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References
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Clucas, C. (2020). Understanding Self-Respect and Its Relationship to Self-Esteem. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 46(6), 839-855. Retrieved June 20, 2020 from http://doi:10.1007/s11673-016-9758-5
Cole, M. (Ed.). (2017). Education, equality and human rights: issues of gender, 'race', sexuality, disability and social class. Routledge. Retrieved June 12, 2020 from https://scholar.google.com/
Cole, M., & Demaine, J. (1999). Assimilating Identities: racism and educational policy in post 1945 Britain (Ian Grosvenor). Race Ethnicity and Education, 2, 157-163. Retrieved June 15, 2020 from https://doi.org/10.1080/1361332990020111
Conteh, J., Martin, P., & Robertson, L. H. (2007). Multilingual learning: stories from schools and communities in Britain. Trentham Books. Retrieved March 3, 2020 from https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/id/eprint/6615
ContinYou. (2013). Teach effectively Record Progress and achievement Choose the Right Resources, National Resource Centre for Supplementary Education. National Excellence Awarded Winner Kurdish Children and Youth Centre (KCYC). Retrieved January 20, 2020 from http://uk.ask.com/web?l=sem&ifr=1&qsrc=999&q=kurdish%20children%20%26%20youth&siteid=10000662&o=10000662&ar_uid=2E1CC776-D278-431E-AD0D-8C97FD72CFF9&click_id=2B2C0EE2-023F-4174-9624-D7CF80B62CF0
ContinYou, (2008) Changing Lives through Learning, What are Supplementary Schools. Retrieved January 20, 2020 from http://www.continyou.org.uk/what_we_do/supplementary_education/about_us/what_are_supplementary_school
Dahlberg, L., & McCaig, C. (Eds.). (2010). Practical research and evaluation: A start-to-finish guide for practitioners. Sage.
Denscombe, M. (2014). The good research guide: for small-scale social research projects. UK: McGraw-Hill Education.
Denscombe, M. (2009). Ground rules for social research: Guidelines for good practice. UK: McGraw-Hill Education.
Department for Children, Schools and Families DCSF (2010) Impact of supplementary schools on pupils' attainment: an investigation into what factors contribute to educational improvements. Retrieved March 14, 2020 from https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/DCSF-RR210
Dukhan, S., Cameron, A., & Brenner, E. (2016). Impact of mother tongue on construction of notes and first-year academic performance. South African Journal of Science, 112(11-12), 1-6.
Ealing Supplementary Schools Directory ESSD (2009) Ealing Supplementary Schools Directory. Retrieved April 5, 2020 from http://www.google.co.uk
Education in England (2020), The Swann report (1985) Education for All. Retrieved April 10, 2020 from http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/swann/swann1985.html
Evans, K., & Ferris, D. (2019). Multiple Feedback Sources: The Attitudes and Behaviors of Three Multilingual Student Writers. Research in the Teaching of English, 54(2), 131-160. Retrieved June 10, 2020 from https://search.proquest.com/openview/2bdcd8f29f095a1128f0e5522a452da5/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=41411
Gaine, C., & George, R. (1999). Gender, race, and class in schooling: a new introduction. Psychology Press.
Ganuza, N., & Hedman, C. (2019). The impact of mother tongue instruction on the development of biliteracy: Evidence from Somali–Swedish bilinguals. Applied Linguistics, 40(1), 108-131. Retrieved June 20, 2020 from https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amx010
García, O., & Lin, A. (2017). Extending understandings of bilingual and multilingual education. Bilingual and multilingual education, 1-20. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-02324-3_1-1
Georgiadis, F., & Zisimos, A. South-North & Diasporas: Mother tongue educational policies for Greek pupils in Britain and their own ‘community paedia’ through a critical overview. Apostolos Zisimos, Fokion Georgiadis 190. Retrieved July 10, 2020 from https://scholar.google.com/scholar
Gillborn, D. (2012). Race, ethnicity and education: Teaching and learning in multi-ethnic schools. UK: Routledge.
Gunter, M. M. (2010). Historical dictionary of the Kurds (Vol. 8). Scarecrow Press.
Kenner, C., Gregory, E., Ruby, M., & Al-Azami, S. (2008) Bilingual learning for second and third generation children Goldsmiths, University of London; Language, Culture and Curriculum journal 21 (2), 120-137.
Khan, S. (2006). The "Mother-Tongue" of Linguistic Minorities in Multicultural England, Early Years: An International Research Journal. Retrieved April 4, 2020 from at: http://eprints.uklo.edu.mk/3037/1/IJIBM_Vol8No3_Aug2016.pdf#page=212
Kirsch, C., & Duarte, J. (Eds.). (2020). Multilingual Approaches for Teaching and Learning: From Acknowledging to Capitalising on Multilingualism in European Mainstream Education. Routledge.
Kurdish Culture Centre KCC, (2013) Our Services. Available: http://www.kcclondon.org.uk/english/Services.php [Accessed: March 3, 2020]
Kurdish Human Rights Project, KHRP (2006) Kurdish Culture in the UK. Available: http://www.khrp.org/khrp-news/human-rights-documents/doc_download/81-kurdish-culture-in-the-uk-brief [Accessed: May 12, 2020]
Kurdish Human Rights Project KHRP (2011) what impact does UK Government Legislation and Policy have on the Kurdish Diaspora?. Available: http://www.google.co.uk [Accessed: March 20, 2020]
Kurdish Institute of Paris (2013) The Kurdish Diaspora. Available: http://www.institutkurde.org/en/kurdorama/map_of_kurdistan.php [Accessed: March 7, 2020]
Kurdistan Regional Government, the KRG website (2011) Krg UK Representation London: The Kurdish community in the UK. Available: http://uk.krg.org/pages/page.aspx?lngnr=12&smap=050000&pnr=29 [Accessed: May 9, 2020]
Matheson, D. (2008) An Introduction to the Study of Education. Routledge.
Matras, Y., & Karatsareas, P. (2020). Non-Standard and Minority Varieties as Community Languages in the UK: Towards a New Strategy for Language Maintenance. Manchester: University of Westminster. Available at http://mlm.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Non-Standard-and-Minority-Varieties-as-Community-Languages-in-the-UK-Position-Paper.pdf
Maylor, U., Glass, K., & Issa, T. (2010). Impact of supplementary schools on pupils' attainment: an investigation into what factors contribute to educational improvements Rr210. Last accessed June 8, 2020 from https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/810/1/DCSF-RR210.pdf
Minty, S., Maylor, U., Issa, T., Kuyok, K., & Ross, A. (2008). Our languages: Teachers in supplementary schools and their aspirations to teach community languages. London Metropolitan University, Institute for Policy Studies in Education.
Morales, M. P. E. (2015). Influence of culture and language sensitive physics on science attitude enhancement. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 10(4), 951-984. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-015-9669-5
O'Leary, B., McGarry, J., Ṣāliḥ, K., & Salih, K. (Eds.). (2006). The future of Kurdistan in Iraq. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Orcasitas-Vicandi, M., & Leonet, O. (2020). The study of language learning in multilingual education: students’ perceptions of their language learning experience in Basque, Spanish and English. International Journal of Multilingualism, 1-18. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2020.1822365
Parker-Rees, R. Leeson, C. Willan, J. and Savage, J. Eds. (2010) Early Childhood Studies. SAGE
Parsons, C., Godfrey, R., Annan, G., Cornwall, J., Dussart, M., Hepburn, S., & Wennerstrom, V. (2004). Minority ethnic exclusions and the race relations (amendment) Act 2000. Canterbury Christ Church University College. Available at: https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/5410/1/RR616.pdf
Phillipson, S. (2010). Parental Role in Relation to Students' Cognitive Ability Towards Academic Achievement in Hong Kong. Asia-Pacific Education Researcher (De La Salle University Manila), 19(2).
Reynolds, G. (2008). The impacts and experiences of migrant children in UK secondary schools. Sussex Centre for Migration Research Working Paper Number, 47. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2017.1286972
Saldaña, J., & Omasta, M. (2016). Qualitative research: Analyzing life. London: Sage Publications.
Smith, J. (2015) Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods. London: Sage.
Gould, M. (2007) Supplementary benefits. The Guardian Newspaper. Last accessed May 2, 2020 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2007/apr/03/schools.uk1
Tulasiewicz, W., & Adams, A. (Eds.). (2005). Teaching the mother tongue in a multilingual Europe. A&C Black.
Tulasiewicz, W. & Adams, A. (1998) Teaching the Mother Tongue in a Multilingual Europe. Continuum.
UNESCO (2007) A Human Rights-Based Approach to Education for All–A Framework for the Realization of Children’s Right to Education and Rights within Education. Retrieved May 2, 2020 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001548/154861e.pdf
United Nations (2013) Human Development report: Cultural Liberty in Today’s Diverse World. Available at: http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/265/hdr_2004_complete.pdf
Wilder, L., & Yagelski, R. P. (2018). Describing cross-disciplinary analytic moves in first-year college student writing. Research in the Teaching of English, 52(4), 382-403. Available at: https://library.ncte.org/journals/RTE/issues/v52-4/29652
Published
2021-06-30
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How to Cite
The Impact of Learning Kurdish ‘Mother-Tongue’ in London on Mainstream Education. (2021). UKH Journal of Social Sciences, 5(1), 73-81. https://doi.org/10.25079/ukhjss.v5n1y2021.pp73-81
