2.4
Author | Duarte, J. |
Title | Migrants‘ educational success through innovation: The case of the Hamburg bilingual schools. |
Language | English |
Date | 2011 |
Full references | Duarte, J. (2011). Migrants‘ educational success through innovation: The case of the Hamburg bilingual schools, International Review of Education 57 (5): 631-649. |
Abstract | Although Germany has experienced net in-migration for the past five decades, this fact has only recently been officially acknowledged. Furthermore, Germany is marked by a general monolingual self-concept very much attached to the idea of a nation-state with one homogeneous language. However, in large urban areas of Germany about 35 per cent of the population has a migration background, as has almost every second child enrolling in primary school. Hence the country is marked by this dichotomy between a monolingual policy discourse and a multilingual society, manifested in everyday life and, as a consequence, in educational institutions. The fact is that this political attitude towards Germany’s own migration history and migrants has led to an educational gap between students with a migration background and their monolingual peers. In 2000, a project was started in Hamburg, aiming to overcome this educational gap and involving the creation of bilingual schools for some of the largest migrant languages. Bilingual classes were thus set up for the following language combinations: German-Portuguese, German-Italian, German-Spanish and German-Turkish, and were evaluated by the University of Hamburg. This paper reports on the model used and the specific school outcomes of the students attending these classes. |
Key words | Germany, Immigration, Hamburg, Bilingual primary schools, Dual language enrichment models, Comparative evaluation, Academic language proficiency, Didactic factors. |
Other interesting information | Although set in a different context (elementary schools), the article is interesting as it shows that students attending bilingual schools enhance multicultural competencies; thus, it might be helpful to engage in teaching practices that involve both ‘’natives’’ and ‘’immigrants’’ as it creates a bridge between cultures. |
Interest for the project | 4/5 |
Contributor´s name + email | Stéphanie Barillé - stephanie@unak.is |