M. (2018). Two languages in the air : a cross-cultural comparison of preschool teachers' reflections on their flexible bilingual practices. In M. Schwartz, & Å. Palviainen (Eds.), 21st Century Pre-school Bilingual Education. Routledge.

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Bilingual preschool education is under researched compared with bilingual school education. There is also a lack of research on bilingual preschool teachers' agency and how they negotiate between two languages in the classroom. We examined the language practices of five bilingual preschool teachers working within three different socio-linguistic settings, in Finland (Finnish-Swedish and Russian-Finnish contexts), and Israel (an Arabic-Hebrew context) and interviewed the teachers about their use of languages in the classroom. We found that in each context the teachers reported modifications to an initial bilingual education model over time: from a strict separation of languages, to flexible bilingual practices. A thematic analysis of the contents of the teacher reflections as they emerged through interviews revealed five shared categories:(a) the flexible use of two languages; (b) responsible code-switching; (c) contextual and linguistic supports; (d) adjustments for individual children; and (e) role-modelling.Despite the different settings and sociolinguistic conditions, the similarities in teachers' practices and the rationale they gave for applying flexible bilingual practices were significant. The shared practices across contexts may have important implications for bilingual education.Keywords: bilingual preschool education; flexible bilingual practices; teacher agency; early childhood bilingualism; language attitudes; code-switching IntroductionThe aim of this study was to compare five teachers' reflections on their own language practices and the challenges they faced in implementing bilingual language education within three contexts of preschool education in Finland (Finnish-Swedish and RussianFinnish contexts), and Israel (an Arabic-Hebrew context). Ricento and Hornberger (1996) as well as Menken and García (2010) place teachers at the very heart of language policy-making. However, little research attention has been paid to providing bilingual teachers with any deeper understanding of their own agency and their critical role in negotiating, constructing and reconstructing classroom language practices. This is especially true for the context of preschool education and young children's essential developmental and social needs.As Heller (2007) has pointed out, language practices are inseparable from beliefs about languages and attitudes towards them in the surrounding society. For this reason we also considered it important to examine how the teachers' reflections were embedded in the specific educational and socio-political context in which they expressed them, and which possibly had an impact on their language practices. The comparative contexts chosen for this study, Finland and Israel, are both bilingual countries, where Finnish and Swedish, and Hebrew and Arabic, respectively, are official languages. However, for socio-political and historical reasons, the minority languages Swedish and Arabic are differently presented in the linguistic landscape of these countries and also differ considerably in terms ...

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This chapter discusses early immersion in a minority language in two bilingual countries, Canada and Finland. In Canada, immersion in the minority language, French, has been implemented since the mid-1960s and Finland introduced immersion in Swedish in the mid-1980s. As the core features of immersion education evolve in tandem with second language education theorizing (particularly as it relates to the interdependence and hybridity between and within languages), so too does the need to revisit the relevance of these core features across different contexts. In this vein, this chapter compares how changing socio-political realities in the two contexts have influenced program development in relation to three emergent areas: learner diversity, learning exceptionalities, and teacher training. It further highlights critical points of convergence and divergence in program development in the two contexts, showing that Finland and Canada have contributed to the field of early language education with complementary research findings related to a common guiding principle in both contexts -immersion for all. The two contexts, thus, have much to learn from one another in order to reach collective gains. The chapter ends with a call for ethnographic research to decipher how relevant policy statements are put into practice in early years classrooms, as well as continued empirical attention to the evolving reconceptualization of the prototypical immersion learner and teacher. Such consideration will work to optimize the universal access to immersion that is desired in Canada, Finland and other minority language immersion contexts.