ERIC Number: EJ847279
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-May
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1175-8708
EISSN: N/A
Re-Thinking Pedagogy for Middle School Students with Little, No or Severely Interrupted Schooling
Dooley, Karen
English Teaching: Practice and Critique, v8 n1 p5-19 May 2009
The arrival of substantial cohorts of English language learners from Africa with little, no or severely interrupted schooling is requiring new pedagogic responses from teachers in Australia and other Western countries of refugee re-settlement. If the students are to have optimal educational and life chances, it is crucial for them to acquire resources for conceptually deep and critical literacy tasks while still learning basic reading and writing skills. This requires teachers to extend their pedagogic repertoires: subject area teachers must teach language and literacy alongside content; high school teachers must teach what has been thought of as primary school curriculum. The aim of this article is to describe some teacher responses to these challenges. Data are drawn from a study involving an intensive language school and three high schools, and also from the author's experience as a homework tutor for refugees. Stand-alone basic skills programs are described, as are modifications of long-established ESL programs. It is also argued that teachers need to find ways of linking with the conceptual knowledge of students who arrive with content area backgrounds different from others in their class. Everyday life experiences prior to, and after re-settlement in the West, are rich with potential in this regard.
Descriptors: Middle School Students, Educationally Disadvantaged, Refugees, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Basic Skills, Interviews, Student Needs, Secondary School Teachers, Teaching Methods, Foreign Countries
Wilf Malcolm Institute for Educational Research, University of Waikato. PB 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand. Tel: +64-7-858-5171; Fax: +64-7-838-4712; e-mail: wmier@waikato.ac.nz; Web site: http://education.waikato.ac.nz/research/journal/index.php?id=1
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: High Schools; Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Africa; Australia; Burundi; Eritrea; Rwanda; Sudan
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A