Guest Lecture: Parents’ agency in interaction with children and teachers

1st September 2022 

15:30 - 16:30 

Location: K-207, Stakkahlíð - Menntavísindasvið 

About: 

A successful encounter with a novel language is inevitably connected to such ecological conditions as creating a low-anxiety and secure atmosphere that will be conducive to target language perception and production (Schwartz, 2018; 2022). In this talk I will explore the role of language ecology and family language ideology, practice, and management in interaction with children and teachers as agents. Specifically, I will discuss both how family members enact their agency at home by the analysis of key strategies and practices of home language maintenance, and how they manage the child’s linguistic development and education out of home, by searching for a supportive sociolinguistic environment. Moreover, attention is paid to the reciprocal relationships between parents and children as agents in shaping family language policy. Further, I will address challenges in the interaction between parents’ cultural and linguistic expectations and mainstream ECEC ideologies. Drawing attention to ecology of early language education, I will close the talk with an argument, claiming that research with families and teachers is necessary to increase the quality of pedagogical support for teachers and families, to create partnership in promoting this educational context (e.g., Hickey, 2021; Ragnarsdóttir, 2022).