Abstract
Current trends in bilingual schools of changing from bilingual sections (where only part of the students followed the bilingual programmes) into whole bilingual tiers make it necessary to reflect deeply on how administration stakeholders and teachers are approaching inclusion and differentiation in the bilingual primary classrooms. In the past, this was not an issue, as most specific educative needs (SEN) students did not follow bilingual tears as both some teachers and parents, too, thought that learning content in a different language from the mother tongue could hinder their learning process in schools. This chapter presents insights from classroom practice carried out with an important group of students belonging to an ethnic minority and in social risk. Different ideas on how inclusion and differentiation can be approached will be presented.
TopIntroduction
The aim of this chapter is to present a practical descriptive report of a real experience of CLIL work (Content and Language Integrated Learning) at Year 1 of Primary Education in a bilingual school in Northern Spain, with a group of students belonging to an ethnic minority (Romani) in social exclusion risk. The vehicular language used in class for CLIL work was English.
For many years now, there has been quite a lot of research on the results obtained by Primary students in CLIL, both regarding language and content acquisition (Nikula, 2017; Pavón, 2018; Álvarez-Cofiño, 2019; Goris et al, 2019). However, there are few studies regarding literature about research or studies regarding inclusion and attention to diversity in CLIL classrooms in Primary Education. There are some authors who claim for the need to do more research on this field and who pinpoint that the few studies about this issue deal with it in a very superficial way (Durán-Martínez et al., 2020).
Some time ago in Spain, when the majority of schools ran bilingual sections where there were practically no specific educational needs (SEN) students (as they used to attend the non-bilingual tiers), the main interest on the development of CLIL programmes was set on students’ language and content acquisition. But the fact is that lately, more and more schools with CLIL bilingual sections are changing into whole bilingual schools that must support all kinds of students, including students with SEN.
Taking as a starting point the fact that students do not have to learn the same things in the same way and at the same level, the new Spanish Education Law (Ley Orgánica que Modifica la Ley Orgánica de Educación (LOMLOE), 2020) fosters an inclusive model that enhances quality education for all children, aiming at both excellence and equity (Carter & Abawi, 2018), as an education system not based on equity will never be a quality one (Marchesi & Martín, 2014). Moreover, the main aim of inclusive education should be the search for and the achievement of the highest possible level of development for all students, regardless of their individual differences.
Recent research (Ainscow, 2020a, 2020b; Chapman & Ainscow, 2019; Chien & Huebler, 2019; Gorard, 2018) states that for an educative system to be considered equitable there are two pivotal aspects to consider:
- 1.
the presence, participation, development and achievements of students that present specific education needs
- 2.
the educative results attained by the aforementioned students.
That is why the LOMLOE fosters the creation of open learning environments where equity and social cohesion should be at the basis of all the teaching-learning processes. The perspective adopted with the term equity overcomes any static and stagnant idea of diversity, and adopts an intentional and constructive position that seeks to overcome all kinds of discrimination, thus developing a global compensation of personal, cultural, economic and social inequalities. Fostering equity in schools involves:
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helping children in their personality development, as all students’ personal characteristics are accepted and celebrated
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educative inclusion
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equity as regards students’ rights and opportunities
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universal access to education.
The above principles can only be reached by adopting organizational, curricular and methodological measures that ensure the attainment of equity goals settled both by the law and by the different schools.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Educative Inclusion: Making that all students are equally considered and addressed in class, whatever their educative condition.
Recast: Repeat in the target language what students say in their mother tongue. It is a scaffolding technique used to boost students’ confidence to communicate in class using the second language.
SEN Students: Students with specific educational needs who require some adaptations or modifications either of the regular curricula, of some activities and tasks or of some resources, which could facilitate their access to the comprehension of the concepts and content being worked in class.
Project-Based Learning (PBL): It is a holistic methodological approach based on projects, where students must do research on a specific topic, collect, select and organize information, solve problems or fulfil some tasks. PBL promotes collaborative work and fosters a cross-curricular approach where all different subjects/areas can be worked starting from a common topic.
Patriarchal Clan: Familiar cluster whose leader is the oldest man of the group.
CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning): Methodological approach that uses a language different from the mother tongue to teach content from non-linguistic subjects/areas.
Task Boxes: Set of boxes containing different resources and materials. In each box there is a task that has a beginning and an end, so students must make sure that they complete the task before closing the box. This way, there is a sense of completion on the side of struggling students.