The Linguist

@Linguist_CIOL APRIL/MAY The Linguist 13 FEATURES local educational policies, ideologies and practices? How does their interpretation of macro-level policy open opportunities for bi/multilingual education, or how does it close them? To answer these questions, I analysed an official policy, tracing it from its formulation, through to its interpretation and implementation in different schools. I focused on a transnational policy: the legal framework for Portuguese language learning and teaching to school-aged children living overseas. In addition to the socio- political and historical analysis of this legal framework and its creation, my study reported on two years of ethnographic data collection. This involved participant and non-participant observations, field notes, audio recordings, photographs and the use of in-depth three- part interviews with four Portuguese teachers and their senior administrator. It was a multi-site study, following the policy around different sites. These included the mainstream schools and classrooms where the participant teachers worked, and the Portuguese Department at the Portuguese Embassy, which runs a network of 24 Portuguese teachers. The broad orientation of the first policy texts for this provision, promulgated by the Portuguese government in the 1970s, was to promote language maintenance and the intensification of connections to the homeland by the emigrant communities residing overseas. The latest policy texts, from the 2000s onwards, position the Portuguese language as part of a larger project of improving its global prestige and relevance as an international language. The policy goals are broader than ever before and, in addition to language maintenance, there is growing interest in promoting Portuguese as a foreign language, as well as a heritage language of a vibrant and peripatetic emigrant community. This has allowed for a multitude of partnerships between the Portuguese complementary provision and mainstream schools in the UK to flourish and to be tailored to different contexts and learning aspirations. The most common arrangement is the offer of after-school language and culture courses. In a handful of cases, the Portuguese teachers are invited to deliver classes inside school hours and to engage collaboratively with their mainstream counterparts. Why collaboration is key My study showed that when a mainstream school allowed Portuguese teachers to come in and work collaboratively during school hours, more language learning and teaching opportunities were created and implemented effectively. Some mainstream schools in the study found ways of inviting the Portuguese teachers to take part in school routines, such as assemblies, open days, and departmental meetings where they collaborated in planning, preparation and assessment. This made the Portuguese teacher feel like 'one of the staff' – indeed, 'a colleague'. Being a trusted participant allowed them to contribute to promoting and sustaining more than one type of multilingualism, and the impact of their collaborative pedagogical work was much deeper and more meaningful for the pupils and their families. Often important decisions about languages were viewed as a logistical problem, with the business manager as the sole decision maker of the school's language policy. The result was that the relationships and collaborative work between the complementary teachers and the mainstream teachers were more distant or absent. As more and more schools are outsourcing the management of their premises, the gap between mainstream and complementary language education widens. Working inside school hours allowed the Portuguese teachers to develop innovative pedagogical activities in collaboration with their mainstream colleagues. This could be by offering typical Portuguese language and culture courses, or by supporting Portuguese- speaking pupils in English and maths by pre- teaching them the content in Portuguese. One headteacher commented that the programme was hugely beneficial to all their pupils. Opening spaces for languages in mainstream schools, especially for less commonly taught languages, such as Portuguese in the UK, is a process that involves a series of negotiations which take place in a dynamic way across different levels and moments of social activity and interaction. These negotiations include discussing timetabling, curriculum design and other such school structures, rather than mere logistics. This is why I recommend that schools design an iterative framework of language policy engagement and use it to work collaboratively on the creation and implementation of their very own language policy. Doing this may be the start of letting all languages in through the front door. © SHUTTERSTOCK

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