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Reconceptualizing Connections between Language, Literacy and Learning pp 127–143Cite as

An Odd Couple? Literacy and Multilingualism in Day Care Centers

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Part of the book series: Educational Linguistics ((EDUL,volume 39))

Abstract

In order to understand literacy and language in education, it is no longer enough to direct research attention to schools and universities. In the Nordic countries, day care centers have become important arenas for numerous political initiatives intending to enhance children´s language and literacy learning. The poor results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have drawn much attention to literacy and language in day care centers and resulted in the development of a considerable number of interventions intended to improve children’s literacy and language skills. In this chapter changes in categorizations in Danish day care centers are analyzed focusing on the interplay between language and literacy and multilingual learners. The analysis reveals that the space for multilingualism is considerably narrowed or even deleted when the concept of language is moving closer to a PISA-related concept of literacy, and that standardized, and age-appropriate measurements of language and literacy appear as a monolingual construct reflecting theoretical assumptions related to the “factory-like nature of mass schooling” (Anderson-Lewitt, Behind schedule: batch-produced children in French and US classrooms. In: Levinson BH et al (ed) The cultural production of the educated person. Suny Press, New York, 1996). The implications of this development for multilingual children´s language learning in day care centers and for education of migrant children in general are discussed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In this chapter, the concept day care center is used as an umbrella term for institutions for children between half a year and 5–6 years. In a Danish context more than 90% of all children attend day care centers.

  2. 2.

    The producers of the assessment indicate that the selection criteria represent a ministerial wish (Bleses et al. 2008).

  3. 3.

    According to the American “Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing”, a test is biased if it is used in relation to a group for which it has not been designed or normed (Caldas 2013, p. 218).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Danish School of Education (DPU), Aarhus University, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Lars Holm

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  1. Lars Holm
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Correspondence to Lars Holm .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education and Communication, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden

    Sangeeta Bagga-Gupta

  2. Department of Linguistics & Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo, Blindem, Oslo, Norway

    Anne Golden

  3. Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Lars Holm

  4. Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Helle Pia Laursen

  5. Department of Language and Communication, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Anne Pitkänen-Huhta

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Holm, L. (2019). An Odd Couple? Literacy and Multilingualism in Day Care Centers. In: Bagga-Gupta, S., Golden, A., Holm, L., Laursen, H., Pitkänen-Huhta, A. (eds) Reconceptualizing Connections between Language, Literacy and Learning. Educational Linguistics, vol 39. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26994-4_7

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