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Professional Development of Heritage Language Instructors: Profiles, Needs, and Course Evaluation

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Handbook of Research and Practice in Heritage Language Education

Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE))

Abstract

This study examines the professional development needs of heritage language (HL) teachers as part of a community-based investigation about the status of Greek language education in Canada. A series of community initiatives aimed at assessing and improving the level of teaching and learning of Modern Greek has included (a) the profile of HL teachers who currently work at the elementary and secondary levels and (b) the implementation of a pilot professional development course for noncertified instructors. Using data collected through targeted questionnaires at different times, this chapter sheds light on the conditions faced by HL practitioners and reveals that both teachers and administrators understand the need to facilitate the teaching of HL programs through carefully designed professional development courses. In order to address the main challenges of HL education and to support different categories of instructors, we claim that such courses require a focus not only on language learning principles but also on promoting community collaboration and on improving the pedagogical conditions for HL classes, most of which are held on the edges of mainstream education.

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Acknowledgment

This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CERES-Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Themistoklis Aravossitas

  2. Department of Primary Education, University of the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece

    Marianthi Oikonomakou

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  1. Themistoklis Aravossitas
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  2. Marianthi Oikonomakou
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Correspondence to Themistoklis Aravossitas or Marianthi Oikonomakou .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. OISE/University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Peter Pericles Trifonas

  2. CERES/University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Themistoklis Aravossitas

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Aravossitas, T., Oikonomakou, M. (2018). Professional Development of Heritage Language Instructors: Profiles, Needs, and Course Evaluation. In: Trifonas, P., Aravossitas, T. (eds) Handbook of Research and Practice in Heritage Language Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44694-3_2

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