Pioneering in the comparison of standard language teaching in Europe, the International Mother tongue Education Network (IMEN) in the last twenty-five years stimulated experts from more than fifteen European countries to participate in a range of research projects in this field of qualitative educational analyses. The volume "Research on mother tongue education in a comparative international perspective - Theoretical and methodological issues" documents theoretical principals and methodological developments that during the last decades shaped IMEN research and may enlarge the fundaments of comparative qualitative research in language education in a seminal way. The topics of this volume include: - IMEN's aims, points of departure, history and methodology; - research on the professional practical knowledge of MTE-teachers; - innovation, key incident analysis and international triangulation; - positioning in theory and practice. Also included: the IMEN bibliography 1984-2004 which supplies a complete picture of IMEN research activities from the beginning.

The theme of this book cuts across disciplines. Contributors to this volume are specialized in education and especially classroom research as well as in linguistics, most being transdisciplinary themselves. Around 65 sub-Saharan languages figure in this volume as research objects: as means of instruction, in connection with teacher training, language policy, lexical development, harmonization efforts, information technology, oral literature and deaf communities. The co-existence of these African languages with English, French and Arabic is examined as well. This wide range of languages and subjects builds on recent field work, giving new empirical evidence from 17 countries: Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as to transnational matters like the harmonization of African transborder languages. As the Editors – a Norwegian social scientist and a Norwegian linguist, both working in Africa – have wanted to give room for African voices, the majority of contributions to this volume come from Africa.

This book brings together a range of scholars from 10 different countries to address the contemporary state of play in national standard language education – i.e. the L1 subjects. It seeks to understand the field from within a comparative-historical and transnational frame. Four thematic threads are woven through the volume: educationalisation; globalisation; pluriculturalism; and technologization. The chapters range over various aspects of L1 as a school subject: literature, language and literacy; reading and writing; media and digital technology; the dialogue between curriculum inquiry and Didaktik studies; the continuing relevance of Bildung; the significance of history and nation; and new challenges of culture and environment in the face of climate change. The book concludes with a reflection on the prospects for L1 education today and tomorrow, in a now thoroughly globalised context and, accordingly, deeply implicated in a necessary new project of nation re-building.

This volume compiles a unique yet complementary collection of chapters that take a strategic comparative perspective on education systems, regions of the world, and/or ethnolinguistic communities with a focus on non-dominant languages and cultures in education. Comparison and contrast within each article and across articles illustrates the potential for using home languages – which in many cases are in non-dominant positions relative to other languages in society – in inclusive multilingual and multicultural forms of education. The 22 authors demonstrate how bringing non-dominant languages and cultures into schooling has liberatory, transformative potential for learners from ethnolinguistic communities that have previously been excluded from access to quality basic education. The authors deal not only with educational development in specific low-income and emerging countries in Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, the Philippines Thailand and Vietnam), Latin America (Guatemala and Mexico) and Africa (Mozambique, Senegal and Tanzania), but also with efforts to reach marginalized ethnolinguistic communities in high-income North American countries (Canada and the USA). In the introductory chapter the editors highlight common and cross-cutting themes and propose appropriate, sometimes new terminology for the discussion of linguistic and cultural issues in education, particularly in low-income multilingual countries. Likewise, using examples from additional countries and contexts, the three final chapters address cross-cutting issues related to language and culture in educational research and development. The authors and editors of this volume share a common commitment to comparativism in their methods and analysis, and aim to contribute to more inclusive and relevant education for all. “A richly textured collection which offers a powerful vision of the possible, now and in the future.” Alamin Mazrui, Rutgers State University of New Jersey, USA “This book takes the local perspective of non-dominant language communities in arguing for a multilingual habitus in educational development. Benson and Kosonen masterfully extend theories and clarify terminology that is inclusive of the non-dominant contexts described here.” Ofelia García, City University of New York, USA

Challenges to practicum! The authors have explored professional practice knowledge and the ways practicum is dealt with in teacher education. They report from Research and Development projects based on collaboration between universities and school communities. Empirical studies have been carried out in Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Communication about practicum is reframed. Preservice teachers’ experiences during practicum serve as a point of departure for improving teacher education. The book is a must for everyone committed to quality in initial teacher education, including preservice teachers, school leaders and local supervisors. “This volume explores new and different ways to think about the construction and evaluation of the practicum that students encounter. Contributors ask the reader to consider the assumptions that the practicum is based on, question these assumptions and strive to find new and better ways to contribute to the autonomy, professionalism, and moral development of emerging teachers. The focus is clearly on creating conversational and learning spaces for students that encourage them to think explicitly about theory and its application to practice and vice versa. The book not only challenges our thinking but also provides rich examples of research and evaluation in this area, which help us to hear the voices of those involved in the practicum in fresh and insightful ways.” Reflections by Roslin Brennan Kemmis, Head of the School of Education, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia

Literary Praxis: A Conversational Inquiry into the Teaching of Literature explores the teaching of literature in secondary schools. It does this from the vantage point of educators in a range of settings around the world, as they engage in dialogue with one another in order to capture the nature of their professional commitment, the knowledge they bring to their work as literature teachers, and the challenges of their professional practice as they interact with their students. The core of the book comprises accounts of their day-to-day teaching by Dutch and Australian educators. These teachers do more than capture the immediacy of the here-and-now of their classrooms; they attempt to understand those classrooms relationally, exploring the ways in which their professional practice is mediated by government policies, national literary traditions and existing traditions of curriculum and pedagogy. They thereby enact a form of literary ‘praxis’ that grapples with major ideological issues, most notably the impact of standards-based reforms on their work. Educators from other countries then comment on the cases written by the Dutch and Australian teachers, thus taking the concept of ‘praxis’ to a new level, as part of a comparative inquiry that acknowledges the richly specific character of the cases and resists viewing teaching around the world as though it lends itself unproblematically to the same standards of measurement (as in the fetish made of PISA). They step back from a judgmental stance, and try to understand what it means to teach literature in other educational settings than their own. The essays in this collection show the complexities of literature teaching as a form of professional praxis, exploring the intensely reflexive learning in which teachers engage, as they induct their students into reading literary texts, and reflect on the socio-cultural contexts of their work.

This second volume of Language Issues in Comparative Education, following the tradition of the first, introduces the state of the field and calls attention to innovations described throughout. The chapters examine language-in-education policy change, describe implementational activities, and present strategic frameworks for research and advocacy.