Globalising early childhood education (GECE)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The overall interest in the present paper is equal early childhood education (ECE) in terms of educating multilingually. Instead of monoglossic bilingual education directed to some children, or monoglossic monolingual education directed to children despite language background, education for recognising and creating multilingual practices for all children is reasoned in terms of global early childhood education (GECE). The reasoning is grounded on a sociocultural understanding of learning, research on holistic multilingual education and the concept of play-responsive teaching. In the paper, a framework with principles for GECE – ECE characterised by multifaceted language ecology – is put forward. The principles concerning (i) conditions, (ii) learning contents and (iii) teaching tools are formulated to provide premises for and to be evolved through empirical research. The paper contributes to the contemporary challenge of implementing multilingual teaching approaches. Legitimising multilingual teaching in practice is considered a question for research in collaboration with teachers and professional development.