The Knowledge Base of Teaching in a Linguistically Diverse Public Primary School

Abstract

The aim of this research was to define the knowledge base of teaching in a linguistically diverse public primary school in Northwest London, England to provide an insight into what is perceived by teachers as good multilingual classroom practice at the primary level. By using Liu, Fisher, Forbes, and Evan’s (2017) study on «The knowledge base of teaching in linguistically diverse contexts: 10 grounded principles of multilingual classroom pedagogy for eal» as a research framework, a mix of qualitative data analysis (data-driven, based on grounded theory, and con cept-driven) was followed to investigate the professional base for English as an additional language (eal) at the participant primary school. The results show that the 10 core principles that constitute the teachers’ knowledge base of teaching in the linguistically diverse contexts of the two secondary schools researched by Liu et al (2017) are visible and categorizable in the participant teachers’ knowledge and practice working at the primary school. In addition, 6 new categories were discovered. These represent excellent practice by the school’s staff and are presented as principles that could serve as a model for other basic education institutions to take into consideration or to replicate. The study has direct implications on effective teaching practices in the multilingual classroom, teacher identity, parent’s empowerment within the school system, teaching training, continuous professional development pro grammes, and educational policy in multilingual countries.