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1. Introduction
Our project was born of the question: What do children from ethnic minority families make of Scotland and Scottish culture and identity, as reflected in the texts they encounter inside and outside school? A second question followed from that: How do they make sense of these texts and relate them (if they do) to their own experiences, to their countries of origin and to their home culture?
These children have to deal with a nation within a nation. They not only need to understand what it means to be British, but also to comprehend the subtle and sometimes not so subtle differences between being Scottish and being English or being British. In addition, they must understand how their own culture is placed within this multi-faceted situation. Immigrants must learn to read and write Standard English in the classroom, but they also have to learn to understand a different accent and lexis in the playground, on the street and in the media. They may also need to learn to read different spellings at different times of the year, for example in school celebrations of such cultural texts as the Scots language poetry of the national poet, Robert Burns, where 'moose' or 'tak', for instance, replace 'mouse' and 'take'.
Throughout the educational process, alternative identities that result from alternative literacies may be marginalized or even attacked. In Scotland, for instance, there is already perceptible differences between the Standard English of most school text books and the Standard Scottish English used by many of their teachers, which varies in accent but also in aspects of grammar and lexis (cf. the varying forms of Australian, American or South Asian Englishes), and both of these varieties differ again from the more strongly dialectal Scots language (variously termed Broad Scots, Lallans [Lowlands] or Doric) that is spoken in informal contexts by most of the pupils born to ordinary Scottish parents. This informality, and its use by school children as a badge of group identity, to some extent 'against' the adults who would control and mould them through formal education, explains why it is so easily characterised as 'slang', which has always been used as a mark of group cohesion (cf. Cockney slang or forces slang), compared with the mainly geographical parameters of dialect. For historical reasons connected with the Union of the Crowns and Parliaments of Scotland and England in the 17th and 18th centuries, Scots language has become associated with working class life and values, and to that extent it is not particularly valued within the Standard English norms of literacy in schools. Yet immigrant children will encounter it and begin to understand and to some extent use it in games, group work and social conversations.
This complex linguistic-cultural Scottish scene must also include the presence of a different language, Gaelic, possessing great cultural significance but a limited number of actual speakers, with about 58000 of these recorded in the 2001 census. Also relevant are the diverse ways in which aspects of accent or expression have become intrinsic to the identity of particular social groups, whether through politics, religion, regional location or culture. In the case of Scotland, then, language and identity are interconnected, with words and sounds often carrying political, economic and social resonances for Scottish citizens. 'New Scots' therefore have to learn language codes beyond the basics if they are to begin to belong in their new country.
Books and stories will be part of immigrant pupils' first encounters with language, and these will contain textual and visual images of life in Britain and, in some of the books, of life in Scotland. It is worth remembering that many children from migrant or asylum-seeking families have been 'dispersed' to Scotland from the South-East of England to council housing schemes and high-rise flats in Glasgow. Having learned perhaps a very basic language competence in the South, they now encounter the significantly different Glaswegian accent and dialect, itself a migrant mixture of Lowland Scots, Scottish and Irish Gaelic, and Irish-English. They will probably also encounter views of a different Scottish culture beyond the city boundaries, such as rural or island life, images of Highland cattle, kilts, bagpipes, thistles, and so forth.
In this context, our research aims were as follows:
- To analyse the reactions and responses of children from ethnic minority and indigenous Scottish communities to a range of Scottish texts.
- To explore how these children deal with the multiple literacies that are part of their transition between cultures.
- To find out how children's identities can be developed or reinforced by books set in the culture in which they now live.
This led us to ask further questions:
- Are there particular issues of Scots language and usage in Scottish texts that impact upon new learners?
- To what extent do children interpret their new culture in either a positive or a negative light?
- Do particular characters and incidents in texts, or humour and morals, relate in any way to their own cultures and if so, how?
- How do children who consider themselves as 'Scottish' respond to the portrayal of their own culture in such texts?
- What barriers do the language and pictures raise or break down?
- What does it mean to be bi-cultural in a country like Scotland where national identity is itself in a process of change and self-definition?
We decided to read a sample of Scottish children's texts (featuring Scottish settings, characters, language or themes) with groups of primary school pupils from several different backgrounds: recent immigrant and asylum-seeking children, settled children from originally migrant families who had been in Scotland for more than a year, and 'native Scots'. We chose pupils at the Primary 6 stage because they would have the maturity to reflect with us on issues of language, culture and identity at home and at school, through the texts. The pupils were asked to help us in pointing out Scottish 'clues', to become 'detectives' and to find these clues in the texts, in the images they contained, and, in general, in their environment, including playground language.
Given the exploratory nature of the project, we tried different methods of approaching the texts, investigating the children's understanding of Scottish culture through whole class reading and discussion sessions, small mixed-group discussions, and interviews with same-sex pairs. We also interviewed teachers who have worked with bilingual children within the school setting where the study was being carried out. The data analysis allowed us to track the most important topics and issues affecting ethnic minority pupils' responses to texts.
Through a description of these topics, we provide a new and detailed picture of the educational processes which these children go through in terms of language and literacy ( Sections 2- 4). We have also been able to develop some practical classroom strategies for helping such pupils not merely to cope with but also to enjoy their new texts and their encounters with Scottish culture ( Sections 5- 6). Based on this pilot experience, which is limited to two schools and 14 children in focus groups (and some 50 P6 children in total), we identify significant issues for continuing professional development and for further research ( Section 7). We are also able to signal the positive attainments of pupils and the supportive work of teachers and school leaders in helping them to achieve their true potential, as they learn to read not only a different language but also a new and sometimes challenging culture.
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