Families’, Students’ and Teachers’ Attitudes towards Bilingual Education: Lessons to be Learned from Bilingual Contexts

Abstract

This paper presents qualitative and quantitative results of a research study carried out in order to examine families’, teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards bilingualism and bilingual education in monolingual contexts. Five schools from four European countries, namely Italy, Spain, Lithuania and Romania, took part in this research. Two schools had a bilingual/multilingual immediate social context or historical background – those in Lithuania and Romania – and three schools were embedded into a monolingual social context in Spain and Italy. With the aim of collecting data on these stakeholders’ attitudes towards bilingualism and bilingual education, a mixed method approach was followed. A questionnaire was distributed to 499 parents, 892 students and 476 teachers all involved in bilingual education programmes in these four countries. The statistical analysis was a computerised data analysis carried out using SPSS. Furthermore, 48 interviews were conducted with parents, teachers and members of the school boards. They were then analysed with the software ATLAS.ti.

The results show differences in the way stakeholders in a bilingual/multilingual context or/and background approach bilingualism and bilingual education as compared to those in a monolingual context, as the attitudinal component is of paramount importance to approach successful bilingual education. The conclusions of this study enrich the academic discussion on the role of families, students, teachers, and school administrators in bilingual education programmes across Europe.