Reflections of bilingualism on preschool education: An ethnographic case study

Abstract

This study was put into practice with the aim of identifying reflections of bilingualism on preschool education. As a descriptive research design, ethnographic case study was used in the research. The study was carried out in a village school in the South-eastern Anatolia region of Turkey during the educational year of 2019-2020. The study group of the research consisted of the preschool teacher who taught at the school subject to the research and 13 students of her as well as seven preschool teachers who taught in different villages of the same district.

Data of the research was collected by using the methods of participant observation, interview, document analysis, and researcher’s diary. Content analysis was used for analysis of the data.

It was established as a result of the research that bilingualism at school, in the classroom and among peers was adopted as a culture. It was seen that bilingualism had negative reflections on the exercise of the preschool educational programme in terms of subjects such as understanding of activities, following of instructions and completing them. It was determined that bilingualism reflected on the teacher as making more effort and feeling incapable in some situations. Bilingualism has been shown to make some students popular among peers.