The challenges of teaching in bilingual education

Abstract

This is a research clipping whose objective was to understand, according to teachers inserted in a bilingual school context, how they have faced the challenges related to the forms of interaction and appropriation of the cultural elements of the language, aiming at the development of the native language simultaneously with the development of the English. In recent years, there has been an increase in the supply and demand for bilingual schools from kindergarten, especially those offering English teaching. Six teachers who work in bilingual schools, in Early Childhood Education and in the Initial Years of Elementary School participated in the research. Four of them work with the curriculum in English and two with the curriculum in Portuguese. The instrument chosen for the production of the empirical material was the recurring interview, which provides for more than one meeting with each participant. The analysis was based on the theoretical-methodological approach of the meaning cores, which allows the interpretation of empirical material, seeking to understand the meanings of the participants in relation to their lived experiences. The research points out that the challenges are, above all, within the scope of the school organization, which, by presenting a split between Portuguese and English, brings the consequences countless other challenges, such as the difficulty for teachers of bilingual schools to maintain their pedagogical practices with two teaching focuses: the languages of instruction and the curricular contents. In addition, this split can lead to challenges in the teachers' relationship with management, with their families and with the students themselves, triggering feelings that affect their teaching work.