Early years educators’ interpretations of a bilingual literacy curriculum implemented in Content Language Integrated (CLIL) classrooms in the United Arab Emirates: A phenomenological approach to investigating learning

Abstract

This qualitative phenomenological holistic single case study (Baxter and McMaster 2009, p. 549; Byman 2016, p. 60; Creswell and Poth 2018) drew from a paradigm of interpretivism (Bryman 2016; DePoy and Gitlin 2020) that “examined, explained and described” (McKenney and Reeves 2011, p.30) what sixteen multilingual early years educator participants have in common (Creswell and Poth 2018) as they experienced a Bilingual Literacy Curriculum (BLC) with a Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) pedagogy (Nikula, and Smit 2010, cited in Arnó and Mancho-Barés 2015, p. 740; San Isidro 2021) at a private school in the UAE. The study explored the bilingual experiences of twelve Arabic early years pupils engaged in language transfer (Cummins 2017; Genesee and Jared 2008) through emergent “translanguaging” (Garcia 2009, p. 157). The study addressed the lack of research evidence concerning descriptive bilingual literacy programs in Arabic Early Childhood Education and the inclusion of early years educators in the UAE education reform and decision-making policies (Aljazeari and Alchalabee 2019; Boles and Dillon 2019; Gallagher 2011; Mohamed and Medhammer 2014; O’Sullivan 2015; O’ Leary and Thompson 2019). Qualitative data was analysed using a reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) approach (Braun and Clarke 2021), and conceptual findings were explained using an interpretive phenomenological approach. The results revealed that the multilingual early years educators evidenced the integration of the BLC with CLIL through translated children’s literature and an emergent translanguaging approach (Garcia-Lopez, Mor, and Tesconi 2020) valuable within “classroom curricula” (Deng 2010, p. 386) to develop English language skills, specifically, oral fluency amongst early-years Arabic pupils. Hopefully, this study's findings will inform the practices of in-service early years educators and ECE policymakers in the UAE engaged in education reform (Gallagher 2011) and the decision-making initiatives concerning early years bilingual literacy, curriculum design, and pedagogy in Arabic settings.