The ambivalence of assessment—Language assessment of minority-language children in early childhood education and care.

The study investigates how kindergarten teachers in Norway and Denmark manage language assessment policy for minority language children. In both countries, there is a large difference in school performance between native and minority language students. The article investigates how kindergarten teachers deal with these challenges. The research question is: How do kindergarten teachers in Norway and Denmark manage practice related to language assessment policy?

The results show that kindergarten teachers are pragmatic when assessing language, but uncertain when it comes to language work and assessment of minority language children. The three main sources of their uncertainty are: doubt about the ‘ready for school’ mindset, the balancing act between professional freedom and assessment, and ambivalence about integration policies and the ‘standard child’. These findings point to the complexity of kindergarten teachers' work involving minority language children and their families, and show that simplistic discourses do not always fit reality.

The data material consists of interviews with eleven kindergarten teachers in Copenhagen and eleven in Oslo from a total of 14 different kindergartens (seven in Copenhagen and seven in Oslo). Four of the 18 interviews were group interviews (two with two informants and two with three). The informants worked in kindergartens located in mainly immigrant-dominated neighbourhoods in city-centre areas and suburbs in Oslo and Copenhagen.

Jahreie, J. (2021). "The ambivalence of assessment—Language assessment of minority-language children in early childhood education and care". European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 29(5):715-732.