Page 23 - Linguistically Diverse Educational Contexts

a foreign language well enough to get into a bilingual class, i.e., elite classes? We know that the vast majority of these people learned a foreign language outside of school, for example by attending extra classes at language schools, or they come from families where several languages are spoken on a daily basis. The question is why schools do not prepare pupils well enough for bilingual classes and a smooth transition from one stage of education to another. Is the problem linked to oversized language classes? Or the poor preparation of teachers? Or teachers' passivity and too much reliance on working with textbooks? There can be many questions and answers here, depending on the context in which language education takes place. If so, shouldn't the language education of pupils arise from the given context? Why then do teachers choose to educate all pupils in a similar way, for example using a textbook where all pupils are on the same page in every lesson? After all, pupils are not the same in every class or in every school. Why aren't teachers involved in creating the learning process (including with the pupils)? Is it the monolingual and monocultural education system that contributes to this state of affairs? Or is the lack of reflection among teachers due to "unreflective immersion in their own culture and unawareness of its unnaturalness"20?
It seems that these alternative methods of language education should also address the social, cultural, and ideological contexts of education in which we learn. Language education could become central to teaching critical perspectives in a democratic society (Reagan& Osborn, 2002, p. 139), because by promoting a vision of language education as a homogeneous, fixed practice, we prevent learners from critically understanding language and its social use and block creative and critical language practices (Fairclough, 1999, p. 241). A situation in which education systems favour monolingual and monocultural prestigious education is not good for learners. Multilingualism was already referred to by Heller in 1999 as "parallel monolingualism" and by Cummins (2008) as "two solitudes". In a changing world, the reality we live in is increasingly multilingual and intercultural. Difference and diversity are encountered in social media, international institutions, and classrooms, where the presence of foreign language learners is already the norm, including in Poland.
1.3 Educating migrant pupils in Poland
A complex issue in Poland at present is the approach to the language education of pupils coming from abroad, namely migrant pupils. The question that arises is whether or not these pupils should be given the opportunity to acquire knowledge in a language they understand, because then their educational opportunities would increase and this would be an important part of preserving their own identity (Nieto, 2000; Erudice Network, 2009). Equality education goes beyond equal opportunities education by talking about providing opportunities for all students to achieve better learning outcomes. A 2011 report by the Institute for Social Research states: "The education system undertakes tasks of equalising educational opportunities, but it also contributes to the reproduction of these inequalities. The process of social exclusion causes not only poverty or low social status of parents, but also negative attitudes towards groups or communities considered as ‘Others’" (Fedorowicz et al., 2011). Equality of opportunity requires equality of educational opportunities, and these are not improved if we distribute the same textbooks to all students, both native and migrant, in an attempt to create equality. This approach does not work in increasingly internally diverse societies. An educational policy where everyone is treated the same and expected to achieve the same results seems not only impossible, but
20 Klus-Stańska, 2011, pp. 43–50.
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