The Language Friendly School: An Inclusive and Equitable Pedagogy

The Language Friendly School network is a response to the growing diversity and multilingualism present in schools around the world, a result of people migrating to find employment, reunite with relatives, or escape war and conflict. It is estimated that over 200 million school children do not receive education in a language they understand. In many countries, children are punished for speaking their home language at school. All schools should recognize and embrace their students' multilingualism, and take action to give space to their languages within the school community. During the winter of 2021, the authors interviewed eight educator-administrators from six of the 15 certified Language Friendly Schools in Canada and the Netherlands. Each administrator had a supervisory role in implementing a language-friendly pedagogy. The interviews allowed the authors to understand the impact of language and culture-friendly pedagogy in different contexts and the role played by administrators. Their testimonies show cognitive and socio-emotional benefits of a whole school approach to language-friendly pedagogy--that is, a team approach that includes the entire school community.