Resumen de ‘We complete each other’: experiences of co-teachers in a trilingual kindergarten in the UAE
A bilingual model of education has been in place in kindergarten classrooms in public schools in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for almost 15 years. Some schools follow a trilingual model, with Arabic-medium teachers (AMTs) using Arabic to teach Islamic Studies and Social Studies, and English-medium teachers (EMTs) using English to teach Math and Science. A more recent addition to this is the Chinese-medium teacher (CMT), who uses Chinese and English to teach Chinese. Planning is integral to the success of co-teaching, as well as specific consideration of the implications for young learners. Semi-structured interviews, which were carried out with AMTs, EMTs and CMTs revealed that many teachers felt like they completed each other, and that communication was the most important factor in their success. They also highlighted the benefits for learners, in that the attention learners could receive across a variety of languages was very worthwhile for the consolidation of their learning. Overall, a translanguaging stance by teachers appeared to be critical to the success of co-teaching.
