As a colleague said this week during the introductory class of the ‘Multilingual Education’ module:
“As staff here in Gloucester we really like this course, partly because it’s a subject that we’re passionate about… but also because it comes at a time of year when the seasons are changing and summer feels just around the corner.”
She couldn’t have been more right. As we start the final taught class of this year's Masters programme here in Gloucester, it feels somehow fitting that the trees and flowers should be bursting into new life. In our small class of five students we have a wide range of backgrounds, work contexts, and expectations represented. What they all do have in common, however, is a hope that the seeds of time and effort that they are investing now will one day burst into flower, both in their lives and the lives of the communities they work with.
Although it is often a privilege to see students mature in their understanding around a topic, teaching can also sometimes feel like a major responsibility. The students we have with us are keen to learn and to find answers to their many questions. It can feel disappointing and inadequate to so frequently have to answer with: “well, it depends". Because, of course, the kinds of issues we are wrestling with are complex and vary so much depending on the context. They involve difficult issues such as how people actually learn to read/write multiple languages and what a multilingual curriculum should look like, and even more difficult issues like how people feel about the languages they use and what the government thinks education should actually be for!
Of course many of these issues, although we might be able to identify some of them, are well beyond our control. We can influence some things, but beyond that we must trust that bigger change is possible and will come about through hard work and prayer - at the right time. Indeed change is a funny thing, something that is often impossible to see in the moment but clearly identifiable when reflecting back on a period.
As we enter another big period of change as a family, looking ahead to becoming four, we give thanks for all the things we have learnt as a family of three. We give thanks for you and your support of us and the work we are involved in, and we look forward to seeing the new seeds in our and your lives burst into flower at the perfect time.
