Family Jigsaws: Grandmothers as the Missing Piece Shaping Bilingual Children's Learner Identities

This exciting ethnographic study spotlights the multiple identities of three third generation British-born Bangladeshi children in London's East End as they learn with their teachers, mothers and grandmothers. The book reveals for the first time the remarkable ability of young bilingual children to compartmentalize their learning and become flexible learners. It is the first to show how it is children's interactions with their grandmothers -- who often speak no English -- that most powerfully enhance and extend their educational and cultural experiences. Teachers and teacher educators take heed: these new insights have profound implications for policy, classroom practice and pedagogy.