This paper is based on the MIKS project (University of Münster, 2013-2016): “Multilingualism as a field of action in intercultural school development”. The project involves the design and implementation of an intervention for school development (Fürstenau 2016). The intervention was conducted at three primary schools, and its goal was to implement strategies for the productive integration of all children’s family languages in the schools and in the classrooms. The teachers and education professionals at each school were supported to identify migrant language resources and to make use of them to facilitate students’ learning and to give minority languages social value in the school context (Cummins 2014). The professional development of teachers and other education professionals included the input of scientific knowledge on multilingualism; guided reflection of the participants’ experiences with, and beliefs, about multilingualism; and – of particular importance – enabling teachers to experience new ways of integrating multilingualism in order to enhance their sense of self-efficacy. In each school, professional learning communities were established in order to improve the whole school’s strategies for working with multilingualism (Murphy/Murphy 2004). The scientific investigation of the intervention’s processes and effects includes a triangulation of methods: qualitative methods (interviews, participatory observations) were used to investigate the processes initiated in each primary school in the course of the intervention, while quantitative methods (questionnaire) were used to assess the shift in beliefs, knowledge, and strategies on the part of teachers and other education professionals (pre-post design). The questionnaire was also completed in control schools which did not participate in the intervention. The paper will present the intervention’s programme and a pre-post comparison of the beliefs, knowledge and action strategies of teachers in MIKS schools and control schools. Based on the results, quality features of the content and the methods of teacher training and school development in the field of multilingualism will be discussed.

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