Session Information
31 SES 08 A, Preparing Pre-service Teachers for Multilingual Classrooms – Differing Approaches from Europe and Beyond
Symposium
Contribution
This symposium presents and discusses results of an international research project on multilingualism and teacher education. Participating researchers from Europe and North America examined questions concerning the preparation of pre-service teachers for multilingual classrooms realities. Whether through long-established processes of historical immigration, the presence of autochthonous language minorities, or conflict-driven and economically-based migration, multilingualism is an integral feature of educational institutions across Europe.
Large-scale studies have repeatedly revealed an education gap between students with and without a migrant background (OECD 2016). Competencies in the majority language have been identified as a determining factor for content learning and general educational attainment. Strategies such as language scaffolding in subject teaching or linguistically responsive teaching have been suggested as methods to counteract these inequalities (Kempert et al. 2018). Moreover, in light of multilingual education, researches have voiced the need for the valorisation and fostering of all linguistic resources that multilingual students possess (Garcia et al. 2016). In order to enable future teachers to proficiently engage with multilingual learners, teacher education programmes need to provide pre-service teachers with relevant competencies. Positions however differ with regard to what competencies pre-service teachers need for working effectively with multilingual students.
This symposium therefore presents and compares approaches from four different countries (Finland, Germany, Italy and the US). As outlined below, separate contributions coming from these four national contexts outline selected examples of how future teachers are prepared to work effectively with multilingual learners. The four approaches reflect the historical experience with multilingualism and the discourse on it in the respective country. The first paper presents approaches from Finland which is of particular interest because of the historical presence of other languages (e.g. Swedish, Sami, Russian), as well as new forms of migration induced multilingualism. Finland currently has a National Core Curriculum (for schools) that emphasises language awareness and multilingualism as an education goal. Given the vast differences in education policy between Germany’s federal states, the paper on Germany presents a number of reform approaches triggered by migration induced multilingualism. The Italian contribution describes the situation in South Tyrol, a region with a long tradition of multilingualism due to its autochthonous minorities, whose languages are officially recognised, as well as migration induced multilingualism. To those European perspectives, a perspective from the United States is added which describes approaches in teacher education against the backdrop of vital linguistic diversity, but facing the challenge of restrictive language policies.
The concepts and approaches for pre-service teachers’ competence development in the different teacher education programmes have been investigated by analysing policy documents, handbooks, module descriptions, course descriptions, and of course by considering available empirical evidence. Results show a wide range of differences regarding a number of aspects. These aspects include the target group (who participates in the measure? All pre-service teachers or only a certain part), the point in time when the measure takes place (e.g. early in the Bachelor or later in the Master phase), the kind of integration of the measure (e.g. as a specific course, a module or as a cross cutting theme included in many different courses). A major difference concerns the content of those measures which touches the question of what is meant by “preparing teachers to work with multilingualism”. Does this only concern the development of the majority language or does this also include valuing and fostering other linguistic resources of the students.
After the presentations, the discussant will provide her view on the different approaches and identify common themes, major differences, challenges and opportunities. This will serve as a foundation for the subsequent discussion with the participants of the symposium.
References
García, O., Ibarra Johnson, S., & Seltzer, K. (2016). The translanguaging classroom: Leveraging student bilingualism for learning. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Publishing. Kempert, S., Schalk, L. & Saalbach, H. (2018). Sprache als Werkzeug des Lernens: Ein Überblick zu den kommunikativen und kognitiven Funktionen der Sprache und deren Bedeutung für den fachlichen Wissenserwerb. In: Psychologie in Erziehung und Unterricht, 65. München, Basel: Ernst Reinhardt Verlag. OECD (2016). Immigrant background, student performance and students' attitudes towards science. In: PISA 2015 Results (Volume I): Excellence and Equity in Education. Paris: OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264266490-11-en.
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