Theoretical background                      
Globalization and immigration worldwide have led to a culturally and linguistically heterogeneous society. More than a quarter of the German population has a migrant background, and many students grow up with knowledge of more than one family language (Berkel-Otto et al., 2021). However, German is the dominant language in school, and teachers lack competencies in Linguistically Responsive Teaching (LRT) (Lucas & Villegas, 2013). Despite the educational disadvantages of multilingual learners (Schroedler & Grommes, 2019), university courses on LRT are still not a systematic part of German teacher education (Ehmke & Lemmrich, 2018). In many countries current teacher training curricula remain unchanged regarding multilingualism and multiculturalism in school (Iwuanyamwu, 2023). To create an appropriate course offering, teachers’ beliefs should be considered as a part of professional competency affecting the actions of future teachers (Blömeke, 2017). Prospective teachers who value and include students’ multilingual identity in teaching could contribute to reduce educational disparities and support students’ acceptance and respect for themselves and others (Prasad & Lory, 2020).

Teachers’ beliefs are defined as perceptions and assumptions regarding school- and class-related phenomena, such as teaching, learning, learners, subject matter, and their role as teachers (Borg, 2001). Teachers’ beliefs guide the teachers’ actions in a professional context and can influence the quality of teaching (Buehl & Beck, 2014). To date, there have been few, mostly cross-sectional studies on professional beliefs regarding multilingualism in schools. In summary, the following influencing variables were identified: gender, individual multilingualism, teaching experience, and academic background (e.g. Martí & Portolés 2021). From a psychological perspective, the changeability of teachers’ beliefs is controversial (e.g. Nespor 1987). However, some longitudinal studies showed that the systematic influence of knowledge from academic LRT-relevant opportunities to learn (OTL) can cause positive changes in teachers’ beliefs (e.g. Schroedler et al., 2022). In the US region, studies showed that educational experiences like training in cultural diversity or teaching linguistically diverse learners had the ability to reshape teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism (e.g. Fitzsimmons-Doolan et al., 2017). As research has shown that teachers’ beliefs can improve due to OTL, this paper aims to evaluate if participants can move between those belief-based profiles by conducting a Latent Transition Analysis (LTA). To the best of our knowledge, this combination of person- and transition-centering represents an innovative approach to analyzing pre-service teachers’ beliefs on multilingualism. Filling this research gap, our study aims to evaluate and improve LRT-relevant OTL in teacher education.     

Research questions      

1. What professional beliefs do pre-service teachers hold about multilingualism before and after attending an LRT-relevant OTL?
2. Which characteristics regarding the pre-service teachers’ personal and academic backgrounds correlate with or predict their beliefs about multilingualism?
3. Which different profiles exist among the pre-service teachers based on their beliefs about multilingualism?
4. Are there transitions between the pre-service teachers’ profiles after they participated in an LRT-relevant OTL?

Method This study was conducted with pre-service teachers (N=312) at nine teacher-education universities across Germany in 2020 and 2021. All participants provided informed consent and the study was conducted according to the German Research Foundation guidelines. Data were collected during LRT-relevant teacher training in a pre-post design, which means that we evaluated pre-service teachers’ beliefs in all semesters before and after OTL, focusing on multilingualism and LRT. As mentioned above, the structural and content-related framework of teacher education varies depending on the university. Consequently, there were courses in German as a second language, linguistic diversity in schools, language in subject teaching or multilingualism, and language awareness in general. We used a validated quantitative questionnaire (Fischer, 2020) that consisted of three parts: the pre-service teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism on three scales: (1) valuing family languages other than German, (2) feeling responsible for language teaching, and (3) valuing multilingualism in class (labeling based on Hammer et al. 2018), LRT-relevant OTL during participants’ studies, and their personal and academic background (gender, age, training courses, and teaching subjects). To quantify the pre-service teachers’ beliefs, participants were asked to rate 21 statements about multilingualism on a four-point Likert scale demonstrating their affirmation or disaffirmation: (0) strongly disagree, (1) rather disagree, (2) rather agree, and (3) strongly agree. The Cronbach’s Alpha-coefficients, which measure the internal consistency of the full-scale, present a reliability of αt1=0.836 for the first and a value of αt2=0.876 for the second measurement. Data entry, descriptive analyses, and correlation as well as regression calculations were conducted using the SPSS software, and LTA was carried out in MPlus6. We identified three models that divided the participants into two, three, and four distinct, non-overlapping subgroups (profiles) based on their average responses to the items of the three scales clarified above. The distinct models were compared in terms of their fit indices and proportions of participants. To gain more information about the different profiles of the best model fit, the MPlus data were linked to the SPSS data. We conducted descriptive analyses and analyses of variance on the personal and academic backgrounds of each profile member. Moreover, the probabilities of different transition patterns from one profile to another were analyzed using MPlus and classified as movers or stayers.

Results There was a highly significant increase in beliefs between the pre- and post-test (Mt1=2.03; SDt1=0.38; Mt2=2.2; SDt2=0.41; d=0.58). Statistical analyses revealed positive correlations between the beliefs and the female gender, primary school as training course, and teaching language subjects. The most relevant factor was shown to be the pre-service teachers’ participation in LRT-relevant OTL, with high attendance leading to a more highly positive belief about multilingualism. Our LTA showed differences between the beliefs, so that three profiles of student teachers were identified: the uninvolved criticals (t1=37%; t2=9%), the responsible controllers (t1=9%; t2 t2=30%), and the consistent supporters (t1=54%; t2=61%). Moreover, our LTA revealed that half of the participants (50.3%) changed their beliefs and moved between profiles after participating in the OTL. Two movement patterns were observed at high frequencies: 28.5% of the participants changed from uninvolved criticals to consistent supporters, and 21.2% moved from consistent supporters to responsible controllers. With 32.7% most of the pre-service teachers who stayed in one profile remained consistent supporters. Almost no movements to the uninvolved criticals (0.6%) occurred, and only a few participants stayed in this profile (8.3%). Scientific significance of the study First, we obtained new information regarding the changeability of teachers’ beliefs owing to LRT-relevant OTL by identifying significantly improved mean scores and movements between the different profiles. Second, the application of an innovative approach allowed further differentiation between distinct types of teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism. Third, this new approach highlighted the potential for further analysis of changes in teachers’ beliefs. Since our findings highlight the positive change in teachers’ beliefs due to LRT-relevant OTL, we recommend designing academic OTL that enable more reflection on pre-service teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism to help them become linguistically and culturally responsive teachers.

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