Preparing Teachers to Work with Multilingual Learners

Meike Wernicke, Svenja Hammer, Antje Hansen, Tobias Schroedler

• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781788926126
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This collection examines a diverse range of approaches to multilingualism in teacher education programmes across Europe and North America. The authors investigate how pre-service teachers are being prepared to work in multilingual contexts and discuss the key features of current pre-service teacher education initiatives that address the increasing linguistic and cultural diversity evident in classrooms in their respective countries. The focus is not only on migrant-background learners but includes students from Indigenous, autochthonous and heritage language backgrounds, and speakers of minoritised regional varieties. The chapters contextualise, both historically and ideologically, the specific initiatives and measures taken in the participating countries. They also reveal the complexity of each educational context and the role that history, language policies and institutional and programmatic priorities play in the development and implementation of a multilingual focus in teacher education. In exploring how pre-service teachers are being prepared to work in multilingual contexts, the authors take a critical view of how multilingualism itself is conceptualised within and across contexts. The book highlights the valuable impact that explicit instruction on theories of multilingualism, pedagogies in multilingual classrooms and lived realities of multilingual children can have on the beliefs and practices of pre-service teachers.

1Multilingualism and Teacher Education: Introducing the MultiTEd Project

Meike Wernicke, Antje Hansen, Svenja Hammer and Tobias Schroedler

Why Multilingualism and Teacher Education?

Attending to multilingualism and cultural diversity in educational settings has become a prominent area of research which has produced significant shifts in how we conceptualize language and the presence and use of multiple languages in the classroom (Douglas Fir Group, 2016; García et al., 2016). Increased awareness and recognition of linguistic diversity in our societies has highlighted the need to consider not only the historical, sociopolitical and economic forces shaping multilingualism on a societal level, but how the coexistence of multiple languages is understood through educational policies and the ways in which these impact the diverse language practices of individual teachers and students. A recent change in our understanding of multilingual education has occurred by extending the inquiry beyond a particular type of bilingual or multilingual educational model to how individual students’ ‘linguistic repertories overlap and intersect and develop in different ways with respect to languages, dialects and registers’ (Choi & Ollerhead, 2018: 1). Similarly, with regard to the types of teacher competences often associated with multilingual education (e.g. Nunan & Lam, 1998), the emphasis is less on teachers’ own proficiency in the languages spoken in class but rather on the theoretical and pedagogical understandings of how language is learned and acquired (Hammond, 2014), the instructional strategies that support linguistically diverse students and the integration of language and content (Palincsar & Schleppegrell, 2014), as well as the political and ideological assumptions and raciolinguistic ideologies that inform how we teach and use language (Flores & Rosa, 2015; Kubota & Lin, 2009). While multilingualism in the form of culturally and linguistically relevant approaches has emphasized the valorization of students’ abilities in languages other than the school language, it is important to be mindful of the various discourses framing multilingualism in educational contexts. Language policy frameworks implemented across regions of the Global North have been taken up in ways that often reinforce perspectives of language knowledge as a market-driven asset with emphasis on learners’ entrepreneurial skills (Flores, 2013; Haque & Patrick, 2015; Kubota, 2016). In Europe, educational approaches are still critiqued for failing to consider the diverse linguistic backgrounds of immigrant and minority language students as an asset rather than a barrier to teaching and learning, calling for new educational perspectives from which multilingualism is valorized and strategically used in settings and contexts of instruction and learning (van Avermaet et al., 2018).

In North America, racializing discourses (Dick & Wirtz, 2011; Kubota, 2015) and ‘the logics of the market’ (Barakos & Selleck, 2019: 361) in language learning and teaching continue to be obstacles to prioritizing linguistic diversity in educational contexts. In Canada specifically, the political impetus behind official bilingualism produces exclusionary practices and policies that continue to minoritize and marginalize speakers of languages or varieties other than standardized French or English (Ball & Bernhardt, 2012). Meanwhile the high demand for French immersion education is a reflection of parents’ desire to promote their children’s higher education and career prospects (Yoon et al., 2018). Similarly in the United States, the discrepancy between bilingual (remedial) and elite language learning remains a visible class-based distinction, with minoritized bilingualism often casting students as academically inferior and delegitimizing or even erasing minority community languages (DeCosta, 2019; Rosa, 2016).

It is therefore important to keep in mind the multiple understandings of multilingualism operating in the regions represented in this volume. Each chapter shows tensions of grappling with different forms of language standardization, monoglossic versus heteroglossic approaches, integrative or segregated programs, and dominant and minority language education. For this reason, the authors’ descriptions of the teacher education initiatives presented here do not seek to provide ‘best practices’ per se, but rather examples of promising endeavours into how to encourage meaningful and lasting engagement among emerging teachers in attending to linguistic and cultural diversity in their classrooms. The chapters thus centre on how teachers might be better led to appreciate, respond to and make use of the varied language practices that account for students’ existing and emerging communicative resources, which often transcend standardized or official languages in school contexts. Specifically, the volume attempts to shed some light on the ways in which and to what extent teacher education policy and programming affords the means to prepare ­pre-­service teachers for the multilingual contexts in which they find ­themselves today.

Situating the Volume

The past two decades have seen a range of research on multilingualism and teacher education, addressing related topics or a combination of themes associated with language education and diversity. A substantial number of research collections have an English-only focus (Farrell, 2015; Matsuda, 2017) with consideration of particular models or practices, resource development and skills instruction (Burns & Siegel, 2018; Levine et al., 2014; Lucas, 2011) or specifically related to English for academic purposes (Flowerdew & Peacock, 2001), often examining dual or bilingual programmes in the US context (Freeman & Freeman, 2014, 2015). While some of this research examines primarily student perspectives (Abello-Contesse et al., 2013), a considerable number of volumes examine both learners and teachers in multilingual contexts (Arias & Fee, 2018), most of these with attention to specific geography (Kalan, 2016) or issues such as translanguaging (Paulsrud et al., 2017), language policies or the application of particular theoretical frameworks or models (Hornberger, 2003). Volumes that focus specifically on teachers and teacher education often offer specific orientations, for example: teacher leadership and identity (Palmer, 2018); professional learning for in-service teachers (Jones & O’Brien, 2014); teacher identity (Trent et al., 2014); professionalism and content or pedagogical knowledge where the focus is often on majority language instruction (Becker-Mrotzek et al., 2017; Hüttner et al., 2012; Tedick, 2005); instruction related to language skills (Ahmed et al., 2011); teaching for inclusion beyond only linguistic diversity (Brisk, 2008); or research that focuses on other languages (Karsenti et al., 2008) or specific locations (Kamhi-Stein et al., 2017). Two research collections provide perspectives from a range of multilingual settings on aspects of diversity in teacher education, similar to the present volume. Messner et al. (2016) consider the challenges and demands of teaching in culturally and linguistically diverse European contexts and the need to prepare teachers for this reality, with contributing authors attending to topics such as the competencies required by teachers to teach in diverse settings as well as approaches to social inclusion, distributive justice, achieving quality in education, intercultural engagement and mobility programmes. The volume by de Mejía and Hélot (2011) centres on the notion of empowerment and how teachers and students can be supported in engaging with top-down policies and disempowering instructional practices in multilingual spaces across five continents. The focus here is on the identities and power relations negotiated by pre- and in-service teachers as well as their students. The current volume is thus unique in that it provides a descriptive perspective of how teacher education programmes in a range of different countries have responded to multilingual contexts, thereby contextualizing, historically and ideologically, the specific initiatives and measures taken in the participating countries or regions.

Purpose of this Volume

This volume is the outcome of an international project among emergent researchers working with diverse approaches in teacher education programmes in Europe and North America to prepare pre-service teachers for multilingual learners. Initiated in Germany, the project ‘Multilingualism and Teacher Education’ (MultiTEd) brought together researchers from Croatia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Canada and the United States to explore and exchange ideas about the following question: How are pre-service teachers prepared for today’s multilingual classroom realities? The researchers collaborated over a three-month period to present and learn about key features of current pre-service teacher education initiatives that attend to the increasing linguistic and cultural diversity in their respective countries. Dialogue was facilitated through webinars and an online discussion forum, as well as a face-to-face meeting in Hamburg, Germany, which ultimately led to the decision to document the outcomes of the project in this volume. In this chapter we outline the background and purpose of the project and the way it was implemented, and offer a brief overview of each chapter.

Background of the Project

Although multilingualism is not a new development in our societies (Cenoz & Gorter, 2015; Jaspers et al., 2010) and the displacement of people across the world constitutes a reality of everyday life in Africa and many other parts of the Global South (Phipps, 2019), globalization and increased transnational mobility have led to growing linguistic and cultural diversity, especially among school populations. This is presently felt especially in Europe, where growing refugee populations have shifted the focus on the implications of increasing multilingualism within the context of education and specifically on teacher development. For those connected with the MultiTEd project – as supporters (Timo Ehmke, Ingrid Gogolin) and organizers (Svenja Hammer, Antje Hansen) – it was the increasing need to attend to this linguistic diversity in classrooms across their own country that not only led to the impetus to explore, in more depth, the situation in Germany, but also to derive ideas from other countries.

The project was launched and co-organized in Germany by researchers from three initiatives undertaken at the University of Hamburg and the University of Lüneburg: (1) the Coordination Office for Multilingualism and Language Education (Koordinierungsstelle Mehrsprachigkeit und sprachliche Bildung – KoMBi), a unit coordinating a research cluster on multilingualism and language education in Germany at the University of Hamburg; (2) ProfaLe (Professionelles Lehrerhandeln zur Förderung fachlichen Lernens unter sich verändernden gesellschaftlichen Bedingungen), a large-scale project, also conducted at the University of Hamburg, aimed at improving its teacher education programme to ensure pre-service teachers are more adequately prepared for today’s changing societal conditions and students’ needs; and (3) DaZKom (Professionelle Kompetenzen angehender Lehrer und Lehrerinnen (Sek I) im Bereich Deutsch als Zweitsprache), a project focused on the development of a test instrument measuring teachers’ competencies in teaching multilingual learners. The researchers working in connection with these three initiatives had an interest in collaborating with teacher educators and researchers beyond Germany to investigate how multilingualism is being addressed in teacher education programmes in other contexts.

Methods and Organizing Framework

A defining characteristic of the project was not only its thematic focus but also the type of participants involved. The call for researchers was specifically targeted at emerging researchers, whose professional development is one of the key objectives of the Coordination Office for Multilingualism and Language Education. In addition to gaining knowledge about other contexts, the project intended to provide participants with networking opportunities and a means of exchanging ideas about their work with international peers, potentially leading to conferences and future publication collaborations.

In the summer of 2018, the organizing team launched a worldwide call to invite fellow researchers to ‘connect with others in the areas of multilingualism and teacher education’. From the 50 applications, 22 participants were selected, representing nine countries in total. In addition to European researchers from Croatia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Sweden, funding provided by the three founding initiatives made it pos...

Table of contents

• Cover-Page
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Contributors
• 1. Multilingualism and Teacher Education: Introducing the MultiTEd Project
• 2. What is Multilingualism? Towards an Inclusive Understanding
• 3. One School for All? Multilingualism in Teacher Education in Sweden
• 4. Multilingualism in Finnish Teacher Education
• 5. Multilingualism in Teacher Education in Germany: Differences in Approaching Linguistic Diversity in Three Federal States
• 6. Multilingualism in Teacher Education in Croatia
• 7. Approaches to Diversity: Tracing Multilingualism in Teacher Education in South Tyrol, Italy
• 8. Multilingualism and Primary Initial Teacher Education in the Republic of Ireland: Policies and Practice
• 9. Preparing Teachers for Multilingual Classrooms in English Canada
• 10. Multilingualism and Teacher Education in the United States
• 11. Diversity in Teacher Preparation for Multilingual Contexts
• Index