Language diversity valuable asset for schools and society: KU coordinates EU project

In addition to the KU, the Université de Strasbourg and Paris Lodron University Salzburg are also scientific partners of the project. They cooperate with the school "Conseil Protestant de l'Education de Strasbourg," which offers a bilingual branch from first to twelfth grade, the elementary school Kufstein/Sparchen, and the Michael-Friedrich-Wild elementary school Müllheim in the German-French border region. Twenty percent of the children at the elementary school in Kufstein have a migration background; in Müllheim, the pupils have a migration share of 35 percent and come from 20 nations. Due to the stationing of the German-French brigade at the location, the school cooperates with the French elementary school. On the one hand, the association Education Unlimited e. V. serves as a link to the institutions in Kosovo, where some of the materials are to be tested in school contexts of German as a foreign language as well as in teacher training scenarios. On the other hand, it is responsible for setting up a digital platform.

"Children and young people who grow up multilingually is a reality in Europe. In Austria, for example, every fifth child has one or two parents born abroad. More than 27 percent of elementary school children state that they are multilingual. In Germany, 40 percent of children under the age of six have a migration background, and 68 percent of them have a non-German family language", says Professor Rinker. Although early language support for the respective national language is generously promoted in the participating countries, these support concepts often do not take into account the entire language repertoire and the importance of valuing all languages – including non-European languages – for the children's identity development and motivation to learn languages. "In view of the migration-related processes of societal pluralization, the pupils' primary family languages cannot be left out of the equation", Rinker emphasizes.

The researchers want to address this together with practitioners by developing a multilingual curriculum further, and by offering training and continuing education concepts for intercultural school development, as well as by introducing a digital platform. The focus is deliberately placed on grades three to six – one of the most important stages in a child's educational biography. During that age, children are in an orientation phase and experience profound change entailing mental, emotional and physical challenges. It is a time when educational paths are being decided and the parental home and the school are particularly challenged. As Professor Rinker describes, fundamental cultural reservations and tensions can already manifest themselves in the microcosm of the classroom at that age. These are often communicated without reflection and manifest themselves in stereotypical behavior. The gap between children from educated and uneducated homes is also widening. Schools therefore have an even more important role to play in bringing children from different backgrounds together.

"Intercultural skills and multilingual competence are key to dealing with socio-cultural and linguistic diversity in our society in a professional manner. Teachers, future teaching staff and school administrators are key players in this social development", says Rinker. To date, however, topics such as establishing a beneficial educational partnership between home and school have hardly been taken into account in the training and professional development of teachers. Therefore, it is planned to develop specific materials and concepts that can be implemented in every classroom. These should enable teachers to incorporate appropriate principles and skills into their everyday work – from language reflection and collaborative learning to the holistic creative development of all linguistic resources. A particular concern of those involved is to create a basis that will enable multilingualism concepts not only at bilingual schools, but also at regular schools. "Recognizing constellations of multilingualism in the classroom should be the underlying basis for successful inclusion of all students", says Rinker.

This presupposes a change in awareness, she added: Linguistic and cultural diversity as a constitutive feature of our continent should not be seen as an obstacle and barrier, but rather as an opportunity, an asset and a resource. Therefore, the researchers want to integrate their findings into teacher training programs in Eichstätt, Strasbourg, Salzburg and Kosovo. In doing so, a targeted network will be built between students across the different countries. "The project could thus serve as a reference framework for teacher training and for language-sensitive teaching in all schools in Europe", explains Professor Rinker.

In addition, the participants want to adopt a perspective that goes beyond the mere training of future teachers and focuses on the school as an overall institution. This is because parents in particular often have fewer opportunities to develop intercultural skills and need support in reflecting on their personal attitudes. To date, topics such as establishing a beneficial educational partnership between home and school have hardly been taken into account. An innovative guiding principle of the project is therefore also the development of a concept for intercultural school development, taking into account all those involved in school life.

As a platform for networking, exchange and participation in this multifaceted project, the digital platform "Lingua Creativa" will be created by Education Unlimited e.V. and its content will be developed together with the partners. The platform will offer professional development for teachers in the form of webinars and learning videos, handouts and materials on the tested concepts and scientific publications. In addition, the platform wants to contribute significantly to the networking of the target groups in the partner regions within the framework of forums.