Beliefs of primary school teacher in dealing with multilingualism

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Sarah Désirée Lange
• Subject Area: Education Systems and Educational Institutions
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 460762952

With the proposed project, the professional beliefs of primary school teachers in dealing with migration-related multilingualism in education are analysed. The particular focus is exploring these beliefs in their complexity, in their contradictions as well as making possible hierarchies visible within their beliefs systems. The topic multilingualism is of high and growing educational and social importance as primary school teachers face linguistic heterogeneity on a daily base. From a general pedagogical self-understanding, it is a duty of teachers to include the multilingual learning background of students in teaching in a value added and reflective way despite the monolingual institutional framework. Whether and how they consider these and use them for shaping educational processes depends largely on their beliefs. The beliefs of working primary school teachers in dealing with migration-related multilingualism in teaching are not investigated in a comprehensive manner, yet.In theory, the project can be located in multilingualism research in primary education and in professionalism research in pedagogical psychology, in which beliefs are understood as a competence facet of pedagogical professionalism.In methodological terms, a multi-perspective approach is needed to adequately capture teacher beliefs as complex construct. Thus, the predominant quantitative access is extended by a qualitative vignette study based on a sequential mixed method design, which also tries to analyse possible contradictions and hierarchizations within the teachers’ beliefs systems. The quantitative questionnaire survey uses tested belief scales on how to deal with migration-related multilingualism and new scales on teaching functions that can be associated with the integration of different languages in teaching are added. Self-efficacy expectations and learning opportunities are considered as factors influencing the genesis of beliefs. Theoretically developed vignettes (as language representations of teaching situations) deal as stimulus for the qualitative interviews in which the teachers are asked to reason and explain their hypothetical actions. It is expected that the results will broaden the binary approach in existing studies between beliefs in favour and against multilingualism, and that thereby the beliefs can be analysed in a more diverse and realistic manner. The multiperspective approach allows for a more differentiated and comprehensive description of professional beliefs, which encourages the further development of the discourses on teacher professionalism and on multilingualism from a primary pedagogical perspective.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professorin Dr. Sanna Pohlmann-Rother