MIKS II

The objective of this follow-up project was to adapt the professionalisation and school development concept developed in MIKS to the situation of primary schools with a high proportion of newly immigrated children, and to spread it by way of ‘disseminator’ trainings (aka ‘training the trainers’). The MIKS concept was imparted via a training programme to 13 teacher trainers in 17 primary schools. They trained either the entire staff or a selected group within the respective schools. All trainings took place over a period of 18 months and included both content-based modules (with exchange-oriented input, impulse lectures and group work) as well as reflection days for the exchange of experiences.

The intervention comprised three different levels:

1. training the trainers
2. professionalisation in schools (i.e. the training of school staff by disseminators)
3. school and lesson development 

The impact of the intervention was researched and evaluated by way of:

• Group interviews with the disseminators
• Participant observation of trainer trainings
• Questionnaires surveying school staff before and after the qualification sessions in the participating as well as comparison schools
• Interviews with participating school principals before and after the qualification sessions
• Observation of the qualification sessions for school staff
• Classroom observations

Disseminator training for trainers and school mentors

Participative transfer occurred, i.e. the disseminators supported the school staff in developing their own projects, which could be adapted to the school's situation and in shaping school development. The disseminators require freedom and leeway to implement such a concept as developed in MIKS. A further prerequisite for the training to be successful is t continuous discussion and reflection on both the complex aspects of multilingualism and one's own role as a teacher trainer and school mentor.

School professionalisation in an age of new immigration

The schools with many newly arrived children in Germany (and who were therefore just beginning to learn German) often opened up to multilingualism in a pragmatic way. For example, children were grouped together according to language skills so they could translate for each other, information for parents was provided in Arabic, etc. Such endeavours were a starting point for the developments initiated by this project. Many schools worked on a collective change of perspective by integrating family languages not just as a means of communication but as a valuable part of language learning.

Multilingual didactics for teaching

Teachers reported children using languages other than German in conversations with their peers to a more considerable extent after the intervention. They also encouraged children to discuss lesson content in their family languages. Many teachers developed collaborations with multilingual parents to enrich lessons with linguistic contributions. In order for multilingualism to become part of the classroom, teachers have to trust the linguistic knowledge of children and parents. This can be challenging as the teachers must deal with a certain loss of control as they assume the role of the uninformed.

Professionalisation and school development in the field of multilingualism

The sense of self-efficacy among school staff in the field of multilingualism increased considerably. Following the intervention, teachers felt confident including children’s home languages (which they do not themselves understand) into the classroom. Because the inclusion of multilingualism had been a positive experience, the project schools could perceive other languages more often as a resource and less as a problem. A change in attitude led to the development of school cultures that are more open to multilingualism. This development, however, is limited by structural conditions. The teachers remain aware of the fact that educational success for all pupils relies on mastery of the German language.

School and lesson development in the field of multilingualism require time and cooperation. Each school can increase awareness of multilingualism among its various actors — staff, parents and pupils — and establish its own priorities and strategies for the use of multilingualism in learning and teaching. The basis for new and positive teaching experiences in the project schools showed the following characteristics:

• Courage to engage in something new and to deal with uncertainty
• Collaboration with parents
• Interest in and openness to the children’s language experiences

Fürstenau, Sara (2020): Erziehungswissenschaftliche Perspektive auf Mehrsprachigkeit. In: Gogolin, I., Hansen, A., McMonagle, S. & Rauch, D. (Hrsg.) (2020): Handbuch Mehrsprachigkeit und Bildung. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, S. 77-81.

Fürstenau, S., Çelik, Y., & Plöger, S. (2020). Language comparison as an inclusive translanguagin strategy. Analysis of a multilingual teaching situation in a German primary school classroom. In J.A. Panagiotopoulou, L. Rosen & J. Strzykala (Eds.) Inclusion, Education, and Translanguagin: How to Promote Social Justice in (Teacher) Education? Wiesbaden: Springer (in press). 

Fürstenau, S. (2019). Mehrsprachige Schriftkultur. Wie Grundschulklassen aus ihrem Repertoire schöpfen können. In Die Grundschulzeitschrift, Nr. 317, S. 2-7. 

Fürstenau, S. (2019). Mit Sprachen hantieren. M. Dehn im Gespräch mit S. Fürstenau. In Die Grundschulzeitschrift, Nr. 315, S. 50-53. 

Gilham, P. & Fürstenau, S. (2019). The relationship between teachers' language experience and their inclusion of pupils' home languages in school life. In Language and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2019.1668008

Lange, I. (2020). Mehrsprachigkeit als Handlungsfeld Interkultureller Schulentwicklung (MIKS). Einblicke in Erfahrungen mit dem Einbezug von migrationsbedingter Mehrsprachigkeit in Grundschulen. In Diskurs Kindheits- und Jugendforschung, Heft 1/2020, S. 103-108. 

Lange, I. (2019). MIKS - ein inklusives Professionalisierungs- und Schulentwicklungskonzept im Handlungsfeld Mehrsprachigkeit. In QfI - Qualifizierung für Inklusion, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.21248/qfi.20

Ticheloven, A., Schwenke-Lam, T., & Fürstenau, S. (2020). Multilingual Teaching Practices in German Primary Classrooms: Language Comparisons. In C. Kirsch & J. Duarte (Eds.) Multilingual approaches for teaching and learning. From acknowledging to capitalising on multilingualism in European mainstream education. Abingdon: Routledge. S. 34-51.