Project MespE
Teachers' attitudes towards multilingualism: Impact on teachers' judgements and the development of reflective competence
MespE focuses on teachers’ attitudes towards their pupils’ migration-related multilingualism. The effects of these attitudes on teachers’ judgments and expectations will be examined, and the findings will be used to design appropriate intervention measures (professionalisation/training concepts) to initiate the associated reflection processes.
In globalised and pluralised societies, schools are faced with the challenge of increasingly heterogeneous learning groups, with a growing proportion of children and young people who are multilingual as a result of migration. This heterogeneity needs to be addressed professionally and the associated inequalities reduced. Previous research has often focused on language support for children, but has ignored teachers’ attitudes towards multilingualism and possible expectancy effects.
With regard to migration-related multilingualism, the current state of research continues to reveal monolingual and ambivalent teacher attitudes, which are not in line with current research findings. This shows that more attention should be paid to reflecting on existing attitudes as part of initial and in-service teacher training. Against this background, the research project focuses particularly on the professionalisation of teachers. The main objectives are: (a) to better understand the impact of multilingualism stereotypes on teachers’ judgements and expectations, and (b) to design and evaluate appropriate interventions (professionalisation/continuing professional development approaches) to initiate reflection processes.
Selected Publications
Bonefeld, M. (2022). Reflexion eigener Stereotype als Motor zur nachhaltigen Stereotypreduktion bei angehenden Lehrkräften. In: S. Glock (Hrsg.). Stereotype in der Schule II: Ursachen und Möglichkeiten der Intervention. Heidelberg.
Kleen, H., Bonefeld, M., Glock, S., & Dickhäuser, O. (2019). Implicit and explicit attitudes toward Turkish students in Germany as a function of teachers’ ethnicity. Social Psychology of Education, 22(4), 883–899. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-019-09525-2
Kropp, A. (2022). Migrations- und mehrsprachigkeitssensible Professionalisierung. In J. Kainhofer & M. Rückl (Hrsg.), Sprache(n) in pädagogischen Settings (S. 231–248). Berlin. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110784756-014
Funding
