490130 PS Communication Spaces (2025W)

Goal:
By the end of this seminar, participants will:
- understand the multilingual turn in education and be familiar with central concepts related to it;
- deconstruct monolingual bias and develop a critical and reflective point of view from a multilingual perspective;
- have reflected about their own linguistic identities and their positions while multilingual subjects;
- get to know the point of view from different school actors (e.g. teachers, school students and parents) in relation to their experiences in super-diverse school environments;
- get to know different multilingual and language sensitive approaches and use them for designing own classes in all different school subjects.

Content:
The diversity of languages is a reality in Austrian schools. However, how can teachers address this reality in order to support diversity and also use it as a resource for learning in their classrooms? In this seminar, students from all teacher education programs are invited to challenge their beliefs about multilingualism and critically reflect on their linguistic identities in order to prepare themselves for professional practice in culturally and linguistically diverse school settings. The seminar is divided into three parts interconnected and overlapping parts: 1. learning theoretical concepts and exploring official Austrian documents and measures related to diversity and multilingualism in schools, 2. examining different aspects of the school context by exploring different challenges and perspectives from teachers, students and parents 3. learning pedagogical approaches and producing materials for multilingual classrooms. In the first part, students will engage with central concepts and discourses on multilingualism in education and identity construction. In the second part, the multilingual school context will be addressed from different points of views, such as experiences from teachers in practice, multilingual school students, and multilingual families and communities. The third part will be dedicated to a “method Werkstatt”, focusing on multilingual and language-sensitive approaches that can be applied in teaching practice both inside and outside the classroom. Although the European context will be in focus, examples from other multilingual settings (e.g. from the Global South) will also be considered in order to broaden participants’ horizons. Finally, this seminar aims to foster a reflective mindset and encourages participants to connect theoretical perspectives and their individual strengths with real-world educational contexts and teaching practice.

An important aspect of this seminar is the connection to practical contexts. Therefore, this seminar allows the cooperation with the UniClub (https://uniclub.at/unterstuetzen/). The participation at UniClub is optional and – in case it is desired – it can replace Portfolio assignments to extent of 1 ECTS.

Methods:
The seminar will combine traditional lectures with interactive methods such as project work, plenary discussions, group work, peer feedback, and presentations. It will be conducted primarily in English, but literature in German and other languages will also be provided. Oral discussions and written assignments may be completed in German or in other languages, in accordance with the lecturer’s instructions.