Further information on the research cluster Intersectional Sensitivity can be found here!

Working title: Multilingualism at school – Preservice teachers’ beliefs from an intersectional perspective

In Germany's migration society, diverse linguistic influences affect students’ development and education. Despite the fact that students grow up multilingual increasingly often, this dynamic is not adequately taken into account in teacher training. For example, courses on multilingualism are neither compulsory nor available at all university teacher training programs (Busse 2020). Historically evolved concepts of language, which are shaped by power and domination relations, contribute to the perpetuation of the "monolingual habitus" (Gogolin 1994) and are still visible in sometimes negative beliefs of prospective teachers.

The cumulative dissertation project aims to qualitatively record teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism at school and to explore them intersectionally. The intersectional analysis of the material makes it possible to examine the interaction of different social categories as well as power and domination relations and to ask about inclusionary, exclusionary and reproducing effects (Budde 2018; Riegel 2022). The intersectional, deconstructivist perspective on the relations of difference and dominance associated with multilingualism takes a critical-reflexive approach (Riegel 2016). Looking ahead, the results may be used to formulate implications for an intersectionally sensitive pedagogical practice that includes a critical reflection of beliefs about multilingualism.