“Learning a second foreign language at school or passing a language assessment in any language - those two things should hold the same value as a requirement for general university entry qualifications.” That is how Senior Researcher Dr. Dita Vogel summarizes the main focus of the reform suggestion that has been created as part of a project at the University of Bremen and is now being presented to the general public. Especially youths who grew up multilingually would profit from this change. In most schools, they currently have to learn either French, Spanish, or Latin as their fourth or fifth language if they want to study. Children who grow up multilingually often make up half of all children in West German cities.
How to Better Deal with Mobility Perspectives of Children and Youths
The suggestion is one of many ideas taken from the Transnational Mobility in Schools (TraMiS) research and development project, which received funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research over a period of three years. Together with twelve dedicated schools, the advising support of the German Education Union (Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft,GEW), as well as the Freudenberg Foundation, researchers from the University of Bremen analyzed how schools can better handle the diverse, transnational relations and mobility perspectives of children and youths.
School pupils, parents, teachers, and school management teams discussed short case studies and explained what they find to be problematic and what could be better dealt with. Moreover, the researchers visited schools abroad in order to find impulses for transnational, inclusive schools. Good examples and new ideas were created, discussed in specialist circles, made visible by means of freely downloadable comics and illustrated handouts, and were implemented in teacher training.
Schools Should Not Only Prepare For Life In Germany
“When schools only prepare children for a life in Germany, they are not doing justice to the multifaceted, transnational relations of the children and youths of today,” states the project leader Yasemin Karakaşoğlu, Professor of Intercultural Education at the University of Bremen. How knowledge and actions in the schools of the migration society must change, how the school staff could be diversified multilingually and multi-professionally, and what alternative paths could be taken when welcoming those who moved here is outlined in impulse papers and illustrated handouts.
Further Information:
Short German dossier “Alle Spachen zählen” from the TraMiS project as a downloadable PDF:
http://tramis.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/TraMiSPolicyBrief1_Sprachenprüfung-fin.pdf
Short German Dossier (“Transnationale Mobilität in Schulen - Ergebnisse des Forschungs- und Entwicklungsprojekts TraMiS”) as a downloadable PDF:
http://tramis.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/TraMiSPolicyBrief2_Zusammenfassung-fin.pdf
https://tramis.de/english/
www.uni-bremen.de/en/
Event:
November 20, 2021, 11 a.m.
Dr. Dita Vogel: “Wenn alle Sprachen in der Schule zählen -– Forschungsergebnisse und Reformperspektiven”
Presentation and discussion round at House of Science
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Yasemin Karakaşoğlu
Dr. Dita Vogel
Intercultural Education
Faculty of Pedagogy and Educational Sciences
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-69020 (Front office - Britta von Schaper)
Email: karakasogluprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de / dvogelprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
