Multilingualism & Literacy

Schools in the (Northern) Netherlands are faced with the challenge of shaping language and vocational education, taking into account both the Frisian language and its dialects, Low Saxon and its varieties, Dutch, modern foreign languages and a growing number of home languages of students with diverse linguistic backgrounds. In our professorship, we collect and study the knowledge and experiences of professionals and students in the field of multilingualism and literacy and provide tools and solutions for educational practice. The Multilingualism & Literacy professorship ties in with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) ‘Reduced Inequalities’.

Core values and identity: who are we?

We are committed to equality of opportunity and inclusive education, where all students – regardless of their linguistic and cultural background – have the opportunity to learn and to develop into social, linguistically proficient and critical citizens. This always takes place through interaction, where there is diversity in terms of social, cultural and multilingual practices. This is why the core concepts within our professorship are interaction through dialogue, multilingualism and literacy. 

Vision: what will education look like in a few years’ time? What do we want to create? 

We are committed to fostering a rich, challenging learning environment in which children learn together through research and curiosity and take an interactive approach to working on their own questions and ideas. Within a process like this, students are able to use their own languages when learning. 
 
We carry out applied research, which is based on Educational Design Research (Van den Akker et al, 2006). Interventions should lead to lasting changes in the classroom, the sustainable professionalisation of teaching staff, to embedding in the curriculum of primary school and grade-two teacher training programmes, development of teaching/educational materials, etc.