Multilingual educational teaching strategy in a multi-ethnic preschool

The study analyses kindergarten educators’ strategies for developing multilingualism in everyday kindergarten practice. The research questions are: 1) How do kindergarten teachers describe the multilingual strategies used in their kindergarten? 2) How do they describe the collaboration and communication that takes place around multilingualism among parents with Swedish as a second or third language?

The study shows that the kindergarten teachers’ strategies for promoting multilingualism were mainly based on their own experiences as mothers of multilingual children. An important strategy was that teachers actively used several languages with the children and encouraged them to use their mother tongue. Another strategy was to collaborate with parents in order to support the children’s language development by encouraging them to speak their own language both at home and in kindergarten. The strategies not only focused on language but also aimed to strengthen the children’s multilingual identity and provide them with space to develop it.

The researchers used interactive case studies where they worked closely with kindergarten staff. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews focused on topics such as different types of parental collaboration and the content of the collaboration, with a special focus on children’s language development. The data were collected in a kindergarten in a multicultural area in a medium-sized Swedish city, where many different cultures and languages meet. The kindergarten had 16 children aged 1-5 years, with the children having connections to several different countries. The sample consisted of kindergarten teachers and one kindergarten coordinator. All the participating employees were women and had Swedish as their second or third language.

Heikkilä, M., & Lillvist, A. (2023). Multilingual educational teaching strategy in a multi-ethnic preschool. Intercultural Education, 34(5), 516–531.