Linguistic diversity in school - Our summer school 2024

For the first time, our summer school entitled ‘Linguistic diversity in the school context’ took place at the University of Potsdam in the summer semester of 2024. It was organised as part of a course given by Prof. Dr Katrin Böhme and Ewa Sliwinski for students of special needs education in collaboration with Dr Alice Bychovà, a member of staff at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, and was supported by the KoUP funding line.

A total of ten students from the University of Potsdam and Masaryk University in Brno (Czech Republic) took part in the summer school in may. Over the course of the summer school, the participants intensively explored the topics of multilingualism and the promotion of family languages in schools and classes in an international comparison. The participants visited two secondary schools in Berlin and observed lessons at different grade levels and in different subjects. In the follow-up evaluation discussions with the respective school management and teaching staff, the students were able to ask a wide range of questions about the observed lessons, the school structure, linguistic and cultural heterogeneity at the schools and the challenges in lesson organisation, thus gaining a differentiated insight into everyday school life at a secondary school. At a joint final meeting of the participants at the University of Potsdam, active discussions and an intensive academic exchange took place on the observed lessons at a pedagogical level, as well as on the two school systems in Germany and the Czech Republic and on teacher training with a focus on multilingualism and dealing with heritage language in the school context, with the international perspective enriching the discussions in particular. The similarities and differences in addressing and dealing with linguistic heterogeneity in the two different education systems were particularly interesting. For example, a student from Masaryk University reported on her experiences and the importance of observing the summer school: "Theoretically, we are very familiar with topics such as integration and multilingualism, as they are the subject of many lectures in schools. In reality, however, I only encountered them during my work shadowing [...] in Berlin."As a result, the summer school was able to establish an important practical connection and contribute to an open and appreciative attitude in the school context and offered the students, staff and Berlin schools great international exchange opportunities.

We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the Berlin schools for their hospitality and support, as well as all employees of the KoUP funding programme for their successful cooperation.

We look forward to further summer schools!