Conference Agenda

In reaction to linguistic inequality relating to multilingualism in Germany’s education system, language pedagogy has become a key component of teacher education in some federal states (Berkel-Otto et al. 2021). While scholarly work on multilingualism in education has brought forward numerous pedagogical approaches, studies show that concepts are not equally implemented in teacher education and school practice (Putjata et al. 2022). However, multilingual learners can only benefit from improved teacher education, if teachers apply what they learned in theory to their teaching practice. Thus, teacher induction holds an enormous potential to bridge theory and practice.

Teacher induction in Germany is organised by the federal states. To obtain an official teaching certificate, teachers need two academic degrees (undergraduate and postgraduate) as well as a teaching degree after 1.5 years of induction. Throughout the induction phase, pre-service teachers teach at a school part-time and attend several weekly seminars at regional teacher induction centres (IC) (König 2013). They are guided by mentors at the school as well as by teacher educators at the IC. Compared to other countries, ICs as institutions and the overall complex structure of teacher induction in Germany can be described as rather unique (Abs & Anderson-Park 2014). Regrettably, there is hardly any empirical research on language education and multilingual pedagogy as a content area of teacher induction in Germany (Böning 2023).

The research project presented in this paper addresses this desideratum in connection to language pedagogy, asking the following research questions:

• How is multilingual pedagogy implemented as a subject area within teacher induction?
• What relevance and meaning does it have for different stakeholders?

Employing a “top-down” research strategy, teacher induction’s curriculum in Germany’s federal state North-Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the process of implementation were analysed. In academic teacher education as well as in practical induction, learning about (teaching in) linguistically diverse learner groups is part of the mandatory curriculum. Thus, the federal state’s curriculum is regarded as the curricular macro level and the starting point of analysis. On a meso level, IC’s training plans have been analysed. On a meso level also, interviews were conducted with experts from the field, focusing on institutional knowledge, the conceptualization of multilingual learners and language pedagogy. On a micro level, a survey was carried out with teacher educators to gain a representative picture of how the curriculum is interpreted. The “top-down” research approach of the project is supported by curriculum theory of the intended, implemented and achieved curriculum and its interconnectedness on different levels (macro, meso and micro) (van der Akker et al. 2010). In addition, the linguistic perspective is based on theory on language policy in society and education with a critical focus on language norms and linguistic equality (Johnson 2013).

The overall data speak for a consistent implementation of language education as a subject area of teacher induction in NRW on all analysed levels. However, didactical approaches and methods are oriented towards educational demands of teaching and supporting academic linguistic register of German (such as linguistically responsive teaching and scaffolding). Even though embracing multilingualism and supporting linguistic diversity as a learning objective is a consistent part of the curriculum, multilingual pedagogy is not considered a common-sense strategy of teaching.

The paper will present the results more detailed and discuss them, considering complex curricular dynamics within teacher induction and relating them to academic teacher education as well as international contexts.

The reading skills of young people across Europe are declining (OECD, 2023). This trend is also evident in the Netherlands, where both reading proficiency and enjoyment of reading among children and adolescents have decreased. (Swart et al., 2023). People who struggle with reading face significant disadvantages in our society. Adults with low literacy tend to earn less, experience poorer health, and have shorter life expectancy than those with proficient reading skills. As reading difficulties increase throughout the education system, society as a whole bears the consequences.

One reason cited for the Dutch reading crisis is that language teaching in Dutch schools has become increasingly fragmented into separate components that are disconnected from other subjects (Van Koeven & Smits, 2022). Dutch teaching methods use adapted texts that have been simplified, resulting in an impoverished context and a limited vocabulary (Houtveen et al. 2012).

A promising educational approach to turn the tide in the reading crisis is to work with so-called rich texts. Rich texts contain rich language, are authentic, are of high quality, and encourage reflection and interaction (Burki et al., 2023). They stimulate the reader's imagination and curiosity. Rich texts are authentic and unadapted texts from outside the classroom, such as children's books and newspaper articles (Berardo, 2006; May et al., 2023). From previous research, we know that reading (aloud) and discussing rich texts in the classroom can improve students' reading comprehension (May et al., 2023).

Previous research has shown that weak readers are often offered simplified and impoverished texts, whereas they would in fact benefit from reading rich texts with appropriate support (Brown et al., 2018). However, Dutch teachers are generally not accustomed to using rich texts in their instruction, and it remains unclear what teachers and schools need in order to effectively design reading instruction based on rich texts. We also know little about how working with rich texts in reading education contributes to the reading skills, reading motivation, and reading enjoyment of students.

The research discussed in this article aims to fill this knowledge gap. The first research aim was to asses the experienced benefits for students of a rich-text-based reading approach in terms of reading skills, reading motivation, and reading enjoyment. The second aim of the research was also to gain insight into teachers' sense of competence in working with rich texts, the bottlenecks they experience and what they need in order to use rich texts in their teaching.

This contribution discusses a three-year collaborative design research, in which researchers and teachers worked together to develop, implement, and evaluate rich-text reading approaches in five Dutch primary schools. Data were collected through open classroom observations, student interviews, and teacher interviews.

The results show that both teachers and students experience positive outcomes in reading skills, reading motivation and reading enjoyment by a rich-text reading approach. Furthermore, the study revealed a number of challenges and enabling conditions at the school level that influence the successful implementation of working with rich texts in reading instruction. One challenge, for example, is that preparing lessons with rich texts is relatively time-consuming, because there is less reliance on teaching methods.

Children and adolescents with chronic or severe illnesses occupy a particularly vulnerable position within educational systems, as their right to education is repeatedly challenged by prolonged absences, medical treatment, and psychosocial strain. Hospital school education responds to this tension by creating pedagogical spaces at the intersection of schooling, medicine, and care. Within these spaces, teachers are confronted with complex and often uncertain situations in which pedagogical action must be continuously negotiated under conditions of emotional strain, institutional fragmentation, and shifting responsibilities (Fesch & Müller, 2014; Bakels, 2020). In this sense, hospital schools can be understood as socially condensed sites in which broader societal transformations—such as changing conditions of knowledge production, blurred institutional boundaries, and increasing demands for context-sensitive professional action—become particularly visible.

In this context, educational transitions—from illness to hospital schooling to reintegration into mainstream schools—emerge as critical situations of professional knowing and acting.
Against this background, the paper addresses the following research questions:
(1) Which dimensions of professional competence enable teachers in hospital school settings to translate pedagogical and medical knowledge into responsible action during transitional phases?
(2) How is professional competence enacted in the coordination of transitions, and which forms of knowledge are activated—particularly in collaboration with families and home schools ( (Äärelä, Määttä, & Uusiautti, 2018)?

The study presented here aims to reconstruct the competence requirements that shape pedagogical action in transitional educational contexts such as hospital schooling and to analyse how different forms of professional knowledge are mobilised, negotiated, and transformed into situated action. To address this aim, the study draws on an integrated theoretical framework that combines a competence-theoretical perspective with German-language curriculum theory. The COACTIV model of professional competence serves as a heuristic structure for systematically analysing professional knowledge, beliefs, motivational orientations, and self-regulatory capacities as interrelated dimensions of pedagogical professionalism (Baumert & Kunter, 2006; 2011). This competence-oriented perspective is complemented by a curriculum-theoretical understanding of professional action as a fundamentally reflexive process in which pedagogical responsibility, judgement, and meaning are continuously negotiated in relation to concrete situations (Hopmann, 2007; Künzli et al., 2013). From this combined perspective, hospital school education emerges as a paradigmatic transitional context in which educational action unfolds under conditions of institutional overlap, uncertainty, and vulnerability, making the reflexive connection between knowing and acting a central requirement of professional competence.