Multi-STEM is a research project that aims to promote the participation of multilingual children in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.
Subprojects
Children with a migration background can encounter obstacles in Dutch education.
Developing multilingual strategies for STEM education
Multi-STEM wants to ensure that multilingual children feel seen and heard, and that they can fully participate in education.
Multilingual children possess knowledge and skills in their home language that are lost in a monolingual Dutch environment.
That’s why Multi-STEM is developing an approach where both Dutch and home languages can be used.
Allowing a child to use all of their languages not only improves school performance, but also ensures that the child feels seen and involved.
Recent Blog Posts
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New developments: multilingual teaching practices
On September 4th, 2025, the Dutch Education Council issued a clear recommendation: make better use of linguistic diversity in education. School leaders and the government are being called upon to invest in the support, training, and continued professional development of teachers. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science is working on a framework for…
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Like a waltz of languages: Multilingual students talking about science-related things
In this post, we discuss how learning to talk in the scientific language does not mean leaving other languages or ways of talking behind. We also show how multilingual children may talk about science-related topics using a ‘waltz’ of languages.
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Educators as bridges between researchers and caregivers
Doing participatory research with parents/caregivers of multilingual children sometimes requires researchers to enter the school environment. It can be a precarious position—we aren’t apart of the school, and shouldn’t be seen as such, to protect the integrity of the research. On the other hand, working with parents/caregivers is thoroughly dependent on relationships and trust. Developing…
