Some parents and caregivers of multilingual children find it difficult to be involved in their children’s education. In these cases, language becomes something that stands in the way: a barrier. How can multilingualism build bridges—between caregivers and students, as well as between experiences and mathematical content?

Using home languages to support content learning, or ‘pre-teaching’, could increase a child’s feeling of inclusion and academic achievement. But what should this pre-teaching look like, and what do caregivers want and need to implement it successfully?

Multi-STEM works together with our partners IOT, CPS Onderwijs, Stichting Joury, It’s My Child, and Taal Doet Meer to explore how caregivers can be empowered through the use of translanguaging strategies. The project focuses on pre-teaching various mathematical concepts in the home.

How can parents and caregivers play a role in previewing certain mathematical concepts in the home language as an introduction to what is taught in class?

Using the home language and translanguaging strategies in this way is something that—to our knowledge—has not yet been developed. The hope is that giving the students access to their wholistic linguistic repertoires will contribute to migrant children’s feelings of inclusion in school and to their academic achievement. – PhD researcher Erin Gail MacDonald

For more information about the subproject ‘Home’ contact Erin Gail MacDonald, e.g.macdonald@uu.nl