Language teachers' perceptions of multilingualism and language teaching: The case of the postgraduate programme "lRM"

This paper explores the language views and practices of postgraduate student-teachers attending a distance-learning Master's Programme of a Greek University, entitled "Language Education for Refugees and Migrants" (LRM). Teachers and professionals working with language learners in linguistically diverse contexts make up an interesting research sample in order to explore their perceptions and practices concerning bi/multilingualism and language learning. The study was conducted through an open-ended questionnaire, delivered and completed electronically by the student-teachers of two modules of the Programme (LRM 53: Language teaching for adult refugees and migrants and LRM54: Language teaching for children with refugee and migrant background) and included open-ended questions regarding their profile, their perceptions towards bi/multilingualism and translanguaging, language use in the school context, the first language and its relation to second language learning. Taking into account the students' sample profile, the data can provide insights into the ways student-teachers view and deal with language diversity in their classrooms. Issues of attitudes and practices towards multilingualism and language teaching are discussed in relation to students-teachers' professional development/education. Also, through comparisons between the two groups of students of the modules, the results are expected to explore some common ground assumptions on the differences between language teaching for children and adults (in the refugee context) but also potential nuances and elements of distinctiveness in the two areas. © 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Beyond conventional borders of second language teachers’ education: A digital, interdisciplinary, and critical postgraduate curriculum

In this chapter we present and discuss aspects of the “Language Education for Refugees and Migrants (LRM)” Master’s program, which was launched by the Hellenic Open University in 2016. We focus on key elements of the curriculum design, such as digitality, criticality, interdisciplinarity, creativity, collaborative learning and a practice-oriented conceptualization. Our emphasis is on critical language teaching, digital and critical literacy skills that students are encouraged to develop through online collaboration that supports learning across age, race, culture, gender, ability and geography. Based on the pilot implementation of the program between October 2016 and February 2018, we present and discuss examples of activities and students’ responses to them. In addition, we reflect on and critically approach the challenges the LRM community had to face in order to facilitate the development of a new academic culture among all the agents involved in this endeavor. We conclude by reflecting on how open and distance higher education can play a major role in expanding the physical boundaries of communities who work with and for refugees in cross-disciplinary encounters that build on and go beyond the conventional perspectives of language education, and in facilitating refugees’ and migrant students’ access to higher education. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019