Perspectives on multilingualism and multilingual literacies from early childhood educators in Luxembourg

The pedagogies of multiliteracies and translanguaging (García et al., 2017) call for multiliteracies, but early childhood educators are often ensure of how to develop practices in one, let alone multiple languages. The development of literacy skills is often reduced to the isolated training of phonological awareness or the letters of the alphabet. By contrast, storytelling is a holistic approach which contributes to the development of language and literacy skills (Sénéchal & Lefevre, 2001). It can promote multilingualism if multilingual speakers are involved (Kirsch, 2018).
This presentation reports on the perspectives on multiliteracies of educators in crèches in multilingual Luxembourg, where 63.7% of the 4-year-olds do not speak Luxembourgish at home. Multilingual education became mandatory in 2017, requesting educators to develop Luxembourgish, promote French and value home languages. The mix-method project Collaboration with parents and Multiliteracy in early Childhood Education aims to develop literacy practices in multiple languages and with multiple actors (parents, educators) through professional development in crèches. In this paper we report the findings of interviews and a survey sent to 700 educators in May 2020. The latter were asked to identify literacy practices (e.g. storytelling), language-promoting strategies, and translanguaging practices. The data are analysed with thematic analysis and descriptive statistical analysis. The findings will contribute to our understanding of current ideologies, pedagogies, and practices, and help identify issues and possible ways forward.