Interactions in joint multiliteracies activities in three day care centres in Luxembourg

Several countries have implemented multilingual programmes in early childhood education, trilingual Luxembourg being one of them. Since 2017 professionals in formal and non-formal (e.g. crèches) institutions have to develop language skills in Luxembourgish /French, familiarise children with French/ Luxembourgish and value their home languages, for instance through literacy activities and common activities with parents. Many practitioners, however, are unsure of how to develop literacy in one, let alone multiple languages, and many rarely collaborate with parents. The longitudinal mixed-method research project COMPARE therefore aims to develop and explore multiliteracy and collaborative practices in the non-formal ECEC sector.
The paper presents the literacy events in which parents and educators collaboratively engaged three-year-olds in three crèches in 2020-2021. The analysis of the video-recorded observations shows that the range and number of activities as well as the parents’ language use depended on the crèches. Parents tended to read and tell stories, frequently in a (prestigious) home language, and sing songs. The parent-led activities in these crèches reflected, to some extent, the pedagogical practices that 452 professionals reported in an online questionnaire completed in 2020 (Kirsch & Aleksić, 2021). We argue that collaboration with parents can propel the use of home languages in crèches and develop multiliteracy practices, but educators need to be aware of language hierarchies and have a good understanding of literacy.