The ECML-funded Pluriwell project hosted its inaugural network meeting on October 1 and 2. A total of 22 participants from 10 countries attended the event at ECML headquarters in Graz. The gathering was an opportunity to share and showcase the ideas that the Pluriwell project team has been developing over the past year, but, to an even greater extent, it was a chance to put these ideas into practice with the help of a diverse group of committed teachers and other collaborators.
Because the project is aimed at fostering the plurilingual wellbeing of teachers around Europe, Pluriwell’s approach is necessarily rooted in the everyday experiences of teachers. To gain a broad perspective on teachers’ views of plurilingualism, the project invited active teachers from around Europe. Primary and secondary school teachers were joined by teacher training experts. They all offered insights into teachers’ views of plurlingual education and the kinds of concerns educators experience, some that reflected the specificities of their regional and national contexts and others that were more widely shared.
While it was important for the project leaders to share some of the theoretical foundations of plurilingual wellbeing, equally critical was creating a space where this wellbeing could emerge in the context of the meeting itself. The event was plurilingual in practice, as it was held in several different languages, and the organisers sought to ensure that everyone felt linguistically at ease, regardless of their proficiency in English, French or the other languages present. For many of the participants, it was energising and refreshing to be in friendly and professional international environment with so many other teachers. “It was a rare opportunity to be a part of a group of active teachers from all over, where everyone was equally dedicated, from the project team to all the participants,” said Sanja Bogojević, an Italian language teacher from Montenegro who attended the meeting. Indeed, one of the most unusual elements of the project is that it brings together working teachers, many of whom are not often involved in such international forums.
“This was a network meeting in the truest sense of the word,” said project coordinator Caterina Sugranyes. “We are thrilled to have left Graz having made strong connections and really having formed a team of teachers and professionals who are committed to helping others overcome some of the challenges they face in plurilingual education.” Indeed, the teachers who attended the meeting will be deeply involved in the project moving forward, as they will be continuing the transformative work of creating tools for plurilingual wellbeing with colleagues in their respective countries.
Caterina SUGRANYES, Latisha MARY, Gerit JARITZ, Karen AARØE
