Introduction

A Recommendation recently adopted by the Council’s Committee of Ministers (Recommendation 2022 (1)) on the Importance of Plurilingual and Intercultural Education for Democratic Culture sees it as “a holistic concept that has an impact on all areas of education policy and practice”. The measures recommended to governments of Council of Europe member states include: 

“[…] request institutions responsible for the initial and further education of teachers to focus on pedagogies that foster inclusive plurilingual and intercultural education and enable student teachers and teachers to implement them across the curriculum.” (page 9).

The Framework of Reference for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures (FREPA, 2012) outlines learner competences that are focused on in plurilingual and intercultural education and proposes several pluralistic approaches relevant to plurilingual and intercultural education that can be used by teachers. The tools proposed on this website aim to complement the FREPA by focusing on helping teacher educators to develop teacher competences that facilitate integration of such approaches in language education, as well as in addressing the linguistic aspects of other subjects in the curriculum. 

Contents

The website offers two types of tools to aid the development of teacher education programmes and courses:

• A reference framework of teacher competences for pluralistic approaches (FTC-PA)
• Sequences of tasks for teacher education

A reference framework of teacher competences for pluralistic approaches (FTC-PA)

The reference framework of competences provides descriptors which can be used to specify teacher education objectives and to raise awareness of the need for specific teacher competences when implementing pluralistic approaches. Like the FREPA, this reference framework is not prescriptive. Users can select the descriptors that best suit their educational context.

The framework is organised across seven ‘dimensions’. These focus respectively on: Commitment to values and principles for using pluralistic approaches; Competences in communication specific to pluralistic approaches; Digital competences related to pluralistic approaches; Metalinguistic, metadiscourse and metacultural competences specific to pluralistic approache; Didactic and pedagogical competences for pluralistic approaches; Competence in collaborating with the whole educational community on the implementation of pluralistic approaches; and Competences for professional learning and development for pluralistic approaches. 

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Sequences of tasks for teacher education

Each sequence is centred around the development of one or more of the teacher competences seen as important for facilitating learners' progress and their plurilingual and intercultural competences. 

The sequences each include a scenario outlining the main steps and suggestions for adaptation, as well as materials or links to existing materials to be used and, where appropriate, guidance for teacher educators.

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