Marian Van Popta & Ada Van Dalen

Marian: "As researcher and educator in the professional masters at the Marnix Academy (Utrecht), I consider it my mission to let teachers develop themselves the inquisitive stance needed to provide good language education for all pupils. I am a linguist and as such, I see the great importance of language for the development of children in general and of newcomers in particular. I co-authored the Dutch guide for primary education about newcomers in primary schools. In 2017, we conducted an international case study on professionalization of teachers for newcomers education, for which Flanders was one of our cases, and the board of Erasmushogeschool our respondents.'

Ada: "Since the mid 90s, I'm involved in education for newcomers in primary schools. Nowadays, I'm an educator in post-initial trajectories at the Marnix Academy (Utrecht) on multilingualism, second language acquisition, and newcomers. In 2015, as a response to the large influx of newcomers, I developed a post-initial trajectory for experts in educating newcomers. I am a member of the 'Lectorinitiatief Professionalisering Taalonderwijs Nieuwkomers' (initiative of lecturers of professionalization in language education for newcomers). I co-authored the guide for primary education about newcomers in primary schools. In 2017, we conducted an international case study on professionalization of teachers for newcomers education, for which Flanders was one of our cases, and the board of Erasmushogeschool our respondents."

We start out from the ideas of Biesta on the three main tasks for good educators, namely qualification, socialization, and personal development. In this workshop, we take these tasks as perspectives to explore the far-reaching consequences for educating newcomers in general, and for language education to these pupils in particular. We will work on knowledge, attitude and skills for educating newcomers by experiencing what the (special) needs of these pupils demand from the teacher.