Journal for Educational Research Online (JERO): Issue 1/2024, 16. Volume Beliefs as Cognitive Markers of a Change in Perspective in the Context of Educational Professionalization When Dealing With Linguistic Heterogeneity

Publication date: 06.03.2025
This article looks at prospective teachers’ beliefs about linguistic and cultural heterogeneity and their significance for their subsequent pedagogical performance. In addition, the article focuses on the development of prospective teachers’ dispositions towards dealing with multilingualism over the course of a multi-semester qualification program. The corpus is analyzed using qualitative-structuring content analysis with regard to characteristics of professional identity. The theoretical-empirical starting point is the concept of “professional competence”, which, together with experiential knowledge and teacher personality, serves as the basis for a model concept of professional identity. In order to provide an insight into the beliefs of trainee teachers on linguistic heterogeneity as an aspect of pedagogical professionalism, beliefs were analyzed in five dimensions. In this way, the perceptions of prospective teachers regarding linguistic heterogeneity could initially be traced. The data also shows that the majority of certificate participants see linguistic heterogeneity as an enrichment from the outset, which seems to confirm the shift towards a more resource-oriented view of linguistic heterogeneity. The increased sensitization and a more differentiated awareness of the complexity of linguistic heterogeneity which can be identified at the end of certificate participation can be seen as an indication of a change in beliefs. This may confirm that beliefs about linguistic heterogeneity are a partial aspect of the concept of professional identity. The findings obtained here thus strengthen the assumption that the changing beliefs of trainee teachers are knowledge markers for their change in perspective.

Keywords
linguistic heterogeneity, beliefs, perception, professionalism