Why the 3M-project?

Teachers of Frisian primary schools are looking for effective strategies to acknowledge multilingualism and to make better use of it. Multilingualism in the Frisian educative field used to be restricted to bi- and trilingual education (Frisian, Dutch, and English), but nowadays teachers have to deal more and more with an intake of pupils that are non-native speakers.

With this project, teachers of 12 primary schools, researchers, students and professors of the Academy of Primary Teacher Education of the NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, in collaboration with various partners (University of Groningen, Mercator, Cedin, Afûk, Rutu Foundation, Nuffic, Steunpunt Diversiteit & Leren University of Gent), want to develop and implement an innovative approach for multilingual education. This approach offers both a framework for the appreciation and use of migrant languages, and a coherent use for Dutch, Frisian and English in the schools.

How do we work?

A first orientation towards international scientific research in this field has already yielded a number of scientifically based approaches that could form a basis for a new concept. These options must be expanded and combined to be useful to teachers. The 3M-project focuses on developing, trying out and evaluating new concepts and new didactic tools for multilingual education. We work bottom-up in collaboration between researchers, lecturers, pupils and teachers. All the developed tools are placed in a digital 3M-toolbox and an online learning environment (e3M), which are publicly and free of charge available to schools inside and outside the project.

Work packages

The project is divided into three main research lines:

1) development and intervention research

2) attitude research

3) dissemination

There are 5 work packages. In the first two years of the project (phase 1) a development study took place (work packages 1 and 2). The developed activities are placed in the 3M-Toolbox. Phase 1 is followed by phase 2: a two-year intervention study (work package 3). The final product of this research is the optimization of 3M-Toolbox. During the project period there is an accompanying attitude research study (work package 4). The objective is to portray the changes as a result of development and intervention research on the well-being and language attitudes of pupils and teachers. The research will also determine to what extent these changes are sustainable in the context of school development. Dissemination is an important component in this project and therefore has been described in a separate work package (work package 5).