Plurilingual Education across Educational Levels – Conceptualization, Curriculum Analysis, and Recommendations for Further Development

In the period 2020-2023, the research and development project Plurilingual Education – Minority and Majority Students' Language Awareness across Educational Levels (PE-LAL) investigated students' language awareness across educational levels in the context of plurilingual education in the mandatory language subjects in primary and lower secondary school (Danish, Danish as a second language, English, French, German) and in Almen Sprogforståelse in upper secondary school. Based on findings from the PE-LAL project, the article focuses on plurilingual education in a Danish educational context. First, the article presents the project's conceptualization of plurilingual education developed through an abductive approach. The conceptualization forms a continuum consisting of three pluralistic approaches and a transversal dimension. Then, based on the conceptualization, the article presents findings from the project's curriculum study showing that plurilingual education is integrated in all language subjects in primary and lower secondary school and in Almen Sprogforståelse in upper secondary school – albert in different ways and with different objectives – leaving the Danish language curriculum with great development potential for plurilingual education. Finally, by drawing on the curriculum findings and other research results from the project, the article concludes with an introduction to the project's Recommendations to strengthen plurilingual education in language subjects in primary and lower secondary school and in Almen Sprogforståelse in upper secondary school in Denmark. The 18 recommendations represent an ideal scenario for how plurilingual education can be strengthened at different levels vertically and horizontally in the Danish educational context, which is why the recommendations address both the macro level (curriculum and teacher education) as well as the meso and micro levels (school, teacher, teaching materials, teaching practice). Each single recommendation is an important contribution to strengthen plurilingual education.