Unlocking Multilingual Classrooms: Preprimary Teachers’ Perspectives on Inclusive Pedagogy in Spain

Abstract This study addresses the challenges faced by pre-primary teachers (specialists and non-specialists in additional languages) in multilingual settings, with a specific focus on attention to diversity. Nowadays, schools are becoming more diverse both linguistically (Robinson-Jones, Duarte & Günther-van der Meij, 2022) and through the inclusion of special educational needs (SEN) students (Ramberg & Watkins, 2020). This study aims to identify the teachers’ needs in these contexts and to bring to light emergent topics on multilingualism and diversity. Ten focus groups were conducted for this purpose, and participants (pre-primary teachers) were asked to reflect on their competencies to address groups of young learners in multilingual settings. The participants originate from five different locations in Spain, characterized by different linguistic and social realities. The discussions were recorded and transcribed verbatim, and the software MAXQDA was used to facilitate the content analysis of the obtained data. Information was gathered from two perspectives: specialists and non-specialist teachers of additional languages. The findings reveal the complexity of adopting and incorporating the tailored approaches required by the increasingly linguistically diverse students and by those with special educational needs. Several key findings emerged, including the difficulties of the teachers when adapting to changing educational contexts, the lack of guidelines to facilitate teaching in multilingual contexts, and the teachers’ concern about diverse students. The results of this research underscore the importance of providing pre-primary teachers in multilingual contexts with multifaceted support (specific legal framework, training sessions, and classroom assistants, among others) to facilitate the inclusiveness of diverse young learners. The research, embedded in a national research project on pre-primary teachers’ competencies in multilingual contexts, contributes insights into teaching strategies in diverse multilingual settings.