Press release
Inaugural Lecture by Prof. Dr. Tanja Salem
On the occasion of her appointment as Professor of Theory and Practice of Childhood Education at the Department of Social and Educational Sciences, Prof. Dr. Tanja Salem will give her inaugural lecture entitled "The importance of space for language education in the context of migration".
The lecture will present the results of the interdisciplinary linguistic and intercultural educational science BMBF joint research project "Language education professionals in multilingual daycare centres – SprabiPiKs". This is a qualitative case comparison study that was carried out in six daycare centres in different social areas in a large German city. Among other things, the aim was to provide answers to the question of the conditions under which it is possible to organise language education in daycare centres that includes migration-related multilingualism.
The pedagogical goal of the study was to take the individual migration-related multilingualism of children as an educational prerequisite and also as a 'resource' as the starting point for pedagogical work in day-care centres and to contribute through pedagogical action to ensuring that all children can move competently in the migration-related multilingual society, participate in it and help shape it.
In the presentation, two sub-studies from the SprabiPiKs project will be compared with each other, which shed light on the importance of space for language education in the context of migration. Based on a relational concept of space, perceptions of and cooperation in the social space(s) from the perspective of daycare centre managers were examined with regard to language education in the daycare centre.
In addition, conjunctive spaces of experience, i.e. action-guiding orientations, of educational professionals with regard to language education were reconstructed under the local spatial conditions of the respective day-care centre based on the practice-based sociology of knowledge and the documentary method. According to the study results, space in these perspectives appears to be a relevant point of reference for practices of language education that include multilingualism.
However, the results indicate that these practices also reproduce social linguistic power relations and inequalities in the context of migration. Finally, they emphasise the importance of addressing (contrasting) practices of language education in the context of migration in the initial, continuing and further training of educational professionals.
About the joint research project "Language education professionals in multilingual daycare centres – SprabiPiKs" (2018-2022)
About the person
Prof. Dr. Tanja Salem completed her degree in educational science in 2009 at the University of Hamburg with a diploma and then worked as a research assistant at the Faculty of Education. She was then a fellow of the two-year graduate programme in the "Forschungskolleg Frühkindliche Bildung" of the Robert Bosch Stiftung.
In 2016, Tanja Salem completed her doctorate at the University of Hamburg on the topic of "Cooperation between daycare centres and primary schools for continuous language education". Until 2018, she worked as a research assistant at the Freudenberg Foundation in the scientific support of the programmes "One square kilometre of education" and "Educational rights for children and young people with refugee experience: NOW!".
From 2018 to 2021, she conducted research as a postdoctoral researcher in the interdisciplinary BMBF joint project "Sprachbildungsprofis in mehrsprachigen Kitas – SprabiPiKs" in the BMBF funding guideline "Qualitätsentwicklung für gute Bildung in der frühen Kindheit".
She was both a visiting professor for the subject area "Primary School Didactics, Multilingualism and Social Participation" at the Institute of Educational Science at the University of Kassel (winter semester 2020/21) and a professor of childhood education with a focus on early childhood development and educational processes at the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences on the Wolfsburg campus (November 2021 to August 2022).
Since September 2022, she has been Professor of Theory and Practice of Childhood Education at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam in the Department of Social and Educational Sciences.
Inaugural lecture
When: 16/01/2023, 6.00 pm
Place: House D / Room 011
Online: Live stream via Zoom
The inaugural lecture is open to the public. Interested parties are welcome. There will be a small reception in the foyer after the lecture.
