This study explores adolescent well-being during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in two high-income countries from Europe and one middle-income country from South America. The aim is to investigate the correlates of different dimensions of subjective wellbeing in 10-to 16-year-olds from different cultural contexts. Methods: An online, self-report questionnaire was completed by 1,613 adolescents in Luxembourg, Germany, and Brazil between May and July 2020. The outcome variables were measures of life satisfaction and emotional well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study included a range of sociodemographic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal covariates. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and latent variable structural equational modeling. Results: A two-factor model of subjective well-being, consisting of life satisfaction and emotional well-being latent constructs, fitted well with this sample data for Luxembourg, Germany, and Brazil. Results showed that gender, socioeconomic status, intrapersonal factors, quantity and type of schoolwork, and relationships with adults were important common predictors of individual differences in subjective well-being during COVID-19. Fear of illness emerged as the strongest correlate of emotional well-being across the three countries. Conclusions: This study indicates that girls and adolescents from low-income homes may be especially vulnerable to negative secondary impacts of COVID-19 that can affect mental health. It identified several common correlates of subjective well-being in adolescents from different cultural settings, including factors that may be changeable, such as the following: the way adults listen to adolescents, schoolwork during distant learning, and fear of illness. Findings can inform the development of quality interventions for promoting the well-being of adolescents during a global pandemic.
While translanguaging has been well researched in bilingual settings with older pupils and has been found to contribute to cognitive and personal development, there is little research on translanguaging of young multilinguals. In trilingual Luxembourg, at school, children learn Luxembourgish aged 4, German aged 6 and French aged 7, with the majority not speaking Luxembourgish on school entry. The number of languages to be learned may leave teachers little space to capitalise on home languages and encourage translanguaging. Drawing on qualitative methods, this paper contextualises and examines the practice and purposes of translanguaging of nursery and primary school children who speak a language other than Luxembourgish at home, while they collaboratively produce oral texts on the iPad app iTEO. The data stem from a longitudinal study using a multi-method approach. The findings indicate that the children made use of their multilingual repertoire in order to communicate, construct knowledge and mark their multilingual identity. Translanguaging was a frequent and legitimate practice in both classes although the older children drew less on home languages other than Luxembourgish. The children's ability to translanguage and their opportunities for doing so were influenced by the multilingual learning environment, the curriculum and the language learning tasks.
There is a recognised need for multilingual pedagogies as these capitalise on children's resources. Language policies calling for monolingual or multilingual policies are, however, not easily translated into pedagogical practices. Teachers play a crucial role in the process of policy implementation because they negotiate policies and adapt them in the light of their beliefs, experiences, existing pedagogical practices and the context in which these are embedded. This case study is located in a preschool in multilingual Luxembourg and examines the ways in which a teacher engages with policy and implements a multilingual-oriented programme to draw on children's diverse language needs. The data stem from a qualitative, longitudinal study using a multi-method approach. The findings highlight the interplay between the educational policy focussing on Luxembourgish, the teacher's beliefs and ideologies rooted in her multilingual identity and the country's societal multilingualism, and a boy's experiences of separating languages at home. The findings are of particular interest to teachers as they show that the dialogue between the teacher, the child and his mother influences their beliefs and contributes to opening up multilingual spaces.
The paper explores children's perspectives of distance education, their learning experiences and school satisfaction in Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data stem from an online questionnaire completed by 1773 primary and secondary school children aged 6–16. While the paper uses quantitative and qualitative data, it aligns with the qualitative research tradition and predominantly uses an inductive approach. The findings show that teachers offered varied types of distance education and that parents supported children. The children's contact time with teachers and their time spent on schoolwork varied within and between countries. Their school satisfaction dropped in the three countries. The paper calls for training and development on distant education.
This paper investigates seven early education practitioners' attitudes towards multilingual activities and translanguaging as well as their actual practices in Luxembourg. They took part in a professional development comprising a course, coaching, and regular meetings to deepen their understanding of multilingualism and language learning, and enable them to implement activities in multiple languages. The findings, drawn from questionnaires, observations, and interviews, show that all practitioners opened up towards multilingual activities and translanguaging, increased activities in such languages, and translanguaged frequently. The practitioners analyzed their beliefs and practices, connected theory and practice, constructed new knowledge, developed positive attitudes and changed their practice. This study is the first one to investigate the attitudes and practices of professionals in formal and non-formal education settings as well as the effect of professional development in Luxembourg. It also addresses the research gap regarding professional development on multilingualism in early childhood.
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