The writing child in the multilingual primary school: a focus on social-emotional development.

Betreuerinnen: Ingrid Gogolin, Sara Fürstenau

The particular interest of the study is the interplay between students' social-emotional well-being and their linguistic and literacy background and skills.

A strong social-emotional development is a prerequisite for children's health. As defined by the World Health Organization in 1946 and signed by 61 states, being healthy is not the same as the absence of disease or infirmity. Instead, being healthy means a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being (World Health Organization [WHO]). From an educational perspective, schools can play an essential role in fostering children's basic social-emotional development.

One of the factors that play an important role in social-emotional well-being is language, and multilingualism. The more language children can use, the easier they can communicate and explain their feelings. The other way around, attention for language, including linguistic diversity, can increase children's feeling of empowerment and belonging, especially in a migration context.

The goal of the study is to answer the research question: What is known about the linguistic and literacy-related barriers to, and facilitators of, social-emotional well-being among students aged 6-16 years?

Expected Methods: Mixed Methods with explorative systematic review and case-study style analysis of different data sets.

Disclaimer: I am just at the start of my project and its exact focus may still change.