A former secondary school languages teacher, Terry previously worked at the Universities of Nottingham and Sheffield, before joining the University of Westminster as Professor of Languages and Interdisciplinary Pedagogy. He is based in the Centre for Education and Teaching Innovation (which he established and directed) and the School of Humanities, leading on both educational research and migration research, as well as research ethics, across the university. He has published extensively in the areas of multilingualism and learner and teacher autonomy and is founder editor of the academic journal Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching. Terry has worked closely on languages strategy and curriculum with the UK and other Governments (Australia, Czech Republic, France and Malaysia) and has been awarded the honour of Chevalier des Palmes Académiques by the French Prime Minister. He is President of FIPLV (Fédération Internationale des Professeurs de Langues Vivantes), an NGO of both UNESCO and the Council of Europe.
Opening up to multilingualism: Plurilingual and inclusive approaches to integrating learners from migration backgrounds into the classroom
The urgent need to support schools to become more inclusive has been given fresh intensity during recent waves of forced migration from the Middle East and Ukraine. In this talk I will mainly draw on the work of the Supporting Multilingual Classrooms activities co-funded by the European Union and the European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe. These include workshops in a range of countries, which enable the development of educational strategies and pedagogies that value multilingualism as a resource for all and draw on plurilingual repertoires and identities in order to enhance access to learning across the curriculum. Throughout the talk, I will refer to research and practice in order to reflect on ways in which mindsets can be shifted to embrace the new reality of superdiverse classrooms and other urban spaces. Reference will also be made to the Council of Europe’s recent Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to member States on the importance of plurilingual and intercultural education for democratic culture.
