In recent years, plurilingual education has gained foothold within educational research. However, plurilingual education is far from well-established in national curricula and educational practices (Daryai-Hansen et al., 2015; Drachmann et al., 2023; Paquet-Gauthier & Beaulieu, 2016), and the role of the teacher is emphasized as essential if plurilingual education should continue being reinforced in language teaching practices (Daryai-Hansen et al., forthcoming). Despite a general positivity towards plurilingual education (Daryai-Hansen et al., 2019; Haukås, 2016), integrating languages not necessarily known by the language teachers can be anxiety-provoking due to a feeling of losing control (Drachmann, 2023).
The chapter investigates the nexus between plurilingual education and language teacher wellbeing by addressing the question: How does plurilingual education affect language teachers’ wellbeing and what obstacles do experienced teachers identify for the implementation of plurilingual education? Theoretically, the chapter builds on:
(1) the PE-LAL project’s conceptualization of plurilingual education (Daryai-Hansen et al., forthcoming) reflecting a continuum, drawing on Candelier et al.’s (2010) distinction between integrated didactic approach, intercomprehension between related languages and Éveil aux langues, adding a transversal dimension focusing on learners’ language resources, including students’ first languages beyond the language(s) of schooling, and;
(2) literature within the field of teacher wellbeing (Mercer & Gregersen, 2020) focusing on language teachers (Sulis et al., 2023) in linguistically diverse school settings (Murphy & Mannix-McNamara, 2021), drawing on Seligman’s (2011) conceptualization of wellbeing consisting of: positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment.
Methodologically, the chapter is based on a multiple case study (Yin, 2015) with three cases: language teachers at primary (case 1), lower secondary (case 2) and upper secondary (case 3) level. Each case consists of one experienced practitioner within the field of plurilingual education teaching at a school in Denmark with a linguistically diverse student group. Through a qualitative content analysis (Mayring, 2015) of (a) semi-structured interviews with and (b) drawn mind maps by the teachers, reflecting and visualizing each teacher’s experiences with plurilingual education, the chapter portrays three teachers’ wellbeing in plurilingual education. The chapter concludes by discussing how an increased awareness of the nexus between plurilingual education and language teacher wellbeing could benefit the implementation of plurilingual education.