The UB to host a conference on language management in secondary school teacher education
Education experts will discuss the needs, resources and strategies for teachers’ better language training.
Education experts will discuss the needs, resources and strategies for teachers’ better language training.
The University of Barcelona will hold on 8 November 2024, from 9.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m., in the Rosa Roig room (third floor of the Migdia Building in Mundet Campus) a conference dedicated to language management in the training of secondary school teachers. Aimed at university teaching staff of the Master’s Degree in Teacher Training in Secondary Education (MUFPS, formerly CAP), training centres of the Department of Education, MUFPS mentors, MUFPS students, the activity will take place in a hybrid format and will bring together distinguished experts to analyse the needs, resources and strategies necessary to improve the language training of teachers in the current context. Prior registration is required.
The conference will be opened by Josep Monserrat, vice-rector for Language Policy at the UB, and Esther Niubó, Catalan minister for Education and Vocational Training. Susanna Aránega, coordinator of the Master’s Degree in Teacher Training in Secondary Education (MUFPS), will then present the event’s agenda.
Among the speakers at the conference is Pepín Beltran, Secretary for Educational Improvement at the Department of Education, who will speak on the teaching competences required in the current regulatory framework, together with Andreu Freixes, Deputy Director General for Languages at the same department. Maite Puigdevall, researcher and MUFPS teacher at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, will also speak, sharing an example of the work on sociolinguistic content in the Master's Degree in Secondary Education.
On the other hand, Jordi Coiduras, MIF and MUFPS practicum coordinator, and Montse Sendra, sociolinguist, will present strategies for language management in the classroom. The conference includes a round table with school principals, such as Mercè Palau (Institut Miquel Martí i Pol); Educard Cirera (Institut Neus Català), and Jordi Satorra (Institut Martí i Franquès), chaired by Digna Couso, coordinator of the MIF programme.
The event will close with a speech by Francesc X. Vila, Catalan Minister of Language Policy, who will share his closing reflections on the importance of language management in the education system.
This conference is part of the linguistic model of the Catalan education system, which promotes multilingual and intercultural education to guarantee social cohesion and educational quality. This model places Catalan as the vehicular language of reference throughout the system, and reinforces its role as the backbone of academic and social communication in a multicultural and multilingual context, with the aim of training competent citizens in several languages and preparing them for a global world.