Project details
Strengthening Linguistic Participation in Nursing Education (STePs) – Nursing School and Practice as a Learning Opportunity
Prof. Dr. Andrea Daase, Universität Bremen, FB 10 (Projektleitung);
Dr. Micha Fleiner, Universität Bremen, FB 10;
Rebekka Heil , Universität Paderborn;
Prof. Dr. Constanze Niederhaus, Universität Paderborn;
Sina Spiekermeier Gimenes, Universität Bremen, FB 10;
Description
The interdisciplinary research and development project STePs focuses on the linguistic challenges of migration-related multilingual trainees in nursing training. The interdisciplinary team, consisting of experts from the fields of German as a second language (DaZ) and nursing science/didactics as well as partners from nursing education and nursing practice, are working together to develop language training concepts to support multilingual trainees in successfully completing their nursing training.
Research questions
What are the needs and language requirements of multilingual trainees in nursing training due to migration?
How can the participation of trainees be enabled and strengthened?
What possibilities can be derived from a language-educational design of nursing training?
How can (educational) staff be professionalized and supported?
Background
The relevance of the topic of language education and support for immigrants in nursing training becomes clear when looking at the drop-out rates, as language barriers are increasingly cited as a reason for dropping out of training during the probationary period (Becker et al., 2022, 70). Although German courses to prepare for/accompany training are increasingly available as additive courses, these are often not tailored to the needs of the target group and do not have the desired effect (ibid.).
Aims of the project
Against this background, STePs closes a research gap with the aim of strengthening formal, non-formal and informal language education at both learning venues (school and practice) by systematically designing language education and professionalizing (educational) staff.
Methodological approach
First of all, a comprehensive linguistic needs analysis is carried out, which refers to social practices in nursing lessons and in practical assignments in nursing facilities in order to record professional language activities in their routinized embedding and with their implicit knowledge systems. In the sense of a multi-perspective analysis, systematic observations of the learning locations school and practice, interviews with trainees as well as group discussions with nursing teachers and practice instructors take place. In addition, documents that are used or have been created as part of theoretical and practical training are taken into account for the analysis.
Based on the identified linguistic and social practices and taking into account current research findings, concepts for language support for multilingual trainees integrated into specialist teaching or practical instruction processes are then designed. Subsequently, further training for teachers at nursing schools and low-threshold, non-formal or informal educational programs for colleagues in the practice facilities will be developed and implemented. The acquired language training concepts are then tested by the teachers, jointly evaluated and further developed.
The final step is to research and review the impact of the educational programs. In addition to new lesson observations, documents from both learning locations are consulted and contrasted with the documents already analyzed. In addition, the subjective views of the educational measures and their effects are determined using focus group interviews with trainees who are multilingual due to their migration background, as well as with teachers and practical instructors.
Results
Following the evaluation, the language-based teaching and learning concepts for nursing schools and nursing practice that were developed as part of the project will be made publicly available as an Open Educational Resource (OER) and will therefore be available to all educational institutions and universities.