Around 150 educational professionals and graduates of various qualification courses from the two university locations across Baden-Württemberg came together for professional exchange. The participants discussed how language education and support can be comprehensively implemented in the context of multilingualism. The conference highlighted the diversity and complexity of the topic and of working on it: It is about the needs, perspectives and potential of the children and their families, but also about the demands placed on children and the promotion of the competences they need to meet these demands. And it is also about professional knowledge and skills, as well as effective qualification programmes for practitioners.
The conference was held for the first time as a cooperation between the Early Childhood Education unit at PH Weingarten and the Centre for Quality Research and Monitoring (ZQM) at PH Schwäbisch Gmünd and, in addition to professional input, also offered numerous opportunities for networking. In lectures, workshops and at a lunchtime networking session, the participants explored the opportunities and challenges of multilingualism in early childhood education centres. Prof. Dr. Stefan Faas, Head of the Centre for Quality Research and Monitoring (ZQM), emphasised: “The focus is on the needs, perspectives and abilities of the children and families, while specialist knowledge and qualification programmes should be interlinked in such a way that professionals can take up and implement these aspects.” Prof. Dr. Simone Lehrl, project lead of KitaProSprache at PH Weingarten, added: “Educational professionals perform highly complex language-education work every day – the conference makes this professional practice visible and strengthens it in terms of expertise.”
In their welcoming addresses, State Secretary Volker Schebesta and Prof. Dr. Kim-Patrick Sabla-Dimitrov, Rector of PH Schwäbisch Gmünd, underlined the importance of early and high-quality language education programmes. Both emphasised that educational professionals shape the everyday situations in which children experience, use and expand language – and thus play a key role in early childhood education.
In their keynote presentations, Prof. Dr. Nataliya Soultanian from the “Forum Frühkindliche Bildung Baden-Württemberg” (FFB), Prof. Dr. Simone Lehrl from PH Weingarten and Prof. Dr. Stefan Faas from PH Schwäbisch Gmünd examined the aspects of multilingualism and pedagogical quality in language education and language support from different perspectives. Stefan Faas summarised: “Ultimately – and this is what the various contributions suggest when viewed together – we need to think about language education and support in the context of multilingualism in a comprehensive way.”
The inputs and the professional exchange met with consistently positive feedback. “Alumni of the qualification programmes at both locations – ‘Kita Pro Sprache’, ‘Certificate Programme in Language Education – Profiling for Language’ and ‘Mit Kindern im Gespräch’ (MiKiG) – would like to have opportunities for networking. The conference creates this platform across locations,” emphasised Emely Göser, research associate at PH Weingarten. The conference is therefore set to take place annually in the future. Melanie Fuchs, an educational professional from Ludwigsburg, drew a personal conclusion: “I am going home with many ideas for everyday practice in the early childhood education centre. The practice-oriented seminars for reflection and exchange were very enriching.”
A digital follow-up is planned for June 2026, and the next specialist conference will take place in October 2026 at PH Weingarten.
Further insights and impressions of the conference are available on the website of the University of Education Schwäbisch Gmünd on the ZQM Website .
All current information on the qualification programme “Fachkraft Sprache und Kommunikation – KitaProSprache”, which is offered by the Early Childhood Education unit in cooperation with the Academy for Continuing Education (AWW) at the University of Education Weingarten, can be found under this link:
Authors: ZQM (PH Schwäbisch Gmünd) & Iris Wortmann (PH Weingarten)
