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Future Preschool Teachers’ Perspectives on Integrating Multicultural and Multilingual Content

Slovenian Pre-Service Preschool Teachers’ Perceptions of the Main
Challenges in Integrating Multilingual and Multicultural Content
in Kindergarten Activities
The main challenges in integrating multilingual and multicultural activities
in kindergarten, as reported by the interviewees, are insufficient compe-
tencies of the teachers, a lack of appropriate teaching materials and very
few suitable training courses on these topics, or as one of the participants
pointed out: ‘We are not sufficiently trained to include this type of content.
There is very little of it in the curriculum, little or no training. Somehow it’s
all on our shoulders’ (Interviewee 7). One of the common issues suggested
was also preschool teachers’ own perception of their (in)competence and,
consequently, their fear of tackling these topics in their work. Interviewee
9 stated: ‘I would feel terrible if, because of my incompetence, ignorance
or lack of experience, I singled out or unknowingly discriminated against a
child,’ which clearly reflects her unwillingness to even try addressing these
topics due to her own negative perception of her competencies. Seven par-
ticipants raised the issue of the parents’ role in the successful integration of
multilingual/multicultural content in kindergarten. They believe that many
parents hold negative attitudes towards multilingualism and multicultur-
alism and especially towards including languages and cultures of migrant
children into kindergarten activities, and since parents’ attitudes are strongly
reflected in their children’s attitudes, this could present a challenge for the
teacher. On the other hand, as stated by the respondents, many parents with
migrant background refuse to cooperate with the teachers, primarily due to
language barriers. As argued by Rutar (2014; 2018), in order to ensure suc-
cessful inclusive preschool education it is crucial to include both children
and parents coming from migrant backgrounds in kindergarten activities.
Their participation in designing, implementing, and evaluating the children’s
learning process is essential. Establishing a respectful environment free from
prejudices is key to achieving this goal (Rutar 2014; 2018). Another challenge,
perceived by five participants, was the issue of language; their perception of
not beingableto speak otherlanguageswellenough to includethemin their
activities on the one hand, and problems in communication with children
speaking other languages on the other. Equally, five participants suggested
the limitations of the Slovenian Kindergarten Curriculum (Ministrstvo za šol-
stvo in šport 1999), clearly reflected in one of the statements: ‘The curriculum
is not flexible enough, there are too many projects involving kindergartens
that need to be completed, leaving little time for preschool teachers to be

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