Claudine

Kirsch

Claudine Kirsch was born in Luxembourg and read Science of Education at the ISERP (Teacher Education Institution) in Luxembourg and subsequently worked for nine years as a primary school teacher in Luxembourg. She took both her Masters and her PhD in Education at Goldsmiths, University of London. While carrying out her PhD, she was a visiting tutor at the University of Luxembourg where she worked as a researcher and delivered continuous professional development courses. From 2003-2011 she worked as a lecturer at Goldsmiths and taught on BA, MA and PhD programmes. She set up and coordinated several courses including the primary Modern Foreign Languages programme and the bilateral exchange programmes between England, France, Germany and Spain. In January 2012, she was appointed at the University of Luxembourg.

At the University of Luxembourg, Claudine Kirsch is Associate Professor at the Department of Humanities in the Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences. She specializes in Language Learning and Teaching, Multilingualism, and Early Childhood Education. She is Head of the Bilingualism Matters@Luxembourg branch and Vice-Head of the Institute for Research on Multilingualism (MLing). She teaches on BA, MA and PhD programmes, sits on various committees and works as an active researcher.

Since her appointment in Luxembourg, she has been the PI of four research projects: iTEO (2013-2017); MuLiPEC (Developing Multilingual Pedagogies in Early Childhood) (2016-2019); COMPARE (Collaboration with Parents and Multiliteracy in early Childhood Education) (2020-2023) and COVID-KIDS (The influence of COVID-19 on children’s subjective well-being and stay-at-home experiences) (2020–2021). She also takes part in the project CALIDIE (Capitalising on Linguistic Diversity in Education) (2017-2022) led by Adelheid Hu, in Gabrijela Aleksić's project TRANSLA (2019-2021), Maria Obojska’s project DIGIFAM (2021-2024) and in the EERA funded project Developing Multilingual Literacies – Exploring the role of communities for literacy development in multilingual families (January 2020 – December 2020) with Sabine Little (PI, University of Sheffield), Joana Duarte (University of Stenden), Mirjam Günter-van der Meij (University of Stenden), and Irina Usanova (University of Hamburg).

Research interests

Foreign/ Second Language Learning and Teaching

Multilingual pedagogies

Multilingualism

Family Language Policies

Professional Development

Literacy

Translanguaging

Latest content Claudine Kirsch took part in

Humanities

Collaboration with parents and multiliteracy in early childhood education

the COMPARE project from the University of Luxembourg aims to develop multiliteracy practices and establish partnerships between parents and educators through a professional development.

Luxembourg

Bilingualism Matters @ Luxembourg

The University of Luxembourg will host an international branch of Bilingualism Matters a research and information centre with headquarters at the University of Edinburgh and international partner branches all over the world.

Humanities

COVID-KIDS : how the pandemic affects children and adolescents?

Schools in Luxembourg are soon to reopen; some students have already been back now. Yet many questions remain. A central argument for reopening schools is that home schooling may increase educational inequalities and that children and teens can no longer cope with social isolation. These issues are now being explored in a study launched by researchers at the University of Luxembourg.

Humanities

Developing multilingual pedagogies in Early Childhood

A successful professional development track helped professionals implement multilingual education in early childhood in Luxembourg. MuLiPEC, a research project from the University of Luxembourg, enabled 46 teachers and educators to better understand multilingualism and language learning, and move from monolingual to multilingual practices.

Humanities

An app to promote narration, language development and multilingualism in schools

in 2013, facing the lack of specific or systematic programmes to further the development of multiple languages in Luxembourg, researchers of the University of Luxembourg turned to the Ministry of Education. Together, the institutions decided to address the need for the development of innovative didactic methods to manage and capitalize on the diversity and heterogeneity in Luxembourgish schools.

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