At the same time that the Coronavirus outbreak had just begun in China, the Society for Applied Microbiology was publishing an article called ‘A Germ’s Journey’ documenting how scientists , teachers and teacher educators worked together, sharing their knowledge freely world wide, to create a MESHguide knowledge map/research summary (www.meshguide.org) for teachers - to promote personal hygiene and cleanliness and stressing the importance of careful handwashing.
This MESHGuide will introduce readers to a wide range of practical approaches to teaching multilingual learners, but our starting point for any of these is that practitioners work from a place of positive orientation to diversity. Research tells us that where schools attend to the whole child, and not just their language learning needs, this positively impacts their social and academic well-being (Aldridge & McChesney, 2018). Teaching for multilingual learners needs to be both culturally and linguistically responsive.
Teachers who have been trained to teach via a transmission mode may find CPD which requires them to implement a cycle of active reflection: think, plan, do and test then repeat the cycle may be uneasy with the requirement to be actively engaged in developing new pedagogical approaches. However, their students will have to adapt to a rapidly changing world throughout their lives and teachers have a role in preparing them for this.
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