How school teams perceive and handle multilingualism: The impact of a school's pupil composition

Nowadays, pupils bring a variety of languages to school. This study focuses on how school teams perceive the linguistic composition of pupil populations and how this influences their teaching practices regarding multilingualism. The mixed-method design combines a multilevel regression analyses (of data from 1255 teachers in 67 schools) with focus group discussions amongst teachers and headmasters in ten schools. Our findings indicate that school teams distinguish between schools with different pupil populations. Differences in the linguistic composition of the pupil population results in different levels of tolerance towards multilingualism. Teachers' perceptions are fed by both negative and positive motivations.