MO-TRAYL researchers will hold workshop on 24 June at Vista College in Maastricht on how the international experiences of migrant-background youth can benefit formal education.
Teachers increasingly face diverse classrooms, but it is often difficult to know how to turn this diversity into an added value for educational practice and for students’ motivation. Researchers at Maastricht University studied the physical mobility of migrant youth and the effects this has on their lives and will offer some ideas for how to turn mobility and diversity into positive learning experiences - with a focus on the unique knowledge and skills that these young learners have acquired.
It is often said that international mobility and exchange programs enhance the soft skills needed in today’s globalized world, such as interpersonal skills, intercultural communication, and cultural sensitivity. Yet these arguments are usually made of youth attending elite schools or tertiary education. But what about the mobility of young people with a migration background? Very little is known about it.
In this presentation, MO-TRAYL researchers will explain how the visits and ties that migrant youth maintain with a ‘home’ country can be important sources of motivation, self-esteem and a cosmopolitan outlook on their futures. Over the course of two years, the researchers followed secondary school students with migration background living in Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands. Following, a hands-on workshop on mapping the mobility trajectories of young people (irrespective of whether they are migrants or not) that can be done together with students. As a teacher in a diverse classroom, this workshop will provide you with an additional educational tool on how to engage students to learn from each other’s mobility trajectories. By the end of this workshop, you will know how to map mobility trajectories and learn how this exercise can be integrated into lessons on ‘maatschappijleer’ in secondary schools, or on migration and social science methodologies in tertiary education. All are welcome!
Register by 10 June 2025 by emailing research.hmsm@zuyd.nl.
MO-TRAYL has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 682982)
