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Short Abstract

We present "SAG’S MULTI", a citizen science project linking schools, teacher education, and research to explore multilingualism, identity, and educational justice through a multilingual speech contest, promoting critical reflection and empowerment across institutional levels.

Abstract

This contribution presents a citizen science initiative that connects upper-secondary school students, pre-service teachers, and researchers in exploring the long-term impact of participating in a multilingual speech contest (SAG’S MULTI). Within this collaboration, school students become citizen scientists investigating the speech contests participants’ linguistic repertoires, educational trajectories, and experiences of multilingualism and identity. University students in teacher education programmes support the school-based research process, thereby strengthening their own scientific literacy and pedagogical understanding of multilingualism, diversity, and inclusion.

Our approach positions citizen science not only as a methodology for data collection and multiperspective analysis but also as a transformative educational practice that fosters critical reflection on the interrelations between language, identity, and belonging. In a societal context where social (in-)justice is still closely tied to linguistic hierarchies and (prescribed) origins, our project foregrounds the power of multilingualism as a means of empowerment and epistemic justice. Through collaborative research across institutional levels, participants develop a deeper appreciation of linguistic diversity as a resource rather than a deficit in education by engaging with authentic multilingual data, reflecting on their own language biographies, and discussing the sociolinguistic realities of Austrian classrooms.

By bridging school, teacher education, and university contexts, we aim to enhance educational justice in Austria’s multilingual society, promoting equitable participation in both knowledge production and educational opportunities. We will share insights into our research design, highlight challenges and successes of implementing citizen science, and focus on discussing how teacher education can sustainably embed such participatory approaches to foster diversity-aware and socially just learning environments.