Abstract
Italy has always been a diverse country with a strong focus on language and education. But how is the domain of teacher education set up today when it comes to supporting multilingualism, students’ linguistic repertoires and languages that are maybe also outside of the school curriculum? Our paper presents an overview of the particularities and structures of the teacher education system(s) in Italy and puts a special focus on the Autonomous Province of Bozen/Bolzano-South Tyrol. This province – and especially its university (Free University of Bozen/Bolzano) may serve as a good-practice example for teacher education with a high degree of multilingual awareness as it does not only already integrate three official languages in everyday’s society and educational institutions but also tries to sensitize future teachers for growing linguistic diversity (also due to migration but also in terms of trade and tourism) as well as its challenges and benefits for lifelong learning. Special focus is put on pre-service teacher education at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and to further teacher education offers by Eurac Research (e.g. Multilingual didactics and Language village methodology).