Student teachers’ awareness of and readiness to reflect upon interculturality and democracy in schools – experiences from an inter-Nordic network project

Author(s):

Helena Mikaela BjörklundOlav TveiteråsMonica JohanssonJørgen Boelskov

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 07D, Research on Development of Professional Identity through Teacher Education

Paper Session

Time:

2008-09-11

15:30-17:00

Room:

A1 332

Chair:

Peter Gray

Contribution

This paper is based upon the experiences gathered from a three-year inter-Nordic network project. Each year an inter-Nordic course was arranged for new groups of students from the Nordic countries, focussing on how values such as interculturality and democracy are presented in national curricula and to be realized within comprehensive education. Theorist such as Colnerud (1997) and Wardekker (2001) have been made explicit use of during the course, but the broader theoretical framework is based upon numerous authors in the fields of interest (see selected references below). The aim is to present some of the findings regarding student teachers’ and teacher educators’ experiences of the course as an arena for developing awareness and reflection in relation to these issues. The results presented are mainly based upon critical qualitative analysis of mid and end course evaluations and cases (describing school-related value-conflicts) developed as a common effort by the participants in the courses. Preliminary results suggest that student teachers in the Nordic countries tend to share a common understanding of issues related to democracy and interculturality at a general level, but that they tend to differ somewhat in relation to how they assign priority to different perspectives and in their ways of managing concrete dilemmas. The results indicate that the participants were able to benefit from the inter-Nordic educational perspectives, experiences and concrete interaction during the course, but also that they expressed very different views about the main personal outcomes of the course, depending on their initial expectations and familiarity with the field of interest. The results are discussed from a perspective of student teacher and course development, making them of interest also to a larger international audience.

Method

The results presented are mainly based upon critical qualitative analysis of mid and end course evaluations and cases (describing school-related value-conflicts) developed as a common effort by the participants in the courses.

Expected Outcomes

Preliminary results suggest that student teachers in the Nordic countries tend to share a common understanding of issues related to democracy and interculturality at a general level, but that they tend to differ somewhat in relation to how they assign priority to different perspectives and in their ways of managing concrete dilemmas. The results indicate that the participants were able to benefit from the inter-Nordic educational perspectives, experiences and concrete interaction during the course, but also that they expressed very different views about the main personal outcomes of the course, depending on their initial expectations and familiarity with the field of interest.

References

Selected references: Boelskov B. & J. Værdibaseret pædagogik. Debattserien for barnehagefolk, Pedagogisk forum. Oslo 4/2003. Carlsson, R., & Nilholm, C. (2004). Demokrati och inkludering - en begreppsdiskussion. Utbildning och demokrati 13(2), 77-95. Colnerud, G. (1997). Ethical conflicts in teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education 13(6), 627-635. Gardner, R., Cairns J,. & Lawton, D. (Eds.) (2000). Education for Values. Morals, Ethics and Citizenship in Contemporary Teaching. London: Kogan Page. Gundelack (red.) (2004). Danskernes Særpræg. Kbhvn: Hans Reitzel. Halvorsen, E. M. (2005). Verdier og skole. Om verdiformidling og verdikonstruktion i grunnskolen. Bergen: Fagboksforlaget. Hansson, T. (2004). (Fri)villig fostran och/eller välvilligt tvång: Ett lösningsförslag. Didaktisk tidskrift 14(2-3), 91-111. Husu, J. (2003). Real-world pedagogical ethics: Mission impossible? Teacher Development, 7(2), 311-326. Klette, K., Carlgren, I., Rasmussen, J., Simola, H., & Sundkvist, M. (2000). Restructuring Nordic Teachers: An Analysis of Policy Texts from Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Report No 10. Oslo: University of Oslo, Institute of Educational Research. Kristjánsson, K. (2004). Beyond democratic justice: A further misgiving about citizenship education. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 38(2), 207-219. Lockyer, A., Crick, B. & Anette, J. (Eds.) (2003). Education for Democratic Citizenship. Issues of Theory and Practice. Hants, UK: Ashgate. Martin, J. N. & Nakayama, T. K. (2000). Intercultural Communication in Contexts. 2ed. Mountain View,CA: Mayfield. Orlenius, K. (2001). Värdegrunden - finns den? Malmö: Runa. Strike, K. & Soltis, J. F. (2004). The Ethics of Teaching. New York: Teachers College Press. Wardekker, W. (2001). Schools and Moral Education: Conformism or Autonomy? Journal of Philosophy of Education 35(1), 101-114. Wester, M. (2004). Om normer, normbildning och uppförandenormer. Tidskrift för lärarutbildning och forskning 11(1-2), 29-47.

Author Information

Helena Mikaela Björklund

Åbo Akademi University

Faculty of Education

Närpes

Olav Tveiterås

Finnmark University College

Faculty of Education and Liberal Arts

Alta

158

Monica Johansson

University of Skövde

School of Humanities and Informatics

Sövde

186

Jørgen Boelskov

Kolding pedagogseminar, Denmark

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