Session Information
Contribution
Description: The overall aim of the study (Kovero & Londen) is to analyze minority schoolchildren's conception of their own linguistic and cultural identity as well as their awareness of active citizenship and democracy. This paper focus particularly on self-reported cultural and linguistic identity in children living in a bilingual society. The research analyses results from an educational point of view. Finland is among one of three European countries who officially are bi-or multilingual. Finland, with a population of just over five million, is a bilingual country with Finnish and Swedish as the two national languages. The Swedish -speaking population is small, approximately 6 %. Finland's Swedish-speakers consider themselves not as Swedes living in Finland, but as Finns, merely with a mother tongue other than that of the majority of the population. Today, marriages across the two language groups are very common; which has resulted in many children growing up bilingually. In Helsinki 52 % of the children in Swedish- speaking primary schools come from bilingual homes, in some areas this figure is as high as 90%.The objective of the study is to develop the understanding of the cultural and linguistic identity in children from bilingual families visiting Swedish schools, and to analyze minority schoolchildren's conception of their own linguistic and cultural identity. The questions considered are: (1) to describe the language patterns within the family, (2) to analyze the child's perception of his/hers cultural and linguistic identity, (3) to discuss the relationship between linguistic and cultural input on different levels as well as the development of a strong and balanced linguistic and cultural self-identity.
Methodology: Data was collected through a questionnaire consisted of 74 questions, most of which had fixed answering categories, there were also ten open questions. The target group for this study was children in year 5 and 6 in primary school (ages 11-13). The sample consisted of 252 children, 129 girls and 123 boys, in five Swedish schools in the Helsinki area. All five schools are situated in a strongly Finnish dominated environment. The questionnaire was given by hand during a lesson and the attrition rate was minimal.
Conclusions: Findings;72 % of the pupils come from bilingual Finnish - Swedish homes, (the figures vary between 60 % - 83 % in the different schools); 18 % come from monolingual Swedish- speaking homes; 5 % from monolingual Finnish- speaking homes and 5% from families with other home languages. The language patterns in the families are very complex and the bilingualism is strongly present in the youth's milieu. Even though their mother belongs to the Finnish -speaking majority the youths view Swedish language very important for their identity. This indicates that the Swedish schools are central regarding both the cultural and linguistic identity for children from bilingual homes.
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