Conference:
ECER 2009
Format:
Paper
Session Information
20 SES 01, Inclusion (Part 1)
Paper Session. Continued in 20 SES 02.
Time:
2009-09-28
09:15-10:45
Room:
JUR, HS 14
Chair:
John Willumsen
Contribution
This presentation deals with challenges immigrant students face when they start to study in Finland and the Culture Laboratory method that aims to intercultural learning and development. The study follows research and development work done in a Finnish vocational college and how students observed and named a dominant and ubiquitous cultural artifact of learning. However, it’s not only the artifact itself but also use of it in cultural practice of learning that makes students wonder. I argue that paper is an essential and ubiquitous artifact and cultural tool in Finnish vocational learning practices. Furthermore, children in Finnish schools are socialized in practices that are paper-dependent and paper-dominated. Thus, adolescents and adults who enter vocational institutions after comprehensive school are already very accustomed to the ubiquity of paper, and take the ‘paper culture’ for granted. This is equally true of teachers, who have mainly taught majority students in Finland. This means that papers are read and written, shared and delivered, copied and carried, talked about and referred to – as well as lost and looked for – almost constantly. What if your previous cultural learning practices have not included paper at all, or if the use of paper has varied?
The Culture Laboratory is a specific development and learning method evolved in the context of cultural-historical activity theory and developmental work research (Vygotsky 1978; Leont’ev 1978; Engeström 2005). It is, also, an intervention method for change efforts in which the emphasis is on cultural or ethnic variety and diversity among participants, instruments, and circumstances. It shows and explores the dynamic movements of intercultural encountering, and how these movements can enrich learning and development (Teräs 2007).
Method
My research methodology was based on developmental work research, which is a Finnish originated interventionist approach that combines scientific study, practical development work and learning (cf. Engeström 2005). My empirical research material consists of the nine two-three hour meetings of the Culture Laboratory, which were both audio and videotaped (altogether 20 hours). The participants of the Culture Laboratory were a group of 17 students who were natives of eight different countries (Estonia, Russia, Somalia, Iraq, Chile, Italy, Afghanistan, and Japan), four teachers, a school assistant, a counselor, the chief interventionist, the project coordinator, and me as a researcher.
Expected Outcomes
My analysis showed that paper was a ubiquitous cultural artifact in Finnish cultural practice of learning. The immigrant students were confronted with a robust literary environment and developmental and learning practices in the college. Paper took different forms – photocopies, textbooks, notebooks, assignments, and memos. There was a rich variety of interaction with it: the participants read, wrote, drafted, took hold of, filed and exchanged their papers, which were at the same time physical, textual, and collaborational.
References
Engeström, Y. (2005). Developmental work research expanding activity theory in practice (Vol. 12). Berlin: Lehmanns Media. Leont'ev, A. N. (1978). Activity, consciousness and personality. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Teräs, M. (2007). Intercultural Learning and Hybridity in the Culture Laboratory. Helsinki: Department of Education, University of Helsinki. Also available on https://oa.doria.fi/handle/10024/19237 Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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