Session Information
04 SES 09 A, Policy Frameworks and Community Participation
Paper Session
Time:
2009-09-30
10:30-12:00
Room:
NIG, HS A
Chair:
Brahm Norwich
Contribution
The purpose of the study is to develop new active interactions between immigrant homes and schools. With these new ways of interaction immigrant pupils will benefit more and get better support for learning, multicultural identity and integration in the Finnish society. Main objects of the study are multicultural education, interaction and active cooperation between immigrant homes and schools. The study focuses on the following questions: what support do immigrant homes need for active cooperation with schools, what support do teachers need for active cooperation with immigrant homes and what are the ways of interaction which support learning of immigrant pupils? This study is a part of the research and development project for immigrant pupils in compulsory education in the city of Turku. The research and development project will be carried out in collaboration with the School Centre of the city of Turku and the Unit for Evaluation and Development of Education in the faculty of Education at Turku University. The research and development project started last year and will continue to the year 2011.
In September 2008 there were 1210 immigrant pupils (9,05%) of a total number of 13366 pupils in basic education in the city of Turku. There are 44 comprehensive schools in Turku and only three of them have no immigrant pupils. Between them the pupils speak 78 different mother tongues. The following foreign language groups are the biggest: Russian, Arabian, Kurd, Albanian and Somali. This study takes place in Samppalinna school where the percentage of immigrant pupils is 25,41. Samppalinna is one of the five pilot schools in the research and development project.
Method
Interviews, interventions, self-reflection and good practices of multicultural education are used in this action research. Theme-based interviews typical of phenomenological philosophical research are used to find out experiences, views and expectations for cooperation between homes and schools. Ten (10) teachers and ten (10) immigrant parents were interviewed. The main themes are home-school cooperation, initiative and measures of support of the home-school cooperation, the familiarity of the culture in an immigrant family, the familiarity of the education system in Finland, the familiarity of principles in schools and expectations for interaction between homes and schools.
Expected Outcomes
In my presentation I will submit the preliminary results of the interviews of immigrant parents. The teaching staff and immigrant parents plan an intervention for home-school cooperation on grounds of the results of the interviews and previous studies. I will also describe this intervention.
References
Laaksonen, A. 2007. Maahanmuuttajaoppilaat erityiskouluissa. English Abstract. Turun yliopisto. Annales Universitatis Turkuensis 262. Soilamo, O. 2008. Opettajan monikulttuurinen työ. English Abstract. Turun yliopisto. Annales Universitatis Turkuensis 267. Merisuo-Storm, T. & Soininen, M.(Eds.) 2006. Cultural diversity and its impact on education. Turun yliopisto. Kasvatustieteiden tiedekunnan julkaisusarja B:76.
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