National Self-awareness and National Minorities in a Teacher Education Programme

Author(s):

Christina Rodell Olgac

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

07 SES 03 B, Social Justice: Language Policies and National Identities

Paper Session

Time:

2009-09-28

14:00-15:30

Room:

HG, HS 32

Chair:

Yvonne Leeman

Contribution

Introduction A period of nationalism covering 200 years have led to a predominant image of Sweden as culturally, religiously and linguistically homogenous. This historical homogeneity has often been emphasized, but it is however a myth that can be deconstructed. Like most other nations Sweden has always had a diverse population. This paper discusses how an intercultural approach in a course for teacher students concerning the five historical national minorities may challenge hegemonic monocultural and monolingual discourses in the Swedish national self-awareness. Background At the beginning of the year 2000, Sweden ratified the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. These minorities included the Samis, Tornedalers, Swedish Finns, Roma and Jews (SOU 1997:193). The second ratification of the status of minorities is the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages that recognises the Sami, Finnish, Meän kieli, Romani chib and Jiddish languages (SOU 1997:192). Today the curriculum for the compulsory school system (Lpo94), states that “The school is responsible for ensuring that all pupils completing compulsory school: (…) have knowledge about the national minorities’ cultures, languages, religions and history.” This knowledge is also included in the curricula for the preschool and the non-compulsory school system. Although these ratifications took place almost nine years ago, the changes of the curricula still have little impact on school content and teacher education (Rodell Olgaç, 2006; DO, 2008). Theoretical framework The first theoretical perspective that informs this study draws from Municio (1993) who identifies two discourses in relation to minorities and immigrants in state policy documents concerning education; the discourse of ‘national self-awareness’ that refers to the idea of Sweden as a monolingual and monocultural nation-state, the hegemonic discourse during the first half of the 20th century. The second discourse discussed by Municio (1993) is the discourse of a ‘democratic credo’ that is inclusive and based on people’s equal rights and developed during the second half of the last century challenging the first one. The second theoretical perspective is based on issues of intercultural education, where the concept of interculturalism in an educational context involves in this case teacher students becoming more observant and reflective about their own cultural backgrounds (Lahdenperä, 2004; Gundara, 2000). Intercultural education embraces the idea of developing “an approach that involves mutual curiosity and enhanced understanding of one’s own and others’ perspectives on knowledge, ways of thinking, values, living conditions and authority” (Sjögren & Ramberg, 2005, p. 37).

Method

The study The study took place in a five-week course in the fourth term of a teacher programme in spring 2008. 85 teacher students, many of whom were multilingual, divided into four seminar groups participated. The course focused on the experiences of the five historical national minorities especially in relation to language and education as well as the discrimination that they have suffered historically (Catomeris, 2004). At the end of the course, the students in smaller project groups presented their work on one national minority to the rest of their fellow students. The students were also asked to fill in a questionnaire with questions concerning their previous knowledge about the national minorities and their views at the end of this course. The students’ answers from the questionnaire are the main source used for the analysis in this study.

Expected Outcomes

Conclusion The answers from questionnaire show that the teacher students generally hardly held any knowledge about the minorities and their situation and historical experiences previous to the course. Many of the students explained that what they knew before about the minorities were only stereotyped ideas and prejudices, especially about the Roma. In the conclusion I will discuss the reactions of the students when confronted with other perspectives than the usual hegemonic discourse of “national self-awareness” (Municio, 1993) referring to the principle of Sweden as a monolingual and monocultural nation. The study indicates that through an intercultural approach the perspectives from the history and experiences of the minorities can be integrated in the grand narrative about the Swedish society and lead to a revision (cf. Gundara, 2000) of the national self-awareness among the teacher students.

References

Literature Catomeris, Christian (2004), Det ohyggliga arvet: Sverige och främlingen genom tiderna. Stockholm: Ordfront. DO (Ombudsmannen mot etnisk diskriminering) (2008), Diskrimineringen av nationella minoriteter inom utbildningsväsendet. DO:s rapportserie 2008:2. Gundara, Jagdish S. (2000), Interculturalism, Education and Inclusion. London: Paul Chapman Publishing Ltd. Lahdenperä, Pirjo (2004), Interkulturell pedagogik i teori och praktik. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Lpo 94, 1994 års läroplan för det obligatoriska skolväsendet, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet.(The National Compulsory School Curriculum) [www.skolverket.se] Municio, Ingegerd (1993), Svensk skolpolitik under intryck av två diskurser: nationell självförståelse och demokratiskt credo. I Invandring forskning politik: en vänbok till Tomas Hammar. Centrum för invandringsforskning CEIFO. Stockholm: Stockholms universitet. Rodell Olgaç, Christina (2006), Den romska minoriteten i majoritetssamhällets skola: från hot till möjlighet. Diss. Studies in Educational Sciences 85. Stockholm: HLS Förlag. Sjögren, Annick & Ramberg, Ingrid (2005), Quality and Diversity in Higher Education. Experiences from intercultural teacher education. Botkyrka: Mångkulturellt centrum. SOU 1997:192, Steg mot en minoritetspolitik: Europarådets konvention om historiska minoritetsspråk. Betänkande av minoritetsspråkskommittén, Ministry of Agriculture, Stockholm (Official Reports of the Swedish Government). SOU 1997:193 Steg mot en minoritetspolitik: Europarådets konvention för skydd av nationella minoriteter. Betänkande av minoritetsspråkskommittén, Ministry of Agriculture, Stockholm (Official Reports of the Swedish Government). Selected publications: Rodell Olgaç, Christina, Demetri, Mikael & Dimiter Taikon, Angelina (2008), Linguistic Revitalization among Romani Pupils in a Swedish School Context. ICML XI Proceedings (in press). Demetri, Mikael, Dimiter Taikon, Angelina & Rodell Olgaç, Christina (2007), Romsk kultur på schemat. I & M (Invandrare & Minoriteter, 3/2007, s,. 21 – 24. Rodell Olgaç, Christina (2006), Romska barn kan visst! I&M (Invandrare & Minoriteter) 4/2006, sid. 39- 42. Rodell Olgaç, Christina (2006), Den romska minoriteten i majoritetssamhällets skola: från hot till möjlighet. Diss. Studies in Educational Sciences 85. Stockholm: HLS Förlag. Obondo, Margaret, Rodell Olgaç, Christina & Robleh, Salada (2005); Broar mellan kulturer. Somaliska barns språksocialisation i hem och förskola i Sverige. Stockholm: Språkforskningsinstitutet i Rinkeby Rodell Olgaç, Christina (2002). Roma gyerekek az északi országokban. Család, Gyermek, Ifjúság 2002/2. Rodell Olgaç, Christina (2001); Några somaliska pedagogers röster om socialisation och lärande i diasporan. I: Bredänge, Gunlög, Hedin, Christer m fl (red), Utbildning i det mångkulturella samhället. Vetenskap i en mångkulturell och postkolonial värld. Frågor och utmaningar. Volym 2. IPD-rapporter. Nr 2001:11. Göteborg: Göteborgs universitet, s. 125-148 Rodell Olgaç, Christina (2000); Meeting of different socialisation practices and school cultures in a Swedish multicultural school context – views from some Somali educators. Paper presentation at the International Conference Education for Social Democracies. Changing Forms and Sites. London 3-5 July 2000, Institute of Education, University of London. http://www.ioe.ac.uk/ccs/conference2000/papers/epsd/papers/olgac.html

Author Information

Christina Rodell Olgac

Södertörn University College

School of Culture and Communication

Huddinge

186

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