Session Information
29 SES 03, Parallel Paper Session
Paper Session
Contribution
General description on research questions, objectives and theoretical framework:
As a bilingual country Finland provides an internationally interesting context for examining cultural diversity and multicultural music education. At the same time as Finland is increasingly paying attention to multicultural issues in schools (Dervin & al 2012; Räsänen 2010; Talib 2006), including music education (Karlsen and Westerlund 2010), and immigrants’ rights (Heimonen and Hebert 2010), these more recent needs are met in a historically rooted cultural diversity which includes the Swedish-speaking and Finnish-speaking Finns, as well as the Sami population. This constitutes an intriguing perspective on multiculturalism in Europe, as the Finnish-Swedish minority as a cultural group has a considerably long historical presence in Finland.
On behalf of the Finnish National Board of Education, the project Development of multicultural skills in the schools took place between 2007 and 2011. The project aimed to develop "multicultural skills" so that the multicultural learning environment in the schools would improve. Altogether 52 municipalities participated in the project; yet, surprisingly few were in the Swedish-speaking areas. There are recent studies showing that Swedish speaking teachers in Finland experience themselves a bit aside from the discourse on multicultural education, due to the own minority position as well as having a rather homogeneous student population (Mansikka & Holm 2011). At the same time there is an increasing political interest in developing the Swedish speaking school to be more integrated with other language groups in Finland (Tainio & Harju-Luukkainen 2013).
This research focuses on the teachers’ views, attitudes and experiences of the relationship between music and ‘multicultural skill’ - development in the Swedish-speaking schools. The principal research question is: Whether - and if so, how - teachers in the Swedish-speaking schools in Finland perceive that music in the school environment provides funds for the development of multicultural skills?
In order to investigate this question, the following topics are addressed and discussed with teachers: What meanings are attached to multiculturalism in the school practice? What is the role of music, both as a subject and as an informal activity within the schools?
A principal aim is to investigate attitudes concerning the relationship between music education and “multicultural skills” among teachers who themselves belong to a minority group in the country. Therefore, an important strand in this study is how these teachers’ own minority position may influence their conceptions about music and multicultural education.
Our theoretical framework rests on the international debate on interculturality (Sleeter & McLaren 1995; Taylor 1994, Hall I: Morley et.al. 1996, Gilroy 1993, 2000, Banks 2009). We approach multicultural education from a critical standpoint, as something that ought to be pervasive and basic for all subjects and all students (Sleeter & Grant 2003; Nieto 2006), not only related to ethnic issues, but as well to gender, social class, religion and language.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
References: Banks, J. A. (2009) Routledge international companion to multicultural education. London: Routledge Dervin, F., Paatela-Nieminen, M., Kuoppala, K., Riitaoja, A-L. (2012) Multicultural Education in Finland: Renewed Intercultural Competencies to the Rescue? International Journal of Multicultural Education. Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 1-13. Heimonen, M. & Hebert, D. G. (2010). Pluralism and minority rights in music education: Implications of the legal and social philosophical dimension. Visions of Research in Music Education. Vol. 15. Karlsen, S. & Westerlund, H. (2010) Immigrant students’ development of musical agency - exploring democracy in music education. British Journal of Music Education. Vol. 27, No. 3, Nieto, S. (2006) Solidarity, courage and heart: what teacher educators can learn from a new generation of teachers. Intercultural Education 17:5, 456-473 Räsänen, R. (2010) Intercultural education and education for global responsibility in teacher education. Finnish Journal of Music Education. Vol. 13, No 1, pp. 12-24. Sleeter, C. E. & Grant, C. A. (2003) Making Choices for Multicultural education. Five Approaches to Race, Class, and Gender. New York: Wiley & Sons Tainio, L. & Harju-Luukkainen, H. (eds.) (2013) Kaksikielinen koulu - Tvåspråkig skola [A school in two languages]. Helsinki: Finnish Educational Research Association . Talib, M. (ed.) (2006) Diversity. A challenge for Educators. Turku: Finnish Educational Research Association
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.