Promoting interculturalism in primary school children through the development of encountering skills: a case study in two Finnish schools

Abstract

The present article introduces diversity (educational, social and multicultural) of children as a resource in language teaching. Two English teachers with a total of 105 children of their language classes participated in the teaching experiment that was part of a nationwide research and development project in Finland. The aim was to develop conceptions and practices of intercultural language education and transform language curricula based on them. With the support of university researchers, the teachers experimented, reflected on, evaluated and developed such pedagogic action – pedagogy of intercultural encounters – through which they could meet the challenges of diversity in their classrooms. Good practices in teaching intercultural encountering skills were developed and seen essential for promoting identity development in language learning. Based on regular seminars where teachers' reports on their progress were discussed, reflected on and theoretically analysed, the teachers and researchers suggested justified improvements for language curricula.

Keywords:

• diversity
• pedagogy of intercultural encounters
• dialogue
• identity
• narrative curriculum

Notes

1. The development project OSKU carried out in Finland in 2006–2009 was financed by the Ministry of Education and Culture. The project was nationwide; participants were professors, university lecturers and student teachers from teacher education departments of seven Finnish universities, with 30 language teachers and over 700 pupils from various schools and parts of Finland. Thus, the project offered a very good coverage of language education in Finland. The purpose was to map, describe and analyse the implementation of the current national core curriculums of the comprehensive (primary and secondary) and upper secondary school from the point of view of language education and to weigh up the pros and cons and relevance of the aims posed in the curriculum. Special attention was to be paid on the development of oral competence, student autonomy, intercultural skills and cultural identity. Also, the use of CEFR in assessment was to be critically analyzsd. Based on the findings the project was asked to draw conclusions and suggest improvements for the coming curriculum. The more specific information of the aims, process and results of the project can be found in two publications: Hilden (2009) and Hilden and Salo (2011).

2. The curriculum reform of the comprehensive school is going on in Finland at the moment and it remains to be seen in the following few years how the results of the project will have influenced the renewed curriculum.