‘Sitting on embers’: a phenomenological exploration of the embodied experiences of inclusion of newly arrived students in Sweden

What can we learn from and with the body in order to understand more about the (lived) experiences of newly arrived students in schools? This question has hitherto been given little attention in relation to the field of migration and education. Using the perspective of Ahmed's critical feminist phenomenology, this article aims to explore the embodied experiences of the different contexts that newly arrived students encounter in a rural monolingual school in Sweden. The empirical data are based on participant observation conducted in introductory and mainstream classrooms, as well as interviews undertaken with newly arrived students during a year of fieldwork. The findings of our study show how close attention to newly arrived students' embodied experiences can help to dispel prevailing myths surrounding inclusion, bringing to light thereby how the current lived conditions of inclusion in fact carry with them lines of exclusion.     

论英语语感及语感训练室的建设

由于英语不是我们的母语,学生即使在日常生活中经常留意也很难培养出很强的语感。根据英语语感训练的特点,学校可多给学生创造一些英语语感训练的环境,给学生体验语言的机会。通过英语语感训练实验室的建设,给学生提供训练环境,是培养和提高学生英语语感较好的途径。     

Black bodies,White rural spaces: disturbing practices of unbelonging for ‘refugee’ students

In global times, when the forced migration of refugees from war-torn countries like Sudan impacts the demography of once ethnically homogenous schooling spaces, I consider the need to better understand the geographical making of racism. This article explores the lived experience of two newly arrived Sudanese students studying at a rural high school in Australia. Using Foucaultian theory, and Foucault’s theories as they have been taken up by Judith Butler, I explore the production of educational exclusions at a rural school. I investigate the Sudanese students’ struggle for belonging against particular discourses of rural Whiteness. In the students’ rural schooling space, their Black bodies are highly visible and are discursively cast as ‘out of place’. I examine the way discourses of rural Whiteness produce schooling exclusions that implicate schools in the spatial regulation of unbelonging.     

Fostering early adolescents’ motivation: a longitudinal study into the effectiveness of social constructivist,traditional and combined schools for prevocational education

Over the past decades, many schools have adapted towards social constructivism with the aim of enhancing students’ motivation. There are a variety of perspectives in educational theory, with social constructivist views standing in contrast to traditional views. Hence, we compared students’ motivation (levels and developments) in social constructivist schools, traditional schools and schools combining elements of both. A total of 489 grade-7 students from 10 schools and 20 classes of prevocational education participated in five measurement occasions. Multilevel analysis revealed that complex developmental trends differed meaningfully between classes for all four motivational constructs, i.e. intrinsic motivation, identified motivation, values, and performance avoidance, for mother language, and even more so for math. For most motivational constructs, levels were associated with the type of school students attended, and appeared lower in combined schools than in the other two types, while developments were not associated with the type of school attended.     

Sustaining literacy from mother tongue instruction in complementary education into official language of instruction in government schools in Ghana

This paper presents evidence on literacy trajectories for children in Ghana who enrolled in a Complementary Basic Education programme taught in mother tongue and transitioned into government schools. At the point of transition, we find that children who enrolled in government schools where the language of instruction differed from instruction in their mother tongue did not perform as well in literacy. After a year in government schools, those taught in another local language caught up. By contrast, those who transitioned into English did not. Our evidence reinforces the benefits of mother tongue and local language instruction for progress in literacy.     

Special needs educators’ roles and work in relation to recently arrived immigrant pupils in need of special educational support

Migration to Europe in recent years has made the issue of educational support for recently arrived immigrant pupils critically important, and, especially for pupils who are in need of special educational support. Schools in Sweden have special needs educators (SNEs) supporting pupils in need of special education, but little is known about the work of SNEs in regard to special educational support for recently arrived immigrants. This article reports the results of 483 SNEs answering a survey on their views of their role and work tasks in relation to recently arrived immigrant pupils in need of special educational support in Swedish compulsory schools. SNEs report that their actual tasks include compiling individual educational plans (IEPs), developing learning environments, and supervising staff. Less than 50% of the participants responded that they work directly with the pupils, and around 19% of the SNEs wanted to do more of such work. Class and subject teachers and mother tongue tutors are the occupational groups seen as providing the most support for recently arrived immigrant pupils. The empirical results are discussed from different theoretical perspectives on special education (Emanuelsson, 2001; Persson, 1998), Hughes’ (1958) concept of ‘dirty work’ and Abbott’s theory of profession (1988).     

对大学英语课堂中母语使用问题的探讨

通过对英语教师的访谈,本研究探讨了大学英语课堂中母语使用的若干问题,包括在大学英语课堂中非英语专业学生的目标语和母语使用情况,教师对学生使用目标语和母语的看法等相关问题。本次采访表明在英语课堂中教师对母语的使用应采取一种平衡的观点,不应盲目的强调目标语的使用。     

Exploring bilingualism in a monolingual school system: insights from Turkish and native students from Belgian schools

A growing body of empirical studies indicates the educational benefits of bilingualism. Despite this tendency, bilingual minority students are being pressured by school authorities to shed their mother tongues. We conducted qualitative interviews with Turkish‐bilingual and native‐monolingual students in Flemish (Belgium) secondary schools to investigate how students evaluate their languages, how Dutch monolingualism is imposed, and how students respond to the dominance of monolingualism. Our results indicate that the mother tongues of bilingual students are mainly perceived as a barrier to educational and occupational success, while the benefits of bilingualism are unknown. Thus, both Turkish‐bilingual and native‐monolingual students approved of speaking one language. We also found that monolingualism was strongly imposed on students by explicit encouragement, formal punishment when bilinguals speak their mother tongue, and exclusion of foreign languages from the cultural repertoire of the school. These results are discussed as they relate to policy‐makers, scholars of bilingualism and institutional racism.     

The effect of schools and classes on language achievement

Abstract This study addresses the effects of secondary schools and classes on language achievement in Flanders, Belgium. The results of a three‐level analysis (students within classes within schools) indicate that the group composition at the class level is very important. In classes with a high average initial cognitive ability or a large proportion of girls, the language achievement is higher. These compositional effects are discussed with reference to type ‘A’ and type ‘B’ effects. The analyses show that group composition is more important than educational practices in accounting for differences in language achievement. With whom one is taught has a larger impact than how one is taught. Indications of differential effectiveness of classes related to prior achievement were found, with greater variations in effectiveness between classes for pupils of low prior achievement.     

At the bridging point: tutoring newly arrived students in Sweden

In Sweden, tutoring in the mother tongue is a special support measure primarily intended for newly arrived students to facilitate their transition into the Swedish school system. Tutoring is premised on the collaboration between the class teacher, responsible for subject-related expertise, and the tutor, who contributes with knowledge of the student’s mother tongue and previous context of studies. In this case study of class teachers’ and mother tongue tutors’ conditions for collaboration at a multi-ethnic primary school, six mother tongue tutors and six class teachers were asked about the purpose of their work, how it was organised, and what could be done to improve working conditions. Interviews with head teachers, and data on work organisation from observations, document study, and participation in meetings for a period of one and a half years supplemented the teacher interviews. The analysis focuses on whether tutors and teachers belong to the same or different Communities of Practice, based on shared concerns and opportunities for collaboration, as well as looking at the relative positioning of languages and teaching roles. Findings suggest that the degree of collaboration between tutors and teachers was not sufficient to allow tutoring to function in the way it is envisaged by national steering documents. Tutoring was instead based on the tutors’ own knowledge of the subjects they taught. Recruitment of suitable tutors was difficult. However, conditions for collaboration and more effective tutoring in the schools could be improved with relatively simple support structures at the level of the municipality.     

Students negotiating the borders between general and special education classes: an ethnographic and participatory research study

ABSTRACT

Although Finnish basic education is based on inclusion, 37% of students receiving special support still study in either separate schools or separate classes in comprehensive schools. In this study we explore how policies of inclusion are implemented in a school with separated special educational needs (SEN) and general education (GE) classes. More specifically we conducted a two-year ethnographic study focusing particularly on exclusion and the sense of belonging in a lower secondary school (students aged 13–16) in the capital region of Finland. During the fieldwork, several students attending the SEN-class expressed an interest in changing from the SEN-class to a GE-class, or in breaking the borders between SEN and GE classes in other ways. As part of the negotiations with the school, students who criticised the GE- and SEN-class division were offered an opportunity to transfer to GE-classes but in the end, all of them wanted to stay in the SEN-class. In this investigation, we focus on the students’ reasoning and the teachers’ reactions when students negotiate the borders between SEN and GE-classes. In this study we found a clash between integration and inclusive thinking.     

Inclusion in a South African high school? Reporting and reflecting on what learners say

A concern with formal and epistemological access to schools can neglect the importance of access to the informal school and the friendships and sense of belonging that this implies. Despite the challenges of ‘voice’ research, listening to what young people have to say about their experiences of, and attitudes towards social inclusion and exclusion at school may help to identify and address exclusionary pressures. This article reports on a study conducted at an inclusive high school in South Africa where learners have only known a diverse peer group. Despite this, questionnaire and focus group interview responses show that learners have ambivalent attitudes about Others. They position themselves and their school as ‘normal’ and show a mixture of empathy, prejudice and patronisation as they consider how they might respond to peers or a fictional character who is different from them. These Grade 10 learners have strong feelings about who should be admitted to their school, and they identify some exclusionary practices that operate in their social world. Their attitudes cannot be considered apart from a schooling system which normalises educational separation and exclusion and a pedagogy of compassion is suggested as a way to enable young people to address their prejudices towards Others.     

Policy and Practice in Language Support for Newly Arrived Migrant Children in Ireland and Spain

Over the last decades, migration across Europe has continued to increase. Consequently, offering educational support for migrant students in the schools of host countries has been an extensively debated issue across Europe and further afield, especially in countries with a history of immigration. However, less is known about how education systems in the ‘new’ immigration countries have responded to the needs of recently arrived migrants. This article focuses on language support measures set up for migrant students in state-funded schools in the Republic of Ireland and Spain – both multilingual countries with more than one official language and with a heterogeneous migrant population. In reviewing educational policy and practice in these jurisdictions in the areas of language support for migrants, this article seeks to contribute to the debate on challenges involved in supporting language acquisition by migrant students in formal educational settings.     

Language as capital,or language as identity? Chinese complementary school pupils' perspectives on the purposes and benefits of complementary schools

Pupils' experiences of complementary education are neglected in the research literature, yet they are highly important in terms of understanding complementary schools and their impact on pupils' educational and social identities. This article explores British-Chinese pupils' discursive constructions of the purposes and benefits of Chinese complementary schools, drawing on data from an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded study of six Chinese schools in England, including interviews with 60 of their British-Chinese pupils. Findings demonstrate that British-Chinese pupils overwhelmingly see the purpose of these schools as perpetuating the mother tongue. They produced a variety of explanations for the benefit of this perpetuation, and we analyse how these fall under two themes: instrumental benefits, and identity. In elaborating these themes we focus particularly on the ways in which language was constructed as identity, and draw out some theoretical implications for thinking around identity and ‘culture’.     

What is the reality of ‘inclusion’ for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties in the primary classroom?

Abstract

Current education policy is oriented towards including children with special educational needs in mainstream classrooms. Hitherto they have been, on the whole, educated in special schools. Children with special educational needs include those who are physically disabled, those with learning difficulties and those with emotional and behavioural difficulties. It is the inclusion of this last group which is raising problems in mainstream classrooms. The article draws on psychoanalytic concepts in order to examine the reality of inclusion for three primary-age children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Observational material is presented which shows the impact of inclusion policy on the children, their teachers and their learning support assistants. There is also discussion of the work of the behaviour support teacher, whose job is to reduce exclusions and help schools to become more inclusive.     

Barriers that prevent the achievement of inclusive democratic education

Inclusive education inherently involves the inclusion of all citizens in a democratic society. Based on this view, questions emerge with respect to equality and integration in educational systems. Although inclusion should be viewed as a requirement in a democratic society, along with the integration in schools of students from different social groups, the concept rarely becomes reality, despite its frequent acceptance in discourse. This article analyzes mechanisms that inhibit agreement on how equality and inclusion can be put into practice in education, taking as an example the case of Chile. One inhibitor is a lack of in-depth discussions about the major tendencies prevailing in contemporary educational systems. In addition, three types of segregation are linked to children’s exclusion from schools: charges for educational services, schools’ selection processes and the use of economic incentives. Finally, the article presents possible consequences of two pedagogical orientations: towards autonomous schools and flexible curriculum.     

Has schooling of ADHD students reached a crossroads?

ABSTRACT

The aim of the present study was to examine and describe educational leaders’ mindset types related to schooling of students with ADHD in five municipalities with ADHD special education classes and in five pair-matched municipalities without such classes. Selection of the ten municipalities was based on the results from a nationwide survey (response rate 76%) aimed at investigating how Swedish municipalities organise schooling for ADHD students. Interview data was analysed with the use of a theoretical framework presented as a typology table describing mindsets more or less in line with either the neuropsychiatric paradigm or inclusion. The perceived neuropsychiatric influence on ADHD students’ schooling seemed to affect educational leaders’ decision making, leading to different schooling for ADHD students in different municipalities. The findings, presented as municipality profiles, are discussed in relation to the notion of inclusive education and alternative educational paths leading either towards inclusion or exclusion.     

Effects of personal and professional factors on teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion in preschool

Attitudes towards inclusive education have a crucial place in the effective implementation of inclusion practices. The aim of this study was to explore teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education in preschool education in Portugal and to identify teachers’ personal and professional variables that influence these attitudes. The data were collected from a sample composed of 68 preschool teachers working in mainstream schools located in urban and rural areas. The results indicated overall positive attitudes towards inclusion. Having previous personal contact with a person with special educational needs predicted more positive affective attitudes, whereas having previous experience teaching classes that included students with and without special educational needs predicted less positive behavioural intentions. From these results, we infer an emergent need for continuous training and for the promotion of positive attitudes among preschool teachers to achieve the successful implementation of inclusion at this educational level.     

An exploration of school communication approaches for newly arrived EAL students: applying three dimensions of organisational communication theory

This article explores the modes of school communication associated with language and cultural diversity, demonstrating how organisational communication theory can be applied to the analysis of schools’ communication responses to the presence of pupils who have English as an additional language (EAL). The article highlights three analytical dimensions: the external factors influencing school communication systems; communication models reflected in school structures; and the content of communication between stakeholders. An exploratory study of a primary and a secondary school in the East of England, involving 32 semi-structured interviews with school managers, teachers, EAL staff, parents and newly arrived Eastern European students, reveals the interactional and transactional models of communication in the primary school, while the secondary school frequently used a linear approach. Communication in both schools showed a lack of information on EAL students and their parents, hindering a sustained outreach and empowering partnership, and possibly placing these students at a disadvantage.     

Inclusion seen by student teachers in special education: differences among Finnish,Norwegian and Swedish students

This article describes various views of special teacher students towards inclusion. In order to examine these, we analysed a series of statements made by students in Finland, Norway and Sweden. The specific aims were to see how these views can be seen as supportive or challenging for inclusion in schools. A questionnaire with one closed question and two open-ended questions was used in all countries. The results show that students in similar Nordic countries have different views about inclusion. Norwegian students mostly supported inclusion while Finnish students expressed the most reservations. The arguments about inclusion by Norwegian students were the most pupil-focused; those by Finns were teacher-focused, with Swedes being in between. The results seem to reflect the educational policy in these countries. Discussions, more information, as well as good models of inclusion seem to be needed. The implications of these findings for special and regular teacher education are also discussed.