STEP 7: Multilingual pedagogy & action

VIDEOITA:

2021-05-03T13:44:07+03:00

Antiracist education - examples of good practice

2024-08-14T12:24:55+03:00

Biology

When teaching cell biology, mitochondrion (mitochondria pl.) provide a good opportunity to highlight how humans are linked to a single gene called mitochondria. Mitochondria are essential for human existence and are involved invarious cell processes that rely on energy sustenance - such as cell growth, cell messaging, aging and replication. Even though humans have superficial differences in skin tone, hair colour and facial features, mitochondira illustrate that all humans derive from the same origin. To survive in different environments, the physiology of people has shifted and changed, but race is not biology - the shared origin of humanity is. (From Alemanji, A. A. (2021). Pedagogy of antiracist best practices for Finnish schools. Educational Practice and Theory, 43(2), 37-52.)

History

Asking questions and looking from different perspectives is an important part of history education. Simple examples can be used to encourage students to think again and to think more carefully. For example, the English name for the country to Wales means something quite different to the Welsh name for Wales. The modern Welsh name for Wales is and the name for the Welsh people is Cymry. These terms mean "fellow-countrymen" or a "compatriot". The English word 'Wales' however means 'foreigner' and specifically a 'Romanised foreigner' from the time when Britain was part of the Roman Empire. Knowing what the words mean helps to understand why using the Welsh words is important for the Welsh people. Discussing the names and partitioning of many African nations can also help to uncover historically racist acts which have excluded African peoples. The country of Cameroon, for example, was named by the Portuguese in 1472 as 'Rio dos Camarões' (the River of Prawns). This land was inhabited before the Portuguese or other Europeans started to take advantage of the resources of African nations. (From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymru and Alemanji, A. A. (2021). Pedagogy of antiracist best practices for Finnish schools. Educational Practice and Theory, 43(2), 37-52.)

Interdisciplinary units of work

Working with different subjects around a shared focal point is an important way to promote a more holistic understanding of different phenomena. If the focus is on an everyday material such as rubber - used for erasers, tires and many other objects, different subjects are important and useful. Biology draws attention to rubber as a material from the natural world, from particular kinds of trees growing in particular conditions. Chemistry explains how the natural substance was transformed into a synthetic material. Physics helps to explore and explain the physical properties of rubber and, for example, why smooth tires are dangerous in wet weather. Economics draws attention to the importance of rubber within and across industry. Technology highlights the very many varied and significant uses of rubber. History can convey the change in the quality of life once rubber became widespread as a material - but history also provides an opportunity to acknowledge the exploitation and horror that are also part of the development of rubber. Language awareness draws attention to the different ways disciplines present expert knowledge and language awareness also provides an important opportunity to go beyond 'stated facts' to the lived experiences that are also part of the wider human story. (Background information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_rubber)

Strengthening language awareness through everyday activities - examples based on Loughran's 2010 book

2024-08-19T14:43:09+03:00

Extracts from Loughran 2010 - what expert teachers do.pdf

Language Awareness Tasks for multilingual pedagogy and antiracism education

2024-11-06T12:01:06+02:00

The two lectures in particular from the Kaikkien koulu course provide theoretical insights and practical approaches to multilingual pedagogy and antiracism education. The aim of Step 7 is to develop ways of actively avoiding discrimination through language aware pedagogy and everyday approaches to studying. Both antiracism education and multilingual pedagogy require teachers to be more aware of 'how' and 'why' when working with students. Moreover, in both antiracism education and multilingual pedagogy small changes can make signficiant differences.

Orientation
Listen to the students' experiences https://monikielisenoppijanmatkassa.fi/tasavertaisuus/ - what surprises you? what is good to know having listened to these students? what difference does the teacher make? what difference could a teacher make?

After lecture 1:
One suggestion for the demo is to work through the real-life scenarios from schools. Discuss what has happened for this scenario to take place. It might be that the teacher's intention was good, but something has gone amiss. It might be that no-one anticipated a problem would develop, but now it has. Consider different scenarios and talk together - what would be better responses as educators and what can you learn from these scenarios?

Finally, please read through the examples for good practices in antiracism education (the right hand column) - what connections can you see with language aware approaches? what connections can you see with good educational principles? what practical insights can be taken from these examples? what other examples of good practices can you share and/or develop?

After lecture 2:
One suggestion for the second demo is to look through the examples of good tasks to use in classrooms. Each of these tasks highlights an important part of studying, e.g. making links, processing information, and an important opportunity to strengthen language awareness as part of studying processes. These tasks come from John Loughran's book What expert teachers do - enhancing professional knowledge for classroom practice. How can these tasks be slightly modified to use the full range of students' language repertoires? How can these tasks support the use of language in education? It would be a good idea to try out some of these tasks in your group as part of this course and also actively draw on the different languages that are part of your group.

Resources:

Alemanji, A. A. (2021). Pedagogy of antiracist best practices for Finnish schools. Educational Practice and Theory, 43(2), 37-52.
Lehtonen, H. (2018). Monikielisyys näkyväksi (Making multilingualism visible). Audiovisual output; Kasvatus ja koulutus. Available (in Finnish)
Cummins, J. (2017). Multilingualism in Classroom Instruction: “I think it’s helping my brain grow.” Scottish Languages Review 33, 5–18.
Honko, M. & Mustonen, S. (2018). Kieliä rinnakkain – koulun monikielisyys näkyviin kieliä vertailemalla. Kieli, koulutus ja yhteiskunta, 9(5).
Paavo ja ystävät Monialainen oppimiskokonaisuus syrjivän kiusaamisen ehkäisyyn
Monikielisyys luokan rikastuttajana : etnografinen tapaustutkimus kielellisesti ja kulttuurisesti moninaisessa alkuopetuksen luokassa

Additional resources in Finnish for session planning:

Kielitietoinen opetus (Language aware teaching) and Tiedonalojen kieli (Subject language) sections: https://monikielisenoppijanmatkassa.fi
Minästä kiinni (Catch the self) and Kielestä koppi (Catch the language)
DivEd – Diversity in education: Language aware practices for teachers
KYTKE https://www.walter.fi/