Teacher Training
Pre-Service Teachers' Multicultural Competence: The Case of Greece
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Panagiota Sotiropoulou
Multicultural competence is a concept used frequently to describe teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, and skills related to making educational experiences relevant to all students while also taking into consideration their diverse backgrounds. Despite featuring highly in academic literature and policy agendas worldwide, pre-service teachers’ multicultural competence and the factors influencing it are to-date rarely examined. This study uses a mixed-methods approach to capture more holistically the complex concept of multicultural competence and the factors influencing it. The empirical dataset comprises 356 questionnaires completed by final-year undergraduate students of Primary Education from three departments in Greece and six focus group discussions with students recruited out of the same pool of participants, conducted equally across the three departments in which questionnaires were administered. The study’s findings show that, although based crudely on the quantitative scalar measurements, Greek pre-service teachers’ multicultural competence scores are relatively high, their narratives present a more complex reality, revealing misconceptions around its practical manifestations and a general lack in multicultural teaching knowledge and skills with a social justice orientation. Moreover, the study traces webs of causal connections between multicultural competence and pre-service teachers’ sociocultural positionalities, experiences of international mobilities, multicultural encounters as well as experiences of both formal and informal curricula across diverse spaces of learning. In doing so, the study reveals the importance of thinking relationally about the spatialisation of multicultural competence and offers invaluable insights to the academic literature and policy debates around the best ways to prepare multiculturally competent educators.
From Human Rights Curriculum Theories to Children Rights Authentic Actions: A Case-Study in Preliminary Education
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Aikaterini Maria Karava, Eleni Stavropoulou, Ioanna Mpekiari, Stavroula Karagiannopoulou, Ariadni Kouzeli, Maria Fragkaki
The core aim of this paper is to present a case-study for the promotion of Authentic Learning, with ICT integration in the Preliminary Greek Education and the cultivation of twenty-first century skills to young pupils. Undergraduate students from the Department of Educational Science and Early Childhood Education of the University of Patras, under the mentoring of their teacher, who acted as “critical friend”, co-designed and researched the implementation of learning scenarios for the deliberation of concepts such as “diversity”, “human rights” to Early Childhood Education. The problematic of this study based on the absence of the practical implementation of those topics in the every-day kindergarten practice. Graduates wanted to explore if authentic learning scenarios with the pedagogical utilization of Open Educational Resources (OER) could cultivate healthy dialogue, resolve differences and respect others personal values, beliefs and attitudes (Curriculum of Studies from Preliminary Education, 2014). Moreover, they wanted to investigate if through the current learning, teaching, and research process would advance their role to a meaningful one in order to meet the challenges that both with their students have to face in a globalized world. A Participatory Action Research took place in kindergartens, infused from critical constructivist and authentic learning theories. The initial research results argue that pupils’ interest enhanced from topics that were authentic; could understand better, clarify and analyse the explored concepts, only when they participated actively to the learning activities, solving problems, debating and empathetically acting and finally it is realized that OER technological environments enhanced students interest.
The Phenomenon of Xenophobia in School Environments: Case Study and Proposed Teaching Activities
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Aikaterini Maria Karava, Aikaterini Aitinidi, Eugenia Arvanitis
As undergraduate students in the DESECE, University of Patras and in the course of the lecture Intercultural Training of Teachers, we studied the refugee phenomenon. Through this study, we focused on xenophobia towards refugees and we decided to conduct a study case. The main objective is to reveal the causes of the incident that took place on the 19th of October 2018, at the primary school in Skoytari, Serres. That day 105 children didn't attend school, as a protest indication for the ten refugee children, that registered at school. This case study is intended to answer three main research questions: What are the causes of this xenophobic phenomenon? Does this xenophobic behavior stem from feelings of fear of parents or children themselves? What kind of fears does someone have about a refugee child? The outcome of this study case is a result of joint research (quantitative and qualitative research), based on semi-structured interviews and closed type of questionnaires. Τhe theoretical background used to support and interpret the results of our research is the “theory of the integrated threat”, which concerns the fear of the host country, that another ethnic group will prevail. Through this research work we have realized the timeliness of the subject and our duty as future teachers: not only to know in depth such phenomena, but also to combat xenophobia in the educational environments. For this reason, at the end we are putting forward proposals for classroom activities.
Teaching in a Culturally Diverse Context: What About Teachers’ Wellbeing?
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Caterina Mamprin
In Quebec (Canada), children who do not speak the language of instruction, French, must enter the school system through reception classes. In those classes, they emphasize French learning so students can integrate the regular curriculum as quickly as possible. From the 2015-2016 school year, the number of reception classes has increased rapidly in the Greater Montreal area due to the significant influx of Syrian refugee students. While the environment may have an influence on teachers' well-being at work (Price and McCallum, 2015), there is little research on reception classes. However, children attending these classes have special needs related to their migration experience in which teachers do not always feel qualified and may experience anxiety (McNeely et al., 2017). In this context we aim better understand how the particular environment of reception classes can influence teachers’ wellbeing at work. The data presented in this study were collected from January to June 2018 in a discussion group conducted in a high school of the Greater Montreal. Eight teachers participated in the eight sessions of this activity. The data were also collected through semi-structured interviews with the participants before and after the eight meetings. The questions were formulated according to Dagenais-Desmarais' (2010) concept of psychological well-being at work. The results highlight the challenges and the day-to-day realities experienced by teachers, and also how these can affect their well-being at work. They draw attention to the systemic factors influencing the integration of newcomer students at school.
