A teacher needs to know at least something about his students' backgrounds (have they experienced war, what is going on in their families etc), but also the different learning styles of different cultures. In some cultures it is okay to ask direct questions from students, when in some (Asian) cultures that would not be the case. Students from different cultures have also different ways to understand for example teacher's authority and time.
I found this great article on teaching in multicultural classroom. It is full of handy tips for teachers! And here you can find more issues that may arise when teaching in a multicultural classroom.
We were challenged to think how we would teach Finnish to newly arrived foreigners. Here are my thoughts:
If I were teaching a group of newly arrived foreigners, I would first of all get to know their backgrounds. Where are they from, what are their religions, and which languages they can speak. I would also meet each one of them face to face before the course starts. I could find out their personal goals and needs for the course as well as their level of Finnish (maybe some of them know already some basics). After gathering all that information I would plan my lessons to meet their needs. I would also take into consideration their different cultural backgrounds.
By now I would have found out that there is one student who cannot speak any other languages than Arabic. I am not a Finnish teacher, so it is hard to tell what are the best ways to teach a foreign language. I would probably use some cards to teach basic words. Then I would teach phrases like “thank you” and “you welcome” using role-playing. I think the best way to learn different foods would be a task where students write a shopping list in pairs and go shopping together. So I would probably use quite practical approaches.
I think it would be also crucial to teach some basics about Finnish culture. So we could for example have different theme days or visit different places once their language skills were good enough. I would do my best to find a way to communicate with each of them. Sometimes it may require using pictures or speaking simple Finnish, or even using an interpreter.
Going Abroad - Is It Enough?
Schools are pushed by Finnish national board of education to take part in international activities; teachers and students participate exchange programmes that take them to visit other schools or workplaces abroad, or to host visitors from abroad. If one is interested in taking an opportunity to participate in such an activity, a good place to start looking for one is CIMO (and obviously your school's International Affairs Coordinator).
Why do we need such activities?
Finland is becoming more and more international; we cannot avoid globalisation. Our economy need future workers, who have skills and willingness to work globally. We need global understanding how to develop sustainable world.
One can still argue, if taking part in international activities is enough. I do not think so; it is only a start! The national curricula have got internationalism as one of the core subjects. Yet I doubt if all the teachers are really viewing their topics from international point of view.
I found an interesting post about teaching globalisation to business students. According to Pankaj Ghemawat,sending students on short exchange programmes do not really make a difference. He states, that we need to challenge our students to think the opportunities and limitations that globalisation causes to the businesses. Only then they learn to think globally. Here is also a link to an interesting course material, which may help you to think how to teach business studies in global context.
What do individual teachers and students get from becoming international?
Teachers:
- will be better prepared to meet challenges of a multicultural classroom
- will be able to create a supportive learning environment for multicultural student group
- will learn about foreign cultures: the people, their history and habits, what could we learn from them?
- will learn how to deal with people from different cultures in the future
- will learn new language skills
- will learn about their own culture: what works, what doesn't
- will learn about themselves: working or studying in a foreign country teaches you a lot about yourself. After going through the cultural shocks, you feel like a winner. I did it! I survived! This will grow your self-esteem. You can read about my personal experiences here.
- will network globally.
- and finally, all this will look good on one's cv.
