INTERCULTURALITY AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION

ANTO explores how antiracist pedagogy is integrated into Finnish teacher education. By analyzing the curricula of several Finnish universities and surveying teacher education students, the study aims to understand how future teachers are being prepared to address racism in classrooms. Antiracism education is crucial to support Finland's diverse classrooms and advance UN Sustainable Development Goals, which emphasize social inclusion and justice. The study aims to better equip teachers and students to recognize and counteract racism, fostering a more inclusive and resilient society. Learn more about the project and its leading team from here: Antiracism in Finnish Teacher Education (ANTO) | University of Jyväskylä

This cross-cultural dialogue at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, delves into the intricacies of equity and inclusion in Indian schooling. Featuring panelists Ira Joshi, Nimrat Kaur, and Jitandra Sharma from Azim Premji Foundation (India) and moderated by Heidi Layne from the University of Jyväskylä (Finland), this event offers global education professionals a unique opportunity to gain insights into the diverse educational landscape of India while examining the universal principles of equity and inclusion through an international and Finnish lens. 

The panel discussion on “Global debates in teacher education- Voices from India, China, and Rwanda”, will bring the voices of teacher educators from different universities in their respective regions. The panel aims to broaden the understanding of teacher education in India, China, and Rwanda, and to ignite discussion around the local, global, and contextually relevant solutions in teacher education. This would include current issues, challenges, and future vision for teachers and teacher education across the three regions, and globally. The panel discussion is organized and moderated by (Hanna Kontio) and the coordination teams of the Global Innovation Network for Teaching and Learning (GINTL) which is coordinated by the University of Jyväskylä and the University of Helsinki.  

How teacher educators across different cultural settings can learn in collaboration to teach diverse learners has become an emerging area of study in teacher education. This talk examines how an online intercultural lesson study project can promote collaborations between two teacher educators, one works in Singapore and the other in Finland, to explore how they can grow professionally and foster diverse student learning when jointly studying and teaching a graduate course for in-service teachers in Singapore. Despite multiple challenges, this online intercultural project helped the team to achieve three purposes: (1) making the diverse students’ thinking explicit via blended learning, (2) engaging students in the critical analysis of alternative perspectives for reflecting upon their professional practices, and (3) provide feedback to the teacher educators on how to help students find relevance between various theories and practice. Drawing upon the boundary work theories,  it was also found that our teacher educators in this study were constantly negotiating intercultural and intersubjective perspectives considering the perceived and received learning consequences, which led to the boundary crossing to form a learning space for all participants. Findings from this study provide a practical perspective that explains the complexities, challenges, and possibilities of implementing teacher-professional learning online and working with boundaries to support teachers’ professional growth.

Keywords: Intercultural lesson study, boundary crossing, teacher professional learning

Epistemologies of the South as a framework challenge dominant Western epistemologies and highlight the need for multiple ways of knowing and understanding the world, particularly from the perspective of marginalized groups in the Global South (de Sousa Santos, 2014). The idea that there are multiple ways of knowing is paramount as includes the knowledge systems and ways of knowing of Indigenous peoples, which are often grounded in their languages and cultures that have somehow been displaced/erased due to colonial (Mignolo, 2011) and linguistic genocide ideologies (Phillipson, 2009; Skutnabb-Kangas, 2012). The revitalization of indigenous languages is an important aspect of decolonization and the recognition of the knowledge and ways of knowing of marginalized groups in the Global South (Coronel-Molina & McCarty, 2016). In this presentation, I will engage in conversations to address that through the revitalization of Indigenous languages, Indigenous peoples are able to preserve their knowledge systems and ways of knowing, and transmit them to future generations while challenging the coloniality of power (Mignolo, 2011; Quijano, 2000) and asserting their right to self-determination, cultural sovereignty and linguistic identity affirmation through translanguaging and trans[cultura]lingual approaches to education (Garcia & Wei, 2014; Ortega, 2022). 

Culturally Centered Pedagogy

Finland’s long-held advantage of its basic education is its guaranteed access to education regardless of families’ socioeconomic status. However, equity in immigrant education has come under scrutiny. The rise in multicultural-ethnic student populations in Finnish schools suggests increased attention on how culturally centered pedagogy can make a positive difference in the quality of education and engender stronger alignment between the written, taught, learned, and experienced curricula. Students need to see themselves within the curriculum and this is at the core of culturally centered pedagogy. School stakeholders can be cognizant of the intersecting axes that build pathways toward inclusive education and how such approaches impact students. It is a practice, an ongoing process, and should be integrated into school culture. Thus, school stakeholders would do well to consider the connections between culturally centered pedagogies as a hallmark of strong curricula and student success. In this session, participants will be introduced to culturally centered theories and models of instruction. Conversations will center on identifying how the theories and models may serve as best practices that conceptually align with student growth model frameworks that confirm the fundamental goal of education that all students can succeed. Session outcomes seek to foster conversation on how educators may reimagine curriculum to support vulnerable students from multicultural-ethnic backgrounds. 

Voiceless Teachers in Education: Intercultural Experiences and Perceptions of Chinese Immigrant Teachers in Finland 

During the past decade, the demographic changes brought about by international mobility have diversified education in Finland. One type of diversification is the increasing number of teachers of immigrant backgrounds. However, how immigrant teachers experience the Finnish educational system has not yet been among the topics of full-scale academic research (Nishimura-Sahi, Wallin & Eskola, 2017). There is an emerging need to address this research gap by giving voice to immigrant teachers who are rarely heard. This study investigated the experiences and perceptions of immigrant teachers working in Finland, taking Chinese immigrant teachers of the Chinese language as a case study. The findings of this study suggest a strong link between experiences, perceptions, and intercultural imaginations, as well as constructed discourses. The findings lead to both theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, a new model for understanding the experiences of immigrant teachers was developed. This model takes into account the multiple facets of immigrant teachers’ experiences, the power relations in the context under review, and their influence on intercultural imagination and discourses. Practically, the findings suggested that 1) stakeholders should listen to the needs and concerns of immigrant teachers and provide equal treatment to all kinds of teachers; 2) regular continued professional development training plays a very important role in helping teachers update their subject knowledge and teaching skills, but also in providing opportunities for all types of teachers to learn together; 3) intercultural teacher education and training should also help the teachers to become aware of the ongoing discourses, and reflect critically on their cultural assumptions. 

Coding Stories for Hope!

A pluralistic world is beautiful; however, conflicts and natural disasters are inevitable and are a reality. Such conflicts along with unfortunate events give rise to acute emergencies. There are certain emergencies that we were mostly able to overcome like H1N1 influenza. There are some like poverty with which we still struggle. There may be certain things that are building up like climate change. Whatever it may be, their impact has affected human life in many ways for years. One such impact is disrupting children's education. Children have shown a great fighting spirit in the past in such situations. There is a need to build skills and mindsets that allow them to amplify their voice and actions. Code to Enhance Learning, a non-profit based out of Ahmedabad, India envisions that children leverage technology to express and thrive in the innovative world. They use coding as a tool to build critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and perseverance in children in grades 4-9. In the lecture, we will discuss the stories of children and the digital artifacts they created related to problems in the Indian context through the programs of Code to Enhance Learning. Grade 9 students too will present their digital artifacts, their learning, and insights. Moreover, these stories give hope that technology can be a tool that may allow children globally to not only fight emergencies but thrive and be part of the story of change.

An Introduction to Antiracism Education

Antiracism forces us to identify racially because understanding the complexities of race is essential in understanding racism and why it persists despite the efforts to “eradicate” it. Finland is not a stranger to these terms even though it shies away from them. This introductory lecture will throw light on the centrality of race in Finland, the intricacies of racism, and the possibility of antiracism. Antiracism as a word endorses recognition of the existence of racism. Which is a major step in uprooting racism. Antiracism gives space for the discourse of racism in a way that existing multiculturalism programs/discourses in Finland do not. There cannot be any solution to the problem of racism in Finland unless the proposed solution(s) is centered on antiracism principles and methodologies. The lecture will introduce key components of antiracism education in Finland.