The Ignored Potential of Albanian- Speaking Minority Children in Swiss Schools Andrea U. Haenni Hoti Basil Schader VOLUME 12, NUMBER 7 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LEARNING http://www.Learning-Journal.com First published in 2005/2006 in Melbourne, Australia by Common Ground Publishing Pty Ltd www.CommonGroundPublishing.com. © 2005/2006 (this paper), the author(s) © 2005/2006 (selection and editorial matter) Common Ground All rights reserved. Apart from fair use for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act (Australia), no part of this work may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. For permissions and other inquiries, please contact <cg-support@ commongroundpublishing.com>. ISSN: 1447-9494 (print), 1447-9540 (online) Publisher Site: http://www.Learning-Journal.com The INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LEARNING is a peer refereed journal. Full papers submitted for publication are refereed by Associate Editors through anonymous referee processes. Typeset in Common Ground Markup Language using CGCreator multichannel typesetting system http://www.CommonGroundSoftware.com. The Ignored Potential of Albanian-Speaking Minority Children in Swiss Schools Determinative Contextual Factors for School Success and the Impact of Teachers' Assessments Andrea U. Haenni Hoti, University for Teacher Education, Lucerne, Switzerland Basil Schader, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland Abstract: This study is the first to focus on the specific situation of Albanian school children who entered the Swiss school system in increasing numbers in the 1990s during the wars in the Balkans. With our research, we discovered more about the linguistic competences of Albanian-speaking children living in a diaspora in the Swiss-German region, taking into account their bicultural background. In this article we emphasize the results concerning the question of school success and the crucial factors we identified (n=1084; school classes: 5.-10.). In primary school, the most important factor for predicting the child’s own estimation of his or her skills in German as a second language was the child’s self-assessment of Albanian language skills. This result seems to support the hypothesis that a high competence in the first language is connected to a high competence in a second language. In secondary school, the teacher’s rating regarding the potential school achievement of the child was most likely to be predicted by his or her own judgement concerning the psychological and social situation of the child. This factor was more important than the social class or literacy of the parents. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the impact of highly subjective factors such as the teacher’s assessment on school success of children with an immigration background. The discussion of these and other findings will include necessary measures that need to be taken within the Swiss school system and teacher-training programmes in order to set up an educational policy which fosters multiculturalism (including the language and culture of immigrants) and prevents ethnic discrimination. Keywords: Multicultural Education and Cultural Diversity in the Classroom, Language Education and Second-Language Learning, Social Inequality and Ethnic Discrimination, School Achievement, Teachers’ Assessments Struggling for Equal Chances: Ethnic parents or grandparents emigrated from the Balkans, Albanians in Switzerland such as ethnic Albanians from Kosovo or Macedonia (ex-Yugoslavia) or from Albania are at high risk of INGUISTIC DIVERSITY AT school due being stigmatised and discriminated against. to immigration has become a reality Children of Albanian immigrants with a bicultural throughout Europe. As early as the middle and bilingual background are more likely to be sent L th of the 19 century, the Swiss state has to special classes for children with learning diffi- counted four official languages, which are treated culties, which limits their chances for school success. equally, and it has seen itself as a multicultural soci- Moreover, they are underrepresented in schools with ety: 63.7% of the population are mainly German- a higher social status such as secondary schools with speaking, 20.4% prefer French, 6.5% Italian and higher demands and grammar schools (Kronig, 0.5% Rhaeto-Romanic (Lüdi & Werlen, 2005, 7). Haeberlin & Eckhart, 2000). The monocultural and Due to the concept of a political nation which is “monolingual habit” of the school, as Ingrid Gogolin based on the common political will to cooperate and (1994) points out, still seems to be the prevailing to share the political power rather than on a common concept which shapes everyday practice at school, culture and language, Switzerland has largely been with the dominant language in each region of the spared from ethnic and cultural conflicts. country serving as the basis. Consequently, the Paradoxically, the Swiss idea of multiculturalism “cultural and linguistic potential of children with a does not necessarily include immigrants. Both the bicultural background” (Schader, 2004) remains un- acceptance of recently immigrated communities and discovered, develops more or less accidentally or is the recognition of their cultural practices and lan- even seen and treated by teachers and school officials guages still remain limited (Haenni Hoti, 2003), even as a deficit or handicap as far as the first language though 9% of the population living in Switzerland is concerned. speak a non-national language as their first language One has to take into account that the Albanian (Lüdi & Werlen, 2005, 7). Especially children whose immigration has played an important role for the INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LEARNING, VOLUME 12, NUMBER 7, 2005/2006 http://www.Learning-Journal.com, ISSN 1447-9494 (print), 1447-9540 (online) © Common Ground, Andrea U. Haenni Hoti, Basil Schader, All Rights Reserved, Permissions: [email protected] 288 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LEARNING, VOLUME 12 Swiss economy and in the Swiss society since the Swiss-German school system, and whether or not 1970s. According to an estimation of Leuenberger they are able to improve the chances for school suc- and Maillard in 1999, the Swiss-Albanian minority cess of their participants: was over 210.000 in number at that time, and at least 160.000 people had emigrated from Kosovo. Today, Do the Supplementary Albanian Native they represent the second largest ethnic group of Language and Culture Classes have a immigrants and their descendants (after the ethnic Positive Impact on German Language minority of Italian origin) within the overall Swiss Skills? population of 7.288.010 people. They are 94.937 people - or 1.3% of the Swiss population - who still Since courses in Albanian language and culture are speak Albanian as a first language (Lüdi & Werlen, not integrated into the regular school curriculum, 2005, 7ff.). only about 10% of all school children with an Albani- In spite of this fact, researchers have thus far paid an immigration background attend these classes and little attention to the specific situation of Albanian- usually during their leisure time. Girls are more likely speaking school children who entered the Swiss to take part than boys, and children from privileged school system in increasing numbers in the 1990s social classes, whose parents went to a college or to during the wars in the Balkans. In official statistics, university, attend the courses in Albanian language they are usually merged together with other ethnic and culture more often than less privileged children groups from ex-Yugoslavia to form one category. (Schader & Haenni Hoti, 2004). Because precise statistics are missing, the number The second factor of main interest in explaining of Albanian-speaking school children can only be school success is the teacher’s assessment. We want estimated between 30.000 and 40.000 (about 3% of to find out whether there is any evidence that the the total number of school children). Therefore, the teacher’s rating of the child’s prospective school goal of our study was to produce scientific findings achievement could be biased by the social behaviour in a very specific and, as of yet, unexplored field. of the child and his/her degree of integration into the Our research focussed on the linguistic competences school class: of Swiss-Albanian school children living in a dia- spora in the Swiss-German region of Switzerland, Is the Teacher’s Assessment of the Child’s as well as on the identification of significant factors School Achievement Influenced by of their school success. Subjective Judgements based on the Research Questions Psycho-Social Situation of the Child? In this study, the following research questions con- Research Methods cerning school success were examined: To gather the data, two types of questionnaires were Which Factors have a Positive or a implemented: one questionnaire for the school chil- Negative Impact on the School dren (n=1084; 5th to 10th grade; 50.5% were girls Achievement of Swiss-Albanian School and 49.5% were boys) and one for their teachers Children? (n=250 class teachers; and n=25 teachers in Albanian language and culture). In the next chapters, we will emphasize the influence As mentioned above, the following indicators for of two factors which may possibly determine school school success were chosen: in primary school, the achievement. The first one is the instruction in Al- child’s own estimation of his/her skills in the German banian language and