Meeting the Needs of Immigrant and Refugee Children in Denmark by David C

AROUND THE GLOBE

Meeting the Needs of Immigrant and Refugee Children in Denmark by David C. Virtue

In Denmark, as elsewhere in Western ethnic minority preschool children Turkey and Yugoslavia, migrated Europe, the children of immigrants in Roskilde (Virtue 2002). My study, to the cities in the 1960s and and refugees typically experience which was supported by a doctoral early 1970s to meet the swelling higher dropout rates and lower scholarship from the Kappa Delta Pi demand for industrial workers. Other levels of academic achievement than Educational Foundation, offers valuable migrants—notably those from Bosnia, their Danish peers. Such inequities lessons regarding the design and Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia— persist into adulthood, as foreigners implementation of programs that aim traveled to Roskilde as refugees in the face higher levels of unemployment, to meet the needs of culturally and 1980s and 1990s. chronic underemployment, and linguistically diverse learners. sometimes overt discrimination in the The Integration Project workplace. The Setting In December 1996, the municipal In Roskilde, a city located 30 Roskilde is a city of 51,770. In 1998, council in Roskilde decided to address kilometers west of Copenhagen, the among those living in Roskilde were local government launched a program 2,656 foreign citizens and asylum- David C. Virtue is an Assistant Professor in aimed at stemming this trend. I had seekers, who constituted about 5 Instruction and Teacher Education at the the opportunity to conduct a case percent of the total population. The University of South Carolina. His research study during the initial years (1997– pattern of migration to Roskilde closely interests include anthropology of educa- 2000) of this program, designed mirrored the pattern elsewhere in tion, comparative and international educa- to enhance the school-readiness of Denmark. Laborers, primarily from tion, and middle level social studies.

KAPPA DELTA PI RECORD • SPRING 2006 133 issues involving the education of The Roskilde Integration Project to take the place of preschool staff children from non-Danish-speaking was given three years to fulfill its members while they participated in the homes in the local schools. The official mandate to work with bilingual program. term for such children in Denmark is children and their families as specified tosprogede, or “bilinguals” (Danish in the project goals. During the A Cultural Process Ministry of Education 1996). In 1997, first year and a half, the integration Implementing the Integration Project there were 573 bilingual students team concentrated on encouraging involved more than the mere technical from more than 20 countries in the immigrant parents to enroll their aspects of delivering educational schools in Roskilde (Danish Ministry of children in preschools. None of the services and related support. Essentially, Refugees 2002). 215 children in this target group the implementation also was an The council unanimously decided were enrolled in preschools, so the ongoing cultural process. The most to initiate a three-year project that caseworker visited the homes of pervasive example of the Integration involved enhancing the school- bilingual families with preschool-age Project as a cultural system was in readiness of bilingual children through children and spoke with community the team’s use of language and other the preschool centers in Roskilde. leaders about the availability of symbolic expressions to transform the The project (Roskilde Borne-og Kultur preschool services for children, while way people thought, felt, and spoke Forvaltningen [BKF] 1997), launched the integration workers worked closely about integration. under the theme Tal Dansk (Speak with the preschools as they welcomed The prevailing view of integration, Danish), had three basic goals: the new children and their parents to as embeddedIt has been in morethe initial than theme a 1. Bilingual children starting in their institutions. anddecade goals since of the I first project, stepped was into that a kindergarten classes will be able to By December 1999, all the integrationclassroom, yetcould I vividly be equated remember with speak Danish at the same level as children in the target group were languageall the emotions acquisition. I experienced The process at their Danish peers. enrolled in preschools. As a result of wasthat assimilationist,time: excitement, unidirectional, nervousness, 2. Parents of bilingual children this success, the integration team andapprehension, language-based. and anxiety. In contrast, I was a must be encouraged to accept expanded the scope of its work to integrationfirst-year teacher, team members 21 years held old, a andview placement offers to enroll their include encouraging parents to place ofassigned integration to a thatsenior involved level British more than children, primarily from the their school-age children in after- justliterature language course. acquisition. Yet, I survived. In their view, age of 2-1/2 years, in preschool school organizations that provided integrationNot only did was I survive, a process but of Imutual also institutions. extended-day play and enrichment. adaptationremained a involving career educator—unlike “respectful 3. Bilingual parents must be familiar The integration team also increased its dialogue”many new among teachers adults, who collaboration leave the with the Danish way of child level of cooperation with the primary andprofession cooperation after 3–5across years ethnic (Woolfolk lines, rearing, the responsibilities of schools. and2003). a multicultural What made vision the difference for society. parents, and what schools expect Because staff members in the Membersfor me? I ofattribute the team, my particularly successful the of parents and children. preschools had no prior experience integrationevolution as coordinator, a teacher to possessed three working with non-Danish speaking the political skill and resources to The team assembled to implement children, the integration team define and build consensus around the project consisted of an integration organized and led numerous courses that vision. They aimed to construct coordinator, a caseworker, and four and seminars to enhance their meanings—signified by terms such bicultural integration workers. The qualifications. Staff development and as integration, culture, bilingual, and integration team delivered five types training was systematized in 1999 multicultural—that would be shared by of services to the program targets: when the integration coordinator— all stakeholders. casework that involved encouraging with the cooperation of the Labor As the project developed, the parents of bilingual children to use Department, the teachers’ union, integration team shifted the focus from preschool centers and after-school and the preschools—organized the a narrow effort to enhance the Danish programs; training and professional Education and Rotation Project. This language competence of bilingual development of preschool staff project was designed to train all staff children, as defined by the goals they members; parent education; facilitation members in the 20 preschools with received from the local politicians, to and mediation of interaction among bilingual children between November a much more broadly defined effort parents, preschool staff members, 1999 and September 2000. Prior to that encompassed educating parents, and children; and social and linguistic the intensive four-week training course, developing and training preschool staff stimulation activities with bilingual a corps of 20 substitutes, eight of members, increasing the participation children. whom were bicultural, were trained of bilingual children in after-school

134 KAPPA DELTA PI RECORD • SPRING 2006 clubs, promoting mother tongue and are integrated through certain programs for language minority development and maintenance, and “boundary processes” (Wenger immigrant and refugee students may transforming the relationship between 2000, 10). One of these processes be designed to work with rather than ethnic minority families and the larger is “reculturing,” through which a against these processes. In this case, society. professional community that shares the implementation process was These new goals were not formally common values, beliefs, and norms is structured in a way that contributed written in any document, but rather developed (Fullan 2001). This process to unintended positive outcomes, were codified in the activities of and was evident in the Roskilde case as the such as increased parent involvement language used by the integration team. For example, they were evident in the increased attention to the qualifications of preschool staff members to work “The process of implementing the with bilingual children, at first through ad hoc courses and seminars and Roskilde Integration Project involved later through Projekt Vintergækker (a winter project named for a white linking a community of practice.” flower that blooms during that season) and the more formal Education and Rotation Project described earlier. integration team forged links with the and changed attitudes toward The new goals also were evident in staff members in daycare institutions, marginalized minority groups on the the positive attention given to the other professionals who worked part of preschool staff members, local role of a child’s first language in the with preschool children (i.e., nurses, politicians, and Danish parents. integration process, as expressed in the psychologists, and speech and hearing status reports prepared for the local pathologists), and other members of politicians and bureaucrats (Roskilde the community. Note: This research was supported, BKF 1997; 1999). As the integration team helped in part, by the Kappa Delta Pi to develop a community of practice, Educational Foundation’s Gerald H. team members also worked to extend Linking Communities Read Laureate Doctoral Scholarship The process of implementing the the boundaries of the community in International and Comparative Roskilde Integration Project involved of practice to include resources Education. For information about this linking a community of practice— embedded in the community of and other KDP scholarships, visit the consisting of the integration team, immigrants and refugees. Team Scholarships section at www.kdp.org. educators, and other professionals— members valued these resources as with the immigrant community. A “community funds of knowledge” References community of practice is a network of (Moll et al. 1992). They tried to Danish Ministry of Education. 1996. The Act on the Folkes- individuals who are bound together by accomplish this goal by disseminating kole. Copenhagen, Denmark: DME. Danish Ministry of Refugees. 2002. Immigrants and their common pursuit of solutions to information to the parents in their integration report: Statistical yearbook of foreigners. Copenhagen, Denmark: DMR. a common set of problems (Wenger native languages and by creating Fullan, M. 2001. Leading in a culture of change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 1998; 2000). In the Roskilde case, opportunities for them to voice their Moll, L. C., C. Amanti, D. Neff, and N. González. 1992. Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative the community of practice included concerns, ask questions, and propose approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice 31(2): 132–41. those stakeholders who were actively ideas. Roskilde Borne-og Kultur Forvaltningen. 1997. Integra- tionsindsatsen for tosprogede smaborn: Status medio engaged in addressing integration november 1997 [Integration effort for bilingual chil- issues, including the integration team, Closing Thoughts dren: Status November 1997]. Roskilde, Denmark: Roskilde BKF. some local politicians, preschool My case study of the Roskilde Roskilde Borne-og Kultur Forvaltningen. 1999. Integra- tionsindsatsen for tosprogede smaborn: Status medio workers who involved themselves Integration Project illustrated the september 1999 [Integration effort for bilingual children: Status September 1999]. Roskilde, Denmark: in work with bilingual children, complexity of implementing programs Roskilde BKF. Virtue, D. C. 2002. An analysis of the implementation of and parents and members of the that meet the needs of culturally and a school-readiness program targeting non-Danish speaking immigrant and refugee children in Roskilde, community who became involved in linguistically diverse learners. The Denmark. Ph.D. diss., University of Georgia. Wenger, E. 1998. Communities of practice: Learning, mean- Integration Project activities. study revealed underlying processes ing, and identity. New York: Cambridge University Organizations build social learning of learning, culturing, and political Press. Wenger, E. 2000. Communities of practice: The key to systems which consist of a variety of activity within the implementation knowledge strategy. In Knowledge and communities, ed. E. L. Lesser, M. A. Fontaine, and J. A. Slusher, communities of practice that interact process, and demonstrated how 3–20. Boston, MA: Butterworth–Heinemann.

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