The Road Ahead Final Report Equal Education in Practice! Strategic Plan Equal Education in Practice! Strategy for better teaching and greater participation of linguistic minorities in kindergartens, schools and education 2007-2009 Revised edition February 2007 The strategic plan entitled Equal Education in Practice! should contribute to: 1. Improving language skills among pre-school children of linguistic minorities 2. Improving the school performance of linguistic minority pupils in primary and secondary education and training 3. Increasing the proportion of linguistic minority students and apprentices who commence and complete upper secondary education and training 4. Increasing the proportion of linguistic minority students in higher education and improving opportunities for completing education 5. Improving Norwegian language proficiency among linguistic minority adults to increase opportunities for education and active participation in work and society Published by the National Centre for Multicultural Education Postboks 4, St Olavs plass, 0130 Oslo Visitor›s address: Wergelandsveien 27 Tel: 22 45 22 82 e-mail: [email protected] internett: www.hio.no/nafo Design: Magnolia design as 3 Foreword The Strategic plan entitled Equal Education in Practice! A strategy for better learning and greater participation by language minorities in kindergartens, schools and education 2004-2009 was introduced by the Ministry for Education and Research in 2004. The name of the plan was changed somewhat in 2007 on request from the Ministry. The Directorate for Education and Training had primary responsibility for carrying out the plan until 2008. After that, this responsibility was delegated to the National Centre for Multicultural Education (NAFO). A number of measures were implemented in connection with working with this plan and most of these measures had terminated by 2009. Some measures are however still being carried out independent of the Strategic plan, such as the Language Promotion Scheme and the scholarship scheme for teachers from linguistic minorities. Most of the projects in the Strategic plan ended as separate and time-limited projects, but many now continue to be a part of the ordinary practices at different educational institutions which participated in the projects. We present hereby the final report from the Strategic plan. It describes the work and projects that formed a part of the plan. It also provides insight into work that was carried out to promote multicultural development at kindergartens, within the compulsory education system, the upper secondary education and training system, and within higher education, during the period 2004-2009. At the same time we hope this report will be a source for inspiration for further development work in the future. The report is a result of the cooperation and enthusiasm within all levels of the Norwegian education system. It exemplifies development work based on the resources that children, pupils, participants, students and teachers bring with them to many different situations of learning. We have selected 30 examples of good practices that were developed during the Strategic plan period. These examples are presented in this report. We hope this will help inspire kindergartens, schools, municipalities, county municipalities, colleges and universities to invest even more effort into improving good multicultural practices. Many of the projects have been filmed. These films can be found on the DVD in the pocket at the end of this report. We would like to thank children, pupils, participants, parents, teachers, school administrators and school owners who contributed to the many inspiring results from this work. An-Magritt Hauge Head, National Centre for Multicultural Education 3 Contents The main goals of the Strategic plan - Equal Education in Practice! ................................2 Foreword .....................................................................................................................................3 Part 1: Project-anchoring, results and follow-ups Project-anchoring, results and follow-ups of a successful strategy ...................... 6 The multicultural kindergarten and multicultural school ..................................... 6 Challenges and results ................................................................................... 7 Focus areas and project-anchoring ................................................................... 7 Close on the heels of practice ......................................................................... 8 NAFO‘s implementation strategy – follow-ups ................................................... 8 Multicultural perspectives in core documents ................................................... 9 Execution of the Strategic plan: Establishing collaboration with partners .......... 11 The Road Ahead – project-anchoring, roles and responsibilities ....................... 12 Part 2: Project descriptions From experience to inspiration Projects at kindergartens, schools, in municipalities/county municipalities and across all levels .................................................................................... 16 Linguistic and cultural diversity as a resource Multilingualism – a resource at kindergarten .................................................. 21 A resource-perspective at the primary and lower secondary school levels ......... 24 Competence-building Improving the competence of employees in the kindergarten sector on a national level ........................................................................................ 28 Language stimulation Oh my! What a great book! ............................................................................ 33 Stimulating language and reading ability The Language Promotion Programme ............................................................. 35 My reading friend .......................................................................................... 39 Family learning and the library ....................................................................... 43 Cooperating with parents Take a look at our diversity! .......................................................................... 46 The Multicultural Initiative and Resource Network (MiR) .................................. 49 Multilingual mathematics – help with lessons in the Municipality of Larvik ....... 52 Competence-building as a collaborative project Competence-building collaboration between university colleges, the county governor, school owners and NAFO. Project: The multicultural school in North-Trøndelag ........................................ 55 4 5 Practices in primary and lower secondary school Academic language in practice ..................................................................... 58 Tripartite cooperation and the “Word Bank” .................................................... 62 Receiving new pupils .................................................................................... 66 The mother-tongue as a second language ...................................................... 70 Efforts to counteract drop-out rates at upper secondary school level The Larvik “16–24” Combination Project ....................................................... 73 Cooperating on bilingual teaching between primary and upper secondary schools ........................................................................ 76 Recently arrived young people with poor schooling from their country of origin ............................................................................ 78 Good ideas – upper secondary education and adult education Ideas for practical work within upper secondary and adult education .............. 88 Adult education “The Base” – an alternative low-threshold programme adapted to participants who, for psycho-social reasons, cannot participate in ordinary adult education ................................................ 92 Mapping work Mapping of linguistic and educational skills.................................................... 95 Mapping basic Norwegian language skills .................................................... 100 Competence-building Enhancing competence in the new curricula and guiding documents ............. 103 Mapping work Bilingual literacy training and mapping reading skills ..................................... 106 Resources Tema Morsmål – A website with teaching in the mother-tongue as its central theme ................................................................................... 109 Competence-building Development of the Educational and Psychological Counselling Service’s competence in multicultural matters ........................................................... 112 Municipal and county municipal guidance and administration ........................ 115 Investing in efforts at universities and university colleges Increasing the proportion of minority students in higher education and improving their opportunity and potential for completing a higher education ...................................................................................... 121 The scholarship scheme for language minority teachers ............................... 125 4 5 Part 1: Project-anchoring, results and follow-ups Project-anchoring, results and follow-ups of a successful strategy The Strategic plan entitled Equal Education in Practice! A strategy for increasing learning and better participation by language minorities in kindergartens, schools and education 2007-2009 has contributed