This topic raises important discussions in several countries about the need to support language (and reading) development across all subjects and to ensure teachers have skills in second-language acquisition.
A Swedish example is the report Så minskar vi läsgapet i svensk skola (How to narrow the reading gap in Swedish schools) from Svenskt Näringsliv (Confederation of Swedish Enterprise). Another example comes from Iceland, where discussions about the education and professional development of teachers focus on improving knowledge of second-language teaching and on methods for teaching older students to read.
Special attention should be given to how schools can support newly arrived students with refugee backgrounds, trauma experiences, and often disrupted schooling. When assessing their prior learning and addressing their educational and social needs in a trauma-sensitive manner, there is a need to combine language support with reading assistance based on the students’ linguistic and literacy backgrounds.
Language-aware pedagogy
Many newcomers, especially those with a refugee background, have experienced interrupted schooling and trauma that must be addressed. When children arrive at school, it is necessary to explore their background knowledge, prior learning, literacy and numeracy, and plan the learning accordingly. This is important for both refugee children and all children who have newly arrived in a school culture and language.
While all students are multilingual, they need to learn to use the language of the school in new, more abstract ways. Alongside academic language, students use foreign languages, their own mother tongues, dialects, and a constantly evolving spoken language. This challenges schools to recognise and acknowledge multilingualism and to provide space for various languages.
In a language-aware school culture, the importance of language in teaching and all school activities is recognised. Language teaching naturally provides many opportunities to make languages visible and valued. In a language-aware school, all languages studied and the students’ mother tongues are inherently present.
Language-aware working methods require collaboration among teachers. This work will benefit from well-established structures and conditions that support such collaboration. Thus, school leadership plays a key role: a language-aware school culture cannot emerge without language-aware leadership.
Teacher competencies
The significance of skilled teachers for successful language development was emphasised during the webinar, and it is also a subject we have discussed within the network on multiple occasions.
We recognise that there is potential for development across all the Nordic countries, as well as great opportunities to learn from each other’s good practices. Just as there is no single method of language learning that suits all students, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to teaching. However, we can identify certain aspects of teacher education and professional development that benefit all learners.
One important area for development is teacher education, which – if we take researchers’ suggestions seriously – should also involve second-language learning and diversity competencies. Also, we recognise the need for continuous professional development in the holistic follow-up of the needs of newly arrived pupils.
There are many good examples of such professional development initiatives across the Nordic countries, and our hope is that by sharing experiences and learning from each other, we can help influence both teacher education and professional development in each country.
Some thoughts on moving forward
Schools in the Nordic countries have powerful and important missions. Schools should promote learning and encourage pupils to develop both knowledge and values. Schools should also promote students’ personal development into active, creative, competent, and responsible individuals and citizens.
Additionally, schools should do this in collaboration with students’ families. This mission applies to all students in the school, whether they are newly arrived or not, whether they have a mother tongue other than a Nordic language or not.
During the webinar, we heard researchers discuss the benefits and challenges they see in education for newly arrived students. It has been very enlightening to learn from their expertise.
There is still a need to further enhance our knowledge base with a range of projects employing various methodologies – descriptive and qualitative studies, as well as quantitative research. With the increasing share of immigrant populations in the Nordic countries, the grounds for more studies using experimental and quasi-experimental designs and comparisons between municipalities and different programmes may become more feasible over time.
We also recognise significant potential and the necessity for researchers from transdisciplinary fields to collaborate and co-create studies that examine the trajectory of language learning from a holistic perspective.
The Nordic Network for Education for Newly Arrived Students is eager to contribute to greater sharing across the Nordic countries, facilitating gatherings and dialogue among practitioners, researchers, and policymakers. By sharing research and promising practices, we lay the groundwork for more inclusive education for all.