CONTEXT

England did not participate in the 1^st NRT round (2017-18: Setting the scene workshop). For this reason, the ‘Setting the scene’ stage was incorporated in the preparation activities of the 2018-19 workshop. Specific topics were identified as priority policy areas both through a review of the findings from recent research carried out in these areas and through consultation with a number of policy makers and with practitioners who work with migrant and refugee children.  Through this process we identified the following three topics as priority areas for discussion at the English NRT:

• How to effectively engage the parents of migrant and refugee children.
• How to ensure teachers are adequately prepared to meet the challenges of successful integrating migrant and refugee children into the classroom.
• The impact of mental health issues on the ability of migrant or refugee children to learn effectively.

Together with the invitations to the NRT, participants were asked to confirm the significance of the above or/and to suggest other topics that might be considered key priority areas. All participants confirmed their agreement on the significance of the issues in the list either by email or during the event. No other areas were put forward for discussion.

• The challenges of engaging parents in migrant and refugee children’s education was raised as an issue in the ALFIRK: Erasmus+ project which sought to address barriers relating to increased parental empowerment in the education processes. Our findings showed the significance of the role of the school not only for the educational inclusion of migrant/refugee students but for the social inclusion of parents and families. The project highlighted the significance of parents’ engagement in the school life and made suggestions to schools for the development of initiatives and policies that support parental involvement.
• The PERAE Research project, funded by the MERCATOR foundation, explored refugee students’ experience of educational inclusion in several EU countries and highlighted the complexity of achieving inclusive education for this group. Two key components were found to be the role of the migrant students’ parents and family in supporting them in their education journey and the preparedness of teachers. Examination of teacher training programmes (Initial and CPD) showed that trainee teachers are taught very little about the needs of these groups of students beyond the schools’ statutory duty to ensure their inclusion.
• Finally, PERAE, as well as other projects conducted by other research teams have shown the impact of the experiences of migrant and refugee students on their mental health and wellbeing. In fact, mental health has drawn a lot of attention in England in recent years both in general society and in the education sector specifically and has been raised as a particular concern by several local organizations. Indeed, one of the attendees came from an organization that specialises in offering child and family therapy for refugee children at school. Many schools are looking at ways to improve the mental health and wellbeing of their school community including teachers and students, aiming to reduce student stress and anxiety and in so doing improve student outcomes and results.

Whilst none of these areas are necessarily on the national policy agenda, they are felt by those working with refugee and asylum-seeking students in the sector to be areas that urgently need addressing at the policy level.

 

CONTEXT

The key thematic areas addressed by the National Round Table (NRT) in Croatia were the inclusion of refugees/asylum seekers/migrant background children in the educational system, the organization of preparatory and additional classes and the support to refugees/asylum seekers/migrant children as well as the existing school practices and the role of local organisations in supporting schools, teachers and refugees/asylum seekers and migrant children and their families.

Croatia does not have a large number of asylum seekers and refugees. A total of 650 persons with an approved asylum status were registered in October 2018. It is worth noting that, according to the available data, almost 80% of requests for asylum are declined in the country.

The newly published study “Challenges for Integration of Refugees/Asylum seekers into Croatian Society: Attitudes of Citizens and Preparedness of Local Communities” (Ajduković et al., 2019) has shown that local communities mostly consider the Ministry of Science and Education being responsible for organizing language courses and have expressed concerns about the duration of the courses considered to be too short and have demanded more clarity about their funding status. The study also points that language courses are not sufficiently equipped with personnel and logistical capacities to run effectively. Course are offered either in a formalized way or through a volunteering. With regard to the inclusiveness of the education system, most stakeholders identify the slow administration procedures and the lack of qualified teachers as key gaps to address asylum seekers or refugee children’s needs. This sums up to the lack of personal documents and the unregulated recognition of certificates and prior learning. The lack of translators and teaching assistants in the coastal and central regions of the country remain a central issue.

CONTEXT

The National Round Table (NRT) 2019 program was structured around 4+1 topics related to educational integration of refugee children. The 4 main topics were chosen by the participants in the NRT 2018 in Sofia as the most relevant nationally. To take advantage of the pan-European nature of the SIRIUS Network and its spin-off projects, a special focus was put on sharing research findings and best practices from other EU countries to allow Bulgarian stakeholders to get inspired to try new approaches or methods. In addition, the organizers offered 1 extra topic on funding opportunities where 3 panelists from a private company, a community foundation and an umbrella donors’ organization shared their expertise for successful fundraising along with information on open calls for proposals. The four main topics were:

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee minors of school-age

The situation of unaccompanied minors in Bulgaria was thoroughly discussed at the NRT 2018 as one of the most challenging topics, especially in the context of Bulgaria being a “transit country” and thus often being unattractive to young refugees. This, together with the limited capacities of their guardians (social workers from the State Agency for Refugees) and the lack of a comprehensive national coordination mechanism, leaves this particularly vulnerable group with insufficient support. Therefore, the need identified last year was to collect good practices from other European countries. Several of them were presented (for example a student-centered job-placement approach from a Flemish school in Belgium). At national level, a special focus was put on a new promising project realized by Know How Center for Alternative Care for Children, New Bulgarian University in a partnership with State Agency for Refugees. “To fulfil (im)possible dreams” uses a student-centered approach and draws a “map” of the desired future and provides mentoring to young unaccompanied refugees.

Cooperation between schools and NGOs

The cooperation between schools and NGOs in Bulgaria often happens spontaneously and based on short-term projects. A more structured approach would ensure that the gaps in refugees’ education are filled in a timely and well-planned manner. To feed the discussion with best practices from the EU, the SIRIUS Watch 2018 “Role of non-formal education in migrant children inclusion: links with schools” was presented with a focus on practices which could be implemented in Bulgaria. The panel continued with input from a school principal from the city of Harmanli, where the biggest refugee reception center in Bulgaria is located. She discussed the accessibility of schools, the needs of schools and children and opportunities for cooperation.

Materials in support of teachers for working with refugee students

Since the Bulgarian educational system has been facing a higher number of refugee students only in recent years, the capacity of teachers and the amount of materials they can use in the classroom is not very high. In this panel several organizations presented new methodologies they have created to support teachers working with refugee students Such materials are not widely distributed and only a limited number of teachers is being trained how to use them. However, the policy reform opportunity would be to train more current and future teachers in various forms – at university level, summer schools, lifelong learning training programs, etc.

Enhancing the motivation of parents of refugee children

Many studies show the importance of parent involvement in the educational process of their children. A comprehensive coordination mechanism between various stakeholders would secure a better flow of information and parental engagement. Since this is a very difficult area in Bulgaria, especially in the context of its ‘transit country’ profile, experience from other European countries was shared through a presentation of the ALFIRK report: Good practices for migrant parent involvement in education. The State Agency for Refugees also presented the best practices their social workers use in order to motivate parents.

SIRIUS’ PLA visiting team analysed and reflected on the outcomes of the Start the Change project implemented by FFE in 2016-2018

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The PLA focused on the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) and the Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) Scheme

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The 5th Baltic Inter-Ministerial Round Table: Estonia and Lithuania

Developing multicultural competence and language awareness in teacher education

 

Context

In Estonia and Lithuania increasing numbers of newly arrived migrants and returning nationals has emphasized the importance of an inclusive education system. Furthermore, long-living cultural minorities in both countries contribute to the diverse linguistic and cultural landscape in the region. This calls for policymakers and education institutions to take specific measures to facilitate the integration of children with a migrant background. The education systems in Estonia and Lithuania face several challenges related to migrant education. One of them is uneven school preparedness to address the needs of diverse learners and teachers lacking competences and skills to deal with diversity in the classroom. The latter aspect is of utmost importance as the success of migrant inclusion in education system in many ways relies on pedagogues and professional support staff in schools. Thus, a growing number of newly arrived immigrants and returnees highlights the importance of multicultural competence and language awareness to be introduced systematically in teacher education programmes. This has become an important policy priority in both Estonia and Lithuania, though the issue has been addressed inconsistently to date.

Both Estonia and Lithuania have undergone various reforms in higher education and teacher training over the past years. However, in Lithuania, the higher education reform did not yield the desired results. Even though the Lithuanian University of Education Sciences (LEU), which was the key HEI preparing future teachers, was reorganised and merged with Vytautas Magnus University (VDU) and a set of Education Academies, now in charge of teacher training, were created across Lithuania (at the premises of other HEIs), the content and quality of the educational programmes for teachers have barely changed (even though ranked very poorly previously). Furthermore, Lithuania has not adopted a comprehensive and clear framework of teachers´ multilingual and multicultural competences. Lithuanian policy documents do not explicitly require initial teacher education (ITE) universities and colleges to introduce courses that prepare future teachers for diversity. However, ordinance of the Minister of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Lithuania ‘On the approval of Description of the Study Area of Education and Training’ for ITE curricula do stipulate that prospective teachers should be able to develop a tolerant learning environment. This document also states that teachers should be able to adapt to the individual differences of learners stemming from the differences in gender, language, culture, ethnicity or social environment. Moreover, the national competency framework for teachers highlights the importance of teachers’ intercultural competences, including those related to ethnic/national identity of learners. However, due to ITE institutions’ academic, administrative and financial autonomy they have leeway in translating these provisions into courses and programmes. In practice, ITE curricula across Lithuanian universities and colleges do not explicitly seek to develop multicultural competences. Thus, teacher preparation for diversity depends on the choice and dedication of study module academic staff. As a result, specific diversity-related courses are, in most cases, not mandatory, while institutions lack relevant elective courses as well. One of the exceptions was Master’s in Intercultural Education and Mediation programme offered by Šiauliai University. The programme included mandatory courses on ‘Intercultural psychology’ (6 ECTS) and ‘Intercultural consulting’ (5 ECTS). However, the programme has been discontinued.

Due to unclear outcomes of the higher education reform in Lithuania, it is not feasible to indicate whether linguistically responsive and culturally sustainable pedagogy has been included in the development of a new teacher education curriculum. Nevertheless, representatives from Vytautas Magnus University have indicated that currently the university is aiming to include teachers’ preparation to address diversity and inclusive education in the university´s agenda. They have identified the need to develop linguistically responsive and culturally sustainable pedagogy (LRCS) in initial teacher training and in-service teacher training. The latter is particularly intended to support the older generation of pedagogues. Furthermore, according to the representatives from the Lithuanian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, the ordinance of the Minister of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Lithuania ‘On the approval of the Description of Teachers profession competence’ (adopted in 2007) is currently being revised. Various stakeholders, including representatives from the Education academies, were invited to take part in the drafting process. As the document is in its drafting phase, the Ministry representatives highlighted that the Sirius round table was a useful contribution to this process by bringing the importance of linguistically and culturally responsive pedagogies to the attention of the Ministry and mapping various participants´ positions on this topic.

Similarly to Lithuania, in the context of large professional autonomy, the universities (University of Tartu and Tallinn University) that provide teacher education programmes are autonomous in designing the curriculum according to the national regulation, which emphasizes inclusive education but does not refer specifically to linguistically responsive and culturally sustainable pedagogy. It must be noted that the qualification requirements for teachers are different in Estonia and Lithuania. While in Lithuania the bachelor’s degree is required, Estonia has set a Master´s Degree standard. Currently, the preparation for teaching in linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms in teacher training modules is not consistent in Estonia. At the University of Tartu, multicultural competence is supported through achievements of a few study outcomes in two different subjects that are obligatory for all teacher training students. One of the study outcomes is ability to describe various opportunities to consider multicultural aspects in educational organisation. Vocational education teacher students have obligatory course “Multicultural education”. There is an elective course “A Student with a Different Language of Instruction in Estonian School” (Muukeelne laps Eesti koolis”) for teacher students. Similarly, the approach is unsystematic in Tallinn University where each institute decides on the curriculum content and the presence of multicultural competence. The courses about special needs education (including both theoretical and practical perspectives) are compulsory in all ITE programmes. Moreover, the practical training during the school placement is considered a priority in the development of the ITE.

The induction stage also reflects diversity-related issues within the face-to-face or e-training sessions between novice teachers and mentors. In Estonia the ITE providers offer specific training programmes or courses for mentors, for instance:

• at the University of Tartu, the master’s programme for school mentors includes the 3 ECTS course ‘Diversity in Education’;
• the Tallinn University offers a 4 ECTS course for school mentors and international school leadership programme Education 4 Future. The programme focuses on strategic partnerships, school culture, communication with parents, digitalisation of the learning process.

Overall, while the life-long learning strategy and general agreement on the need to address teacher preparedness to work with diversity is present both in Estonia and Lithuania and is addressed in policy documents mostly through the emphasis on inclusive education, the linguistically responsive and culturally sustaining pedagogy should be enhanced. Ongoing discussions and strategy planning at the ministerial levels in both Estonia and Lithuania represent a window of opportunity for SIRIUS to feed into the process.

NRT/RRTs were held as part of SIRIUS’ action at national and regional level

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The selected candidate should ideally be able to start in February 2020. S/he will work 3 days per week. The deadline for applications is Wednesday 8 Jan 2020.

To apply, please read the Job description carefully and complete the Employment Application form, accompanied by your CV.  Please make sure you fulfill all requirements and note that:

• Applications should be sent in English.
• Applications should be sent electronically to sirius@sirius-network.org with the subject line “SIRIUS Coordinator”. No paper application will be accepted.
• The deadline for applications is Wednesday 8 January 2020.
  
• Interviews will be held in mid-January 2020.
• Only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

7 years after SIRIUS’ creation, the organization thinks it is time to rethink its strategy since the current one dates from 2014 and reflects the SIRIUS’ Clear Agenda for Migrant Education in Europe.

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The Policy Conference will look into three key thematic areas: 1) addressing socio-economic inequalities, 2) valuing and building on multilingualism in the classroom and 3) exploring synergies between non-formal education and schools for more equity and quality.

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