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Parents need information about the Finnish school system. In their peer groups, they can talk about matters related to the children’s world. In this context there are no such things as “stupid questions“. Some parents can help to understand the Finnish school world In Finland the school system entails a lot of tacit knowledge . However, parents who arenīt familiar with it, may not find straightforward matters easy. – Tacit knowledge refers to things which somehow parents do not understand. At its simplest, it may concern the way how to deal with invitations to birthday parties or what the first school day may be like, says Anita Novitsky of the Family Federation. She is a specialist in multicultural issues. Children who used to go to school at a refugee camp for just a few years, havenīt got a clear idea of what their schoolbag should include, how carefully they ought to follow the school timetable, who makes sure if they have done their homework or how their absences are monitored. Novitsky urges teachers to communicate directly with parents, not just through the child. Messages and notes donīt replace direct communication. – Some daycare centres and schools maintain a mentality that "parents have to learn to read our notes because this happens to be our way of communication“. Tacit knowledge comprises terms which are used, but not explained. Even though a person understands all the words in the message, the content can remain unclear after all. – Parents may not have any idea of what an excursion to a wood is about and whatīs going to happen there. Why are children asked to take a packed lunch or something else along? Attention to an individual level of knowledge Teachers find it a challenge to teach pupils whose levels of knowledge differ. – It sometimes seems that a child who canīt speak Finnish well, is placed with children younger than him, only for reasons related to language learning, Anita Novitsky points out. In the lower level this still works, but if a 14-year-old teenager is placed in a class with 12-year-olds, it will have a direct effect on his school contentment and can result in him or her playing truant or becoming rude and very difficult towards teachers and fellow pupils. – Itīs extremely difficult to teach pupils in the same class whose language skills are very different. Despite this, building their social community ought to be the starting point, not their ability to speak the language. In other words, the chíldīs individual level of knowledge should be better taken into account. – Preparatory teaching ought not to be limited to a period of one year or when a child has acquired language skills. We should decide individually how much and how long a child has to be taught in a preparatory class. Children with poor learning conditions would have to be given more time to acquire the level of knowledge that Finnish pupils have been obtaining since going to a daycare centre. – Although a refugee child is able to learn a lot, he canīt acquire all the necessary knowledge, learn the language and social skills within a year.
Insecurity can be seen as defending oneself The majority of children with an immigrant background have been afflicted by harassment. A child may be harassed if he doesnīt know how other pupils expect him to react in class. He may be laughed at if he opens the door to the teacher. Within a community of children, unimportant matters can turn into a huge problem. – Other pupils carry Bionicle school bags, for instance, while one pupil has a Pokemon bag which used to be in three years ago, Anita Novitsky explains. If a child feels insecure, he often defends himself by becoming withdrawn or aggressive in some way. – One of the problems at school is, that we only see the reactions, but we havenīt got enough staff to find out the reasons why the child reacts in a particular way. If there were more dialogue between homes and school, the family could help interpret the childīs reactions. – Parents would thus get an idea of how the school views their child, which they could take into account in their own interpretation because quite often they only see what their child is like at home. They canīt see what happens at school. Contacts with other adults are important The way adults act has a strong effect on the development of childrenīs social relationships. Is a child allowed to visit his next-door neighbour, for instance? – Immigrants donīt always know the rules of the game. If somebody invites them to their home, what does it mean? Is the whole family invited, do they have to give presents or do they have to return the invitation? When they donīt know what to do, itīs easier not to respond at all, Anita Novitsky says. In order to create a genuinely multicultural school for children, the parentsī community needs to be multicultural too. – We assume that children learn to act in a multicultural community. However, we fail to think that we adults have to make conscious solutions in our own action to pass on the idea of multiculturalism being part of our daily life to our children. What Novitsky emphasises is the collaboration between parents and homes. –If immigrant parents feel they are qualified parents, they also give guidance and support to their child at school. Instead, if the Finnish society points out that immigrants canīt cope with their parental duties and thereīs something “wrong“ with them, itīs a devastating message to those who have been aiming to build their children a better future through immigration. However, itīs not difficult to support parents in their parenthood. Many would be extremely motivated to act together with schools, but there are few tools for this. - Parents would like to get clearer instructions from school with suggestions about what they could do, instead of what their child isnīt able to do. Schools ought to boldly benefit from their skills and invite them to engage in a dialogue. Parents dare ask questions in a peer group The Family Federationīs unit called Kotipuu providing multicultural expertise for those working in the public and third sector as well as for immigrants has developed a working model of peer groups for parents. These groups discuss general matters related to the school world. They strengthen the parentsī idea of being able to support their child. By talking to other parents, they can come up with ways to help their child when he isnīt able to do something the other children can. For instance, parents can go skating with their child before the skating season starts at school. – They just have to be told that it is possible, in addition to telling them the location of the nearest skating ring, Anita Novitsky says. The basic parentsī evenings tend to be filled with information, which means parents canīt ask questions about what staying overnight means. In fact, schools lack a less formal forum where they can freely ask about things concerning them. Peer groups could provide this kind of forum. – In a certain way, staying overnight is part of Finnish childrenīs daily life, but an immigrant family isnīt aware of what happens when somebody stays overnight. If there are children from different cultures in a class, such simple matters as these should be talked about. The biggest obstacle in spreading the peer group model is a question of resources. Collecting a group takes time and some effort too. Novitsky hopes that parentsī associations would become actively and enthusiastically involved. – This would free school resources because teachers and student welfare groups, that is, school psychologists, curators and public health nurses, are burdened by their own workload. However, launching a group requires resources. Finnish families could be actively involved in this since the method is easy. – Thereīs nothing strange about it, just being a parent to another parent and encourage other parents to come along. In this way parentsī associations would get new, enthusiastic and multicultural members to join their ranks.  Back |
