32.2101, Review: Applied Linguistics: Ragnarsdóttir, Kulbrandstad (2018)

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Subject: 32.2101, Review: Applied Linguistics: Ragnarsdóttir, Kulbrandstad (2018)

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Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2021 22:06:29
From: Alberto Fernandez-Diego [a.fernandezdiego at ufl.edu]
Subject: Learning Spaces for Inclusion and Social Justice

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36543617


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/30/30-2435.html

EDITOR: Hanna  Ragnarsdóttir
EDITOR: Lars Anders  Kulbrandstad
TITLE: Learning Spaces for Inclusion and Social Justice
SUBTITLE: Success Stories from Four Nordic Countries
PUBLISHER: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
YEAR: 2018

REVIEWER: Alberto Fernandez-Diego, University of Florida

SUMMARY

‘Learning Spaces for Inclusion and Social Justice: Success Stories from
Immigrant Students and School Communities in Four Nordic Countries’ is an
edited volume (eds. Hanna Ragnarsdóttir and Lars Anders Kulbrandstad), and is
the result of a three-year research project conducted in various European
countries (Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark). The book is divided
in 8 sections, along with a foreword and an introduction, all united by the
common theme of social justice. In the introduction, the authors explain the
main objective, justifications, and description of research areas. The
research questions that guided the project are made explicit in the
introduction:

1) What learning environments and practices (schools and other) seem to be
instrumental for young immigrants’ participation and success in their schools
and society, and how do they describe their situation and motivations as well
as obstacles?

2) What are the young immigrants’ expectations of teachers and curricula?

3) How do students experience belonging to different groups, and what are
their aspirations in these settings?

4) What are the immigrant children’s and young adults’ language backgrounds,
language learning environment and attitudes towards their culture of origin
and their majority Nordic culture and society?

This part of the book is very helpful for the reader, since it is dedicated to
explaining the theoretical frame used (the Learning Spaces Project, LSP) and
also, to providing an overview of the contents. Additionally, the editors
point out that the aims of the studies are twofold: on one hand, ‘to
understand and learn from the experiences of immigrant students who have
succeeded academically’ and, on the other hand, ‘to explore and understand how
social justice is implemented in equitable and successful diverse Nordic
school contexts and other learning spaces’.

The remaining eight chapters each have the structure of research papers. The
first study is titled ‘Immigration students in Nordic educational policy
documents’, by Lars Anders Kulbrandstad, Heidi Paavola, Anette Hellman and
Hanna Ragnarsdóttir. In this chapter, the authors share a comparative analysis
of the current policies of Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark,
specifically regarding the treatment of the immigrant children and students,
from preschool to secondary school years. The outcome shows us that there are
similarities in all countries, along with a few differences and discrepancies,
such as if some particular measures (offering to study their mother tongue,
home language and culture, religious instruction, etc.) will represent a
challenge for the years to come.

The second study is titled ‘Municipal educational policy related to immigrant
students in Iceland: Experiences of key people in four municipalities’, by
Hanna Ragnarsdóttir and Anh-Dao Tran. The project that gives the title to this
chapter (MEPIS) is a two-year project, along with the already mentioned LSP
project (Learning spaces for inclusion and social justice: Success stories
from immigrant students and school communities in four Nordic countries). They
have two primary goals. To better understand the current educational policies
implemented in Iceland; and, to better understand the perspectives of
individuals in charge of developing those policies. The results of their
qualitative research (interviews), allows them to conclude that the current
Icelandic educational framework is responding to the social changes of recent
years. In addition, they pointed out in spite of the competence and knowledge
of the educational leadership, the lack of connection among policies leads to
challenges, such as lack of professional development of staff in schools,
limited budgets and insufficient cooperation among institutions.

The third chapter, ‘Research methodologies for a culturally diverse
educational context’ (by Thor-André Skrefsrud, Karen Rut Gísladóttir, Hafdís
Gu∂jónsdóttir, Anette Hellman, Heidi Layne, Johannes Lunneblad and Anna
Katarzyna Wozniczka) presents to the readers four real research examples that
follow a qualitative methodology, all from the already mentioned LSP project.
The research question that guided their work is the following: ‘how can a
multiple-method qualitative approach enable researchers and users of research
to gain an in-depth understanding of the complexity of doing research in
culturally diverse education contexts?’. Their first research example is from
Iceland, where the methodology to better understand the school experiences of
immigrants’ children consisted of story-crafting (related to the dialogue
between the researcher and the participants); the second research example
comes from Norway, and its methodology was an ethnographic study with
multilingual students; the third is from Sweden and was based on observations
of preschool children (the children’s ways of interacting); the last example
was from Finland, where a race theory methodology was used in order to give
silenced voices the chance to express themselves (related to storytelling and
challenging hegemonic perspectives). The authors point out that different
contexts call for different methodologies.

The study detailed next is titled ‘Socially just learning spaces: Inclusion
and participation in preschool settings in the Nordic countries’ (by Anette
Hellman, Hanna Ragnarsdóttir, Frí∂a B. Jónsdóttir, Hildur Blöndal, Kristen
Lauritsen and Heini Ragnarsdóttir). This chapter is oriented to show, through
the theoretical framework of culturally responsive pedagogy, how preschools in
Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden were able to develop spaces of equity,
empowerment and active participation, even though there are still some
challenges to face, such as child development or linguistic and cultural
diversity, the low retention of immigrant children, etc. The methodology was
qualitative, and consisted primarily of interviews with principals, teachers
and parents.

The next study is titled ‘The story of my teaching: Constructing learning
spaces for diverse pupils’ (by Hafdís Gu∂jónsdóttir, Anna Katarzyna Wozniczka,
Karen Rut Gísladóttir, Johannes Lunneblad, Ylva Odenbring, Hille
Janhonen-Abruquah, Heidi Layne and Thor-André Skrefsrud). This research is
focused on how teachers develop diverse learning spaces through inclusive
practices, framed in the ideas of multiculturalism and inclusion in education.
The methodology was qualitative (interviews, participant observations and
documents such as photographs) and the results showed how teachers’ effort,
experience and knowledge are paramount to the success of the development of
tolerant and multicultural education atmospheres.

The sixth study is titled ‘Immigrant students’ success in Icelandic upper
secondary schools: Teachers’ and students’ perceptions’ (by Samúel Lefever,
Anh-Dao Tran and Renata Emilsson Peskova). This chapter shares the results of
a study conducted on immigrant students’ success, along with the teachers’ and
their own perceptions of that success. The methodology was qualitative
(interviews with teachers and students) and the theoretical framework used was
Critical Multiculturalism (CM), which consists of addressing the needs of
minority groups. The results show that factors such as the teachers’
competence, their family and social network support, and the students’
qualities and strengths were determinant factors to achieve success.

The next study is titled ‘Democratic leadership practices in three preschools
in Iceland’ (by Helgi Svavarsson, Börkur Hansen and Hanna Ragnarsdóttir). This
chapter explored the current reality of Islandic preschools, where they are
facing the possibility of increasing the social distance among students
because of the increase of immigrants in the Icelandic society. Through a
qualitative methodology (interviews to teachers, principals and parents) and
the democratic leadership framework (social interaction among certain groups
working towards common goals or purposes), the authors try to shed light on
the current situation of these preschools. The results show that, despite
agreement among the principals on the need to promote democratic leadership
practices so marginalization can be eliminated in preschools, there is not one
single agreed-upon way to achieve that goal.

The eighth study is titled ‘Enhancing the professional development of teachers
in three Nordic countries: Drawing lessons from research findings in spinoff
activities’, by Thor-André Skrefsrud, Anette Hellman, Johannes Lunneblad and
Hanna Ragnarsdóttir. This chapter focused on three cases of professional
development of educators in Iceland, Sweden and Norway, all three involved in
the Learning Spaces Project (LSP). The results showed that, even though the
enhancement achieved by the practices is not clear, the activities yielded
positive outcomes, and that professional development is constructed in
collaboration between teachers and researchers.

EVALUATION

The book is easy to read and is well structured. The authors take time in
clearly define and operationalize the importance of concepts that will be
referenced throughout the volume, such as learning spaces, inclusion, success,
immigrant, leadership, diversity and social justice and equity. They show how
much we can learn from other countries’ practices and also, how much work is
still to be done to help to create a world in peace. In this respect, the book
provides interesting insight into the reality of Scandinavian education
through classroom-based experiments, along with a compilation and analysis of
political measures taken in the past years. That means this is not just a
speculative book, since it shares empirical evidence and experiences of
immigrant students and their teachers.

Additionally, I would like to point out that the authors should be commended
for their avoidance of unnecessary acronyms and jargon. They use the
expression critical social justice, as opposed to social justice, which leads
us believe that they have noticed that the term social justice itself is
susceptible to varied interpretations, to the extent that it often ceases to
be meaningful at all. In the foreword, critical social justice is
operationalized to celebrate and value a range of different abilities,
characteristics and backgrounds, following Ryan and Rottmann (2007). The
authors remark that it is not about equal treatment, but rather treating
students equitably; that is, to treat students according their specific needs,
rather than treating everyone the same way (which would perpetuate
inequalities). Even though that is not an extremely deep and detailed
definition, it is enough to let the readers to understand the concepts that
underlie their work.

I do note, however, some potential issues related to the concept of diversity.
The authors use this term in terms of ethnic, religious and/or linguistic
background. Without calling into question the good intentions of the authors,
their definition diversity might  feasibly allow us to accept a cultural norm
in spite of potential detriment, to students, teachers, schools and even
modern democratic societies (e.g. the acceptance of a religious dogma that
excludes or discriminates against certain groups of people, like women, or its
rejection towards some modern medical practices such as blood transfusions,
etc.).

Although this surely was not the intention of the book, the truth is that some
readers might ask themselves if there is a justified need to accept all
cultural differences without thinking of any potentially dangerous influence.
We believe that a better world is possible, and also that education would play
a major role in its construction. However, the unrestricted open-arms policy
towards cultural differences might turn extremely poisonous and dangerous for
that noble purpose.

That said, the book provides tools and examples that can be used to develop
and implement strategies in educational institutions. One of the most
important take-aways is the importance of teamwork, and that any strategy
needs to consider the students involved, their parents, and their teachers.
Surely, this collaborative approach is the path we should follow in order to
build a better educational system and, through it, a better world for
everybody.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Alberto Fernández-Diego (Oviedo, Spain, 1987) is a Graduate Student of
Hispanic Linguistics in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies at
the University of Florida. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy (Universidad Autónoma
de Madrid), an M.A. in Contemporary Philosophy (UNED), a PhD in Contemporary
Philosophy (Universidad de Oviedo) and an M.A. in Spanish (Western Michigan
University). His current research interests include second language
acquisition, teaching methods, phonetics and phonology, and epistemological
foundations of research in linguistics.





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