It's been weeks since I have had time to update the blog. Life moves quickly between work and travel. We are trying to take advantage of every opportunity that comes our way. Sometimes that means exhaustion kicks in and mindless endeavors take over just to give myself a mental break.
This entry is more about work, the next will be about travel.
The biggest change is the light. Sun rise at 8:23 and sunset at 4:06 today. And five weeks still to go until the solstice. It still hasn't snowed, it's been the warmest fall in 50 years, much to the concern of the locals. It is mainly in the low 40s right now, though it got down to freezing one night this week. Cool fall weather has always been my favorite, so I am pretty happy even with the cloudiness and damp. There were a couple of spectacular sunsets this week after clear sunny days. Today was a little drizzly - just walking through low clouds, I guess - a very Rochester feeling. Pictures below were taken a few weeks ago.
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| Fall at the Market Square |
I am still mostly at the teacher training school, but I have begun working with people from the City of Turku in their program to meet the needs of immigrant students. It has allowed me to observe in different settings, and get a feel for schools in different parts of the city. I met with a kind of steering committee that with representatives from different areas of education - the newcomer classes, Finnish as a second language teachers in Basic Education, "sheltered" content class teachers and mother tongue support personnel. Finally I am getting a sense of how all the parts fit together. I also see that the work I have done in the States is more relevant than I had initially anticipated. People have responded really positively to the frameworks I am suggesting. Below are 3 pictures of where I work. My office is in the former janitor's apartment - the picture of the sauna didn't come out, but it's just to the left of the kitchen. I am really very lucky and so well taken care of.
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| My office at Norssi |
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| Meeting area just outside my office |
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| My own little kitchen |
The pictures show the campus and how my office is situated within it.
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| Earlier in the fall, entrance way to the office |
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| Outside my office Gate on the left |
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| Main building of Norssi - Teacher Training School |
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| Another view of Norssi |
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| Norssi again |
I had a lot of fun visiting some newcomer classes for elementary students. New immigrants receive a year of Finnish instruction (with a little bit of math and science and home language support).
It is just amazing to be in a place where the dynamics of multilingualism are so different from at home. The interplay among Finnish, Swedish, English and the dozens of mother tongues of students in Turku is fascinating and complicated. For example, English is held in much higher esteem than Swedish by most young people , though Swedish is one of the official languages. Many immigrant students and their families arrive here knowing some English and use it to communicate far more quickly than through Finnish. There is a route to citizenship through Swedish, which apparently some people prefer since acquiring Swedish is viewed as far easier. The university has 12 International Masters programs where all the instruction is in English in a variety of fields that are attended by students from all over the world. (My Multicultural Education class is part of one of these programs in the Faculty of Education)
When I visited a different school, two 7th grade boys came up to talk to me on the playground during recess. One was partly Swedish, partly Finnish, partly American, the other Somali. They were really curious about who I was and what I was doing there. These kinds of interchanges are always enlightening. The one boy told me that efforts to improve a school with lots of linguistic and cultural diversity were bound to fail because the kids were so crazy. The other wondered if I wasn't a little too old to be working as a teacher (must be the gray hair). Both were anxious that I return and keep on trying.
At Norssi and TIS, I have also been able to get a clearer idea of the rhythms of the schools (which university students come which semester, how the students from the different strands interact (or don't) and how the many complicated parts fit together. My colleagues and I are trying lots of different ways to get people talking about and thinking about how to create an even stronger multicultural school. We had a movie night on Thursday and watched "Crash" together. I know the movie has some flaws but it stimulated a great discussion with calls to repeat the event and get even more people there.
The clear message that comes from all the different constituents that I have met with is the need for a common vision and greater unity among all the different parts. Easy to articulate, the challenge will be to find ways to make it happen.
My university class ends December 1st. I will teach a different version of it towards the end of Spring semester to a cohort of current teachers working on a kind of advanced certificate (like an endorsement program, but not official in the system). It has been a great learning experience - having to put together a course I hadn't taught in a long time, and also interacting with students from so many places with such varied preparations and expectations. They are helping me to collect data by carrying out observations and interviews following a fairly basic protocol to get a sense of the degree of "culturally responsive" teaching that is going on and teachers' perspectives on the school and it's opportunities and challenges.
I have also been attending different seminars on areas of expertise related to what I've always been doing, but providing me with new perspectives. I presented at a Symposium sponsored by the Ministry of Education and GENE, the Global Education Network of Europe. There were people from all over Europe in attendance and it really struck me how important it is to make the connection between sustainability (saving the planet), intercultural competence and global education (viewed as much more linked to development policies than what we typically think of in the U.S.) Before I had been thinking of sustainability as environmentally related alone, separate from my work in education. As I move forward I think it is important to make the links. I am toying with the idea of Education for Global Sustainability. Just playing with the words to make the connections.
Yesterday there was a seminar on Intercultural Communication in Finnish higher education, where a couple of the same people were in attendance. I am pondering the meaning of Post Colonial Theory in Education. I can't think of another time since I wrote my dissertation that I have been so immersed in ideas and theory - it is both exciting and confirming that my feet are firmly planted in practice and making the connections between the two. I will present at a similar event in May, we'll see how it goes.
So that gives a little idea of work life. Next entry our trip to St. Petersburg a couple of weeks ago.
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