Icelandic Studies on Diversity and Social Justice in Education


Book Description

The educational systems of the Nordic countries are based on a common set of fundamental values, such as democracy, social justice and inclusion. However, when it comes to the treatment of diversity, especially in education, many issues remain unresolved. This edited volume presents Icelandic research on the challenges and opportunities of diversity in education at several levels, including preschool, primary, secondary, vocational and higher education in Iceland. The chapters shed light on school experiences of students and parents of immigrant or refugee background and their teachers, and explore attitudes and values of young people with regards to diversity, human rights and multicultural society. This book also addresses the issues of the professional development of teachers and inclusive practices, and will primarily appeal to classroom teachers and academics, teacher education students, social educators, and education policy makers. While set in the Icelandic context, this volume will serve to contribute to current global discussions on diversity and social justice in education.




Education, Equity and Inclusion


Book Description

This open access book provides a current view on education, equity and inclusion within the lens of education for a sustainable North. The first book published by the University of the Arctic Thematic Network for Teacher Education for Social Justice and Diversity (Including the North: A comparative study of the policies on inclusion and equity in the circumpolar North, 2019) highlighted policies of inclusion and equity in education in national and regional contexts. This new book explores in more depth the provision of education across the north, focusing on challenges and innovations in meeting the needs of diverse learners in remote and rapidly changing contexts. While many texts address issues of equity, inclusion and diversity, they are almost all focused on the global South, and miss the lessons that can be learned from Northern regions. This book offers an extended essay on teaching and learning through various perspectives and experiences with the aim of creating a more sustainable North. It is structured around two main themes: 1) Supporting Teachers for Diversity and Inclusion in the Classroom including consideration of language and identity issues, 2) Engendering community solutions to structural and geographical challenges in education in the circumpolar north.




Diversity and Social Justice in Early Childhood Education


Book Description

This collection is aimed at practitioners and scholars interested in democracy, social justice and diversity. The importance of the book lies in the way it discusses possible ways for early childhood education to work with diversity and language in order to allow inclusion and social justice for all children. Building on case studies from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, the text offers broad insights into the field of diversity through historical and organisational perspectives, as well as viewpoints of children, practitioners and parents.




Globalisation and Discourses of Human Rights


Book Description

Zusammenfassung: This book examines dominant discourses in human rights education globally. Using diverse paradigms, ranging from critical theory to discourse analysis, it examines major human rights education reforms and policy issues in a global culture. It also focuses on the ambivalent and problematic relationship between human rights education discourses, ideology and the state. The book discusses democracy, ideology and human rights, which are among the most critical and significant factors defining and contextualising the processes surrounding human rights education globally. It critiques human rights education practices and policy reforms, illustrating the shifts in the relationship between the state, ideology, and human rights education policy. The book also examines developments in research concerning human rights education. Readers will gain a more holistic understanding of the nexus between human rights education, and dominant ideologies, both locally and globally. The book also provides easily accessible, practical yet scholarly insights into international concerns in the field of human rights education in the context of global culture




Language Rights and the Law in Scandinavia


Book Description

This book examines the language policies in the constitutions, legal statutes, and regulations of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland. In these countries and territories, modern descendants of Old Norse (North Germanic) are spoken today: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. In addition, there are regions of Scandinavia where speakers of minority languages were conquered or incorporated, with their languages suppressed or neglected, as well as recent developments in the status and use of English, and immigrant populations who do not speak a Scandinavian language as their native language. This book adopts a comparative approach to trace the development of language policies and rights in Scandinavia, and it will be of interest to students as well as scholars of European and Scandinavian studies, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, education, political science, and law.




Learning Spaces for Inclusion and Social Justice


Book Description

This edited volume emanates from a Nordic research project which was conducted in Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden in 2013-2015. The main objective of the project was to draw lessons from success stories of individual immigrant students and whole school communities at different levels that have succeeded in developing learning contexts that are equitable and socially just, thus turning attention to good practices and what can be learnt from these. The book presents and discusses the main findings of the Learning Spaces project on the three school levels—pre-, compulsory and upper secondary—and contains chapters on research methodologies applied in the project, relevant educational policies, leadership and implementation of the project. While set in the Nordic context, this volume will serve to contribute to current global discussions around diversity and social justice in education. It will primarily appeal to educational practitioners and academics interested in issues of diversity in schools.




What Works in Nordic School Policies?


Book Description

This book offers an original contribution to the area of international research on comparative education policies and the influence of transnational agencies on national school policy and reform. With a focus on grasping what the Nordic model or the Nordic dimension means in school and educational policy, the book explores in depth the school policy contexts of the five Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. It demonstrates how these particular national contexts engage with and contextualize transnational collaboration on issues like school reform, accountability, evidence and what works, and digitalization. The book situates these policy issues over a long period of time while integrating the latest developments and reforms. It demonstrates how context matters. It shows how the often elusive, but pervasive Nordic dimension can only be fully understood by painstaking scrutiny of the five national contexts, their particular trajectories and mutual interactions in formal and informal education.




Interprofessional and Family-Professional Collaboration for Inclusive Early Childhood Education and Care


Book Description

This edited volume covers issues related to educational research and practices for early childhood education and care (ECEC), highlighting interprofessional and family-professional collaboration within inclusive education in different cultural contexts. Contributors include authors from throughout Europe, including Lithuania, Norway, Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Spain, UK, and Ukraine. Chapters provide a forum for intentional dialogue about and shared understanding of successful and inspiring ECEC practices, the main barriers of interprofessional and family-professional collaboration, and opportunities for further improvement of inclusive ECEC practices.




Equity, Equality and Diversity in the Nordic Model of Education


Book Description

Does the Nordic model of education still stand by its original principles and safeguard education for all? This Open Access volume is a carefully crafted collection of chapters that investigate the different aspects of equity, equality and diversity across the education systems in the Nordic countries. Based on data from various national and international large-scale assessments, the volume provides a better understanding of both the functions and foundations of the Nordic model, along with how the concepts mentioned above are enacted in practice. Across the chapters, data from different national and international large-scale assessment studies are used for cross- and single-country analyses on a variety of issues related to equity, equality and inequality in diverse educational settings. The investigations address different subject domains (i.e., mathematics, science, reading), age and grade groups, but also issues related to teachers and the schools themselves. In addition to these empirical chapters, the book addresses the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the ideas and tools embedded in the phenomena of equity and equality and how they have met in the Nordic model of education.




Immigration in the Circumpolar North


Book Description

Immigration in the Circumpolar North: Integration and Resilience explores interconnected issues of integration and resilience among both immigrants and host communities in the Arctic region. It examines the factors that inhibit or enable the success of immigrants to the Arctic and the role of territoriality in the process of integration. This book showcases a variety of perspectives on circumpolar immigration, and includes insights from eight Arctic countries as well as thirteen ‘observer countries’ such as China, India, Singapore, Poland, Germany, France and Japan. It considers the solidarities and engagements of indigenous and other local peoples with the new coming immigrants and refugees, and the impact of immigration on the economic and societal life in the Circumpolar Arctic. The book will be of interest to researchers, teachers, professors, policymakers and others interested in migration issues, Arctic issues, international relations, law, and economic integration.