The views of Global Education experts on the aims, challenges, achievements, and implementation of Global Education in Finnish primary education

Abstract. This qualitative master’s thesis attempts to understand the views of Global Education experts’ perspectives on the challenges, achievements, and implementation of Global Education in Finnish primary education. During the last years there has been a growing amount of Finnish research in the field of Global Education. However, prior research has focused mostly on teachers’ and principal’s perspectives. Therefore, we decided to choose a different standpoint on our research. We interviewed five Finnish Global Education experts who worked in different positions in the field of Global Education. The interviews were semi-structured and conducted through Zoom. We used qualitative content analysis to analyse our data. Based on these research findings, the familiarity of Global Education has increased in the last 20 years. This can be seen in the way Global Education has been included in the Finnish National Core Curriculum, NGOs collaborate with schools and have made plenty of material for schools related to the topic. Regardless of the achievements, there is a need to educate teachers more on the topic and the implementation of Global Education is not yet as structured as it could be. Our research findings signal that the implementation of Global Education varies greatly depending on teachers’ interests. We hope that this thesis highlights the achievements that have been accomplished in the field of Global Education in Finland and also sheds light on the magnitude and diversity of Global Education. Our findings suggest that there are multiple ways to develop the implementation of Global Education in schools. This gives us hope that Global Education will one day achieve the significant position it deserves

Translanguaging and its benefits

Abstract. Having bilingual or multilingual students in a classroom is a rule rather than an exception. The Finnish National Core Curriculum (Opetushallitus, 2014) states that the starting points of language teaching are developing students’ language awareness and using languages concurrently and thus obligates teachers to take all the languages of their students into consideration in teaching. Therefore, there is a need for pedagogical means that pay attention to the language skills of the students in a holistic way. As an answer to this demand, the aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to introduce the term translanguaging and its benefits especially in education. This thesis is a literature review. In order to fully understand the concept of translanguaging, we thought it was necessary to first define some terms related to multilingualism which will recur in this thesis. After these definitions, we have discussed how the term translaguaging has emerged and evolved. Lastly, we have concentrated on the positive aspects of translanguaging by discussing its benefits especially in education but also in a broader context. As sources for this literature review, we have used diverse research literature. We regard this topic very important considering our future professions as teachers. Therefore, we hope that this thesis will raise interest towards translanguaging and its multiple possibilities in education as well as the life of bilinguals and multilinguals in general.Tiivistelmä. Luokkahuoneiden monikielisyys on enemmän sääntö kuin poikkeus. Perusopetuksen Opetussuunnitelman Perusteet (Opetushallitus, 2014) velvoittaa opettajia huomioimaan oppilaiden eri kielet opetuksessa mainitsemalla, että kieltenopetuksen lähtökohtana pidetään oppilaiden kielitietoisuuden kehittymistä ja kielten käyttöä rinnakkain. Tarvitaankin siis pedagogisia keinoja, jotka huomioivat oppilaiden kielitaidon kokonaisvaltaisesti. Yhtenä vastauksena tähän tarpeeseen, tämän kandidaatin tutkielman tarkoituksena on tuoda esiin termi ‘’translanguaging’’, ja esitellä sen hyötyjä erityisesti koulumaailmassa. Koska termille ei ole vielä vakiintunutta suomenkielistä käännöstä, olemme päättäneet käyttää siitä Heini Lehtosen (2019) suomennosta ‘’limittäiskieleily’’. Tämä tutkielma on toteutettu kirjallisuuskatsauksena. Limittäiskieleilyn konseptin ymmärtämiseksi, pidimme tarpeellisena ensin määritellä muutamia monikielisyyteen liittyviä termejä, jotka toistuvat kirjallisuuskatsauksen edetessä. Tämän jälkeen olemme käsitelleet termin limittäiskieleily syntyä ja kehittymistä. Lopuksi keskityimme limittäiskieleilyn positiivisiin puoliin varsinkin koulumaailmassa, mutta myös sen ulkopuolella. Lähteinä olemme käyttäneet monipuolisesti tutkimuskirjallisuutta. Pidämme tätä aihetta tärkeänä tulevaa opettajan ammattimme ajatellen ja toivommekin, että tutkielmamme herättäisi kiinnostuksen limittäiskieleilyä ja sen mahdollisuuksia kohtaan niin koulumaailmassa kuin sen ulkopuolellakin