The education of ethnic and cultural minority groups

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From the course by National Research University Higher School of Economics

Introduction to Multilingual and Multicultural Education

8 ratings

National Research University Higher School of Economics

Introduction to Multilingual and Multicultural Education

8 ratings

The processes of globalization are highly complex and influence the multi-layered structures of societies: economic, socio-cultural, political, linguistic and education aspects among others. A remarkable increase in global migration flows, especially over the last decade, required from the host countries to pay particular attention to the provision of equal education opportunities. Children of migrants, frequently not being (fluent) speakers of the official/national language(s) of the host country, need, and above all, have the right, to get access to good quality education. In addition, in today’s highly competitive labour-market, learning global/international languages (e.g. English) is seen as a necessity. How and at what age should children start learning an additional language (or languages)? Do bilingual/multilingual children perform better at school than their monolingual peers? Which language/education policies are successful and which are not? What challenges students and teachers face in a multilingual/multicultural classroom? What measures do educators, schools, communities need to take in order to make the multilingual and multicultural learning space more effective? The course Introduction to Multilingual and Multicultural Learning makes an attempt to provide answers to these and other related questions with reference to the latest research and discussion of different case studies. By the end of this course, you will be able to: - critically evaluate various teaching practices in multilingual and multicultural settings; - critically evaluate various language policies and planning programmes implemented in multilingual education settings; - obtain valuable insights to better understand the learning needs of students in a multilingual/multicultural classroom; - apply the knowledge you will have gained in this course, in multilingual/multicultural classrooms; - obtain essential skills to deal with immigrant/minority language students.

From the lesson

The education of ethnic and cultural minority groups

This module will help you understand the complexities of minority group education and present educational programmes that contribute to equal education opportunities.

The education of ethnic and cultural minority groups5:15

Meet the Instructors

Denis Zubalov
Assistant Professor
School of Philology, HSE

Hello and welcome to the Higher School of Economics Moscow, Russia.

This week, we'll be talking about the specificities of

ethnic and cultural minority education around the globe.

More specifically, we'll be talking about indigenous language education and we'll analyze

why citizenship education is

important in the context of multilingual and multicultural education.

So, in this video,

we'll be talking about the new skills and competences needed

for immigrant and not only immigrant students in the 21st century.

As we all know, migration within and across nation-states is a worldwide phenomenon.

However, never before in history has the movement of diverse racial, ethnic, religious,

and linguistic groups within and across nation states been so extensive, so rapid,

or raised such complex and difficult questions about citizenship,

human rights, democracy, and education.

Today, schools are being transformed by a growing number of immigrant students.

Just as schools face the challenge of educating more linguistically, culturally,

and ethnically diverse students,

globalization imposes another challenge to education.

That is, it requires more complex skills of its students in order

to equip them to be competitive in a globally interlinked economy.

The new generation immigrant and native alike will need a set of new skills and

competencies to be fully engaged citizens in

the economies and societies of the 21st century.

It should be stressed that the global workplace demands the ability to think analytically

and creatively both within a single domain and in an interdisciplinary manner.

Because globalization is making difference normative, that is,

it requires the ability to work with people from

diverse backgrounds and understand cultural,

historical, and global patterns.

In cities like London, Berlin, or Moscow,

cross cultural flows are becoming increasingly normative.

As it has been mentioned in the age of globalization,

all students will need a set of new skills and competencies.

For example, students should be expert thinkers, that is,

they should be able to solve problems for which there are no real base solutions.

And the complexity of challenges moving forward necessitates

solutions that incorporate many interdisciplinary perspectives.

Also, students should master communication skills, that is,

they should learn to effectively communicate and

respectfully interact with people of different races,

cultures, national origins, and religions.

That implies that students should also develop familiarity with other cultures,

religions, values, system of governance, and communication styles.

And schools must promote this kind of learning and

take responsibility for helping students reflect on

their rights and responsibilities as citizens

of an increasingly heterogeneous global society.

Language skills requires fluency in more than one language.

It is seen as a prerequisite for global engagement.

It's highly important that school systems

train and attract high quality language instructors,

who would equip students with the language skills and

cultural awareness that they will need to live in a multicultural,

multilingual globally interconnected worlds.

Immigrant-origin students, in this respect,

can be seen as a great resource and must be recognized as

such because they add to the cultural and linguistic stock of the nation.

Collaborative skills involve group work and cooperative learning, that is,

the teacher becomes a facilitator rather than

an instructor replacing the traditional chalk and talk

pedagogical methods that confine students to

their desks and discourage interaction with peers.

So, working collaboratively in a variety of environments has

become an important skill in the 21st century to secure a good job.

Advanced technological skills are compulsory for students in the 21st century.

In this respect, schools should embed technology across the curriculum

and take responsibility for improving students information literacy.

Thus, globalization requires that schools train

diverse students to greater levels of skills and competencies.

Finally, education for the global era can be seen as education for lifelong cognitive,

behavioral, and ethical engagement with the world.

In the next video, I'll be talking about citizenship education

and the role of new transformative type of education.

That's all for now. Thanks for watching. Bye bye.

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