Integrating Immigrant Children into Schools in Europe

Integrating Immigrant Children into Schools in Europe6.5. Training and Support for TeachersOver and above the definition of content as specified in the curriculum, the challenge of the interculturalapproach in education systems lies in the ability of teachers and other school staff to ensure that itbecomes operational. In this respect, the way teachers are trained and the support they receive from theeducation authorities are of vital importance.Thus the intercultural approach calls for ability on the part of teachers and indeed other school staff toreact to ethnic or racist kinds of stereotyping by pupils. Initially, this presupposes that teachersthemselves are capable of protecting their own behaviour from the influence of cultural stereotypes andthat they then possess the arguments needed to discuss stereotyping by pupils. In short, they require acomplex type of skill that should be acquired during initial teacher education or in-service training. Itinvolves not just acquiring a theoretical body of knowledge but above all confrontation with realsituations and practical experience. According to a research article on preparing teachers for interculturaleducation in the Netherlands ( 4 ), teacher training for intercultural education which is restricted to learninga theory is no longer appropriate. Ideally, it should be regarded as learning activity in which practicalexperience is considered in combination with reflection based on interaction and dialogue with fellowstudents, teacher trainers and in-service teachers.In virtually all countries surveyed, topics associated with the intercultural approach are included incurricula for initial teacher education or in provision for in-service training. The only exceptions in2003/04 are Estonia and Bulgaria. In Estonia, however, a pilot project to provide teachers with training inthis educational approach is currently being implemented. In the German-speaking Community ofBelgium, Lithuania, Malta and in Sweden, training in the intercultural approach is primarily part of initialteacher education.Institutions for initial teacher education are at least partly free to draw up their own curriculum in almostall countries. In the majority of countries, the inclusion (or otherwise) of an intercultural approach in thecurricula of these institutions is governed solely by their internal policy. Around 10 countries formallyrequire institutions to provide for intercultural education.Thus in the French Community of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, theNetherlands (in primary education), Finland, the United Kingdom, Norway and Romania, the central ortop-level authority has firmly stated that intercultural education must be included in teacher educationprogrammes. There is also a recommendation along these lines in Austria (applicable solely to institutionsthat train teachers for pre-primary education) and in Slovakia.The French and Flemish Communities of Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Norwayhave specified the skills related to intercultural education that teachers should have acquired by the endof their training. These skills relate essentially to the knowledge acquired by teachers regarding thesituation of pupils from cultural backgrounds other than that of the national culture, as well as theirperception of those pupils and their ability to handle relations between pupils of different cultural origin.( 4 ) Preparing teachers for intercultural education, Yvonne Leeman & Guuske Ledoux, Teaching Education, Vol. 14, No. 3,December 2003, pp 281-283.62