Uppeldi og menntun - 01.01.2014, Page 44

Uppeldi og menntUn/icelandic JoUrnal of edUcation 23(1) 201444
fjöLmenningarLegT námssamféLag
educational researcher. They bring with them new opportunities and new ideas for
research. “Globalization is a multifaceted process with economic, social, political and
cultural implications for higher education” (UNESCO, 2004). Societal changes in Ice-
land with growing numbers of immigrants in the past 15 years (Hagstofa Íslands, 2012)
have led to increasing numbers of immigrant students in Icelandic universities. Some
of these students have struggled with pursuing their studies in Icelandic and some pre-
vious research findings have indicated their marginalization in these programs (Hanna
Ragnarsdóttir & Hildur Blöndal, 2007). As a response to this new reality, the decision
was made to develop an international program in education that would be taught in
English. Some elements of the program og specific courses have been documented in
previous reserch (see Allyson Macdonald & Auður Pálsdóttir, 2011; Books et al., 2011;
Hanna Ragnarsdóttir, 2012). The effects of the critical pedagogy that is the underly-
ing ideology of the program have not been documented before, and neither have the
female students´ empowerment, experience and thoughts on completing their studies
within this program. This research aims to add to this.
Nieto (2010) asks the important question of where empowerment fits into critical
pedagogy. And the answer she gives is that empowerment is both the purpose
and the outcome of critical pedagogy. The main findings reveal that all the parti-
cipants experienced a sense of empowerment that they explained resulted from the
critical pedagogy of the program. Having teachers that showed interest in their cul-
tural backgrounds and prior experiences, educational and personal, shocked some
of them at the beginning but as they gained a better understanding of how this was
linked to the educational philosophy of the program and they associated their personal
experiences with the theories being taught, they gained a deeper appreciation for the
learning community that was being created. The students also expressed a need to
reach out to their own communities to make a difference in other people´s lives as
a result of the experiences and knowledge they had gained in the program. Having
had the privilege to watch these students grow as both students and individuals we
are thankful that a program like this has survived major budget cuts in the last three
years because we firmly believe that, as Brockbank & McGill (2007) have claimed:
“Higher education is rightly endeavoring to ensure that students can realize their
aspirations after university as well as providing an enriching experience on the path
to graduation and post-graduation.”
Keywords: Critical pedagogy, international program in education, immigrant students,
empowerment, multicultural learning community