Uppeldi og menntun - 01.06.2015, Side 78

Uppeldi og menntUn/icelandic JoUrnal of edUcation 24(1) 201578
leArning spAces And inclUsive prAcTices
In this research, as in some others described in the book, agency turns out to be of cen-
tral importance. Many educational responses to diversity focus on the agency of those
that are marginalized. In the Scottish research it becomes evident how the success of
the school’s response to the changing demography was due to the teachers themselves
reclaiming lost agency (see also p. 123). And this benefitted the whole school, not just
the new pupils.
Very quickly the achievement levels at the secondary school – as measured by nation-
al examination results – improved dramatically, and the headteacher went on record
as saying that this was down to the positive educational orientation of the young
asylum-seekers. (p. 122)
The complexity of identity
One theme that runs through all the chapters, despite their differences, is that of
identity, or rather, the complexity of identity. In the first chapter of the book Hanna
Ragnarsdóttir and Hildur Blöndal remark, drawing on work by Siraj-Blatchford and
Clarke that:
… no group of children – or any individual – should be essentialized, defined and
bound within a definition as if it were impossible for them to escape it. Nor should
they be regarded as having an experience that is homogeneous with that of others of
their ‘type’. (p. 11)
In chapter three the authors write:
Current educational policies tend to assume that the multicultural refers exclusively
to the ‘Other’ – i.e. certain categories of migrant pupils such as refugees. In doing so,
they obscure the fact that many Finnish youths also represent diversity. (p. 46)
A little later they say:
In these discussions, the cultural quite often cancels out other aspects of identity such
as gender, generation, social class, and language. (p. 46)
The question of the complexity of identity in exactly this respect also comes out nicely
in chapter two where the learning of the staff of a kindergarten consists in the realiza-
tion of the complexity and diversity of the identities of the children and parents that
still constitute a single group, i.e. refugees.
Over time, getting to know specific individuals from refugee backgrounds broad-
ened the staff’s horizons, allowing them to see not just differences between people,
but how minority parents’ lives, grievances and frustrations compared with their
own. This, in turn, developed their empathy and understanding. (p. 32)