Research Topic/Aim
The emphasizing on individualization of the pupil in the learning situation, in national and international curricula, can be regarded as a westernized perspective that might be at the expenses of a more communicative approach on learning (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010). The increasing migration rate in the Nordic countries, has led to growing numbers of multicultural schools and new needs in the local school context. The study’s purpose was to explore the culture of helping peers when doing schoolwork. The focus was: What do pupils help each other with, when working on written assignments? How do pupils help each other with written assignments?
Theoretical Framework
From a sociocultural perspective, learning is regarded as a fundamental social phenomenon where the individual competence is developed through interaction with others. In these learning processes, the one who masters a proficiency guides and scaffolds the novice (Säljö, 2000/2010). Furthermore, the theory gives an opportunity to understand how schoolwork can both hinder and promote the aimed learning (Carlgren, 2015).
Methodological Design
In this ethnography study, a school was selected where 50 % of the pupils have a foreign background (both parents born abroad), with relatively few newly arrived pupils (arrived to Sweden the last four years). In an 8th grade class with 25 pupils, speaking 14 different native languages (including Swedish), participant observation was carried out during four months, followed by video recording of the pupils, focusing on informal conversations between peers during lessons in Mathematics, Swedish, and English as a foreign language. Interviews with the same pupils was carried out when the pupils were in 9th grade. The study was approved by the Ethical vetting board in Umeå.
Expected Findings/Conclusions
The data show that the pupils helped their classmates to a great extent. Inside the classroom, they discussed, posed questions, explained to peers, and corrected grammar and spelling, but also wrote parts of peers’ written assignments. However, the interviews revealed that the pupils over the last 4 years had developed a creative coping strategy in managing the system with individual written assignments: outside the classroom, during leisure time, pupils copied and rewrote each others’ written individual assignments to a great extent, but also wrote parts or entire written assignments for classmates, to be handed in as individual assignments for grading - resulting in a behaviour as if they “knew-how” to write assignmnets. However, their coping strategies might result in that the pupils in biggest need of help by teachers and peers in the writing process, tended to be excluded from working on their assignments inside the classroom.
Relevance to Nordic educational research
A broader understanding of the pupils’ perspective on helping peers, opens up for adapting the teaching after the pupils’ needs and experiences, and might have an impact on teaching methods used in class as well as content design in the Nordic countires.
References:
Rizvi, F. & Lingard, B. (2010). Globalizing Educational Policy. Abingdon: Routledge. Carlgren, I. (2015). Kunskapsstrukturer och undervisningspraktiker. Gothenburg: Daidalos. Säljö, R. (2000/2010). Lärande i praktiken - ett sociokulturellt perspektiv. Stockholm: Norstedts akademiska förlag.
2019.