Equal Education in
Practice!
Aims for this introduction:
• Background information on immigrant
children in Norway, integration and
learning outcome
• Language support policies and
curriculum development for immigrant
children
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Kunnskapsdepartementet
Increased cultural diversity
• Linguistic and cultural diversity is increasing
• Linguistic minority children provide vital
resources
• The education system should take care of this
diversity
• Kindergartens, schools and other educational
institutions are vital in the work of securing
inclusion and participation by linguistic
minorities
• Immigrants in all 434 municipalities
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Kunnskapsdepartementet
Immigrant children: Pre-school
• An increased participation of immigrant
children in kindergarten
• Since year 2000 the number has doubled
• Lower proportion of immigrant children
in kindergartens compared to the
majority population
• Kindergarten has proved to be crucial as
Norwegian language stimulation
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Kunnskapsdepartementet
Language in school
• 120 different languages represented in
primary and lower secondary school
• 40 000 pupils receive special teaching in
Norwegian
• 22 100 pupils receive mother thong
teaching and/or bilingual subject
teaching
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Kunnskapsdepartementet
Learning outcome
• First generation immigrant pupils have
lower score than second generation and
majority pupils (national tests 2007)
• The last PISA results confirm this; pupils
with immigrant background perform
significantly lower than majority pupils
• However, minority pupils spend more
time on homework and are more
motivated for learning than majority
pupils
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Kunnskapsdepartementet
Equal Education in Practice!
2007-2009
• The strategy has
been effective since
2004
• Revised version
2007
• Also published in
English
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Kunnskapsdepartementet
Strategic plan: Goals for linguistic
minorities
1. Improve language skills among pre-school
children
2. Improve the school performance in primary
and secondary education and training
3. Increase the proportion who commence and
complete upper secondary education and
training
4. Increase the proportion students in higher
education and improve opportunities for
completing education
5. Improve Norwegian language proficiency
among adults to increase opportunities for
education and active participation in work
and society
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Kunnskapsdepartementet
38 concrete measures
• Language training
• Early efforts in kindergarten, maternal
and child health centre and primary
school
• Improve the training
in Norwegian
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Kunnskapsdepartementet
Language support policies and curriculum
development for immigrant children
Old curriculum did not work according to
intentions
-no platform for transition to ordinary
curriculum in Norwegian
-many students continued special teaching
throughout school attendance
-lack of competence among teachers
-no standardized assessment procedures to
clarify the pupils’ level of knowledge
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Kunnskapsdepartementet
New curricula in basic Norwegian for
linguistic minorities and in native
languages based on levels
• A new curriculum for basic Norwegian for
linguistic minorities has replaced the
curriculum in Norwegian as a second
language
• A new curriculum in native languages
• Level based subject curriculum in basic
Norwegian and native languages are
based on the European Framework for
Foreign Languages
• No grade assessment
• Goal: As soon as possible learn sufficient
Norwegian to follow ordinary curricula
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Kunnskapsdepartementet
New curricula cont.
• A standardised assessment tool
• Guidance material for teachers in basic
Norwegian
• Post-qualifying courses developed for
teachers in basic Norwegian
• The implementation of the new curricula will
be evaluated over a period of 3 years
• Guidance material for teachers in native
languages will be introduced
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Kunnskapsdepartementet
New curricula cont.
• However, still some issues to be solved:
- lack of grade assessment is a problem for
pupils who arrive to Norway as youths
- Adults who attend primary /secondary
education on a short period of time
Strengthening rights
-Introduced the right to Special language
education in upper secondary school
-Proposed bill: compulsory language assessment
of children with low Norwegian skills
-Will propose a bill: right to until to years extra
in upper - secondary education for pupils with
low Norwegian skills
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Kunnskapsdepartementet
The idea of inclusion
• Universal rights and measures /see cultural
diversity as part of the ordinary
• In combination with targeted measures
• Everyone attend public school
• Diversity as a resource
• Intensify the work to improve the quality of
education
• Increased emphasis on basic skills
• White Paper: Quality in Education
• White Paper: Language Build Bridges
• Committee for equal education for linguistic
minorities in kindergarten, school and higher
education
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Kunnskapsdepartementet
Concluding remarks:
• New policy, legislation and measures are
being implemented
• Research is being done to learn from new
measures
• Too early to conclude on the results
• The issue of learning outcome and
inclusion has a high priority for the
Norwegian government
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Kunnskapsdepartementet