Search Results (7)

This qualitative study examines how teacher candidates in one mathematics methods course negotiated curriculum integration of mathematics with social justice through the use of multicultural children’s literature. Drawing on multiple sources of data including teacher candidate selection process of the literature, lesson plans artifacts, and reflection essays, this study explores how teacher candidates balanced competing learning goals when developing an integrated unit. The findings from this study reveal that while this process of planning was challenging for many teacher candidates, the results show that when mathematics is grounded in a culturally relevant context, students are more engaged and are able to connect mathematical learning to real-world and useful meaningful applications in their lived experiences. Additionally, teacher candidates were able to develop a broader conception of mathematics teaching, underscoring the value that a focus on social justice can have not just on student learning but on teacher professional development. Full article

This theoretical paper expands upon previous research and proposes a guide for promoting mathematical talk and play through shared book reading (SBR), with a focus on the home environment. Building on a previously developed classroom-based model, this article describes a design-based research approach to extend the guide to including diverse literary genres—such as narrative, informational, multicultural, and math-specific books in a home setting. Parent–child shared book-reading in authentic contexts can provide a rich platform for “math talk”, where references are made to mathematical words, concepts, and content, and may support children’s mathematical skills. SBR with quality children’s literature can play a promising role in motivating and engaging children’s interest and pleasure in both reading and mathematics. However, few studies have explored this with diverse literary genres in the home setting, as the main focus has been in the classroom and using books specifically written to teach math content such as counting or sorting books. The proposed guide provides direction and practical examples for fostering parent–child math talk and play activities that can be used to extend concepts covered during the SBR. The potential application of the SBR guide, and how it can encourage parent–child talk to support a full range of mathematical concepts, encourage home-preschool collaboration, promote effective SBR techniques, and facilitate parent–child conversations about math in new and confident ways is discussed. Full article

With the increasing diversity in society caused by migration processes, the heterogeneity of classrooms in educational institutions is increasing. Teachers face new challenges related to cultural diversity in a multicultural classroom. This is more common in societies with a diverse population and in societies where newcomers regularly enter schools. In order to facilitate the inclusion of newcomer children in the education system, more analysis of teachers’ intercultural competence is needed. Intercultural competence is the teacher’s ability to understand, adapt to and work effectively in different cultural and linguistic contexts in the pupils’ environment. This competence includes the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to work successfully in a multicultural and multilingual classroom. The intercultural competence of a teacher is essential to create a positive and effective learning environment in which all pupils can learn and develop better, regardless of their cultural or linguistic background. Experience gained in working with newcomers is an important factor influencing teachers’ self-assessment of their knowledge, skills and attitudes, and the results show that respondents with such experience rate their knowledge, skills and attitudes higher than respondents without such experience, while age, work experience, level of education and workplace do not show statistically significant differences for the parameters analyzed. The aim of this study is to analyze the structure of the intercultural competence of teachers and its pedagogical potential and characteristics for the activities of teachers in a multicultural educational environment in the context of migration processes, and to assess the readiness of teachers for the inclusion of newcomer children in the Latvian education system. Research methods: analysis of scientific literature, survey of teachers, data processing in SPSS 22.0. Full article

For multicultural family members who live in cosmopolitan environments, concepts such as ethnic identity and integration have different significance. Some individuals can report, for example, that ethnic identity and integration have never played an important role in their lives and even feel that they represent old-fashioned notions from which modern societies should rather move on. For others, these concepts are much more relevant and are experienced in more challenging and complex ways. This article explores the influence that identity complexity—a cognitive disposition to perceive overlaps between different social identities, plays in this process. Forty parents of Estonian–foreign children (a traditionally cosmopolitan segment) were interviewed in Estonia and prompted to talk about topics such as their own ethnic identity(ies), their (and their family’s) feelings of integration into the Estonian society, and the way in which they represent their children’s ethnic identities, e.g., mostly Estonian/foreign, fifty–fifty, global citizen, etc. Thematic analysis combined with intersectionality suggests that there are associations between the identity complexity of interviewees and their attitudes towards these topics. Furthermore, results show that beyond the traditional dichotomy of high vs. low identity complexity, some interviewed parents have transitioned from higher to lower levels of identity complexity and vice versa at different times in their lives for different reasons. This study sheds light on identity complexity as a relevant predictor of acculturation and ethnic identity development outcomes among multicultural family members. It also contributes to the literature on cosmopolitan populations as a diverse group. Full article

In 2021, there were close to 37 million children displaced worldwide. There were 13.7 million refugees and an additional 22.8 million internally displaced. In Europe, this included 23,255 unaccompanied minors seeking asylum, up 72% compared with 2020 (13,550). The objective was to review the current literature regarding PTSD in unaccompanied refugee minors (URM). The authors searched Ovid Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Library from 1 January 2008 through 15 January 2019. Thirty full texts were chosen that specifically studied unaccompanied refugee minors (URM). The results showed that URM had a prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD of 17–85% across the studies reviewed. There were numerous factors that contributed to PTSD, including cumulative stress and trauma, guilt, shame, and uncertainty about legal status. Protective factors included resilience, a trusted mentor, belonging to a social network, religion, having an adult mentor, and having a family (even if far away). Immigrant youth can thrive most easily in multiculturally affirming countries. Five interventions demonstrated effectiveness, comprising trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT); “Mein Weg”, a TF-CBT combined with a group-processing mixed therapy approach; teaching recovery techniques (TRT), narrative exposure therapy for children (KIDNET), and expressive arts intervention (EXIT). The significant mental health conditions include depression, anxiety, internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and frequently PTSD. It is fair to conclude that the high levels of mental health problems experienced in URM are due to exposure to traumatic experiences, separation from parents, and lack of social support. Full article

The Robert Debre Pediatric Cystic Fibrosis (CF) centre, located in the North East of Paris, a multicultural area, is in charge of a cohort of around a hundred and sixty children diagnosed with CF. Between 2000 and 2019, the proportion of children of African descent in this centre increased from 2% to 10%. We report the clinical features of 17 children of African descent diagnosed with CF: 4 (23%) were diagnosed after a meconium ileus, 14 (83%) had exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, and 7 (41%) had early Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection before the age of two. Even though the majority of patients were diagnosed through NBS, the twenty-nine-mutation testing kit proved less effective in non-Caucasian populations, with a false negative rate of 25% in this series. CF is definitely not solely a Caucasian disease and the literature reveals similar phenotypes in Caucasian and African people provided that they present the same CFTR mutations. Clinicians have to keep in mind that the diagnosis of CF in patients of African descent must be evoked in the case of symptoms and a sweat test must be performed, despite a negative result for NBS. Full article

The sustainability of Africa’s existing child welfare systems remains uncertain, potentially owing to the maltreatment of children amid the competing worldviews of the continent’s indigenous and non-indigenous practices and international childcare models. This article focuses on Nigeria’s unsustainable multicultural child welfare system in order to highlight the inherent challenges of child welfare systems in Africa and proffer remedies. Seven discernible trends derived from available indigenous sources of information and scholarly literature on Nigeria are used as mind maps to describe and discuss Nigeria’s multicultural characteristics and childcare practices. From the discussion, the country’s child welfare challenges manifest in the following forms: ethnocultural, or more specifically, ethnoreligious diversity; the infiltration of Nigeria by non-native worldviews; colonial legacies; vacillating post-colonial social policies; conceptual ambiguities in non-indigenous welfare terminologies; and persistent unnecessary professional rivalries, which are also present in other African countries. As remedies, three transformative response options for the sustainability of the Nigerian child welfare system and those of other African countries are recommended: embracing cultural relativity regarding child maltreatment, leveraging the transformative and expanded mandates of the social work profession for the development of effective and sustainable child welfare systems, and using research and systems thinking as a driver for transforming professional rivalries into multidisciplinary approaches. Full article