Taking steps towards institutionalising multicultural education – The national curriculum of Finland

Spaces for multilingual education: language orientations in the national curricula of Sweden and Finland

“…As Mustaparta, Nissilä, and Harmanen (2015) and Zilliacus, Holm and Sahlström (2017) argue, we can see a clear development during the past decades in language education policies in Finland. For instance, the curriculum of 1985 does not even mention multilingual competency, and the concept has a marginal role in the curriculum of 2004.…”

“…Specifically, multilingualism is "one manifestation of cultural diversity" (p. 29). In addition, the concept of multilingualism is linked to another new term, multiliteracy (58 instances), which is one of the seven transversal competencies that are aimed for throughout the curriculum and largely representing 21 st century skills (Zilliacus, Holm, & Sahlström, 2017). Multiliteracy is defined as the ability to produce and work with different kinds of texts in various media and environments, and is connected to a widened approach to language learning and promotes multilingualism (p. 21).…”

“…In the Finnish curriculum, the minority languages, including Sami languages, Romany Chib, and Finnish Sign Language, have historically been neglected, but have gained more recognition in the past decades (Zilliacus, Holm & Sahlström, 2017). The mother tongue options in Finland include eleven separate syllabi, including Finnish, Swedish, and the minority languages Sami, Romany Chib, and Finnish Sign Language.…”

Using modelling to make culturally responsive pedagogy explicit in preservice teacher education in Finland

“…The general discourse on multiculturalism in Finland is often led by recent migration‐induced diversity (Holm & Londen, ) that tends to depict society as homogeneous and disregard diversity within a nation; and furthermore, might limit the ways preservice teachers think about diversity (Jokikokko, ; Hahl & Löfström, ). Thus, one arrives at an ambiguity in the Finnish context where values of equity, democracy and justice are highly embraced by policies, but at the same time multicultural education has been historically marginal and tokenistic (Zilliacus et al ., 2017a). Although some current efforts promote advancing the integration of multicultural education and social justice (Zilliacus et al ., ,b), there is still work to be done in Finland in order to regard cultural diversity as a civic, democratic commitment (Modood, ), not as a ‘negative element, the stigmatic differentiating from others’, but as ‘an extended concept of equality and a sense of belonging’ (p. 33).…”

“…Thus, one arrives at an ambiguity in the Finnish context where values of equity, democracy and justice are highly embraced by policies, but at the same time multicultural education has been historically marginal and tokenistic (Zilliacus et al ., 2017a). Although some current efforts promote advancing the integration of multicultural education and social justice (Zilliacus et al ., ,b), there is still work to be done in Finland in order to regard cultural diversity as a civic, democratic commitment (Modood, ), not as a ‘negative element, the stigmatic differentiating from others’, but as ‘an extended concept of equality and a sense of belonging’ (p. 33).…”