The important building blocks of newcomer immigrant students’ education in the Norwegian context

Abstract

The education of immigrant students, particularly newcomers, must be considered from a holistic framework. The conceptual article aims to highlight other important aspects of newcomers’ education, in addition to language and subject content learning. The three overlooked yet most important components of holistic education for newcomers are the following: (1) well-being pedagogy, (2) positive and comprehensive collaboration with newcomer parents, and (3) teachers’ positive ideology of newcomers and their families. This article begins with a brief presentation of the issue in newcomers’ education demonstrating an emphasis on some important yet overlooked elements in newcomer education. Consequently, in Norway, despite educational efforts aimed at supporting immigrant students, they continue to perform poorly compared with ethnic Norwegian students. Then, the paper defines what well-being pedagogy is and why well-being should be included in the comprehensive and successful schooling of newcomers. Here, well-being pedagogy is not limited to newcomer students’ well-being; rather, it includes teachers (who work with newcomers) and newcomer parents’ well-being. The why and how of comprehensive and successful collaboration with newcomer parents is discussed as a second important component. The third building block is teachers’ positive ideology of newcomers and their parents. The paper establishes that the positive ideology and perceptions of newcomer students and their families are the core of the holistic education of immigrant students. This paper contributes to knowledge development for the education of newly arrived immigrant students by engaging in a discussion that can foster teacher motivation and commitment, resulting in greater support for newcomer students. Second, even though this paper is framed in the context of Norwegian society, the aim is to inspire the international community of educators and researchers committed to an equitable learning environment for immigrant students to consider the topic for further exploration. The article concludes with teachers’ practice recommendations for schools and some directions for future research.

Competence of Latvian Preschool Teachers to Include Newcomers in Education

“…This is a good indicator because teachers learn better and gain experience from teachers in their community (Sumane & Aboltina, 2023). Teachers are responsible for providing quality education for all children, including newcomers (Norozi, 2022). To do this, 82.9% of teachers check the educational materials to exclude cultural and ethnic biases.…”

Recognising the newcomer: education policy and teaching practices in Norway and England

“…How these abilities and needs are recognised in education policy at both national and school level is crucial to newcomer attainment and inclusion at school. This has been shown in relation to language support (Arnot and Pinson, 2005;Allen, 2006;Hilt, 2017); mental health support (Gladwell and Chetwynd, 2018;Norozi, 2023); and "multicultural" models of education (Sidhu and Taylor, 2007;Banks, 2013;Skrefsrud, 2022). An emerging body of research has also started to explore how education professionals negotiate policy structures in responding to newcomer needs and abilities at school.…”

“…Häggström et al (2020) show how teachers in Denmark connect with, and draw on, external support structures to promote newcomer wellbeing at school, but also experience constraints with these structures. Nevertheless, a gap remains in our knowledge about how education professionals -particularly teachers -interpret policies of newcomer recognition in their everyday practices (Norozi, 2023).…”

The Role of Linguistic and Cultural Mediation in Learning the Host Country’s Language

“…Research on the challenges that newcomers are confronted with in a host country is abundant (Almutairi, 2015;McAuliffe, 2020); Janar et al, 2022;Smith et al, 2022;Nshom, 2022;Norosi, 2023). The Council of Europe points out that migrants' difficulties in communication usually result from the lack of proficiency in the language, register, cognitive gaps, unfamiliarity with cultural issues and concepts or the lack of relevant information, suggesting that mediated language lessons may "improve migrants" general confidence as participants in the host society and raise their self-esteem (The Council of Europe, 2021).…”