Learning experiences in ethnographic fieldwork

Teaching and learning experiences were multifaceted in this classroom. Some of the students had been in Finland 10 years, some of them only three years. There were differences in language skills, and also in how well they had found their place in the social hierarchy of the class. Similarly to students of the dominant culture they were at different levels in their physical and mental development. If they had poor self-respect, they might hid it with rowdy behavior. Some tried to hide where they came from or were ashamed of it and they tried to act like their peers in the dominant culture. Even though I felt that the first three months of teaching and learning were chaotic with immigrants (mostly because I had to be very strict and consistent), the students did not necessarily agree with me. After one very difficult lesson I met an immigrant girl and a Finnish girl from my class in a shop near the school; they came to tell me how much they were looking forward to the next class and how much they liked home economics. I had thought that because of my strict rules and regulations they would hate the whole subject.

Somehow I had the feeling that immigrants in the Finnish school culture (or at least in my classroom) had many difficulties because of their dissimilarity. In relation to the average teenager, it is easy to say that puberty is a time when emotions, self-respect and self-image are being shaped. Teenagers are very self-critical and vulnerable to the opinions of peers. It is important for them to listen to a certain type of music, dress in certain kinds of clothes and watch certain kinds of TV-programs. Different levels of knowledge, motivation, practical skills, social skills and life experiences can be seen in the classroom. In the multicultural classroom, different religions, cultures and skin colors also come into play.

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By summarizing my experiences during these six months I could identify three themes that seemed to have meaning when teaching immigrant students:

1. Teacher’s activities

2. Collaboration⁴ and interaction⁵ in the classroom 3. Cultural background of the student

I felt that my behavior as a teacher in the home economics classroom was very important and that I was responsible for all the work done in the classroom work in general. I needed to solve problematic situations during the class time, help students with their numerous problems and direct their attention to the subject area. There were always unpredictable situations and comments that we needed to solve together with the students. Sometimes we had language problems; they misunderstood my messages/questions or I misunderstood their messages/questions or then we did not understand each other at all.

In home economics lessons students often work in small groups. Various interaction situations follow each other constantly. Collaboration is the rule and it is almost impossible for students to finish the given assignments or tasks without sharing the work or negotiating with each other. Students’ cultural background also changed the classroom situations and discussions. Cultural background could be seen in classroom discussions when students told about their own experiences and how their home practices contrasted with practices at school.

These three issues seemed to the most significant issues that I needed to deal with when planning the primary data collection: the videotaping of a multicultural class. The Vygotskian perspective on teaching and learning and the sociocultural approach supports these themes with the theory of the zone of proximal development (ZPD). According to Lantolf and Thorne (2006), the key principle of Vygotsky’s ZPD is the difference between the actual level of development and the proximal next stage of development. The actual level of development means the result of completed developmental cycles of a child’s mental functions while the proximal next stage aims for future development. The level of potential development is possible for a child under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers. The ZPD can also be used as a conceptual tool that gives educators an opportunity to perceive aspects of the students’ emerging capacities.

According to Vygostky (1978), cognitive ability is not a “natural” entity but a sociocultural construct that emerges from the child’s interaction with the environment. The subject of ability, therefore, is not the child alone but a pair: child and culture. In his theory of

4 In this study collaboration is understood according to the Vygotskian perspective as Kozulin (2003, p. 54) puts it: “...it appears that the term (collaboration) is being used to refer to any situation in which a child is being offered some interaction with another person that is related to a problem to be solved.”

5 In this study, the term interaction means action that occurs when two or more people have an effect on each other. See also Chapter 6.1. Goffman’s (1963, p. 24) terms unfocused interaction and focused interaction apply in this study.

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ZPD, Vygotsky stresses that the development of a child’s mental functions is dependent on cooperative interaction between the adult and child. The adult here represents the culture and helps the child in acquiring the necessary symbolic tools for learning (Kozulin, 1998, p. 69).

As Lantolf and Thorne (2006, P.59) put it, “one of Vygotsky’s most important findings is that learning through participation precedes and shapes development.”

The ZPD supports my experience with multicultural classes. The teacher’s position and the tools used, as well as relationships with peers in classroom situations, are crucial. Also, the students’ cultural background and everyday experiences affect their ways of learning, understanding and perceiving. The theory of ZPD and other key concepts of the sociocultural approach will be presented and discussed in relation to this study in the following chapter.

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4 USING THEORY AS A CONCEPTUAL AID

Farid: Where is that other sugar (brown sugar) Tim: Is this good?

Teacher: Looks like foam.

Rekar: How much is ¼ tsp?

Teacher: Here you have ¼ tsp...

Farid: What does carambola taste like?

(30 April 2004)