Multiculturalism

The higher education community is multicultural by its very nature: the Finnish population is culturally and ethnically diverse. This diversity of cultures is also further enriched by exchange students and immigrants. Some educational programmes or study units have been designed to be completed in a language other than Finnish from the start, which makes participation easier for students from different language backgrounds. In addition to this, education modules using Finnish also have to pay attention to the students’ different cultures and linguistic capabilities.

Language aware education

Language aware education means that the teacher observes language and language use in different situations and supports the simultaneous accumulation of linguistic skills and content knowledge. A teacher will require understanding of a student’s linguistic resources, the linguistic policies of the field and the educational institute as well as pedagogic practices that support learning. Language awareness in education benefits not only benefit multilingual students; students speaking Finnish as their native tongue will also benefit from these perspectives and support methods. (Aalto et al., 2019.)

References (in Finnish)

Aalto, E., Mustonen, S., Järvenoja, M. & Saario, J. (2019). Monikielisen oppijan matkassa. Verkkosivusto opettajankoulutukseen. Jyväskylän yliopiston opettajankoulutuslaitos.

Additional materials

How to teach multicultural groups by UNIPS (website)

Aalto, E., Mustonen, S., Järvenoja, M. & Saario, J. (2019). Monikielisen oppijan matkassa. Verkkosivusto opettajankoulutukseen. Jyväskylän yliopiston opettajankoulutuslaitos. (In Finnish)

Digijoujou. (2019). Digi and flexibility in studying Finnish and Swedish.

Kilkas project. (n.d.). Competiviness and growth in promoting the employment of foreign UAS students.

Lignell I. & Pynnönen P. (2018). Hyviä tyyppejä on monenlaisia : selvitys erityistarpeisten korkeakouluopiskelijoiden uraohjauksesta, erityisen tuen toteutumisesta ja työllistymisen tukemisesta Hämeen ammattikorkeakoulussa. In Finnish)

KORKO-hanke. (n.d.). Ohjausta ja kieliopintoja maahanmuuttajille. (In Finnish)

Elsewhere in TLC

Laws, regulations and rules

Links checked 11.1.2022