Kulturell mångfald,en utmaning för lärare inom närvårdarutbildningen

Abstract

In the focus of this article are the results from a study concerning teachers in multicultural classrooms in vocational education. In 2005, about 114.000 foreigners lived in Finland. The purpose of the study was to describe the teacher's everyday life in the multicultural classroom of vocational nursing education. The purpose was also to attain knowledge about the teachers' view of their own competence development.

The theoretical frame was based on theories concerning multicultural education.

The empirical material was collected during 2000 and 2001 through interviews, participating observations and a questionnaire. The results show that the teachers feel unprepared and unsure of their task regarding teaching of integrated groups. Consequently, the teachers wish to receive more knowledge in cultural matters. The analysis shows, however, that the need for knowledge is not as large as the need to transform the attitude of the teachers towards immigrant students. The teachers possessed a fairly good level of affective competence, but a need for developing the level of behavioural and cognitive competences was identified. All three areas of cultural competence are vital, in order to develop a multicultural educational institution.