Browsing by Author "Haajanen, Sofia"

OBJECTIVE. In the past, there has been lots of research focusing on both pupils with immigrant backgrounds and cultural diversity in schools. However, there is a lack of studies that focus on particular school subjects. Although, there is earlier research about studying geography and cultural diversity from the point of view of a teacher. The aim of this thesis is to expand the point of view to the everyday life inside the culturally diverse geography classroom. In my thesis, I examine geography lessons in the view point of foreign-language. My goal is to illustrate and understand the opportunities and challenges that foreign-language and the limited knowledge of Finnish can lead to, and how the poor Finnish language skills reveal themselves on geography lessons. Furthermore, my aim is to illustrate the pedagogical solutions used by the teachers in classes with foreign-language pupils. METHODOLOGY. Qualitative method was used in this study. The research data was collected by observing 58 geography lessons in four different secondary schools, that have a high percentage of foreign-language pupils. The collection of the rich dataset was made possible by the unstructured observation method. I used data content analysis method to analyse the dataset. First, I produced the upper-classes from my observations, from which I lead the themes. Finally, I organized the material on the top of the Didactic Triangle, because it represents clearly the teaching-learning -process, and also emphasizes the importance of interaction in teaching and learning. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS. The limited knowledge of Finnish causes challenges for the foreign-language pupils and the teachers in the geography lessons. The pedagogical skills of the four observed teachers varied in the point of view of foreign-language. The linguistic challenges, especially the difficult and specific concepts of geography, caused misunderstandings and frustration both for the teachers and the pupils.