Browsing by Author "Abdulhamed, Rekar"

Aims. The student bodies in Finnish schools have diversified and have become more multicultural. Hence, teachers require understanding of the processes involving interculturality, tools for engaging in intercultural interaction and skills for working in an intercultural classroom. Yet, our understanding of the adaptation of migrant children to culturally varying demands still remains scarce. This research aims to address this gap and focuses on how an immigrant or a multicultural child adapts to living in between cultures. The research question is examined in terms of the cultural values with regard to traits of temperament and the Temperament-Context Goodness-of-Fit theory in which the context is analyzed through the theory of Developmental Niche. As a complementary theory, the acculturation theory is used to offer a vantage point and research data concerning the process of cultural adaptation. Methods. A Literature review has been utilized as a method of this research. As a complementary method, rational reconstruction has been utilized to analyze differing theories and research data. The research material in this study consists of journal articles from the temperament-context research and complemented with research data concerning acculturation. Results and Conclusions. The results of this study shows that culturally varying values concerning temperament traits are considered to be obvious, though research concerning this assertion are scarce. The analysis of the research data indicates that culturally differing values concerning temperament traits may have an impact on the adaptation of immigrant children in different contexts. Based on the results of this work, it can be demonstrated that there is need for further study on the effects of cultural values to temperament traits within the acculturation theory for understanding adaptation. The results also indicate that there is a need for facilitating temperament-context Goodness-of-Fit in order to prevent adjustment problems.