Árið 2016 kom hópur sýrlenskra kvótaflóttafjölskyldna til Íslands frá Líbanon og settist
að í þremur sveitarfélögum (Stjórnarráð Íslands, 2019). Markmið rannsóknarinnar, sem
hófst síðla árs 2016 og er langtímarannsókn, eru að athuga reynslu flóttabarna og foreldra
þeirra af leik- og grunnskólastarfi og frístundastarfi; og að athuga reynslu stjórnenda
og kennara í skólum og frístundaheimilum af móttöku barnanna, skipulagi náms og
samstarfi við foreldrana. Í greininni er fjallað um þær niðurstöður rannsóknarinnar
er snúa að reynslu starfsfólks leikskóla af móttöku og starfi með flóttabörnum úr
hópnum og foreldrum þeirra fyrsta árið. Fræðilegur grunnur rannsóknarinnar er í
gagnrýnum sjónarhornum á menntun og skólastarf (Banks, 2013; May og Sleeter,
2010; Nieto, 2010) og fjöltyngismenntun til félagslegs réttlætis (Chumak-Horbatsch,
2012; Cummins, 2004; Skutnabb-Kangas, Phillipson, Mohanty og Panda, 2009).
Gagnrýnin sjónarhorn á menntun og skólastarf og fjöltyngismenntun til félagslegs
réttlætis eru mikilvæg tæki til að varpa gagnrýnu ljósi á reynslu barna af menntun
og leggja til umbætur. Gagna var aflað með hálfstöðluðum viðtölum við starfsfólk
sex leikskóla. Niðurstöður benda til þess að börnunum vegni vel í leikskólunum og
samstarf við foreldra gangi almennt vel, ekki síst vegna góðs undirbúnings fyrir komu
flóttabarnanna. Það eru þó ærin verkefni sem leikskólarnir standa frammi fyrir, og
snerta m.a. ólík tungumál og menningu.
In 2016, eleven Syrian quota refugee families arrived in Iceland from Lebanon and
settled in three municipalities (Stjórnarráð Íslands [Iceland Government Offices],
2019). This longitudinal qualitative interview study aims at understanding the
experiences of these adults and their children in their preschool and compulsory
school settings and leisure time activities; and to explore the experiences of principals
and teachers in their schools and leisure time centres of the children´s reception, studies
and educational partnerships with their parents. This article presents the findings of
interviews with staff in six preschools in the three municipalities concerning the
experiences of the reception and the first year of the children´s schooling. Altogether
seven refugee children from the group, which arrived in 2016, attended these six
preschools. They were one to five-years old when they started preschool in 2016. The theoretical framework of the study includes critical approaches to education (Banks,
2013; May & Sleeter, 2010; Nieto, 2010) and multilingual education for social justice
(Chumak-Horbatsch, 2012; Cummins, 2004; Skutnabb-Kangas, Phillipson, Mohanty
& Panda, 2009). These approaches provide an important framework for critically
addressing educational experiences of children and suggesting improvement. Methods
included six semi-structured interviews with principals, heads of divisions and other
staff in the children´s preschools, altogether twelve individuals. The interviews were
conducted in April-June 2017 in the preschools. Two individuals from each preschool
participated in each interview. A thematic analytical approach (Braun & Clarke,
2013) was applied to analyze the data. The main themes derived from the data were:
preparation for the arrival of the children; reception of the children and the first year; educational
practices; language acquisition; transition to compulsory school; educational partnerships with
parents; and culture and religion. The preschools differ in many ways, including size
and age, policy and practices. The ratio of children with foreign background in the
preschools differs, while all the preschools have some experience of working with
culturally and linguistically diverse groups of children. The findings indicate that
the children are doing well in the preschools and the educational partnerships with
the parents have been largely successful, not least because of thorough preparations
before the children´s arrival. However, the preschools have many tasks and challenges
to address, including for example the children´s emergent bilingualism and different
cultural heritage. Educational practices in the preschools are inclusive and diverse
and active participation of the children is emphasized in free play as well as organized
activities. The older children get extra support in Icelandic in small groups with other
emergent bilingual children. The schools do not provide mother language support
in Arabic; however, their language and other languages are made visible in various
ways in the schools and the children sing and count in different languages. Such
emphasis is in line with multilingual education for social justice which ChumakHorbatsch (2012), Cummins (2001, 2004), Skutnabb-Kangas et al. (2009) and others
have emphasized. The staff show respect and open-mindedness towards the culture
and religion of the families and respect their effort of adapting to very different social
and cultural conditions in Iceland. The staff are generally not trained in multicultural
and multilingual education (Banks, 2013; Chumak-Horbatsch, 2012; Cummins,
2001, 2004; Nieto, 2010), however, the educational practices in the preschool adhere
to such emphasis in many ways, according to the findings. Although most of the
families are doing well after the first year, the staff note that some of the parents
are becoming increasingly worried as time passes and that this could be related
to concerns about their children´s future. The findings indicate that educational
partnerships with parents could be strengthened further in the preschools and that
professional development of the staff in multilingual and multicultural education,
as well as Icelandic as a second language, could provide a stronger educational and
social basis for the refugee children. Hiring Arabic speaking staff for building bridges
between preschool and parents and supporting the children would also be beneficial.
