Natasa Pantic delivered a presentation about the TEAMS project to the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Rijeka, Croatia on 12th July 2023.
An excerpt from the talk can be seen below –
Global migration flows have contributed to increasing diversity in the student population in schools around the world, and especially in Europe. The success of the integration of migrants into the school community depends both on teachers and (inter)professional cooperation within the school.
As part of the TEAMS (Teaching that Matters for Migrant Students) project, an international team of researchers conducted a mixed analysis of social networks around supporting migrant students in 7 schools from Scotland, Sweden and Finland. The aim was to examine how teachers work with each other and with other professionals to remove barriers to learning, socialization and developing a sense of belonging of migrant students to the school community.
The findings show that teachers and other school staff are working flexibly to address access to learning and broader support for the benefit of students, demonstrating great commitment and so-called ‘tacit knowledge’ within the school community. At the same time, the research revealed the limitations and assumptions embedded in education systems designed to educate a more homogeneous student population and raised questions about the structural changes needed to treat diversity as the norm given the ongoing trend of increasing diversity of the student population.