Reflekterande team
Start date: Jun 1, 2015,
End date: May 31, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
Background: Sjumilaskolan with its 500 pupils and 70 staff is a school located in a socially challenged area (Norra Biskopsgården, Gothenburg). Almost all children in Sjumilaskolan have a different mother tongue than Swedish. In North Biskopsgården there is high unemployment, concern with violence, drugs and gang crime and low achievement in school. In recent years, the unrest in the region has increased and a large number of shootings, some fatal, have occurred in the school's neighborhood. Today the average merit rating is 165.8 and the proportion of pupils achieving the goals in all subjects is 39.1%. In four years the school has had four principals, which indicates a high staff turnover.
Participants: This project has a total of eight participants. The participants are two principals, two teachers and four tutors/mentors/coaches who all work on and with Sjumilaskolan.
Activities: Participants will engage in a so-called job shadowing to learn from the receiving country's skills and methods to support teachers in underprivileged families and schools. There will also be workshops to initiate an active dialogue and exchange of knowledge between guest and host participants.
Method: We use observations, structured reflection, individually and in groups and workshops.
Expected results and impact goals: Through the international exchange, we want to get new tools to support and motivate staff at Sjumilaskolan, and provide increased competence in part responding to students' differences. Continuity as a remaining staff would provide, we see as an important part of creating a peaceful and safe workplace for students where learning is the focus. In time, we hope that this will lead to better school performance, fewer students who deviate from the studies and a higher proportion of students receiving high school eligibility. Research suggests that early school dropout significantly increases the risk of future social vulnerability. Something that should be seen as alarming in an area with already high unemployment and criminal gangs. In the short term, the project aims to increase the individual teacher and the college expertise in meeting pupils' differences and to promote good learning experience for the students, despite many external difficulties. In the longer term, we want to nurture the network we built, which will provide project participants a basic requirement to be able to have a continuous exchange of knowledge in the field.