Margevics Talivaldis
Stand up, Teacher!
The film is part of the society integration project "Multicultural education: teacher, pupil, family". They are outcasts of the fate. Society knows very little or nothing about their existence. They have a common name – children with prolonged health problems. They are not to be found in hospitals, but at homes, whatever they are like. In most cases, for several years, the only contact with the society and the world outside for these children is a teacher, appointed by the local municipality, who visits and teaches them at home. In the cities, there are several hundred of such unfortunate girls and boys. It might seem to be a medical problem, but, if we take a camera and follow the home study teacher around, we will see surprising things. Most of these children are the victims of social problems. Their physical and mental diseases are direct consequences of dysfunctional families, national and global problems. The principal concern of the invalid children is: how to keep up with the pace of life, and afterwards, how to return and integrate in the highly dynamic society of their peers. How can Muslim, Jewish, Russian children integrate in the ethnic fabric of this country from the solitude of their homes? How are they going to feel a few years later, when they leave their homes and see a different Latvia, a Latvia of the European Union – a multilingual country, where everyone must speak at least three languages, where one is supposed to be open-minded and able to communicate? Will the teacher, by teaching Latvian and English, single-handedly be able to prepare the children for full integration into the society? Who else will reach out to them on the brink of "the real life"? The course of the empirical pilot study. The aims of the empirical pilot study: to find out what are the understandings and knowledge of the teachers and students about the intercultural education. The methods of the empirical pilot study: The two mass scale surveys were used as the data acquisition methods: the interview and the questionnaire; the Descriptive statistics were used as the data processing and analysis methods of the study. During the empirical pilot study the authors of came to the following conclusions: o The university faculty and students are informed about the intercultural education; o The intercultural education is considered to be necessary; o The implementation of intercultural education is problematic; o The lack of intercultural competence, the lack of systematic knowledge on intercultural education hinders effective work in the multicultural classes (groups); Most of the respondents have been involved in cultural conflicts (for example, in conflicts related to ethnic belonging, social status, etc.).
The film is part of the society integration project "Multicultural education: teacher, pupil, family". They are outcasts of the fate. Society knows very little or nothing about their existence. They have a common name – children with prolonged health problems. They are not to be found in hospitals, but at homes, whatever they are like. In most cases, for several years, the only contact with the society and the world outside for these children is a teacher, appointed by the local municipality, who visits and teaches them at home. In the cities, there are several hundred of such unfortunate girls and boys. It might seem to be a medical problem, but, if we take a camera and follow the home study teacher around, we will see surprising things. Most of these children are the victims of social problems. Their physical and mental diseases are direct consequences of dysfunctional families, national and global problems. The principal concern of the invalid children is: how to keep up with the pace of life, and afterwards, how to return and integrate in the highly dynamic society of their peers. How can Muslim, Jewish, Russian children integrate in the ethnic fabric of this country from the solitude of their homes? How are they going to feel a few years later, when they leave their homes and see a different Latvia, a Latvia of the European Union – a multilingual country, where everyone must speak at least three languages, where one is supposed to be open-minded and able to communicate? Will the teacher, by teaching Latvian and English, single-handedly be able to prepare the children for full integration into the society? Who else will reach out to them on the brink of "the real life"? The course of the empirical pilot study. The aims of the empirical pilot study: to find out what are the understandings and knowledge of the teachers and students about the intercultural education. The methods of the empirical pilot study: The two mass scale surveys were used as the data acquisition methods: the interview and the questionnaire; the Descriptive statistics were used as the data processing and analysis methods of the study. During the empirical pilot study the authors of came to the following conclusions: o The university faculty and students are informed about the intercultural education; o The intercultural education is considered to be necessary; o The implementation of intercultural education is problematic; o The lack of intercultural competence, the lack of systematic knowledge on intercultural education hinders effective work in the multicultural classes (groups); Most of the respondents have been involved in cultural conflicts (for example, in conflicts related to ethnic belonging, social status, etc.).