Monica Axelsson’s Prestige Lecture on
newly-arrived migrants in Swedish schools
For those who weren’t able to attend Professor Monica Axelsson’s Prestige Lecture at the University of Canterbury on 9 February 2017, here is a second chance.
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The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria have forced a high number of people to leave their countries and seek refuge elsewhere. Sweden, in the north of Europe, has recently received a large number of refugees. The reception of new arrivals has greatly affected society as a whole and schools in particular. Professor Axelsson presents findings from a recent three-year research project investigating how municipalities and schools in Sweden have organised instruction to meet the needs of the newly arrived. The two main reception models used for newly arrived students are introductory classes or immediate mainstreaming. These models have been examined with respect to the resources provided for students’ everyday and academic language and literacy development and social inclusion.
Professor Axelsson’s expertise is focused on the learning conditions of newly-arrived refugee and migrant children, and on language across the curriculum. She has been recruited to the National Science Challenge E Tipu E Rea Better Start braid ‘Emergent bilinguals in the digital world’ as an international advisor.
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Professor Axelsson visited the School of Teacher Education and the LATL-lab in 2017 as Visiting Canterbury Fellow. Read more in our blog post