As part of our trip, Shodona and I we were lucky enough to be able to visit the Nicolaigården school, which is situated in the historical centre of Stockholm – Sweden. The school is one of the best examples of a form of democratic, egalitarian and socially just education. It is a public school, and it focuses principally in providing a kind of education that is inclusive and that respects and values diversity. At the school we met with the Director – Lotta Rajalin who showed us around the school, told us about its history and about other relationships that the school has with schools on a national and international scale. It was great to see that a school that focused on these themes had such an important voice at the local and international level!
A key aspect of the work that they do in the school in order to foster an education where every child feels safe and respected, an educational environment that is as egalitarian as it can be, is working with the teachers on their professional development. Lotta told us that really this is one of the key aspects of the work that they do in the school. They starting by hiring a diverse group of teachers, and in fact, it certainly is the early childhood centre where I saw the most men working in the school! But in addition to that, there was variety of people from all different backgrounds, ethnicities, nationalities, abilities, etc.
Lotta also explained to us that they do a lot of work in their school on professional development. Teachers are required as part of their job to read a lot about these issues and themes, and to have meetings to talk about them. Even Lotta says that when she started working she arranged with teachers that, in order for them to be able to do their readings and to train themselves in these issues, that they would be paid full time while allowing them to actually work part time in the school…so that they would have the time to do their work.
Moreover, the spaces of the school were organised to represent diversity, to value difference, and to encourage a sense of representation and safety of all teachers and children. The library for example holds books for children of all the different languages represented in the school. The school has a space that is considered to be the quiet space of the school where teachers can go and relax – as they believe that this is an important aspect in a society that generally asks us to be productive and active. It is important for them to have a quiet space therefore where teachers can feel relaxed and rest. The school also includes a diverse range of representations such as dolls, children in books or posters that depict the classroom activities and showcase different ethnicities, religions, challenged gender stereotypes, etc.
Last but not least, the work with children was very much oriented in working with them to think about themselves, about their relationship with others, and about their emotions. Traditionally school – recently even preschools – tend to orient children toward the development of abstract thought. It is instead important for children to develop also emotionally and socially. This at the Nicolaigården school is considered to be a key aspect of their work on diversity and equality. Children cannot learn to respect themselves and others unless they learn to express themselves, to understand their own feelings, to talk about their own opinions with other, and to discuss with others respecting others’ different perspectives. Conflict resolution in this school rotates around teaching children from the start to express how they feel. Violence against others in the school is really not accepted, and instead a large work is done in the school in teaching children to express their anger, their disappointment, their pain etc. through words.
Overall, I think that there is a lot to learn from this school. Often we talk about equality, diversity and inclusion in education but very rarely we see that actually taken seriously in the classroom. In the Nicolaigården school, diversity is not just a buzzword but it is practiced everyday!
Pensieri di Bea 