FAKTOR PENYUMBANG MASALAH PENGAJARAN DAN PEMUDAHCARAAN BAHASA TAMIL DAN CARA PENYELESAIANNYA DI SEBUAH SEKOLAH RENDAH ANTARABANGSA

Tamil language is one of the subjects offered by government schools as well as international schools in Malaysia. This study was conducted to examine the problems faced by students and teachers in learning and facilitation Tamil language in an international school. There are two objectives of the study in this study which is to examine the problems faced by students in an international primary school in learning and facilitation Tamil language and to identify the problems faced by teachers in an international primary school in learning and facilitation Tamil language. This study was conducted in an international primary school in Klang, Selangor. This study was conducted with the qualitative use of hermeneutic methods. Document analysis was used as a research instrument to collect and analyse data using daily lesson plans (RPH). The results of this study indicate that unplanned daily lesson plans, unclear content and inappropriate learning objectives were obtained from document analysis. This study can identify the problems faced by students and teachers should be curbed in an effective way. The problems studied in this study can help identify the solution to conduct effective Tamil language learning and facilitation in international primary schools.

International Schools as Models for Educators to Dismantle Oppression and Promote Social Justice

International-mindedness is a strategy employed by international schools (IS) to create environments successfully promoting social justice, cultural diversity, and tolerance. The composition of the student body forces accommodation and assimilation of multiple cultures, backgrounds, and languages into one location or contact zone. The purpose of the study is to understand how IS navigate, manage, and lead educators and students from different races, genders, religions, and socioeconomic statuses by promoting equity and creating an environment with zero tolerance for discrimination. However, social justice gaps in education in general still exist, and practical applications and strategies to embrace diversity and equalize the marginalized are lacking. This chapter provides strategies as to how educators worldwide can benefit from approaches used by IS for social justice and tangible strategies used by IS to promote ethical-international-mindedness and decrease discrimination.

The dilemma of instructional language in education: The case of Ghana

According to Victor Hugo (1802–1885), “He who opens a school door, closes a prison”. This powerful statement demonstrates the importance of school in the development of a nation and the lives of individuals. It has been proven that the language used in early childhood education has an impact on the cognitive development and learning achievement of children in their educational arena. Most countries in Africa are still discussing the language to be used as a medium of instruction in their educational system. Ghana, which is known as a multilingual society with over 80 languages is not excluded from this controversy. The language policy of education in Ghana has had a complex history since the colonial era. The question of international schools in Ghana is critically examined; most of these schools do not teach any of the Ghanaian languages, but a foreign language. Ghana, however, has been a strong advocate of the so-called African personality and the use of English as the medium of instruction is in overt opposition to this ideology. The argument about which language to be used as a medium of instruction in Ghanaian Schools has been going on for a long time without coming to a specific conclusion.

Leading international schools: The questions of cultural and social justice

This article focuses on international school leadership and raises questions on the mono-dimensional approaches to leading, teaching, and learning in diverse contexts. The growth of international schools all over the world represents increasing patterns of geographic and economic mobility, and the growth of socially and culturally diverse communities. While international schools generally represent different elements of internationalisation, their policies and leadership do not demonstrate an adequate response to the social and cultural needs of their communities. Based on her doctoral research, the author argues that internationalisation in educational leadership is not given sufficient attention and that the field requires further development of learning and exploring the contextual elements in which leaders lead. The article draws on a set of approaches to educational leadership, mainly contextually and culturally relevant leadership, and theories of internationalisation in educational leadership and management, in addition to transformational and engaged pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning.

Characteristics that Define an Exceptional International School According to Stakeholder Perspectives. A Thai Case Study

Research in international schools has lagged behind the growth of such schools (Lee et al, 2012). This paper offers support to international school leaders by identifying the ten most important characteristics of international schools as reported by three significant stakeholder groups (administrators/teachers, parents and students) in one case study international school. An initial phase utilised a Delphi framework whereby interviews led to the identification of 68 separate items, ranging from school ethos to teachers’ credentials, which formed the basis of a follow-up questionnaire which was implemented following piloting. It was found that for 46 of the 68 items the three stakeholder groups were not statistically independent, sharing a common perspective on these items’ relative importance. Similarly, four items appeared in all three stakeholder groups’ top ten, while six items appeared in two out of three stakeholder groups’ top ten.

Being and becoming internationally minded: Snapshots of novice Canadian teachers in international schools

This paper examines the experiences of three Canadian teachers beginning their formal careers in international schools. International mindedness is taken up as a sensitivity that international schoolteachers both bring to their international teaching assignments and further develop in the transnational spaces of international schools. As such, the internationally minded teacher is able to respond and learn from the intercultural complexities of teaching and living overseas. Findings suggest some elements of international mindedness are more readily appreciated and practiced by these novice teachers while others require greater awareness and effort to attain. The findings also suggest that ‘cosmopolitan learning’ (Rizvi, 2009), foregrounding the importance of critically reflecting upon one’s ‘locatedness’ in the world, represents a generative orientation for teachers wanting to deepen their international mindedness.

Investigating inclusive practice in international schooling: a case study of two schools

Although the underlying principles and the founding history of international schools supposedly advocate the notions of providing equal opportunities, catering for diversity, and promoting global citizenship, the dimensions of inclusive education might not be self-evident. Findings from this qualitative case study show that the understanding of inclusion in the context of international schools goes beyond disabilities and special education needs. Several approaches to evolving inclusive practice are highlighted. However, there are tensions between different stakeholders of international schools in defining inclusion; between the rhetoric of inclusion found in school documents and the reality, and between the original philosophy of international education and schools’ admission policies.

Frontiers of cosmopolitanism: Educational enclaves and the extractive roots of international schools

This article situates international expatriate schools in their cultural and political economy by drawing attention to the tensions between a cosmopolitan educational ethos and processes of social, economic and legal enclavement. Based on extensive multi-sited ethnographic research in the international school sector, we show how cosmopolitan claims of openness mirror a relative closure and ‘offshore-like’ enclavement. To do so, we build upon the notions of modularity and extractivism, which we use as heuristics to analyse social and spatial practices of defining boundaries. Gazing beyond the main foundational myth of international schools, we first outline their concomitant extractive roots. Second, we shed light on the conditions of international teachers’ circulation worldwide. Third, we examine the territorial entanglements and disentanglements that characterise international schools. Finally, we investigate the tensions induced by a cosmopolitan educational ethos whose discourse of inclusion is inevitably paired with practices of exclusion.

Social injustice in learning of the second language among immigrant children in Finland: conventional narratives and perceptions

This is a comparative ethnographic research, comparing the primary school level migrant learners’ performance in the learning of the national language of the host countries in Finland and Tanzania. A response from nine teachers, drawn from Tanzanian International Schools, attended by expats’ children, was collected through structured interviews. Additionally, two In-Depth Interviews, targeting Tanzanian Swahili teachers at the international schools, was conducted using the narration approach. The study uses MAXQDA to comparatively analyze the findings of fourteen research articles on immigrant pupils’ learning challenges of the Finnish language as a second language in Finland, and gathered information from this study’s survey is used to analyze the use of Kiswahili as a second language in Tanzania. The research focuses on a comparative analysis of the learning and use of official languages of the host countries as second languages, used in facilitating learning among primary school learners. In Finland, the official language analyzed is Finnish, whereas in Tanzania, the official language analyzed is Kiswahili. The International schools in Tanzania offer Kiswahili lessons to all learners in primary school as guided by national education policy, whereas all public and international schools in Finland offer Finnish lessons for all learners under the education policy. The responses in both Finland and Tanzania are deconstructed qualitatively to illuminate the similarities and differences between European migrant learners and African migrant learners using a second language for learning, and to further deconstruct the nuanced epistemological injustice against minorities. The theories in this research are derived using the grounded theory approach.