Teachers work in diverse environments in terms of pupils' abilities, socio-economic backgrounds and demography. The growing demands of political and societal bodies increase the pressure placed on ...teachers. Using a socio-ecological framework, this study provides insights into teachers' perspectives and their challenges in the field of teaching recently arrived pupils in the Finnish context. Qualitative interviews of ten participants from different parts of Finland were conducted. The data were analysed through thematic analysis. The findings suggest that teachers need more administrative and collegial support, effective educational policies, sufficient resources, and wider community attention. The results of the study can be useful for education stakeholders in mitigating the problems encountered by teachers, and in shedding light on how these levels can be accessed. The study also provides a structure that researchers can use to classify teachers' challenges at the individual, organisational, municipal, and national levels.
The study was conducted with the aim of exploring Finnish preparatory teachers’ attitudes to multilingualism and students’ native languages and to examine teachers’ rules related to the usage of ...languages in the classroom. The sample consisted of six teachers employed in state schools in the capital area and in Central Finland. Semi-structured interviews were used as the basic instrument. The data revealed that teachers understand the importance of first language development, and also have a positive attitude towards multilingualism in the classroom on a theoretical level. However, when it comes to practice, teachers place significant limitations on first language use in the classrooms and need more knowledge on how to move from monolingual to multilingual practices. These findings suggest that more attention should be paid to pre- and in-service teacher preparation.
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