MiFamily Project Aims
An insufficiently explored approach to overcome the difficulties parents migrating to Europe experience in engaging in the host country's education of their children is the family learning pedagogical approach. The MiFamily project will pilot curricula and resources within school and community settings across five countries.
Project Aims
Family learning is any learning that includes more than one generation of a family including extended families and carers. The learning may be informal through events such as family fun days, or more formal family learning courses that are delivered in settings such as schools, children's centres and community hubs.
Supporting adults
Family learning is firmly recognised as an effective way of providing adults with the skills and knowledge needed to support their children's education. It also provides a non-threatening route into learning for adults. The courses aim to help parents support their children's education. For parents from newly-arrived migrant backgrounds they can also be a channel to learn more about unfamiliar education systems.
Student integration
The aim of this project is to strengthen the integration of students from migrant backgrounds in to the host country's school settings and to support children's success in education by providing training, coaching and guidance to their parents. Using family learning methods and resources to overcome language and cultural barriers and foster active involvement of migrant parents in their children's schooling.
Location
Seven organisations from five countries: France, Ireland, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom will work together with local partner agencies to equip teachers, school leaders and educators with the necessary skills and innovative tolls to support families from migrant backgrounds. In the process of doing so collaboration between schools, families and other stakeholders will be strengthened.
European frameworks
The project will use European frameworks and instruments such as EQF, Europass and SchoolEducation Gateway to boost transparency and recognition of learning outcomes on family learning for children and adults from migrant backgrounds.
IO1 - A training curriculum
Main points to be tackled
- focus on professionals working with migrant parents and trying to answer their needs and expectations;
- keeping in mind the mediation approach: integrating both parents and education system (school) and so remaining as neutral as possible;
- insistence on the main specificities of family learning to support parents to support their children at school;
- valuing innovative training: which may differ from one delivery site to another;
- enrichment of the body of knowledge on family learning;
- awareness that family learning may be different when addressing different profiles of parents (fluent or not in the language of the host country, level of education or qualification);
- accommodation of the areas of specialism: support for homework, topics tackled at school, extracurricular activities, evaluation of language development;
- enhancement of the European perspective: some European countries may be more in advance in this field but are eager to learn form the other countries’ experience;
- clarity on the expected learning outcomes for the parents (beneficiaries) and the professionals (target groups of the training);
- the delivery of a dynamic and collaborative assessment process involving both target groups and beneficiaries
Unit 1: Cultural sensitivity and interculturality
Unit 2: Language proficiency and integration
Unit 3: Values for teachers working with migrant families
Unit 4: Overview of family learning methodologies
Unit 5: Language acquisition through family learning
Unit 6: Self-evaluation and professional development
Unit 7: Evaluating the family learning approach
IO2 - Online platform
Open Educational Resources on Family Learning for Migrants at Schoolrest
- Provide interactive services including access to information, tools and innovative resources
- Support online ICT-based educational delivery
- Create a networking hub for school teachers, leaders and educators from organizations working with migrants Disseminate, mainstream and upgrade the project products in the participant countries and in Europe
Sub-products
A. Digital Data Base
Compilation of innovative practices, projects, policies, methodologies, approaches, resources and tools in Family Learning
B. Theoretical and pedagogical bases and instructional guides
Theoretical fundamentals and pedagogical approaches on the School integration of migrant students through innovative Family Learning methods and resources, fostering an active involvement of migrant parents in their children's education
C. Innovative training contents and practical activities
Set of innovative training contents and practical activities on Family Learning for Migrants at Schools
D. Assessment methodologies and tools
For the evaluation of the previous training contents and practical activities
E. Blended-Learning course •Blended: online and face to face methods •Programme flow model: learning activities organized in a sequential order with deadlines to accomplish
Addressed to teachers, school leaders and educators working with Migrant school pupils and parents
Aim of the project
“to strength the integration of migrant students in schools and their success in education by providing training, coaching and guidance to migrant parents on family learning methods and resources to overcome language barriers and foster active involvement of migrant parents in their children's education”
IO3 - Guidelines and Recommendations
Guidelines
This Handbook aims to provide a reference document with practical guidelines and recommendations on the school integration of migrant students in Europe through innovative Family Learning methods and resources with a focus on language learning. Four of the six country partners on the MiFamily project have the largest percentage and actual numbers of foreign-born residents in Europe, namely the UK (8.4 million), France (7.9 million) and Spain (5.8 million) and Ireland at 16% of its population. Romania is unique in that immigration to this country is less common than emigration to most other EU countries, with Romania having 2.1% of the population foreign born as of 2017 (Eurostat estimates) and has evolved since 1990 from a country of transit for migrants.
For Education Policy & Decision makers in National and Local Governments
- Develop a framework for family learning to improve greater cohesion between strategic and operational levels
- Funding should be made available for family learning programme development and delivery at a strategic and local authority level.
- In addition to promoting host language learning, establish flexible policies towards foreign language learning which include the most frequently spoken mother tongues and their recognition in school
- Establish an initial teacher training curriculum to prepare teachers to work in multicultural and multilingual classrooms and provide qualified mother tongue teachers.
For Educational Institutions and School Leaders
- Undertake Family Learning activities to strengthen trust between parents and teachers, promote language learning and wider social interactions and integration of migrant children in school
- Show an interest in the diverse experiences of students and their families which is reflected in school culture and celebrations
- Guide migrant parents on how the school system works and how to help their children in school, despite cultural and linguistic barriers.
- Recruit bilingual staff, outreach (home visits and phone calls) and reception as well as mentors and teaching assistants which reflect the diversity of the school population and relieve the pressure from migrant students of having to translate for their parents