Case Studies

Name of the teacher

Audrone Tunikiene

Email:

Country:

Lithuania

Subject taught:

English

Years of experience:

15 years

Name of the School:

Versmes progymnasium

School Typology:

Lower Secondary School

Country:

Lithuania

City:

Klaipeda

Web site:

Background and Context:

Klaipeda „Versmė“ progymnasium is situated in the southern part of the city. The school has its strong teaching and educational traditions. It is well known among students, their parents and members of the educational community. „ Versmė“ is a modern school aiming to educate an active, morally mature personality. Respect, tolerance and collaboration to achieve common goals are the key values. 936 students attend the school. The majority of them are from our district, but there are some students who come from other parts of the city. 70 teachers work here. The teachers in our school are qualified professionals, constantly improving their skills and knowledge. Our school has been carrying out intensified learning of English for many years. Students from the 5th form have a possibility to have extra lessons and extend their knowledge in Mathematics, Lithuanian, English.. The school is provided with modern teaching facilities:, computers, smart boards, multimedia. There are 25-30 students in a class. There is a special room for class activities . The school participates in Olweus bullying prevention and Lions Quest programs. The whole school community takes part in Olweus program activities, discusses school problems and looks for the ways to solve them. In this way, all the members of the community feel themselves important. The school has its own system of stimulation and discipline. Great attention is paid to the development of students ' social-emotional intelligence. The aim is to create tolerant and safe environment for all school community. There is the project “I want, I can, I work” to educate gifted and ambitions students. Various activities have been included into the project, Students have possibilities to develop their academic abilities and creativity. Meetings with famous people, educational trips, interactive quizzes researches and other activities have been organized. The school tries to make educational process more effective involving all the school space. The school psychologist and the social educator pay a lot of attention to the development of social skills for those students who are socially isolated. School teachers and students volunteer to help those students who have difficulties in stydying and doing homework.
People who have average income live in the region where the school is located. In this part of the city there aren‘t any extraordinary risk spots and criminal situation does not differ from the city situation. 25 - 30 % of Russian-speaking people live in the district. There are almost no immigrant communities The percentage of immigrant students is small in the school. There are mostly Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Armenian origin students in the school.
There are 26 students in my class. There are 7,6% of children from ethnically mixed (Russian-Lithuanian) families. There is one girl born in the Chinese immigrants family.

Factual Description:

The aim of the project is to integrate the girl into the class and school community. The project has been continuing since 2014. The girl was born in Lithuania, in the Chinese immigrants family.
I have been the girl‘s class teacher for three years. Discrimination issues haven‘t raised neither in the class nor at school. When the girl started attending our school she recieved lots of positive attention, student were interested in Chinese culture and language.
Problems in the relationships between local and immigrant children are usually caused by the cultural differences, impact of mass media. Local children are influenced by their parents or other adults. That is why it is important to talk about cultural differences for students and their parents. Relationships among the students of my class and their parents are good. Liwei parents take part in our class life. The girl‘s mother participates in class meetings, goes on the class trips.
We dont‘ have discrimination issues in our class, but we talk to students, discuss about tolerance, rights and responsibilities, we try to study conflict situations.
The refugee crisis is very urgent at present. It is widely discussed in mass media. So I think that discussions with school students during the history and the class lessons are useful, it‘s our duty to explain the essence of the refugee crisis in Europe to the students.
I have always felt the support of my students during the process of the girl’s integration. I haven‘t noticed students’ bullying the girl because of her appearance or different culture. She is an active member of our class, she isn‘t afraid to express her opinion, she usually goes on our class trips, takes part in other school events. Liwei has talked a lot about customs in China. She has taught us how to write Chinese letters and several words. Teachers who work in our class don‘t have any problems because of this situation.

Activities carried out:

I believe, that respect, tolerance and collaboration are the key values for good relationship. So we try to talk a lot about tolerance, rights and responsibilities during our class hours. The students work individually, in pairs, in groups, they analyze various situations, video materials, we role-play different situations.
In the classroom I try to create atmosphere, where each student can feel the equal class member of the community, who knows his rights, but also accepts responsibility . This is not an easy task for the class teacher, but activities, aiming to bring them together, gradually bring results. I think that the girl has good relationship with other class friends. Classmate likes to learn about Chinese culture and traditions. The girl tried to present the Chinese New Year traditions, she treated students with some traditional sweets. The girl‘s parents helped to organize the Chinese lesson.
The girl had a possibility to take part in The school‘s talent show. She felt herself important, equal to the other students. I think that non formal education activities are especially successful and important.

Assessment and lesson learnt:

I think the result is beeing achieved: the girl hasn‘t suffered discrimination She has integrated successfully into the class and school community. She became self-confident, her sense of self-esteem increased. She has contacts with her classmates.
This case study helped me to shape the class community, help my students solve conflicts among themselves. I gained more experience and knowledge how to deal with conflicts.
The analysis of this issue was useful for the school community and personally for me. The students became more tolerant, they gained more knowledge about forms of discrimination. It is especially important nowadays because of the refugee crisis in Europe and the number of discrimination
I think this case study helps to fight bullying at school. Pupils learn to be intolerant to inappropriate behavior among their peers, teachers and students, children and their parents.
They notice problems at school and in their surroundings more often, they want to solve them, they have become more active citizens.
In my opinion, both formal and non formal education is important while solving problems of integration, teaching about discrimination and human rights at school.

Description of the Case Study in National Language: