Case Studies

There is a growing number of school children with a migrant background in Vienna. All children and adolescents should benefit from the high quality of the Austrian educational system. They should all have access to the same educational opportunities, recent studies, however, show that the social origins have a great influence on young people’s integration and career opportunities. When a low social status and language barriers come together, this situation exacerbates and the chances of graduating from highschool decrease.
Children and adolescents of more than 30 countries go to school in Wien Währing (the only public school in the district). Language and cultural diversity is self-evident there.
For around 6 years, Kooperative Mittelschule Wien 18 (KMS 18) works on its identiy as a ´school for foreigners´ and develops programmes, that are permanently adjusted in order to sustain their guiding Motto ´Identity – Interculturality – Integration´.
Continuous investment of ressources is made for achieving equal opportunities for children and adolescents with migration backgrounds. ‘Lebensperspektiven’/’Life Perspectives’ is a project that brings adolescents face-to-face with their educational and professional needs and desires. Unlocking the potential in each student by using his/her mother tongue seems crucial for the their successful integration in the work environment. The project’s target groups include both students of the KMS 18, 90% of which are multilingual, and their parents.

The main aims of this project include enhancing education and future work opportunities for students with migration backgrounds, supporting their integration, while promoting understanding of interculturality and developing positive attitudes to diversity.
This project aims to support students to adjust independently and professionally to the education and work environment they are targetting, and to be able to investigate which school is appropriate for them, to apply for it and/or to find an appropriate apprenticeship position. By continuously emphasizing the value of their native language in the classroom, students are encouraged to develop it and to use it as an important asset. Through this project, the (latent) potential of children and young people coming in with different experiences and from different environments is recognized, capitalised on and fostered.

Instead of supressing the consequences of multiculturality caused by migration or to declare it a ´national catastrophe´, this school strives for transforming supposed weaknesses in strengths. Primary concern is to unlock the potential in each student by using his/her mother tongue, considering that this is the key for successful integration in the school and work environment.
For this purpose, the project initiators collaborate and have strong networking relations with scientific institutions, that help with the groundwork, with the professional evaluation of progress and by providing support whenever needed. Thus, since 2005 there is a collaboration with the Technical University, Wien and the Paolo Freire Center. The pupils of this school work as ´experts´, together with 20-30 students, on intercultural themes. A new project called ´Mentoring project´ (MentorInnen-Projekt) is meant to bring together migrant students with pupils speaking the same mother tongue and to offer them support at learning and improving their mother tongue.
A great value is attached to the mother tongue in the classroom. In supporting this idea, pupils are encouraged to use it as an important asset and to design posters in their mother tongue.
The initiative ´Trilingualität´ supports the teaching of some subjects, like geography or history, in German - Turkish/Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian – English.
The association ´Wirtschaft für Integration´ initiated ´Sag´s Multi-Wettbewerb´. This contest encouraged pupils to write their own speeches, to revise it with monther tongue and German teachers and to make the speech in those two languages.

Pupils are now willingly attending extra evening classes, where they talk to mother tongue teachers about their plans for the future and discuss on their application portfolio. Pupils recognize the added value of their mother tongue and want to further develop it.
Parents, who initially accepted only with difficulty to be involved in the school reality, are now an active part in the weekly meetings and make themselves presentation on various professions.
The multiple training offer helped visibly to increase the pupils´self-confidence. The project ´Lebensperspektiven´ increased the motivation of the pupils to exercise and to promote their mother tongue.

The Project initiators also organised:
1. Special classes with the purpose of giving pupils guidance in their future profession.
2. Parent-teacher conferences with focus on profession
3. Weekly meetings with the parents.

The innovative approach promoted by this School is one among several initiatives developed in this educational context, all of them focusing on enhancing the pupils' education and work opportunities, by encouraging them to further develop their mother tongue competences, by developing positive attitudes to diversity, plurilingualism and multiculturality, as well as by supporting inter-generational cooperation (e.g. parents-students).

On the School’s web site (www.schop79.at ), the project has developed its own website - http://lebensperspektiven.wordpress.com/ - which is active, still accessibile, open to comments and suggestions.
The project inspired studies, such as a ‘Diplomarbeit’ (graduation paper) on the topic, information on this also being available from the project web site.
Important further outcomes included: helping pupils to identify for themselves and to know, at the end of the 8th class, which profession they want to pursue and which competencies are expected from them for these professions; they should also be able to use their mother tongue in/for their next job. An application in their mother tongue should not pose any difficulty. In addition, involving the parents in the project and promoting inter-generational cooperation.

• enhancement of quality of language teaching
• focus on evaluation of performance of language teaching and learning
• promotion of multilingualism
• promotion of recognition and validation of language skills acquired through non formal and informal education

• promotion of new approaches to language teaching and learning
• promotion of multilingualism
• promotion of recognition and validation of language skills acquired through non formal and informal education
• promotion of the development of teaching material for the learning of less widely spoken languages.