I’m an Englishman living in the town of Mariehamn in the Åland Islands. I moved here after meeting and falling in love with Hanna Hagmark at university in England. Since moving here 5 years ago we’ve gotten married, bought a flat and had two kids, but not in that order!
I have a bachelors in Philosophy from Hull University. Since moving to Åland I’ve have been studying part-time and have just recently submitted my Masters Dissertation on party cohesion in the Lagting. I’ve had a variety of different jobs since leaving university: security guard, assistant for disabled students, caretaker, supply teacher, etc. I currently work as secretary to the Social Democrat group in Åland’s parliament, the Lagting.
I’m also standing in the local election here in Mariehamn. I fully support our election manifesto in Mariehamn, which can be found at www.socialdemokraterna.ax, but will particularly be pushing for an implementation of “hemspråksundervisning” if elected.
Hi Andrew,
I am very glad that you social democrats have taken up “hemspråksundervisning” on your political agenda. It seems though, that just by saying aloud the word “hemspråksundervisning” people start blitzkrieg from their unmovable positions. The really important question is to get proper language teaching for everybody, whatever it is called. The Åland government has in its own policy document stated – as you have mentioned – the goal of meaningful teaching. However, the practice in the schools varies a lot. Already in Mariehamn, we have schools where teaching of Finnish (my daughters’ second language) is organised in totally different ways: In Övernäs, there are three different teaching levels for those attending classes 7-9 (högstadiet), while in Strandnäs there is only one level for everybody. Which way of teaching is according to the laws and policies of Åland? I do not know about the third Mhamn school in Västernäs (whatever it was called), but I guess one finds even another way of organising language teaching there. And we have 15 more municipalities. There seems to be no coordination at all in this question. So Andrew, please get elected start sorting out things in Mariehamn,
All the best and good luck,
Jokke K
Hi Jokke,
Thanks for your support. I agree wholeheartedly that the most important thing is to get language teaching which is appropriate for the students. I’m flexible about how that is to be achieved. I don’t think the law is as clear cut as it has been made out to be by, for example, Britt Lundberg.
It would be interesting to hear about your experiences with your own daughters in the Åland school system. If you e-mail me at a_m_cooper1980 at hotmail.com, perhaps we could meet up and discuss it?