Perspectives and challenges for Polish educators and their pupils from Vietnamese families in Poland

Abstrakt

The aim of the paper is to reflect upon the results of the educational project among children

from Vietnamese families living in Poland, Kraków. By doing so, I intend to propose

a framework for further activities that could support children’s development in linguistic and

cultural sense meanwhile respecting their rights as ethnic minorities and representatives of

Vietnamese families successfully accommodated in Poland. Also, I aim to contribute to the

debates on what it means to be growing up as an ethnic minority in the 21st

the amount of material and specificity of Polish as a Slavonic language in the case of pupils

with Vietnamese background make the education a particularly ambitious task which results

are constantly challenged by the school realms and the overall progress of the child. Two case

studies reflected upon in this presentation are analyzed from the perspective of ethnographic

participant observation. Children and tutors immersing in the context of learning and teaching

generate multiple creative ideas, which help in mutual understanding and knowledge

transmission. Hence, the identities are constructed on the basis of and connected with culture,

customs and traditions of Poland. It supports child’s self-understanding in the Polish context,

meanwhile it allows for recognizing own identity enriched by the cross-cultural exchange and

bilingual experience.

century Poland.

Education among ethnic minorities is a challenging task, which means constant negotiation

between the knowledge to be thought as part of a school program and own experience,

skills and knowledge coming from the children’s background. To meet formal expectations

established by Polish school, tutors need to constantly revise teaching methods and search

for new activities. Close cooperation with school and the head teacher is necessary, however