Sweden and the curriculum for mother and children

Folkuniversitetet has completed the piloting of IO 2. The piloting was conducted at a family center in Gottsunda, a segregated residential area of Uppsala in Sweden.

The family center which is managed by municipality carry out “open pre-school” where mothers and children come to play, SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) for mothers and there is access to midwife and family support. Folkuniversitetet has therefore been collaborated with the school of SFI in the piloting of SOFIE.

The starting point of the piloting was the Curriculum for IO 2, which was developed by FU with contributions from all partners. The course was structured as integrated learning; learning language through content. The curriculum has ten themes and Folkuniversitetet chose to pilot two of these: Health and Local services. Our experience from other projects with immigrant women is that these themes are highly relevant to their daily lives. However in the course, we also came to pilot some of the other themes since women wanted to know more about housing, education and gender equality.

Most of the mothers coming to the center has small children, but some of them also brought bigger children. Therefore, the lessons were a mixture of exercises for mothers, for mothers together with their children, songs, plays and laughter.

The women in the course came from various countries and have been in Sweden shorter or longer period. They were all motivated and eager to learn, and they appreciated learning Swedish through subjects important for their daily lives. They also appreciate new information about local events, activities, organisations, health services and much more.