The Improving Migrant Childrens' Academic Performance, or IMCAP, project aims to bridge the gap between immigrant parents of school age children and their teachers. As per an OECD study conducted in 2015, academic underperformance is common to most students with an immigrant background, but particularly first-generation immigrant students. Students with an immigrant background face multiple sources of disadvantage that affect their academic performance and their general well-being. IMCAP thus focuses on improving the academic performance of an immigrant student. It involves 4 Partners in 4 European Countries who will bring their expertise together to create a platform to tackle the education gap and mismatches by strengthening the profiles of educators and teaching professionals. In this context, the objectives of the project are as follows: - To prepare teachers of school age children to work in a culturally diverse classroom and actively engage parents of different backgrounds in the education process - To enable immigrant parents to engage more in the school system of the host country - To create a set of tools that will facilitate the academic success of children of immigrant parents through the adults around them IMCAP’s goal is to narrow the educational achievement gap between immigrant and non-immigrant peer. This will occur by targeting key stakeholders and assisting them with tools; a cultural handbook, a capacity-building booklet and an online networking platform. In a longer-term, the project will facilitate equal participation in society both economically and socially.
The project’s objectives were: - To prepare teachers of school-age children to work in a culturally diverse classroom and actively engage parents of different backgrounds in the education process - To enable immigrant parents to engage more in the school system of the host country - To create a set of tools that will facilitate the academic success of children of immigrant parents through the adults around them
The primary need identified when applying for this project was the academic achievement gap that exists between migrant children and natives. This gap is even present in children of migrants who were raised in the parents’ host country. One source of this persistent issue across Europe is a lack of knowledge among school teachers on the best methods of integrating these children into their classrooms; with such strong linguistic and cultural barriers in most instances, it makes supporting these children a difficult feat for the teacher. Moreover, an additional problem is the parents’ lack of knowledge about the host country’s school system, culture, expectations of both the parents and children, and again, a language barrier. The IMCAP project therefore intended to address the issue of migrant children’s low academic performance from the angle of supporting the adults around them, namely their teachers and parents.