In our modern and diverse society one of the most important tasks as teachers and education staff, is promoting diversity and tolerance in a multicultural environment. For our students, at school or in adult education, it is essential to have the right skills, knowledge and attitudes, to be empathic and open-minded in order to find their place in society. To learn more about this topic participants from all over Europe attended the course “Diversity in the classroom: teaching tolerance and overcoming prejudices and discrimination” that took place in Palermo from 29/09/2024 to 05/10/2024. The participants of our international group came from many different countries with EVRYKLEIA PATLAKOYTZA and SOTIRIA TOUMPARI from the 3d PRIMARY SCHOOL OF XANTHI in Greece, Carina Markstedt, Kerstin Ehardsdotter Grantén and Sandra Fahlgren from Baldergymnasiet in Sweden, Triin Randrüüt and Karin Jantson-Viljanen from Lauasmaa School in Estonia, Māra Jekabsone, Iveta Krūmina, Dzintra Dzene and Ginta Zalcmane from the National Library of Latvia and Anne Singh from Stadtteilschule Fischbek-Falkenberg in Germany. First of all, to get to know each other and our identity the group was engaged in a very practical and visual activity: drawing their portraits. One half of the painting had to visualize their appearance, while the other one had to show their deep personal views, characteristics and values. After that we shared our opinions on how our identity influences our perception of the world and other people. In acknowledging and promoting cultural diversity we also faced difficulties and concerns. A TED Talk about the “single story” helped us to realize the importance of seeing a story from different point of views in order to see the complexity of topics, facts and people, that cannot be seen from just one perspective. It is impossible to discuss the concept of diversity without mentioning the notion of stereotypes. We discussed the cause of their existence, how we see pictures differently because of them, how they impact us, both negative and positive, and where they lead us. Furthermore, by implementing the storytelling technique, we saw how stereotypes evolve into judgements and discrimination. Talking about identity we also got to know that we all see the reality and world differently, through our own pair of individual glasses. That lead us to a very sensitive topic: Awareness and respect. In order to understand how our values affect the culture, we did a lot of practical activities and simulations connected to critical thinking. Moreover, a very big part of diversity is exclusion and the difficulty of including everyone in our dynamics. For this aim, the exercises with leadership styles was a perfect match to learn about membership. Last but not least, we talked a lot about empathy. We learned how to put ourselves in other people´s shoes, we acknowledged our own feelings and emotions and found ways to express them not only for ourselves, but also for our students. After all it was a wonderful week of new knowledge, networking, cultural exchange and having inspiring conversations in the group. Discover more about this course here.
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Welcome to the ELA Blog. Here you will find articles and photos of our courses and have a look at the topics addressed during the week in Bologna, Palermo and Tenerife. You will also have the chance to take a peek at our projects and check out what we have been up to.
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