Intercultural Learning and Cultural Diversity in School Education

Course overview

We live in a society where migrations and the consequent encounter and clash among different cultures has become extremely relevant and shall be at the top of public stakeholders’ priorities.
One of the biggest challenges for teachers and the education system is to be equipped to face newly arrived students, who may have experienced great distress and confront obstacles in adjusting to a new cultural environment. Promoting intercultural education and training intercultural competences becomes therefore crucial tomanage the encounter and possible conflicts arising from cultural differences.
Modelling empathic, critically-thinking and open minds contributes toshape welcoming school environments, where cultural diversity is promoted and celebrated, and the first step towards bringing social change and inclusive societies. Participating in this course teachers and education staff will share and discuss challenges, best practices and strategies to facing, acknowledging and celebrating interculturality in the classroom.

Main objectives

This course aims to help teachers to develop their cultural awareness while giving them the tools and new approaches to cater to a multicultural and ethnically diverse group of students. Thanks to this course, the participants will:

Confront and understand the mechanisms behind head-on stereotypes and personal prejudices;
Improve their cultural awareness and intercultural competences;
Explore and value different points of view through simulation exercises and storytelling;
Learn new approaches to education that can be applied to culturally diverse classrooms;
Know more about teachers' role in the integration process of immigrant or foreign children;
Exchange good practices and discuss challenges with fellow colleagues and the course trainers

Courses planned

Bologna, Italy
16/02/2020 - 22/02/2020
10/05/2020 - 16/05/2020
30/08/2020 - 05/09/2020
25/10/2020 - 31/10/2020
28/02/2021 - 06/03/2021
29/08/2021 - 04/08/2021
14/11/2021 - 20/11/202

Target audience

This course is addressed to teachers, trainers, educational counsellors, career counsellors, school psychologists, headmasters, school management and administrative staff working in primary schools, secondary schools, vocational schools, training centres, adult education schools, higher education, kindergarten and NGOs. Please mind that the course may include teachers from different school levels. In case you would like to attend a session tailored for your school level, please write to staff@ifom.info to check if there is any session planned.

Language

The course is held in English. For groups with at least 8 participants, we can organize an ad-hoc session in a different language.
Please write an email to staff@ifom.info to get more information about it.

Standard daily programme

Please find below the standard indicative daily programme that will be personalized on participants needs and professional profiles.
Our standard program comprises 7 days of course, of which the first one is dedicated to networking, preparation and cultural immersion and the last one to follow up, specific needs and cultural activities. Please note that we always do our best to accommodate the specific needs of our participants in a flexible way, including but not limited to budget restrictions and travel arrangement. Participants can choose to arrive 1 day before the start of the course and/or leave one day after the end of it in order to enjoy a deeper cultural immersion. Upon specific request we can organize longer or shorter versions of this course.

Sunday	- Participants arrival - Individual orientation and information about the venue and the city - Networking activities - Guided visit in Bologna - Welcome dinner
Monday	- Course introduction - Teambuilding exercises - Needs and expectations evaluation - An everyday more multicultural and diverse class: new challenges in a changing and globalized society - Exploring concepts of Identity and Culture and discovering how they affect the learning process - Sharing experiences and challenges in working in multicultural schools
Tuesday	- Morning wrap-up - Becoming aware of cultural patterns and taking them into consideration when planning the lessons - Stereotypes and prejudices and their role in the perception process - Practical activities and hands-on experiences to improve cultural awareness and confront personal prejudices - Cultural activities in Bologna and traditional Italian aperitif
Wednesday	- Morning wrap-up - Storytelling and simulation exercises: a concrete way to fight stereotypes and to develop intercultural abilities - Practicing, designing and delivering storytelling and simulation exercises - Guided visit in Florence (optional)
Thursday	- Morning wrap-up - Exploring concepts of membership and relationships - The importance of discovering Empathy and its role shaping human relationships - Visit to a local institution active in the field of multiculturalism, integration of refugee and migrants, offering intercultural educational path
Friday	- Morning wrap-up - The extra benefit of using non-formal education methods in a multicultural environment - How to foster students’ inclusion, tolerance and intercultural awareness through non-formal, informal and experiential learning activities - Practicing, designing and delivering non-formal activities and tools - Dinner in traditional Italian restaurant
Saturday	- Space for discussion of future cooperation and planning follow up activities - Course roundup and final evaluation - Validation of learning outcomes and certification ceremony - Additional training session tailored to specific needs (optional) - Cultural activities or additional guided visit in another major Italian city (optional) - Participants departure

Pre-registration

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Other relevant facts

Methodology
Costs and Erasmus+ Funding
Certification and Validation of learning outcomes

We tailor the working methods based upon participants’ needs, attitudes and professional profiles in order to ensure high productivity, effectiveness and transferability into practice.
The standard methodology is highly practical and participative with hands-on approach that comprises real-job examples, case studies examination and simulations. We embrace collaboratively working methods that foster mutual learning and cooperation among participants. Our focus is on learning in an interactive and international environment knowledge applicable to the real contexts and/or in the classroom. The pedagogical methods that we use are based upon experiential training, group and peer activities, learning-by-doing and best practices’ exchange. They include visits with local schools and institutions allowing the participants to better understand the local education system as well as exchange ideas and contacts.
Morning Wrap-up and brief daily evaluations are foreseen to ensure quality of education and to adapt the learning programme to participants' needs better tailoring the education.
We organize optional social, networking and cultural activities in order to give participants the opportunity to know Italy as well as to exchange best-practice and establish professional cooperation and links.
The training and staff team is multinational thus giving a full European dimension to the course.

Teachers, trainers, headmasters and any other staff of education organizations are eligible to receive an Erasmus+ grant covering all the costs to attend our training courses including travel, board and lodging, cultural activities and all fees. Our training courses are tailored to be fully funded by Erasmus+ and we offer different options to ensure that the Erasmus+ grant will be sufficient. Read more about Erasmus+ funding, shall you have any problem with your grant please let us know and we will see how to accommodate your needs.
The most common option that we offer to schools and organisations costs EUR 1220 and includes course fee, certification and support fee, accommodation in single room, all coffee breaks, 3 meals per day, walking tour in the venue’s city and local transport during the training course. Based on your preferences and budget you can request different services, a less inclusive/cheaper package or you can choose to organize the board and lodging by yourself and opt to just attend the training course. Read more about how we take care of your subsistence.

At the end of the course, each participant will be awarded a certificate of attendance including a description of training content and as well as its starting and end date, together - if requested - with the Europass Mobility Certificate.
We support the participants in every step of certification an d validation of learning outcomes with specific focus on European instruments and Erasmus plus requirements such as staff mobility/learning agreement, quality commitment and Europass mobility certificate.
We experienced that schools and education organizations may require additional documents to certify the competences learned or the presence in the training course. Upon request we can provide additional certification and reporting documents as well as we provide photos of the training course and a sum-up video that can be used for visibility and dissemination purposes.

Videos and photos of previous training courses

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Intercultural Learning and Cultural Diversity in education