Course overview

This course explores key challenges and strategies related to addressing diversity in the school environment and promoting tolerance. As teachers and education staff, we always aim for our student to be successful, to have the right knowledge, skills and attitudes to find their best place in the society we live in. Our modern society is extremely diversified as well as multicultural, as such, promoting diversity and tolerance in the classroom has become a crucial goal for teachers, school and adult education. Building empathic and open-minded characters can make a real impact for learners and for the whole society. Participating in this course teachers and education staff will share and discuss challenges, best practices and strategies about promoting tolerance and acknowledging and celebrating diversity in the classroom.

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MAIN Objectives

This course aims to provide teachers and education staff working in a diverse environment or interested in developing students’ tolerance with tools, strategies and best practices to address and promote diversity in the classroom and overcoming prejudices and discrimination.
Thanks to this course the participants will:

• Get familiar with the key challenges and concerns in acknowledging and promoting diversity;
• Share and discuss concrete examples, ideas and tools to inspire and support teachers in their lesson planning;
• Learn how confront head-on stereotypes and personal prejudices, while developing cultural sensibilities and tolerance;
• Explore different points of view through the participation of simulation exercises and storytelling;
• Learn new teaching methods and tools that can be applied to promote diversity and tolerance in the classroom;
• Exchange good practices and discuss challenges with fellow teachers and the course trainers.

target audience

This course is open to: teachers, trainers, headmasters, school and education managers, educational counsellors, career counsellors, other school staff, other adult education staff, other higher education staff, other non-governmental organization staff, public servants, policy makers.

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 (optional)  -  Welcome dinner
Monday	-  Course introduction  -  Teambuilding exercises  -  Competences ex-ante evaluation  -  Diversity in the classroom: the education challenges of a diverse and rapidly changing society  -  Sharing experiences and challenges in working in diverse and multicultural schools
Tuesday	-  Developing intercultural competence as a teacher ​ -  Stereotypes and prejudices at school: how to stop the vicious cycle  -  Empathy for success: the importance of teaching empathy  -  Cultural activities in Bologna and traditional Italian aperitif
Wednesday	-  How to foster students’ tolerance and intercultural awareness  -  Resources for a successful tolerant and open-minded classroom   -  Guided visit in Florence or Venice (optional)
Thursday	-  The extra benefit of using non-formal education methods to foster open-mindedness and empathy  -  Practicing, designing and delivering non-formal activities and tools  -  Cooperating with NGOS and the local community to strengthen pupils tolerance  -  Visit to local NGO active in the field of social inclusion and anti-discrimination
Friday	-  Activities for the classroom: concrete ways to fight stereotypes and prejudices and fostering tolerance in the classroom  -  How to create welcoming and inclusive school environment for all diversities  -  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

methodology

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 outside the classroom in an interactive and international environment. The pedagogical methods that we use are based upon experiential training, group and peer activities, learning-by-doing and best practices’ exchange.
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.
Free time has been planned to give to the participants time to assimilate the concepts, develop further the group activities, ask trainers for further clarifications, etc. Networking and cooperation among participants will be supported and stimulated at each stage.
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.

sessions planned

You can find below the sessions planned. If none of these dates suits you please mind that we may organize an additional session ad-hoc for your school if there are at least 6 participants interested so feel welcome to contact us at office@ifom.info to let us know about your needs. When adding an ad-hoc session we may be able to organize it in your language.

Bologna, Italy
18/11/2018 – 24/11/2018
28/04/2019 – 04/05/2019
27/10/2019 – 02/11/2019

costs and erasmus+ funding

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 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.

Certification and validation of learning outcomes

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.

Language of the course

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.