The Intercultural Class Erasmus Project

Project Title

The Intercultural Class

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Migrants’ issues; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

Our project, The Intercultural Class, was born out of a desire to do better for our school community of teachers, parents and children. Our schools face a number of cultural and social obstacles, and have a significant population of children coming from migrant backgrounds. Some of the challenges our school communities have faced include cultural misunderstandings, value conflicts and isolation. There have been high expectations on teachers to handle and solve controversial cultural issues of which they may have little experience, knowledge of or confidence to engage in, sometimes with the result that important conversations get ‘shut down’. Some students from migrant backgrounds can feel as though they have to adopt a dual persona, one for school and one for home, speaking one language at home, another in school and sharing one set of values at home and another at school.

The project will encourage students and parents to voice their concerns about cultural conflicts and controversial issues, and using tools such as Philosophy for Children and Arts Based Approaches to Inclusion will ensure that teachers are well versed and confident in engaging in and facilitating dialogue between people whose values are different. Most importantly we hope to foster an ongoing culture of respect and inclusion.

We wish to develop staff skills and competences in terms of interculturalism, inclusion and value conflicts by sharing best practice experiences amongst our European partners. Specifically we are looking at the following objectives:
– Develop cultural awareness and expression amongst children, teachers and parents through dialogue
– Learn how to respond to cultural and belief conflicts, for example, around discipline and punishment
– Develop teachers skills and confidence to facilitate respectful dialogue across conflicting and opposing views
– Share expertise and resources on creative methodologies and programmes used
– Attempt to identify and address the social and emotional needs of children from migrant backgrounds

Our project is made up of 5 partner schools, each with a distinct area of expertise and using innovative and creative teaching methodologies. Our co-ordinating school is Adamstown Castle Educate Together, Dublin, Ireland. Partner schools are Internationella Engelska Skolan in Uppsala, Sweden, Bigland Green Primary School in London, UK, Gärdesskolan in Stockholm, Sweden and Viano do Castelo, Portugal. Our schools range from Internationella Engelska Skolan with approximately one third of its students coming from migrant backgrounds to Adamstown Castle Educate Together in Ireland for whom 90% of its pupils come from migrant backgrounds. This project will enable schools at different stages of inclusion in Ireland, the UK, Sweden and Portugal to share their lived experiences of interculturalism, of what works and what doesn’t.

The key project activities are a mixture of short term staff and pupil mobilities comprising of three workshops with the host school. The workshops will have two formats. The first will be tailored to each school’s area of expertise for example, Bigland Green Primary School in London will host workshops and training for visiting teachers in the area of Philosophy for Children. The second will address key issues within the project, taking the format of a presentation and workshop discussion (for example, ‘problem-solve barriers to full participation in school – exemptions from certain subjects in the curriculum because of beliefs’).

The concrete results and impact we are aiming for include;
– Adoption of creative teaching strategies and techniques which promote open dialogue
– The creation of ‘safe spaces’ in the classroom
– Increased sense of belonging to the schools amongst children from migrant backgrounds
– Increased confidence amongst teachers in dealing with controversial issues in the classroom
– Adoption of social and emotional assessments and targets in the support plans for children from migrant backgrounds (in addition to language needs)
– Co-creation of materials, such as Philosophy for Children guide, Arts-based lesson plans and the sharing of presentation decks on elements of inclusion
– Creation of an ongoing European partnership to foster peer exchange of knowledge and ideas amongst teachers and students

With our focus always on ‘how to respond’, rather than ‘right or wrong’ we are following a philosophy of education approach from Carol Gilligan rather than the Kohlberg / Kant model. Embedding this philosophy in our schools amongst our staff, children and teachers, will act as a methodology for how to deal with value conflicts that can arise in any walk of life, at any time and hopefully long into the future.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 162686 Eur

Project Coordinator

Adamstown Castle Educate Together National School & Country: IE

Project Partners

• Internationella Engelska Skolan Uppsala
• Agrupamento de Escolas de Monte da Ola
• Gardesskolan
• Bigland Green Primary School