A pedagogical and cultural approach to inclusion of foreign cultures Erasmus Project

Project Title

A pedagogical and cultural approach to inclusion of foreign cultures

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 : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Integration of refugees; Creativity and culture; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The context/background of the project is the refugee flow to Europe, and the need to develop good strategies of including the refugees in the European society. The idea of developing activities on a “mutual” basis, means that the newcomers shall have a chance to keep their own culture and bring it on to their new countries, to help supporting and developing multicultural understanding to a higher extent. There have been 4 upper secondary schools and 2 kindergartens involved in the project. There have been a mixture of academic and vocational teachers and students involved, and from the kindergartens the leaders and pre school teachers have participated. Children have been involved in all meetings. Kleppestø Kindergarten has participated with about 20 children throughout the project, participating in musical activities and football games. Kita Ringelblume in Erfurt participated in the meeting in Germany with about 15 children, and the same number of children from their partner kindergarten, Kita Brühler Gartenzwerge, when they cooperated with the refugee class and other students in a choir at Marie Elise Kayser Schule. All over, there have been activities with students and children, also in connection with refugee classes from all countries. The activities have been a mixture of artistic, social and athletic activities:
Music, dance, arts and craft, football, competitions, games. We have stressed that the activities should create trust and fun, and the competition aspect should be of secondary value, the emphasis should be put on social contact, building friendship, having fun, learning from each other, being helpful.
The students of the project have been enabled to observe the practice of inclusion in schools and kindergartens, and also organisations outside school. Consequently they have created new ideas and reflections have been exchanged by communicating with the partners in the project and their fellow students at home. Their findings will be used for their graduation thesis and be included in their curricula, which will be passed on to the coming students. The activities were tested in all countries and the results were presented on the next meeting in order to discuss how they could be improved.
The cooperation between refugee groups, kindergartens and upper secondary schools has proved to be successful, as they have a mutual interest of creating a positive atmosphere, to get to know each other and have a peaceful coexistence.
The results of the activities are to be found in our Toolbox (O1) which describe and explain them, and make it possible for everyone to try them out and adjust them to their needs. This Toolbox should be useful for all kinds of organizations, and may be extended and adjusted. It may also be used as a bank of ideas for anyone who wants to develop strategies for inclusion for as well refugees, or any social networks that might be in need of a structure.
The learning platform Moodle, introduced by our project partner Andreas Gordon Schule, has proved to be a useful tool of communicating and keeping control of the various items in our project. The structure of the learning platform and the access to it has been changed and restructured during the project period, which is also a part of developing knowledge of IT and developing an efficient platform for the purpose of international projects.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 132910,94 Eur

Project Coordinator

Askøy videregående skole & Country: NO

Project Partners

• Integrative Kita “Ringelblume”
• Kleppestø barnehage
• Andreas-Gordon-Schule Erfurt
• Staatliche berufsbildende Schule für Gesundheit und Soziales 6 Marie-Elise-Kayser, Erfurt
• Randers Social- og Sundhedsskole