Educational Integration of Refugees – A Classroom Approach Erasmus Project

Project Title

Educational Integration of Refugees – A Classroom Approach

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: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Inclusion – equity; Integration of refugees

Project Summary

The European Union has been experiencing an unprecedented refugee crisis. What is clear is that a suitable educational approach must form part of the plan if the refugees are to be integrated as fully functioning members of their host society. This of course will lead to the arrival of refugees into local schools and classrooms. Often teachers receive minimal or no training as to how best to approach the education of these new students. There is sometimes a lack of awareness to the degree of physical and mental trauma these students have suffered, the barriers presented by language and literacy issues, even in cases where the refugee may have had a good level of education from their own country and the fears and misunderstandings the individual refugee may carry to the educational environment. It is from this point that this project begins. Through a series of short term joint training activities we engaged with refugee students, their families, teachers and other stakeholders in order to gain a greater understanding of the educational needs of the refugee students, the potential barriers to meeting these needs and the steps that can be adopted to achieve greater educational integration of the refugees studying in our schools.

The first of these short term joint training activities took place in Regen, Germany and the primary focus of this event was to allow teachers to engage directly with refugee students, to listen to their stories, allow them to describe their experiences of the education system and tell us how they felt the system could be improved. This event also allowed participants to meet with teachers working with refugees, volunteers and government and non governmental organisations who work with refugees.

The second short term joint training activity took place in Bacau, Romania, during this event the attention of the group shifted to examining how schools work towards the integration of minority groups with the purpose of determining if some of these techniques could also be successfully adapted for use with refugees. In particular the role of mediators working in schools with Roma students was particularly interesting as was the emphasis on music, dance and crafts in schools as tools to assist with integration. The training activities included visits to the Inspectorate for National Minorities in Romania, a wide variety of schools and a number of voluntary organisations.

Naples in Italy provided the venue for the third short term joint training activity. The primary purpose of this event was to try out some of the teaching techniques proposed from the previous meetings and to continue our engagement with refugees and the organisations who work with them. To this end each partner country presented one sample class where the use of visual aids or activities supplemented the learning material with a view to moving the classroom emphasis away from just verbal delivery.

The final short term joint training activity took place in Istanbul, Turkey. Here participants saw some of the teaching methods proposed for use with refugees being adopted in practice. There was a visit to the Syrian Temporary School (GEM). Here the students are Syrian as are the majority of teachers. The pros and cons of this approach were examined. Again there was significant time allocated to meeting refugee students and some of these discussions helped to focus attention onto the huge trauma that some of the students had experienced prior to their arrival in Turkey. From this the issue of refugee health and in particular the need for support services was highlighted. This training activity also allowed participants to examine the issue of educational progression for refugee students and to identify barriers that may stand in the way of progression.

Prior to the first short term joint training activity a questionnaire was devised for both refugee students and their teachers to gather some initial information regarding their educational experiences. This provided a useful starting point and to some degree informed the agenda for the training.

Throughout the duration of the project all partners were conscious of the need to disseminate the learning from the training activities to their colleagues and to the wider educational community. A project website was established. Short film clips were posted onto the projects YouTube channel, articles were published in college newsletters and on the websites of each partner institute. A Facebook group was also set up to allow partner

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 114670 Eur

Project Coordinator

Cork Education and Training Board & Country: IE

Project Partners

• INSPECTORATUL SCOLAR AL JUDETULUI BACAU
• Esenler Ilce Milli Egitim Mudurlugu
• Kommunaler Zweckverband Volkshochschule ARBERLAND
• I.T. Giordani-Striano