‘Intercultural learning for teachers and pupils’ Erasmus Project

Project Title

‘Intercultural learning for teachers and pupils’

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: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Recognition, transparency, certification

Project Summary

Intercultural,global,democratic culture:different terminology is used respectively by the European Union,the OECD and the Council of Europe to refer to similar competencies that Ministers of Education are called on to teach and assess in their school systems to better prepare pupils for living in diverse societies and working in diverse labour markets.Policy developments related to the implementation of the EU Paris declaration are taking place,such as the inclusion of citizenship education in school curricula and teachers’ training.However,practice in the field of teachers training on intercultural learning(ICL)and its assessment is scarce as detected through the Forum on Intercultural Learning and Exchange organized by Fondazione Intercultura and studies by the European Commission.Moreover,citizenship education does not necessarily address ICL,and though mobility opportunities are often promoted these are not linked with dealing with diversity in the class.Finally, long-term pupils mobility for the development of ICL,is recognised officially only in 3 EU countries (Italy, Austria, Belgium French speaking).
Therefore the objectives of the project ‘Intercultura Learning for Pupils and Teachers’ were:
– Develop teacher trainings for the promotion and assessment of intercultural competences within upper secondary education,fostering the understanding of the benefits of pupils’ mobility for ICL and internationalisation of classrooms and schools.
– Develop and test an holistic approach for promotion of intercultural competences within upper secondary education,combining mobility experiences with in-class learning, and building on the expertise of non-formal education organisations.
– Encourage policy reform aimed at the inclusion of ICL in teachers’ lifelong learning(LLL)
– Encourage policy reforms aimed at the inclusion of ICL in school curricula,also through the recognition of the pupil’s study period abroad in long-term intercultural exchange programmes.
To address these objectives,the European Federation for Intercultural Learning-the federation of AFS pupil exchange organisations in Europe- joined forces with 8 other organisations: the European School Heads Association representing school principals in Europe, the French German Youth Office (Germany/France),InterCultur(Germany)and Fondazione Intercultura(Italy) providing teachers’ training on ICL based on expertise with pupil exchanges, AFS France and Belgium French members of the EFIL who have sound experience with teachers’ training and workshops for pupils on ICL,Lycée Faure(France) and Ecole Internationale le Verseau(Belgium) with experience on pupils’ mobility and interest in ICL. The worldwide network AFS Intercultural Programs and other AFS organisations supported the project partners to have a wider reach (Turkey, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Spain).
The main activities of the project have been:
– the drafting and piloting of teacher training sessions on intercultural learning for a in-person 3 day training which can be adapted into a 1 or 2 day programme.
– the drafting and piloting of a 50 activities based on non-formal education methods to promote intercultural learning in the classroom based on the whole school approach. The collection of activities is called the ‘Toolbox’ and each activity is referenced to the Competences for democratic culture of the Council of Europe and can be searched by section (whole school approach, cross-curricular, specific subject, international mobility) or by competence.
– the drafting of two studies including recommendations to contribute to policy reform: A Brief Overview on Intercultural Learning in Initial Teacher Education and Continuing Professional Development for teachers of Upper Secondary Schools, and A Brief Overview on Intercultural Learning in Curricula of Upper Secondary Schools and the Recognition of Long-Term Individual Pupil Mobility.
All project outputs can be found at www.intercultural-learning.eu
The main results of the project are 212 teachers trained and 3633 pupils reached with the Toolbox activities in 4 countries (Belgium, France, Italy and Germany), and 45.000 people reached overall thanks to the dissemination efforts. The project outputs also contributed largely to support the EU policy developments under the European Education Area.
The long term benefit of the project is that it has empowered participating organisations in delivering on a regular basis teacher trainings, and the studies produced can be used for advocacy and support policy reform.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 149585,63 Eur

Project Coordinator

EUROPEAN FEDERATION FOR INTERCULTURAL LEARNING & Country: BE

Project Partners

• Deutsch-Französisches Jugendwerk
• EUROPEAN SCHOOL HEADS ASSOCIATION
• InterCultur gemeinnützige GmbH
• Ecole Internationale Le Verseau – ELCE
• LYCEE POLYVALENT GABRIEL FAURE
• Fondazione Intercultura
• AFS Vivre sans Frontière