Let the children change the world – teaching and learning tolerance and values from preschool on Erasmus Project

Project Title

Let the children change the world – teaching and learning tolerance and values from preschool on

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 Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Gender equality / equal opportunities; Pedagogy and didactics

Project Summary

“Let the children change the world – teaching and learning tolerance and values from preschool on” was a three year project, in which five preschools from Europe collaborated in order to improve the preschools’ teaching methods and educational environments to promote human rights and combat discrimination. More about the partners in annex 4. We wanted to contribute to a decrease of discrimination in our societies, by directing our attention to small children, to how we teach and how they learn, to examine our attitudes and our educational environments; and by changing our preschools in a manner that would promote all individuals’ equal value regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, age, gender, gender identity or gender expression and disability.

Discrimination is a violation of law and human rights in all of our countries and is a criminal act. Still the violation takes place almost daily, regardless if it depends on the society members or structural problems. The number of assaults, based on all the grounds of discrimination is high in most European countries. Some hold no statistics on so called “hate crime”, while others present statistics on one or several motives.

The purpose of the project was to create a developed method guide with information on how to best work on the grounds of discrimination in preschool. The method guide will help staff to create and change the educational environments in the preschools so it promotes every individual’s human rights regardless ethnic background, race, skin colour or nationality, religious belief, sexual orientation, gender, disabilities or age. The common actions in our preschools concerning combating discrimination address the issues of gender and ethnicity, but we wanted to extend the work and include religion and other beliefs, disability, gender identity and sexual orientation (LGBT) and age.

The five participating preschools in this project were from Europe and were both private and public, had different number of children with ages 1-6. Each partner brought experiences in different areas, which they could share with each other. Neither of them though had experiences of working with combating discrimination on all grounds, especially not concerning LGBT but the Swedish partner to some extend, that is why we expected the project to have a huge impact on all the preschools.

The needs to be address in this project were
– to develop staff members’ knowledge and skills in the area
– to develop teaching methods adapted to small children
– to create learning environments that promote inclusion and respect for human rights
– to develop methods for including families in the work
– to achieve goals in the national curriculum’s aims for preschool education
– to actively work with values
– to treat parents, regardless of their background, in a respectful manner
– to raise children’s awareness of diversity in our societies

Our project was mainly teacher oriented, although children of the participating preschools’ would be directly involved in the local project activities.

Objectives
– to create educational environments in the preschools (facilities, materials, teaching methods etc.) that promote every individual’s human rights, regardless ethnic background, race, skin color or nationality, religious belief, sexual orientation, gender, disabilities or age
– to increase children’s tolerance for diversity and respect for human rights
– to increase teachers’ self-confidence concerning teaching children within the theme of the project
– to increase teachers’ teaching skills concerning the theme of the project
– to equip teachers with useful tools to address and manage the different sisuations of intolerance based on all the grounds of discrimination
– to increase parents participation in activities connected to the project topic

During the project we have had six transnational meetings, each parter organized one meeting, Sweden did two. Every meeting included; progress reports, workshops/education, best practice, evaluation, dissemination and planning for upcoming activities. We visited the different preschools to examin the environments and see the changes. On the final transnational meeting we presentated the project´s outcomes and did the final arrangements for final evaluation, report and administration for each partners responsebilities. Between every transnational meeting each country worked in their own preschool with criteria and developed best practices. Each country have had several local project meetings to plan and administrate. During the project we had regular contact on our Facebook group.

We carried out all the expected results. We have had different teacher training events and workshops. We used Facebook as a platform for communication and one international website for the project. Each country made their own blog. In this project we have had three questionnaire for measuring attitudes among staff parents.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 158410,22 Eur

Project Coordinator

Bosgårdens pedagogiska enhet & Country: SE

Project Partners

• Zespol Szkol w Staninie – Przedszkole
• Gråtass Barnehage as
• Comune di Imola
• TALLINN MEELESPEA KINDERGARDEN