INTRODUCING THE TOOLBOX FOR INTERCULTURAL LEARNING AT SCHOOL

Required Time 90 Minutes

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session, participants will:

  1. become familiar with the Intercultural Learning at School Toolbox.
  2. identify how we tend to make sense of situations through our own cultural lenses.
  3. distinguish between descriptions, interpretations and evaluations

Session Goals

  • Introduce the Intercultural Learning at School Toolbox.
  • Reflect on how we look at the world through our own cultural lenses.
  • Present and practice D.I.V.E. a tool that helps to foster curiosity and develop judgement suspension.

Space Requirements

  • Semi-circle seating arrangement
  • A room where participants can move about freely

Necessary Materials

  • Computer + internet connection
  • Flipchart stand and paper
  • Coloured markers
  • A4 paper sheets & pens

Printed copies or projection of the handout with the “overview of competences and activities of the toolbox

Homework

Before providing the training, the facilitator should become very familiar with the toolbox structure and activities.

Step-by-Step Description of the Session

ACTIVITY 1:  INTRODUCTION OF  THE TOOLBOX (30 MINS)

  1. Introduce the Intercultural Learning at School Toolbox and related website.
  2. The Toolbox is meant to encourage school staff to give an intercultural approach to the educating practices.  It is not meant to be exhaustive but it provides practical tools to teachers in order to develop inclusive didactic and enhance intercultural perspectives in their lessons.
  3. It fosters a “whole school approach”, namely including intercultural learning in all aspects of the school life. This means that possibly the activities of the toolbox
    1. are meant to be conducted in cooperation with other teachers and with the involvement of stakeholders within the school and in the local community (ie parents, non-formal education organisations expert on intercultural learning and mobility, other educational partners of the school);
    2. are meant to be implemented as an overall pedagogical project plan and not as one-off activities;
    3. should implement a culture of feedback between learners and teachers, including evaluation at the end of each activity. Suggestions on how to carry on visual evaluation with students are provided.
  1. Use one of the activities to describe how these are organised. Each activity is described in details with the indication of learning goals, necessary materials, timing, step-by-step procedures, debriefing questions, references.  

The competencies that each activity aims at developing are divided into 4 different groups: values, attitudes, skills and knowledge. They were taken from competence outlined in the Council of Europe framework called « Competencies for democratic culture. Living together as equal in culturally diverse democratic societies».

  1. Show or distribute the overview of competences and related activities. Show that the same activity may apply to different categories and can be adapted, if necessary, to participants’ needs.
  2. Show them the space to give feedback, at the end of the activities, in order to help other teachers to choose and use the toolbox.
  3. The toolbox provides two possible approaches: :

By categories:

    1. Whole school approach – with tools that can be used in projects involving the whole school, such as intercultural events at schools, time of the school calendar dedicated to international meetings, sustainability events and similar activities focused on promoting active global citizenship and cooperation with out-of-school educational organisations/partners promoting similar principles;
    2. Cross-curricular activities – with tools  to be used across the curriculum
    3. Specific subjects activities – with tools to be used to help teachers, headmasters and educators to better integrate the activities in their lessons and the school programme, adding an intercultural perspective
    4. International mobility  – with tools to support intercultural encounters

By competences: through this approach, teachers can easily design a path focused on specific values and aimed at developing specific knowledge, skills and competencies.

  1. Make connections between the four areas and competencies described in the toolbox and the know-how that teachers already have, described in the activity “Table of different realities”, done in one of the previous session.

ACTIVITY 2 –  THE D.I.V.E. MODEL (50 MINS)

  1. Tell participants the now they will practice one of the activities in the Toolbox: the D.I.V.E. model.  
  2. Proceed as per activity instructions

ACTIVITY 3  – VISUAL EVALUATION (15 MINS)

(activity suggested  – Line up feedback)

  1. At the end of each session, choose one of the Visual evaluation methods. This will give you immediate feedback on the appreciation of the session.
  2. The visual evaluation methods are great examples of something teachers can do in the classroom after delivering intercultural learning activities as a way of gathering impressions and feedback from students.
  3. Use this opportunity to eventually review and clarify confusing or unclear aspects of contents or activities of the training.
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