Promoting and developing intercultural education (ICE) for pre-service teacher training (Phase II)

Donor: Pestalozzi Children’s Foundation

Implementation period: March 2021 – December 2023.

The project Promoting and developing intercultural education (ICE) for pre-service teacher training (Phase II) addresses the problems faced by students, future teachers, from 4 universities (bachelor cycle) and 3 universities (master cycle) – management of multicultural classes, with students from different cultural, geographical and linguistic regions, but also of particular didactics of subjects with multi- / intercultural themes. Currently, there is both the need and the desire to open higher education institutions to initiate / develop university courses in master’s and bachelor’s programs in intercultural education, in order to empower young people to appreciate diversity, improve and capitalize on the benefits of intercultural communication.

Purpose and objectives: The goal of the project: to improve future teachers’ knowledge and skills in order to support the development of intercultural competence of children and youth.

Specific objectives:

To integrate and promote the EIC dimension in the strategic policy documents of the 7 universities with pedagogical profile;
To integrate the EIC dimension in the pedagogical curricula from the bachelor and master programs;
To assure the cooperation between 7 universities with pedagogical profile and pre-university education institutions for the development of intercultural competence (IC) in children and young people.

Beneficiaries:

30 managers and over 50 university teachers (professors and methodologists), 700 future professors from 7 universities will be trained in the teaching methodology of EIC and will apply EIC within the pedagogical internship (4 universities – undergraduate programs and
3 universities – master programs), 850 students from years I and II, including from 3 faculties of sciences of education, philology and history / civic education will improve their CI in the classes and about 8000 students who will benefit of this initiative.

Activities and results:

Online event for launching the second phase of the project, with the participation of teams from 7 pedagogical universities;
Analysis of strategic documents from 7 universities from the perspective of EIC
Online workshops for university managers on the promotion of EIC, through university strategic documents, based on needs analysis;
Online coaching the university staff (managers, teachers, methodists) in applying developed ICE knowledge transfer mechanisms at each university level through ICE Resource Centers;
Training program for university teachers and methodists on gender mainstreaming and its implementation in EIC and mentoring courses;
Coaching online university teachers and methodists on applying gender inclusiveness within ICE university courses and the ICE pedagogical internship mentorship;
Coaching online university teachers and methodists on applying/integrating educational digital tools within ICE university courses and the ICE pedagogical internship mentorship;
Training programs for university teachers from 4 new universities regarding the development of EIC curricular documents for undergraduate programs and for university teachers from the 3 universities from phase I of the project regarding the development of EIC university curricular documents for master programs;
Development, editing and publishing 7 sets of university curricula of EIC (curriculum, methodological guides, manual with teaching materials) for university and postgraduate programs;
Developing the ICE pedagogical internship methodological sets, including internship guidebooks and manuals with the didactic materials;
Coordination and monitoring activities on the process of developing and piloting ICE strategic and curricula documents at the partner university level and school level during the internship;
Developing one set of tools to monitor and evaluate the students’ ICs during the university courses;
Developing the Didactic Resources Centers in ICE in 4 new universities;
Organizing the Intercultural Exchange Program to Trogen for children and youth from schools from the regions, where pedagogical internship take place;
Coaching online for pre-school and school teachers on applying ICE methodological competencies to support the per-service teachers during their ICE internships in pre-schools and schools;
Updating and maintaining the already developed ICE digital platform/website with the developed ICE materials for university managers, teachers, methodists, for pre-service teachers and for pre-school and school managers and teachers;
Promote ICE project results through media and pedagogical publishing periodical Didactica Pro…;
Children and youth male/female participants in IEP in Trogen organise follow-up activities for their peers;
Round tables with government and/or education officials on fostering ICE inclusive and equitable quality education;
Organizing ICE joint educational measures/activities between 7 partner universities and preschool/schools, where pedagogical internships take place.

Impact: Contributing to sustainable development and ensuring a peaceful life together, by capitalizing on intercultural competence in the university curriculum and, in the long term, on increasing the level of tolerance and non-discrimination among children and young people, representing different ethnic groups , religious, linguistic.