Starting from December 2016 the ECMI is an official recipient of the European Commission grant within the framework of its Erasmus+ programme.

Teaching in Diversity is the title of the ECMI’s new project to be launched in December 2016. The two-year long project is funded by the European Commission within a framework of its Erasmus+ programme and will be implemented together with ten different partners from eight European states.

What is the project about?
Respect and tolerance for diversity are fundamental European values. Nevertheless, the recent economic and financial crisis and the flow of refugees has significantly reinforced the negative attitudes towards the “other”. As a result, diversity has become a challenge that people face and deal with on a daily basis, and hostility towards people with different cultural backgrounds has increased.

Acknowledging that educational institutions are the first place where diversities meet and interact on a daily basis and that they are the first pillar of the societal integration and acculturation, the project will address the topic of Diversity Management at school, focusing on teachers as key actors in the process of the transfer of knowledge, values, skills and competences. In contrast to the numerous initiatives providing the teachers with skills and competences in ‘how to teach diversity’, the current project will focus on one significant gap, identified in the teachers’ training: why teaching diversity is important, how to teach in diversity and how to manage diversity.

How do we do this?
The project envisions five types of activities to reach the set goals:

1. Teachers’ empowerment through:
   • Development of solid knowledge and understanding of diversity management (training packages, handbooks, methodology)
   • Enabling the knowledge-based transfer and development of civic competences from teachers to their students (testing and monitoring)
   • Raising awareness about diversity management mechanisms and development of new skills and approaches to diversity (dissemination activities)
2. Supporting the early societal integration at school level through recruiting educational staff aware of and knowledgeable about culture-sensitive learning, mechanisms for mitigating intercultural conflicts, facilitating intercultural communication
3. Establishment of an international educators’ network for real time self-support in addressing diversity challenges and of a mobile application for facilitating the network’s interaction
4. Development of a training module and open educational resources in diversity management for teachers and
5. Adapting the developed training package for online training in diversity management for teachers

Who are the people involved?
Among the project partners there are research institutions, a school with pedagogical profile, associations of educators and other organizations promoting new technologies and media in education from eight different countries:

• European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI), Germany (lead partner)
• European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano (EURAC), Italy
• Mercator European Research Centre at the Fryske Akademy, The Netherlands
• Workers Education and Training College (WETCO), Bulgaria
• Asociatia Paradigme Educationale, Romania
• Danmar Computers LLC, Poland
• Kairos Europe Limited, UK
• Liceul Pedagogic “Mircea Scarlat” Alexandria, Romania
• MEDEA: Media and Learning, Belgium
• Innovazione Nelle ICT, Italy

In Schleswig-Holstein, the project implementation will be supported by the Center of Teacher Training at the Europa-Universitat Flensburg and the Schleswig-Holstein State Chancellery, both acting as associate partners to the ECMI.

The target group and expected end-users of the project outputs are

• Teachers and educators from all levels of preschool and school education
• Teachers and educators working with refugees and migrants
• School management and support staff
• Public officials responsible for school management and policy making at the level of primary and secondary education

Further questions?
For inquiries and further questions regarding the project, please contact the ECMI project team: Dr. Zora Popova and Ms. Tamari Bulia.

Source: ECMI InfoChannel @ European Centre for Minority Issues.