Beyond Borders

1st Project Meeting: KMS Staudingergasse Vienna, Austria

(18th-22nd October 2006)

2nd Project Meeting: Istituto d’Istruzione Superiore “Mancini” Cosenza, Italy

(12th-16th April 2007)

Coordinating Institution

Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione

Socrates Comenius 1

School Project

Education and Culture

B E Y B O O N R D D E R S

Education and Culture

The Council of Europe has conceived a Project of Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights, (EDC) started in 1997, which is now in its third phase.

The programme of activities for 2006-2009 is presented under the title “Learning and living democracy for all”.

Its three main lines of action are:

1) Education policy development and implementation for democratic citizenship and social inclusion

2) New roles and competences of teachers and other educational staff in EDC/HRE

3) Democratic governance of educational institutions.

Education and Culture

It is widely acknowledged that the role of teachers and other educational staff is crucial in promoting democracy learning through active participatory approaches, and that the success of the EDC/HRE programme depends largely on the teaching profession.

In the Tool on Teacher Training for Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education, it is stated that

“it is the teachers who introduce and explain new concepts and values to learners, facilitate the development of new skills and competencies, and create the conditions which allow them to apply these skills and competencies in their everyday life at home, in school and in the local community.”

Education and Culture

Democratic governance of educational institutions

Democratic educational environments and democratic governance in education are crucial for EDC/HRE. The learning environment needs to respect democracy and human rights, be empowering and free of violence, notably as educational practices and the organisation of learning is concerned. It should provide the opportunity for all actors, pupils/students, parents, teachers, staff and administrators to be involved in decision-making regarding the school, feel responsible and express their opinions freely. Last but not least, educational institutions need to open up to the outside world and work in partnership with communities.

Education and Culture

Intercultural education in the 21st century:

learning to live together

All societies are diverse in terms of culture, gender, age, social situation, geographical origin, interests, beliefs, physical and intellectual characteristics, etc. There are differences between individuals and differences between groups. Societies deal with differences in different ways.

We can distinguish at least three models of dealing with diversity:

1) Segregation/ Apartheid

2) Denial of differences

3) The democratic model

Education and Culture

The democratic model is based on democratic standards which imply the right to be different and equal rights to participate. The democratic model is inclusive, but it also implies dilemmas, particularly where certain cultural values are not in accordance with the democratic standards of equality, for instance with respect to gender or religious differences. Inclusiveness, living and working together is not self evident, it has to be learned.

We have become more acutely aware of societal conflicts and controversies that relate to the co-existence of diverse value orientations. Multiculturalism implies far more than “celebrating diversity”, it also implies dealing with conflicts and dilemmas within the framework of democracy.

Education to promote democratic standards implies intercultural education as one of its main consequences.

Education and Culture

The term “intercultural education” covers two characteristcs of education that is appropriate in democratic multicultural societies:

1) Inclusion and participation

2) Learning to live together

Education and Culture

Education should contribute to a policy of inclusion, which has – at the levels of the school and the classroom – consequences for the organisation and the content of learning processes.

At the classroom level, equity refers to equal access to interaction in the learning process and to materials available in the classroom. Providing this access is one of the main responsibilities of the teacher. It requires specific competencies about the role of the teacher. It also requires that the school provides certain conditions.

Education and Culture

Because the diversity we find in present day Europe can make it difficult to live together, Europeans must learn new coping strategies in the realms of the family, school, community and society. Learning to live together is eventually aimed at shared citizenship at the local, national and global level: although we are different we need to share a feeling of belonging to a wider community based on mutual respect and a shared belief that “dialogue” is indispensable.

Education and Culture

The perspective of the teacher

Within the classroom, the main instruments of education are the curriculum and interactive processes that have to be organised by the teacher.

Learning, however, does not only take place through processing content, but also through experiences. Students can hardly be expected to learn to become democratic citizens through undemocratic teaching procedures. What we know is that people learn to understand through interaction, discussion, and application of knowledge. A new role of the teacher as facilitator, observer, evaluator of the learning processes is promoted. The emphasis on interaction in intercultural education is completely in line with this new professional identity of teachers. “Learning to live together” implies learning to learn together, to talk together, preparing for intercultural dialogue, and to work together. Co-operative learning implies a specific strategy in order to ensure that each pupil participates and that the various skills and talents are valued equally. This strategy is based on the principles of Complex Instruction and Howard Gardner’s concept of multiple intelligence.

Education and Culture

What have to be set are training courses which “ lead young people to assimilate culture in the anthropological sense; to understand other people’s points of view even if they do not share them, which implies a proper knowledge of ‘relativism’; to legitimate cultural identity while preventing it from being put on a pedestal by showing that it is only the cultural dimension of identity. And above all […] to protect interchange, and help young people to come to terms, without feelings of guilt, with their desire to distance themselves from the prevailing opinion, or with the personal standpoints that they prefer. In other words, the strategy behind this form of education is to guarantee respect for differences, but within a set of attitudes that allows one to transcend them.”

C. Camilleri (1990)

This is the type of knowledge they will need in order to acquire intercultural competence, and to understand that their membership of certain social groups influences their values, beliefs and behaviour.

Education and Culture

In language teaching, the concept of 'communicative competence' emphasises that language learners need to acquire not just grammatical competence but also the knowledge of what is 'appropriate' language. When two people in conversation are from different countries speaking in a language which is a foreign/second language for one of them, or when they are both speaking a language which is foreign to both of them, a lingua franca, they may be acutely aware of their national identities. They are aware that at least one of them is speaking a foreign language and the other is hearing their own language being spoken by a foreigner. Often this influences what they say and how they say it, because they see the other person as a representative of a country or nation. Yet this focus on national identity, and the accompanying risk of relying on stereotypes, reduces the individual from a complex human being to someone who is seen as representative of a country or 'culture'. Furthermore, this simplification is reinforced if it is assumed that that learning a language involves becoming like a person from another country. Often, in language teaching the implicit aim has been to imitate a native speaker both in linguistic competence, in knowledge of what is 'appropriate' language, and in knowledge about a country and its 'culture'. The concept of 'culture' has changed over time from emphasis on literature, the arts and philosophy to culture as a shared way of life, but the idea of imitating the native speaker has not changedand consequently native speakers are considered to be experts and the models, and teachers who are native speakers are considered to be better than non-native speakers.

Education and Culture In contrast the 'intercultural dimension' in language teaching aims to develop learners as intercultural speakers or mediators, who are able to engage with complexity and multiple identities and to avoid the stereotyping which accompanies perceiving someone through a single identity. It is based on perceiving the interlocutor as an individual whose qualities are to be discovered, rather than as a representative of an externally ascribed identity. Interculturalcommunication is communication on the basis of respect for individuals and equality of human rights as the democratic basis for social interaction.So language teaching with an intercultural dimension continues to help learners to acquire the linguistic competence needed to communicate in speaking or writing, to formulate what they want to say/write in correct and appropriate ways. But it also develops their intercultural competence, i.e. their ability to ensure a shared understanding by people of different social identities, and their ability to interact with people as complex human beings with multiple identities and their own individuality.

Education and Culture

As a consequence, a teacher who can contribute in building intercultural competence is neither the native nor the non-native speaker, but the person who can help learners see relationships between their own and other cultures, can help them acquire interest in and curiosity about 'otherness', and an awareness of themselves and their own cultures seen from other people's perspectives.

(cfr. Developing the intercultural dimension in language teaching, by M. Byram, B. Gribkova, H. Starkey, as abridged from the Publications of the Council of Europe, Department of Policy and Languages)

Education and Culture Knowledge, skills, attitudes and values involved in intercultural competence

The acquisition of intercultural competence is never complete and perfect, but to be a successful intercultural speaker and mediator does not require complete and perfect competence. The first reason for this is the more obvious: it is not possible to acquire or to anticipate all the knowledge one might need in interacting with people of other cultures. Those cultures are themselves constantly changing; one cannot know with whom one will use a specific language since many languages are spoken in more than one country. Similarly there are in any one country many different cultures and languages. And thirdly any language can be used as a lingua franca with anyone from any country. So it is not possible to anticipate the knowledge language learners need and this hasbeen the main failure of the emphasis on knowledge in civilisation, Landeskunde etc, because whatever is taught it is inevitably insufficient.

Education and Culture

The second reason why complete and perfect competence is not required is less obvious but just as important: everyone's own social identities and values develop, everyone acquires new ones throughout life as they become a member of new social groups; and those identities, and the values, beliefs and behaviours they symbolise are deeply embedded in one's self. This means that meeting new experience, seeing unexpected beliefs, values and behaviours, can often shock and disturb those deeply embedded identities and values, however open, tolerant and flexible one wishes to be. Everyone has therefore to be constantly aware of the need to adjust, to accept and to understand other people - it is never a completed process.This also means that there is no perfect 'model' to imitate, no equivalent of the notion of a perfect 'native speaker'. There is no question, either, of expecting learners to imitate or attempt to acquire the social identity of a native speaker, such as a new national identity.

(cfr. Developing the intercultural dimension in language teaching, by M. Byram, B. Gribkova, H. Starkey, as abridged from the Publications of the Council of Europe, Department of Policy and Languages)

-Think

-Act -Assess

Single-loop learning

-Self-reflective

-Challenging -Create & share

knowledge -Build capacity

Double-loop learning

Pensare

Agire Valutare

Apprendimento a circuito singolo

Autoriflessivo Propone sfida

Crea e condivide

conoscenza Sviluppa capacità

Apprendimento a doppio circuito

Double-loop learning

GUIDELINES FOR PUPILS’ GUIDELINES FOR PUPILS’ INVOLVEMENTINVOLVEMENT

An authentic desire to listen to what they have to say

Pupils know how their witnesses will be used

Pupils feel that if they express their opinion sincerely or describe an experience, it will not harm them

The goal of the consultation is clear for the pupils

The pupils are given acknowledgment on the results of the consultation

Pupils have the possibility to understand in what decisional and factual context their opinions will be included

The topic has its relevance

“Somehow educators tend to forget the important link existing between teachers and pupils.

We usually ask to be informed by external experts and, consequently, we often ignorethe treasure we can find in our courtyard – the pupils themselves.”

(Soo Hoo, 1993, p. 389)

THE “HIDDEN TREASURE”

Thank you,

Giuseppina Bottino

PRINCIPI GUIDA PER IL PRINCIPI GUIDA PER IL COINVOLGIMENTO DEGLI ALUNNICOINVOLGIMENTO DEGLI ALUNNI

Un desiderio autentico di ascoltare ciò che gli alunni hanno da dire

Gli alunni sanno quale uso verrà fatto delle loro testimonianze

Gli alunni sentono che se esprimono sinceramente la loro opinione o descrivono sinceramente un’esperienza, ciò non li danneggerà

Lo scopo della consultazione è chiaro agli alunni

Si forniscono riscontri agli alunni sui risultati della consultazione

Gli alunni hanno la possibilità di capire in quale contesto di decisioni ed azioni le loro opinioni si inseriscono

L’argomento da trattare non è di poco conto

“In qualche modo gli educatori tendono a dimenticare il nesso importante che esiste tra insegnanti ed alunni.

Chiediamo volentieri a degli esperti esterni di informarci e, di conseguenza, spesso trascuriamo il tesoro che si trova nel cortile di casa – gli stessi studenti.”

(Soo Hoo, 1993, p. 389)

Il “TESORO NASCOSTO”