Children’s Voices for a new Human Space (CVS)

To foster a culture of democracy in the primary school context.
The objectives of the project are:

1. Enhance teachers’ access to DI education.
2. Increase teachers’ knowledge about DI education
3. Equip teachers with tools and methods to promote and assess pupils’ DI competences.
4. Foster the development of pupils’ DI competences.
5. Empower pupils, offering them the opportunity to participate effectively in public life and decision-making processes, making their voices heard.
6. Promote the involvement of pupils with a migrant background; all following the RFCDC implementation guides.

The CVS project has four intellectual outputs:

1. Training seminar for teachers.
2. IDC-oriented curriculum for children.
3. Supervision App for teachers.
4. Action research for the assessment of the attainment of IDC among school students as a result of the project.

Including mandatory IDC and related assessment methods, naming specific learning objectives and competences and how to foster them with appropriate tools, methods, and teaching approaches in classroom education and extracurricular activities.

Intercultural teacher education

Intercultural Teacher Education, Degree Programme in Teaching and Education, Bachelor and Master of Arts (Education) (3y + 2y)

• A unique teacher education programme in Finland with a focus on education, globalisation, diversity, ethics, sustainability and social justice.
• The programme includes a multicultural study or work period in an educational institution or a project abroad.
• Graduates will be qualified as primary teachers in Finland.
• Shanghai Ranking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2020: # 76–100 Education

The Intercultural Teacher Education programme (ITE ) is unique in Finland as it is the only teacher education programme in English with a focus on education, globalisation, diversity, ethics, sustainability and social justice. The degree is oriented towards primary teacher education, so the programme focuses on the specific issues related to the teaching and education of pupils studying in grades 0-6 in basic education. The programme also provides competences for international educational tasks.

Competences for democratic culture

A modern democracy cannot function unless it is able and willing to engage in intercultural dialogue, and intercultural dialogue is difficult to imagine without democratic culture. It would therefore be unhelpful to treat democracy and intercultural dialogue separately. The group has so far agreed on four main categories of competence: values; knowledge and critical understanding; attitudes; and skills. It is also discussing the components that go into each category. Random examples would be valuing other human beings, human dignity and human rights; civic-mindedness; analytical and critical thinking skills; and knowledge and critical understanding of politics, law and human rights.
Reference framework of competences for democratic culture:

• Volume 1 – Context, concepts and model: Available in English, Georgian, Macedonian, Romanian and Ukrainian
• Volume 2 – Descriptors: Available in Albanian, English, Georgian,Macedonian, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak and Ukrainian
• Volume 3 – Guidance for implementation: Available in English, Georgian, Macedonian, Romanian and Ukrainian

Aimed at selecting educational experiences that show the use of pegagogical and assessment tools for pre-service and in-service teachers’ IDC development.

Intercultura assessment protocol

The University of Udine in collaboration with Fondazione Intercultura Onlus has launched a pilot project entitled “Intercultura assessment protocol”. The aim was to design, propose and validate guidelines, tools and an assessment rubric that can be adopted in the context of secondary schools and which will enable teachers to assess the intercultural competence of 16-17 year-old students on their return from a year -long international mobility programme.

More than 100 secondary school teachers participated in the pilot project. They all had at least one student participating in an annual International Individual Mobility Program with INTERCULTURA Onlus Association in 2016/2017.

Which needs to be promoted by policymakers and has to be put into practice by the respective educators and school administrators.

The EDC/HRE whole school approach for the prevention of discrmination and violence in schools and communities

Developement of the tool for planning, monitoring and evaluation of education for democratic citizenshim and human rights Education at schools. The Tool includes 26 democratic standards in three main areas:

• Development of democratic school environment and democratic governance at school.
• Fostering EDC/HRE in teaching and learning processes.
• Establishing links and partnerships with local community and parents.

It is also multifunctional as it serves as the basis for school self-evaluation, suggesting at the same time possibilities for further democratic development and helping to monitor the progress in embracing democratic culture at school.