Interculturalising Education: Content, Language and Culture for Schools Links and Partnerships.
TYPE OF TRAINING ACTIVITY
TRAINING AIMED AT PARTICIPANTS RECEIVING
A GRANT FOR EITHER COMENIUS OR GRUNDTVIG TARGET GROUPS
ORIGIN OF THE TRAINING
OTHER COURSES NOT RESULTING FROM AN LLP OR PREVIOUS SOCRATES PROJECT
THEMATIC FIELD OF THE TRAINING
GENERAL IN-SERVICE TRAINING
Active citizenship
Education management/project management
European citizenship & European dimension
ICT - Information and communication technologies
Intercultural education
Pedagogy and didactics
Other general courses CLIL
LANGUAGES USED FOR THE TRAINING
MAIN LANGUAGE:
English
LANGUAGE VERSION(S) IN WHICH MATERIALS WILL BE PROVIDED:
English
EDUCATION SECTOR OF THE TRAINING PARTICIPANTS
SCHOOL AND PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION
General secondary
Vocational/Technical secondary
ADULT EDUCATION
Adult education provider
TARGET AUDIENCE
Teachers (Pre-school, primary, secondary, vocational, adult, special needs)
Teacher trainers
Inspectors
Headteachers/principals/managers of schools/organisations offering adult education
Members of students/teachers councils in adult education
INSTITUTION ORGANISING THE TRAINING
NAME OF THE ORGANISATION:
Plovdiv University 'Paisii Hilendarski'
STREET AND NUMBER:
24 Tsar Assen St
POSTCODE:
4000 -
TOWN / CITY:
Plovdiv
COUNTRY:
Bulgaria
WEBSITE:
http://www.uni-plovdiv.bg/
ORGANISER/S OF THE TRAINING:
PERSON 1:
Assoc. Prof. Dr Irina Chongarova
TEL NR:
+359 32 261241
FAX NR:
+359 32 630955
EMAIL:
irinatch@uni-plovdiv.bg
FULL DESCRIPTION OF TRAINING CONTENTS
IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE TRAINING: (EN)
Preparation
There will be 3 preparation activities: a) a pre-course questionnaire in order to find out key information about participants and their teaching background; b) a pre-course task for participants to prepare a short 'teaching profile' presentation about their home teaching context; c) filling in the Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters (AIE) to help participants think of and analyse a specific intercultural encounter they have experienced.
Objectives
This course aims to:
- Explore the culture of the classroom so as to identify, describe and understand underlying good practices. This will involve participants examining their own teaching contexts as well as those of colleagues.
- Investigate the role of Intercultural Communicative Competence in education and study zones of education where ICC plays a significant role. This will cover basic principles of ICC across the curriculum but will also consider the qualities required by teachers who aim to enable their students to develop cultural skills and attitudes.
- Identify and discuss key intercultural issues in syllabus design and course content.
- Examine the practicalities of setting up and running a schools links project. This will look at all aspects of the creation, management and ongoing development of schools links.
- Consider and practice the use of technology for Intercultural Communication through schools links.
- Explore and conceptualise the nature of intercultural projects work. This will include looking at what it means to collaborate through the curriculum with partner schools in other countries. Here, participants will look at ways content and language integration can be effectively achieved through an intercultural project with a partner school. Participants will also create instruments for use in their own cultural and curricular investigations.
Methodology
The methodology of the course is based on the principles of interactive, experiential and reflective learning. It involves collaborative group working, creating common ground of ideas and practices, putting theory in the service of practice, and setting up a community of practice. Approaches like field research, ethnographic observation, simulation games, discussions, and learning by doing are important milestones.
Follow-up
Post-course activities follow up from the main goal of the course, namely to equip participants with the means for setting up schools links. The number, quality and sustainability of the schools links established constitute the realisation of this aim. Course tutors will be providing on-going support to colleagues after the course for taking on the setting-up of a schools link project, analysing, reflecting on and acting on its processes and outcomes.
PROGRAMME OF THE TRAINING ACTIVITIES (DAY BY DAY)
IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE TRAINING:
Day 1 Thursday, July 9
- Introductions, expectations, negotiating course content
- School links: an outline
- Simulation game: experiencing and understanding some of the challenges of intercultural encounters
- Intercultural Communication: simulation debrief
Day 2 Friday, July 10
- Instruments for investigating and 'exchanging culture'
- Intercultural communicative competence (ICC)
- Data collection and presentation
Day 3, Saturday, 11 July
- Ethnography: a link between the experiential and the intellectual
- An ethnographic approach: intercultural communication research task
Day 4, Sunday, 12 July
Free day
Day 5, Monday 13 July
- Intercultural communication research task: feedback, analysis, and summary
- ECOTONUS: a multicultural, problem-solving simulation
- Comenius / Grundtvig in Bulgaria / Overview EU + global links
Day 6, Tuesday 14 July
- Implementing a school links project + planning
- Cultural pitfalls and some of the challenges of intercultural projects
- Practical workshop - producing, branding and marketing a cultural product
Day 7, Wednesday, 15 July
- Evaluating intercultural education programmes
- Evaluating teaching and learning materials for their potential to achieve intercultural education objectives
- Adapting instruments for culture investigation and exchange in curriculum subjects
Day 8, Thursday, 16 July
- Intercultural Communication within school links projects
- Communication styles
- Integrating language and content in education
- Publishing students’ work
Day 9, Friday, 17 July
- Presentation of group school links plans: planning for action
- Preparing for the return home: saying goodbye, reverse culture shock, reentry problems
- Course evaluation
- Feedback
In addition to the main course there will be a guest speaker who specialises in the area of communication in the content curriculum.
TYPE OF CERTIFICATION OF ATTENDANCE AWARDED
IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE TRAINING:
Certificate of Achievement including description of course content, learning outcomes and time input
ENGLISH:
Certificate of Achievement including description of course content, learning outcomes and time input