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Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Learning to live together through inclusive training

European multicultural diversity, its of cornerstones, are target for many current EU activities. Intercultural dialogue can be learned. Education therefore has a very important role to play in the promotion of intercultural dialogue. In order to participate successfully in a multicultural environment people must learn how to interact across cultures. And for people to learn, teachers must teach. Thus, teachers and students need to develop relevant competences such as knowledge about different cultures, intercultural sensitivity, intercultural communication and exchange, negotiation and mediation strategies, perspective-taking, critical thinking, teamwork, active participation, active listening and assertiveness.

To explore the role of education in social inclusion and to map current practice to prepare teachers and students for participation in a multicultural society, on 17-19 September the European Training Foundation and the Government of Croatia will organize a three-day seminar in Pula and Brijuni under the working title ‘Inclusive education in contexts of social and cultural diversity’.

Set in a region which only recently suffered the consequences of cultural strife, the seminar is to raise awareness among key educational actors in participating countries of the importance of education as a tool for enhancing cohesion in culturally and socially diverse societies. It will relate national policies to shared European priorities, policies and strategies in this field.

The core of the conference is scheduled on day two on the island of Brijuni, with working group sessions and the expected participation of Croatian prime minister Jadranka Kosor and a key note address by the country’s minister for science, education and sports, Radovan Fuchs.

The seminar takes place in the framework of a broader range of activities that the ETF has launched in recent years under its regional project on ethnic groups and social inclusion in education and training in the Western Balkan countries.

Participants:

The meeting will bring together experts and representatives from all countries in the region that enjoy the prospect of full EU membership in the near future as well as from current EU Member States such as Austria, Hungary and Italy. Other participants will represent the European Commission, ERISEE, the Regional Cooperation Council, the South East European Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, the Council of Europe, Minority Rights Group International, the Roma Education Fund, the Open Society Institute, OECD, UNDP, UNICEF and the World Bank.

The country representatives will come from ministries of education, universities, other public institutions, community-based organizations and NGOs that work with teacher education policies and practices.

Croatia will be represented by the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Education, the Office of National Minorities, other governmental bodies, members of the Croatian Parliament that represent national minorities, academics, teachers and school managers.

Source  The European Training Foundation

More information  The European Training Foundation

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