Intercultural Competences for Adult Educators
working with Multicultural and Multilingual Learners.
The main objective of intercultural education lies in preparing people to perceive, accept, respect, & experience alterity. The theme of interculturality has emerged in the last decades as an educational response to phenomena of increasing interconnections. It is known that many conflicts, challenges such as the migration/ refugee crisis, the “Brexit”, the globalization , all these phenomena have a significant impact on the intercultural life spheres of our society, including education in general & adult education in particular. The necessary (but not enough) condition for resolving conflicts is to find efficient communication channels &adequate skills to ease conflicts & tensions. Educators play a key role in responding to these challenges. However, the current situation is pointing out the existing lack of intercultural communication (ICC) of adult educators, especially considering that most of the practitioners involved in this activity are qualified outside the field of education & therefore lack even the general competences of adult education.
The project aims to strengthen ICC of adult educators working in various formal & non-formal educational settings in order to help them to overcome the challenges arising from their everyday work with multicultural & multilingual learners’ populations.
We expect to raise awareness in:
– Participating target groups – adult educators will be provided with resources & a training programme designed to equip them with competences necessary to deal with intercultural situations in their learner groups in a sensitive & constructive manner.
– Indirect target group – international students, migrants and refugees by supporting them to overcome stressors, like: language barrier, cultural aspects, religious facilities, relationship with family, social support & academic facilities.
– Long term impact – shape positive attitudes toward multiculturalism and cultural diversity in society, services, businesses, companies, hospitals, etc., and acquire possibilities to use project outputs in a wide range of applications.
In summary, INCrEAsE project will develop:
O1. Interactive Map of Multicultural and Multilingual adult educators/learners in EU with focus on knowledge, skills & attitudes
– 6 Reports on the Mapping of the current situation in the matter of multiculturalism in adult education
– 1 interactive Map of Multicultural and Multilingual adult educators/learners in EU with focus on knowledge, skills & attitudes
– KBS with a collection of at least 30 different cultures described systematically
– 60 adult educators as members of the INCrEAsE network (10 per country)
– 12 multicultural and multilingual learners (2 per country)
– 1 data base of testimonials – audio/video/written testimonials from multicultural adult educators/learners
O2. E-Tests/Questionnaire Tool to set up the Profile of multicultural learners needs, related to the process of adaptation of freshman international learners and immigrants)
– 1 E-Tests/Questionnaire
– Profiles of multicultural learners needs
– Piloting of the tool with 12 multicultural learners (2 per country) and 12 adult educators (2 per country) and collection of feedback
O3. Intercultural Communicative Competence Training Programme for Adult Educators (60 hours) and piloting it with representatives of the target group
– 1 Intercultural Communicative Competence training methodology available in 6 languages (EN, RO, IT, ES, GR, LT)
– 1 Training Programme for Adult Educators (60 hours)
– Piloting of the training programme with 35 adult educators (5 per partner) and collection of feedback
O4. E-book “Enhancing Intercultural Communicative Competence” – a self-learning resource for adult educators based on the developed training programme and methodology and consisting of the self-guided professional development materials as well as the selected examples of the most relevant case studies and good practices. The E-book will be available on the project and the partners’ websites for free download.
– 1 E-book “Enhancing Intercultural Communicative Competence” – a self-learning resource for adult educators of inter-cultural communication competences (downloadable free)
– Piloting of the training programme with 35 adult educators (5 per partner) and collection of feedback :
Further results through dissemination, exploitation and multiplier effects:
– 6 multiplier events – exploitation-contact seminars in all partner countries for at least 180 participants from outside the partnership
– 1 International conference with keynote speakers, workshops and poster session for presenting good practice examples, for summarizing and presenting new competences and sharing case studies, best practices, experiences from the piloting.
– 35 initiated networks between partners and the local community
– over 2000 beneficiaries reached through the dissemination events held during the project life.
NEWSLETTER 4, 6 & 7 December 2021