Co-operate EDUCATION
ADULT
DIALOGUE
UNDERSTANDING
• • • • •
LEARNING
The animator in this workshop presented on the rationale, approach and outcomes of this project. The project partners’ convinced their funders that a course to foster intercultural competence for adult educators was required in light of adult education’s key role in assisting immigrants to integrate and educators’ role in developing social cohesion between different communities. In order to ensure these roles could be realised in a socially just and non-oppressive fashion by educators in their organisations the project partners devised a course using experiential, creative pedagogies such as:
INTERCULTURAL
Creating intercultural communities for adult learners is dependent on educators who have intercultural competences. This workshop focused on a Grundtvig project involving adult education organisations from five countries13 which aimed to create an educators’ training course that would do just that as well as promoting the teaching of lesser known languages at European level.
PEACE
Anne Walsh (Lifelink International)
SOCIAL DIALOGUE
3.5 Intercultural Learning for Adult Educators and Facilitators (Bronze Grundtvig12 Award Winner - )
SOCIALLEARNING
The participants in this workshop concluded that the project was a workable model and provided the impetus and guidance for adult organisations that wanted to look at mainstreaming interculturalism into their work. They highlighted the challenge of monitoring and evaluating the impact of these tools on Network members and others who might adopt them in the future, “how do you stimulate it, support it and sustain it into the future” (workshop participants). Accordingly, they also voiced the need for adult education to be adequately valued as a ‘force’ for realising interculturalism.
LEARN
policies, diversity management and critical reflection on how ‘intercultural’ the organisation is. • A newzine called “Get Intercultural” featuring articles from adult educators, is a contribution by this sector to media diversity education.
Kolb’s experiential cycle – experiencing, reviewing, concluding, planning Morrin’s Theory – narrative and pardigmatic thinking Use of role plays, pair and group work Workshops/ games Drawing on participants’ life stories
Through these methods the course aimed to foster efficient intercultural communication through the development of:
12
An EU funding programme which focuses on the teaching and study needs of those in adult education and alternative education streams, as well as the institutions and organisations delivering these services. Supporting lifelong learning and mobility in this way also tackles Europe’s ageing population problem. See ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-programme/doc86_en.htm
13 the organisations involved were: The Business Club “Austrialia” Austria; CVO Duerne, Belgium; Vastra Nylands Folkhogskola, Finland; Lifelink Ireland, and CLCT Sibiu Romania.
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