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Guidelines for Intercultural Education: How to train mediators for a inter-cultural kindergarten

Guidelines for Intercultural Education: How to train mediators for an inter-cultural kindergarten

By Andrea Cusatelli and Dimitris Argiropoulos

ROMA T&T Roma Teaching and Training

This project is co-funded by the European Commission. This publication reflects the views of the author only and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use of the information contained therein.

Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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Table of Contents Premise ............................................................................................................................................ ….4 Educating for coexistence .................................................................................................................... 4 Roma and Racism................................................................................................................................. 5 The Intercultural Educative Model....................................................................................................... 6 The limitations and risks of the Guidelines .......................................................................................... 7 For whom are the Guidelines ............................................................................................................... 9 The Intercultural Educator.................................................................................................................... 9 META_TRAINING: A course for a course in intercultural mediation ............................................................................... 11 The "Gypsies" today: a case of intercultural "cohabitation" ............................................................. 11 The institutions and social policies .................................................................................................... 13 Generational cultural conflicts and cultural conflicts in education in families of foreign origin ...... 14 Linguistic and cultural mediator in the school environment .............................................................. 15 Education in an intercultural context ................................................................................................. 16 Society and change ............................................................................................................................. 16 The culture of interculturalism ........................................................................................................... 17 Psychological problems of the “foreign” student ............................................................................... 18 Methods and strategies of reception ................................................................................................... 19 The effort to show the coexistence ..................................................................................................... 22 THE INTERCULTURAL MEDIATION: Theory, Criticism and Scientific References ...................................................................................... 25 Historical overview ............................................................................................................................ 25 What is meant by mediation ............................................................................................................... 27 Intercultural Mediator: a definition ................................................................................................... 30 The linguistic cultural mediator ......................................................................................................... 30 The ethnic tutor .................................................................................................................................. 31 The mediation as communicative action in the intercultural field: theoretical framework ............... 32 The needs of mediation and its functions........................................................................................... 33 The needs of mediation and its functions ........................................................................................... 33 The mediator's role in intercultural communication .......................................................................... 34 The skills of the mediator of intercultural communication ................................................................ 36 Requirements for admission to vocational training courses ............................................................... 37 The risks of the mediator of intercultural communication ................................................................. 39 The rights of the cultural mediator ..................................................................................................... 40 What is not the mediator .................................................................................................................... 40 Conflict and cultural mediation: Situation of conflict in the relationship among operator, mediator and user ............................................................................................................................... 41 A SCHOOL OF COMMON LIVING Analysis and Scheduling .................................................................................................................. 43 Models Roma T & T........................................................................................................................... 44 The Legal framework: ....................................................................................................................... 45 Context: ............................................................................................................................................. 46 Economical: ....................................................................................................................................... 46 Intercultural mediation applied in pedagogy...................................................................................... 48 The Ideal Model ................................................................................................................................. 50 Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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The infrastructure .............................................................................................................................. 50 Target: To involve and welcome ........................................................................................................ 51 How to communicate the model ........................................................................................................ 51 The deal with the families: ............................................................................................................... 52 The educators role-play ..................................................................................................................... 53 Selection of the staff .......................................................................................................................... 53 Essential skills in the couple:............................................................................................................. 54 Which educator: ................................................................................................................................. 54 The mediator profile .......................................................................................................................... 55 INTERCULTURAL CHILDHOOD EDUCATORS An hypothetical training course ........................................................................................................ 58 Designing the course ........................................................................................................................ 60 Training for intercultural educators plan ........................................................................................... 62 BIBLIOGRAPHY ON INTERCULTURAL MEDIATION ............................................................. 67 Bookmark and download relevant for Roma T&T ............................................................................ 69 The Authors ........................................................................................................................................ 70

Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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Premise

By Andrea Cusatelli

1.1.

Educating for Coexistence

There are parts of the body, that are common to all people from birth. Geneticists Lynn Jorde and Henry Harpending have suggested that the variation within the species of human DNA is very small when compared with other species. In the human code, the genomes which are different, between a chinese boy and a brazilian girl, are less than one in a hundred (human genetic variation is estimated to be at least 0.5%, compared with 99.5% similarity 1).

Furthermore, 5-15% of all this small genetic variation, is identified between numerous groups of people who live in different continents, while the rest of variability is observed within these groups (95-85%): the differences at the genetic level between peoples, are much less than those between individuals within the same ethnic group. Racism is a false ideology.

But what is this residue of racism? If we are into mathematics is not much of a thing: 0.05% identity coefficient in the biological nature of man. If we talk about cultures that have lived for generations in ethnic war, this sense of "race" becomes so determinant that it discriminates civil coexistence. Racism is a cultural phenomenon.

If we follow the Italian media today these 0.05% appear decisive. But what is this identity matrix that lives inside each of us? What is this game in our contemporary culture? It is said that the racist demagogy is often leveraging the structures of the primordial sense, and deep atavistic human intelligence.

The most extreme dimension of coexistence, membership, has to do with the skin, the heat, the maternal smell, but most of all, with the experience of their variants, or to find acceptance despite of skin differences , the smell, and the new affective-relational systems.

Unlike adults, children have a high sense of belonging and sharing with the other body.

The sense of common identity with the mother and the reproduction of this attitude toward the "other" is the main experience, that they live in the first three years. Children are born discovering that this experience of "we" shared, does not always work as it does with Mom. Indeed, the discovery of who the “others� are, out of their familiarity, is for the child, an experience of variations: where no one is like mom. The child discovers thousands of differences and in this process of discrimination, reconstructs his human society and then, through language learning, its endless cultural products too.

Coexistence is then an art of human relations that is learned early. Childhood centers are schools where the children discover the group and the extended community, in the most 1

^ "First Individual Diploid Human Genome Published By Researchers at J. Craig Venter Institute". J. Craig Venter Institute. 3 September 2007. Retrieved 2011-09-05 Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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profound and lasting form. But beware, the sense of community and tribal distinction is also learned as soon as possible. But then, when they are tired, hungry or sleepy, few adults are that discriminatory and exclusivist as children. We know children are not "policycorrect" and in their first months understand nothing but the language of the "skin. 2" The household participates usually, and accompany newborns emotionally, giving them a sense of protection, self folding and security research. The mother-son couple, protected by a network more or less enlarged called "family," enhances the identity processes of the subject as well as of the very first human family network: in this anthropological phase, where the child defines its ego, the rest of family strengthens the "We" in a game that we could call nothing else but educative. Exactly, because education, as J. Derrida or G. Bateson wrote, is the discovery of cultural difference 3. In a few years the gender differences, linguistic, spiritual, not necessarily meaning ethnic, are fixed with their own polarizations. By the age of six, each child may already have an idea of extended community and a representation of the extra family world.

Perhaps the child has already taken the behavioral bases of common life. He will have his ways and passionate sequences towards others, neighbors or strangers, and all that will shape the child's educational future.

1.2.

Roma and Racism

In contemporary European culture, much has been done to fight discrimination, first for the linguistic minorities or internally spiritual (eg. Germans in Italy and France, or Basque in Spain and Lapland in Finland).

Then the wars of religion and xenophobia in general have had for half a century, a cultural contrast that accompanied the Communal construction. If for an instant, we do not take into account the "war of civilizations" conducted by the Neocons in the last decade against the Muslim culture, and instead we take the case of anti-Semitism, we see that Europe has reflected positively on its own racism. With severity, it has become a remedial action. And in all our schools the Holocaust has become the case in which the children discuss racism.

But also the educational institution has, per say, its 0.05% of residual discriminatory. Ethnic and sectarian Orthodox schools, where it professes separatism, stand apart. In the others, it discriminates, resists and works against illiteracy and social traits that distinguish it.

Verbalization is educated from scriptures. From primary school, it is up to the teachers provide positive role models of civil coexistence. From primary school, it is up to the teachers to provide positive role models of civil coexistence. Civilization is shown as standards, cultural traits and practices, in contrast to antisocial behavior. Certainly it is a cultural struggle for equality and just in favor of the integration processes. But the fact is 2

Ashley Montagu Il linguaggio della pelle, Milano, A. Vallardi, 1981. In Eng. read Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin, this title it is a relevant research on childhood psychology, and not without surprise since the fist work, of Ashley Montagu was Man's Most Dangerous Myth That it was first published in 1942, when Nazism flourished, when African Americans sat at the back of the bus, and when race was considered the determinant of people's character and intelligence. It presented a revolutionary theory for its time; breaking the link between genetics and culture, it argued that race is largely a social construction and not constitutive of significant biological differences between people.

3 For understand the European culture behind the discrimination read Derrida Jaques, Oggi l'Europa, Garzanti 1991. All the work of J. Derrida match our issue, Writing and Difference 1978 ISBN 0-415-25383-7 (UK). For an easy approach see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Derrida_bibliography. The Ear of the Other: Otobiography, Transference, Translation: Texts and Discussions with Jacques Derrida 1985 ISBN 0-8032-6575-1 Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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that when the illiterate's target, overlaps with the antisocial, and together they both identify themselves as defined ethnic traits. Not all models deal with teaching writing, illiteracy, anti-social and cultural integration in the same way. We must ask ourselves, of all educational models in the world, which is closest to a better intercultural school and which better approaches the Roma culture.

Today, more than it was 80 years ago, discrimination against the Roma, the Gypsy, and the Nomads, remains the largest residual racism of European culture. This is true in most countries, social classes, cultures and institutions. In European culture values such as education, health and well being, technology, wealth, private property, individual liberty or privacy, are at odds with what we see of Roma culture.

It is difficult to understand in our daily life, how to integrate Gypsy members within our institutions. Failures of supplementary policies to the nomads cause many to say "but they are the ones that do not want to integrate." Even among the most tolerant European citizens, a very few would be happy to have a Roma family as neighbors. Many more will feel more comfortable having 99.95% of any other ethnic group on earth as neighbors.

Once a Utopian place like Jerusalem was assigned to the Jews, Europeans rediscovered cultural traits and common myths, such as the Bible and the conflict between Cain and Abel. With the Gypsy culture there isn't and there is very little possibility of any form of cultural exchange, simply because of their culture we know little or nothing: It only results to us as absent (non related to us), or its antithesis (anti-us) not to say "atavistic." Every culture has its shadow or outcast: like the natives to America, the Tuaregs to the Maghreb, Pariah in India, Aborigines in Oceania, and all the people who are resisting modernity.

These make up the "residual" anthropology that gives life and interprets the xenophobic component that is in every contemporary culture. When intercultural mediation deals with such cases, it can do nothing but play with their limits and the sense of failure.

1.3.

The Intercultural Educative Model

With the project Roma T & T, we are going to develop a model of intercultural coexistence in kindergarten which would include the nomads. It is not a first pilot project and in Europe, we can compare different examples4. As it is a project that deals with "boundary". Because it includes, as we have seen above, several limitations, biographical, cultural and social, including those of the same educational institutions, who are faced with having to put their own goals in paradoxical relationship with the risk, or rather, frustration, that this entails.

Our model will be applied and then verified in four different communities (Athens, Bologna, Nyíregyháza, Valencia). The objective of the fund is to bring Roma children to educational institutions (and vice versa), working in prevention on pre-school education. The methodology is quite as open, as pedagogies in their respective countries. Commonly it was decided to base the action model on the practices of cultural mediation. The instrument and the technical resources used are taken from the involvement of specific skills: •

The educator - cultural mediator pair.

•

The training on intercultural mediation given to these operators

4

A great collection of educative project on Roma integration is INSETRom with project title: Teacher In-Service Training for Roma Inclusion , 134018-LLP-1-2007-1-CY-COMENIUS-CMP you can forward on http://www.iaie.org/insetrom/, where you can download the full document in PDF at Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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Moreover, among the techniques used in this project, there will be research-action 5. Not just for scientific testing of a pilot case, but to raise awareness of the actions and their effects, we will put in brackets the quantitative indicators. Thanks to the principle of research, this work will take on a sense of "adventure" that is well suited to border measures. In other words, all the stakeholders of the project will develop a suitable kindergarten for Roma and at the same time, verify that activities are a) with an ideal model of school cultural coexistence, b) is the model school "normal" part of its territory.

This model developed by the project Roma T & T, will be developed by each participant in the project in advance, and gradually compared with the pages collected below. These Guidelines would be the ideal reference, the synthesis model of intercultural school, or the table for discussion and exchange of experiences, of the various operators in different countries.

1.4.

The limitations and risks of the Guidelines

Interculturalism professed by the mediator, is based on a relativistic philosophy of the fund 6. Yet as open, the action of mediation it does not always coincide niether with formation principles nor with social policies of the various European territories. We have mentioned many risks involved in putting together: children, education, Roma, Europeans and mediation. To these risks we have responded with the method of action research. Now we see the limits of ethics and methodology that has in the intercultural mediation. You cannot mediate anything if one of the parties involved is absent. Mediation is similar to the processes of peace between communities in conflict, but on the treaty table, the mediator of peace keeping cannot meet with the delegate of only one of the parties.

Of course to only work with one of the parties involved may be an important and necessary step for a mediator but if you skip the meeting with the other party, it would be a false intercultural process, and an escalation of the conflict. The limit in advance of this guide for intercultural mediation, is that it cannot be adopted by those who will only work with the Roma or just without the Roma (or other groups strongly discriminated against). A scholastic model "separatist", even if justified by the defense of minorities, will not be considered in the perspective of a guide, based on the principles of intercultural mediation.

5

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/publ/pdf/roma/roma_en.pdf. Not a second group of tested Intercultural Kindergarden, but relevant for multilinguistic point of view, http://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/downloads/initiatives/COF03015USEN-KidSmart.PDF, and only in some cases it deal with our research, as for example, must read necessary the MALLETTE PEDAGOGIQUE – TEACHING KIT FOR ROMA CHILDREN , it is possible to received suggestions, then see at http://blogs.tc.columbia.edu/transitions/files/2010/09/62.Europe-Mallette-Pedagogique_profile.pdf, Only focused on Roma issue and childhood, completed and sponsored by UNESCO http://tandis.odihr.pl/documents/hrecompendium/rus/CD%20SECT%201%20laws/PR%20SEC%201/UNESCO%20&%20CoE%20Guidelines%20quality %20education%20for%20Roma%20children%20.pdf or in Italian by CNEL http://www.cnel.it/Cnel/view_groups/download?file_path=/shadow_documento_attachment/file_allegatos/000/000/550/ Nidi_20e_20servizi_20educativi_20per_20l_infanzia_20-_20Pronunce_66.pdf 6 Boas' student Alfred Kroeber described the rise of the relativist perspective, from Levi-Strauss, and the structural wave with first the linguistic and than semiotic adventure (in Italy U. Eco, Paolo Fabbri in Bologna), to Postcolonial studies sprite from M. Foucauld “Histoire de la folie” 1961 and with J. Derrida lessons, or Edward Said (1978), Orientalism, Random House, to our days Quayson, Ato (2000). Postcolonialism: theory, practice, or process?. Polity Press, Blackwell Publishers Ltd.. ISBN 0-7456-1712-3. Retrieved 22 November 2011.

Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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This is another important choice this guide makes, is to consider Roma as foreigners. In fact, let us think of an intercultural school. Why do we not want a specialized school only for Roma, which increases the stigmatization of the group? And why do we believe in a positive effect of admixture between migrants, that cushion ethnic identities? The wave of migration within and between European states is a unique opportunity for the Roma. By blending in, with this migratory river, integration tools which didn't exist until today can be found. Italian institutions for example are mostly in this direction: it considers a passport instead, and not the culture of reference. In terms of management of personal information, there is no identification of the Roma, but only of its country of origin.

This choice not to discriminate against Roma from other foreigners is not neutral and has some drawbacks. For example, the Sinti, in fact the Gypsy Italians, have been in Italy for centuries. And that is also why the intercultural school should not forget to attract Italians, for example, from different social backgrounds. Finally, two Intercultural mediators have to write, one of Italian origin and the other, a Greek. They have both had experiences, both in education and in mediation with the Roma community. But in a limited area and time. Both live in Bologna, and have little familiarity with the various European educational systems. A huge limit of the writer, is not to know, if not very indirectly, the Rom pedagogic school.

What is their history and transmitted system of values and their method. We can suppose it, compared with direct knowledge of adults and adolescents, but it is a search that will only start from the field work of the operators of the four pilot schools.

Another obvious limitation of these guidelines is the approach chosen by the project: practical (the pilot experiences, and of "boundary") and methodological (mediation, these very pages). On the training aspects of operators, we have moved well, but we cannot detect the gap between the professional training of an intercultural mediator (usually at least 600 hours) and the support provided to the project of intercultural educators.

Intercultural mediator trainers in their respective four pilot models, do not have access to all these hours in the training. The strategic choice to select one of two educators as a professional mediator, very much compensates this limit. But in any case, bear in mind that the Guidelines will only stimulate a process of acquisition of skills of the mediator, referring to the time of the individual operator, the task of bridging the professional gap.

In conclusion, these Guidelines should be read as: 1.

An Intercultural School model

2.

A line, or rather a comparison table (a Web site), which connects four pilot schools

3.

A practical guide on how to organize a training course for intercultural educators

1.5.

For whom are the Guidelines

This guide is intended for operators of the Project Roma T & T and besides, first and foremost intercultural teachers' trainers, training in various European cities. Publishing it on the web, and searchable by anyone, it can be a source of reflection for the different stakeholders involved, designers of social services and educational officials, intercultural mediators, experts or professionals of educational services for children and even single parents. We know that Guidelines can hardly be discussed directly in Roma families - even if an action towards this feedback will be worth thinking about. But ideally we expect much dialogue with the leaders of the nomadic communities, the active minorities of Roma, the civil associations that deal with it, and all the activists who face strong xenophobic discrimination in Europe.

Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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1.6.

The Intercultural Educator

Our hope is to design an ideal model of kindergarten. At the same time, we want to dedicate this design to a very special teacher: the intercultural teacher. In these Guidelines, we will try to define the skills and knowledge of this professional.

In Bologna (Italy), this role is covered today by scaffolding figures: the visits of intercultural mediators in schools. A medium used in exceptions for highly problematic cases, often as a pure language interpreter, the mediator works about a few hours each a year in school, or even in all the schools. Part of the knowledge on the issues of integration, was developed by support educators. Support that is given to individually "certified" children, (children with tested psycho-physically delays) to help them attend public schools. To these tutors, many foreign children have been entrusted, and some of these tutors indirectly have performed informally (and often unknowingly) roles of mediators in the classroom. But a strong limit to be achieved of these tutors of intercultural teachers is their strictly individual rule of engagement: they can only help one child at a time throughout the year. In addition, this profession lives with precarious employment contracts, for which the government does not invest in its training or requalification.

In reality, in the last ten years, up to 30-40% of foreign children have been integrated into each class in Italian schools, leaving the individual classroom teachers to figure out a way to work better. Intercultural education is carried out instinctively by school personnel, where there is (almost) always some teacher supporting the foreign children more than others. Maybe it is the teacher of a foreign language. Or just by nature and initial xenophobia, has built over the years a personal specialization, which later on is consulted by colleagues and they get involved when they have problems in the relationships with foreign students and their families. Intercultural education is carried out instinctively by school personnel, where there is (almost) always the intercultural teacher supporting the foreign children. It could be the teacher of a foreign language. Or just by nature and initial xenophobia, one who has built over the years. a personal specialization, which later on is consulted by colleagues and they get involved when problems occur in the relationships with foreign students and their families. In compulsory schools, this phenomenon was accompanied with official recognition. In every school there is now formally a helper, an ordinary teacher who is considered responsible for interculture, just as there was for security. This is a point of support and reference for the entire school, therefore acting outside the classroom for foreign children. In the last decade, hundreds of update courses on interculture have been organized for teachers of the Kindergarten and compulsory schools. They are usually a few tens of hours of training, attended by individual choice and voluntarily by the teacher.

In this context, our intercultural educator differs mainly because this is not a role of "emergency", which solves the problem for each foreign child and at the same time he is a mediator and an educator who has had firsthand experience of migration. He plays the role of the foreigner with the other teacher. His specialty is to work every day, with a group, insisting on a different learning of the language. It was designed from the very beginning as the sum and result of a couple: mediator-educator. Now we need to see whether from this pair, we can build a profile of skills and self-employment knowledge: a new specialty called "intercultural educator." Unwillingly, we are left to link the traditional teacher to a whole series of practices borrowed from several disciplines: the tutor, the anthropologist, the facilitator, the assistant, therapist, mediator (ombudsman), the interpreter, the language Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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teacher for foreigners (L2) and the teacher of second languages. The point of focus of the intercultural educator will be the constant theme of these guidelines.

Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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META_TRAINING: A course for a course in intercultural mediation

By Dimitris Argilopoulos

The Romani universe consists in a union of families, communities and groups that have a specific uniqueness, while preserving their personal differences. It's a reality recognized only through stereotypes and prejudices or rather it's an unknown reality, surrounded by silence. But this silence doesn't mean the absence of noise or a lack of existence. It's a multifaceted, diverse, unique presence which is not subject to our standards nor wants to be an alternative. A silent presence which is one of the most significant elements characterizing their being different, their differences, their conception of form and essence.

2.1. The "Gypsies" today: a case of intercultural "cohabitation" The not knowing, or not wanting to know, magnified and amplified by the mass media, several institutions and politics have distorted the public imagination to strengthen the absence of silence. Several historical periods have been characterized by ignorance, reaching its maximum stereotypical and prejudicial expression in the denial / extermination (holocaust - Porrajmos) that took place during the thirties and forties and during the advent of the mass media, which deprived individuals and communities from the Romani people of their own language which forms the core of their essence, ethnicity and cohesion.

A language, the Romani language, which has not yet fully found its written form, to be shared only with their own and to be preserved and to be defended because it is their identity and distinguishes and recognizes them from others, such as from the Gadže.

Existence is founded on words and on a name. Who resists and creates has the will to exist. The only thing you have when you have nothing is a name. The past and the present only converge in name. “Ho perduto il mio nome e il nome mi ha perduto” (“I've lost my name and my name has lost me”) 7. Names are accompanied by their own history and pass on the story to be passed. You cannot say your name without saying who you are and whose you are, what you have done and what you are doing, without even telling your emotions. “Si è tutti pezzi unici, non ci si può difendere dall’unicità che è impartita nel nome” (“Everyone is unique, you cannot defend the uniqueness that is given by a name”) 8.

The uniqueness of the name is not a defence, but a distinction to which one is taught and which also represents a characterizing feature of the ethnic and cultural heritage of both the Romani people and the Balkan people.

The importance of personal history, name-history, is also linked to the history of the family, group, community, ethnic group, but also to problems: residence permit, hunger, humiliation, displacement, persecution, unapproachable city ... but the name never loses 7

Erri De Luca, Giona/Iona, Feltrinelli, Milano, 1995, p. 86 Erri De Luca, Giona/Iona, Feltrinelli, Milano, 1995, p. 86

8

Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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its connotation. All his ties increase its singular autonomy and uniqueness. The knowledge based on one's name creates mutual esteem and exalts individuality.

This population, in order to survive, has to face rapid changes in a short time period which might take them towards a new balance of survival, meeting / clashing with the rest of the population and its forms of representation and various institutions; new processes of alienation are manufactured by our society against the Romani people, that no longer only involve hunger and misery, although still persisting elements, but also the loss of meaning, disorientation, homologation, passivity, freezing their ability to communicate.

If and when this reality is considered, it's real they are living in camps, temporary refugee centres or parking areas, living conditions which increase poverty, especially in their ability to socialize, and separateness.

This context of unsuspicious and legalized separation increases and perpetuates the differences in their "cohabitation": cultural differences and poverty, differences in diseases, in mental health and disabilities, cultural differences inherent to their group and culture which feed on separation, deviant proposals for integration with the rest of the population and a weak institutional proposal that offers integration. It's in this context that these differences are combined with the experiences of an ancient traditional culture, reformulated by the culture / subculture created while living in camps.

A life, as a result of an "inevitable" collocation historically justified by an equation ruling the same nomadic Romani people, who through long periods of time, institutionally supported, initiated mechanisms of cultural uprooting creating an own culture, a culture of apartheid.

The cultural changes and the urge to overcome their culture have become a prior need for young people, because they neither live in a traditional culture nor in a city culture, instead they live in a culture created in the camps.

The government only intervenes partially and sectorally, especially with social service interventions. The type of assistance is fragmented and sectoralized: in particular in response to emergencies, the long waiting times to relocate people who are living in camps, the community's dynamics and the integration in an urban context. They only address some of the problems concerning minors, leaving out adults, not considering any women's issues, nor the family's history and community.

The social policies responsible for these interventions are also the product of specific laws that seek to contemplate and discipline this phenomenon, parting mostly from the idea that we are dealing with nomadism, within which all communities are placed in an unique way and attributed the same characteristics, or to respond only in emergency situations (such as the migration flows from Yugoslavia) on a local level.

The presence of the Romani people is polymorphic, characterized both by the cultural, economic and social diversity of their communities, as by their way of stabilization, sedentarization and settlement on European territory, Italian territory and in EmiliaRomagna.

It's a presence defined by a rich and poor reality, isolated and repressed. A socially stigmatized presence covered by various institutions, since the vast majority of Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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interventions designed to help them part from the idea that their presence is a matter of public order.

The silent presence is forced to become an exclusion by banning them through evictions, expulsions, repatriations, expulsion orders, rejections, and by not applying the law. This exclusion is the result of the non-intervention policy by the government, justified by administrative measures and legislation that contradicts the modest laws protecting the Romani people. An exclusion based on treating difference with indifference. This element is also found when someone takes charge of the situation.

There are no precise figures on the current number of Romani people in Italy. Official figures are generic and show a presence of 130,000 people, but without stating the reference year and the method used. From the data of the NGO Minority Rights Group, based in London, that number is estimated between 90,000 and 110,000 (anno 1995), Caritas and other Italian NGOs estimate that there are currently between 60,000 and 90,000 Romani people with Italian citizenship and other 45,000 to 70,000 born abroad or in Italy with parents who have immigrated, especially from Eastern Europe, in particular from the former Yugoslavia.

2.2. The institutions and social policies The government only became aware of this phenomenon, the situation and living conditions of native or foreign Romani communities in the area, when the Romani people started to change-transform becoming a matter of public order in need of a set of policies to help them.

For nearly four decades, slowly and with different intervals, many communities found themselves in a situation no longer balanced by economic mechanisms which allowed their survival and their ability to socialize without conflicts with the rest of the population, because European societies transformed into a society excluding the Romani people from the labor market in which they had a precise and useful role.

At the same time they suffered and found themselves having to deal with defending their ethno-cultural identity, becoming vulnerable to the influence of the mass-media, television in particular. Inside the community these influences caused changes and strong losses on a linguistic level and in their lifestyles. The Romani language lost for the first time his cohesive character and identity, unique to the people belonging to the Romani community.

Parking areas, created by the municipalities and implemented in the regional legislation are the first organic intervention aimed at this population, now unable to continue living in their nomadic lifestyle with their traditional jobs which have become extremely scarce.

These interventions are only influenced by the logic to contain and analyse the development of social conflicts and are based on the idea that nomadism is the only distinguishable feature characterizing the Romani community.

Especially poverty, affecting the majority of the Romani community in various degrees, cannot be conceived in a process of transition and change, and consequently deals with obsolete social policy instruments, inadequate and not suitable to meet the needs and demands, which often are not spelled out clearly. The measures so far implemented have not considered the differences in change and intersection: cultural difference as a Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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difference that comes from poverty, gender and generational differences. Social policies only apply partial and sectoral interventions, characterized by logic, dependency, deficient planning and long term strategies.

2.3. Generational cultural conflicts and cultural conflicts in education in families of foreign origin Many Egyptian families think that by returning home they will avoid generational conflicts due to changes in the behaviour of their children who have moved away from tradition and have started to express costumes that are not allowed in the communities of origin. In the Somali culture, parents have the ultimate power over their children, many are granted their freedom, but under parental control and that of their community, they are obligated to respect their parents. This way of life creates confusion in their cultural identity, because they neither behave as an adult belonging to the community nor as a member of the mainstream population. Parents have more cultural references, in fact, first they were emigrants leaving their country of origin, then immigrants, tied to their workplace and their home because their existence is conditioned by economic needs, and their relationship with society is reduced to their "contract of employment". The immigrant's identity problem as an adult, is the difficulty of giving all his experience consistency, completeness, harmony and integration, all of these being part of their cultural identity 9.

Children can experience this process and be subjected to constraints against which they will tend to revolt: refusing to speak the native language, asking for things that are part of mainstream culture, such as how to dress, the kind of entertainment. Parents respond to this as if they were not living in the host country and ask their children to live as if they were in their country of origin. The first thing that children bring into question is the parental authority, because they see their parents living in the past, following a tradition without attachment to reality and without reference to the context of the community surrounding them. The level of family conflict significantly increases when the adolescent begins to attend school and assimilates the habits of mainstream population families, or their rites and customs, an influence, however, lived in a negative way by the family that does not accept it. For the young it promises a future of uncertainties regarding the legal and social status of their parents who are part of the migration project, which affects their lives, and creates a dual socialization home / school that makes them foreigners both here and there 10.

This situation of utter confusion that characterizes the child is determined by the lack of strong figures or groups with significant roles in their own community. In fact the culture of origin is often limited to the family. It's not enough to just talk about the culture of origin in the family, they need to bring in the current society, if not the child will refute its culture of origin, the only way to integrate into mainstream society 11.

2.4. Linguistic and cultural mediator in the school environment Based on the Ministerial Circular No. 205/90, the Ministry of Education, talking about 9

cfr. A. Perotti L’immigration en France CIEMM 1979 cfr. CD/LEI op. cit 11 cfr. F. Balsamo, intervento al seminario La mediazione culturale: uno strumento/risorsa per facilitare il rapporto fra culture diverse in Alma Mater 1997 10

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intercultural education in a multiethnic society, means: "[...] Intercultural education is a condition of multicultural society. The educational role in this type of society takes on the specific role of mediating between the different student's cultural backgrounds: not reducing the mediation to the contributions of the different cultures, but animating a continuous, productive comparison between different models.

Intercultural education reinforces the meaning of democracy, given that cultural diversity must be thought of as a positive resource for the complex process of growth of society and people. The main goal of intercultural education is the promotion of constructive coping skills in a cultural and social context. It involves not only the acceptance and respect of diversity, but also the recognition of its cultural identity in the daily search for dialogue, understanding and cooperation in a mutually enriching perspective. [...] intercultural education, while activating a process of acculturation, values the different cultures of origin. A challenging task because, although necessary, acculturation values the different cultures of origin. A challenging task because, although necessary, acculturation cannot be anchored to ethnocentric prejudices. The models of Western culture cannot be considered as paradigmatic values and, therefore, cannot be offered to students as conformation factors [...] " 12.

The definition provided by the official documents of the Ministry of Education, imply a change in the educational paradigm, with a renewal in the way of thinking by the Italian school system on the organic complex of schoolwork. Its aim is to "bridge the gap in developmental delay inherent to the human species and to start a paideia for the new millennium, that, thanks to the educational system, can also be supportive, multicultural, democratic" 13.

For D. Demetrius "interculturalism is not revealed unless someone makes the resolution to establish direct contact between the different worlds, viewpoints, religious views. For this reason, interculturalism cannot be an ideal movement or opinion, but can be every encounter, contact, or opportunity that will inspire forms and types of communication based, again, on three main pillars: helping someone who is in a state of malaise, mutual understanding, and finally cooperation to change the situation" 14.

2.5. Education in an intercultural context Europe is considered to have passed its emergency phase of migration, since the plurality of cultures and experiences that interact in the urban context are a reality from which it is impossible to escape. A working policy based on full citizenship, with full respect and recognition of the rights of citizenship implies becoming aware of the new context in which the European societies are located. An environment characterized by globality, interdependence, coexistence of different cultures and experiences, a number of approaches, experiences and ways of social life and existence. This implies a radical redrawing and redesigning of the own way of the city's being, as all institutions must be involved in a process of redefinition and redeployment. In fact, the institutions and their practices should focus on policies overcoming the processes of exclusion and xenophobia, which cannot be seen as something neutral. Institutions, have not yet been affected by the culture of difference, and, therefore, tend to reproduce the idea and put into practice a 12

www.pavonerisorse.to.it/intercultura/2000/mediatore.htm#quattro cfr. Documento I contenuti essenziali della formazione di base Commissione dei Saggi, 20 Marzo 1998 14 D. Demetrio G. Favaro op. cit p.p 25-26 13

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"monocultural" city, even when they claim to work in a multi and intercultural way. Within this context, there is a need of training which must necessarily relate to the complexity of the political and administrative practices of a city 15.

2.6 Society and change It's quite obvious that acting against a drifting xenophobia also implies acting in favour of a purpose with specific objectives. In Europe, we have experimented in different ways to understand the social relations within a multicultural city. One project, in particular, was the idea of assimilation. The principal idea was to "assimilate", make the “different” its own, integrate it, and create self-consistence. This perspective does not lead to a solution of the problem, in fact it evokes a vision of history in which some believe to have a different kind of personal and social fulfilment than “others”. The prospect of assimilation moves along an indisputable unilinear universalism, which tends to homogenization and which is unable to understand and govern the dynamics of complex pluricultural societies, creating only "containers of diversity" that are called upon to interact actively in the redefinition of the city they are living in but can only use a city designed by others and for others.

On the other side stands the perspective to value diversity within an intercultural context, where differences are called to live, to confront, to create a political space that is constantly called upon to redefine the rules of action and communication. It is a perspective that acknowledges that diversity is a structural fact and cannot be eliminated from our post-industrial social life. However, it is not an easy path to learn to live together with differences. On the one hand it implies the acknowledgment of the many differences that pass through our city, from the gender difference, until you reach the otherness of cultures. Deeper awareness implies assuming that the identity of a person is born and nourished in a different way. Every single person is touched by difference and otherness.

Learning how to live with difference is the same as learning how to live with yourself. First result of this vision is the necessary recognition of cultural rights as fundamental rights and indispensable to all human beings. Accepting diversity and plurality such as wealth, implies giving full meaning to democracy, which is only supported by diversity, in fact democracy without otherness is reduced to vain exercise 16.

2.7. The culture of interculturalism The main interlocutor in the mediator's job is the school, being the privileged environment in which the construction of a culture of interculturalism is implemented. It's an action with the widest range taking place in various contexts: a district, a metropolitan city, a country, Europe. A new way of understanding and practicing concepts such as that of citizenship, of belonging, of community, which refer to a deeper transformation of the concept of individual and social identity. This action requires more extensive resources and planning policies in welcoming immigrants and in taking care of both their cultural and basic needs.

Articulated policies that can be more effective when they involve institutional actors who through specific delegation assume multiculturalism as the object of their projects and their

15

cfr. tratto dalla relazione presentata all’incontro europeo tra le città che partecipano al progetto LIA Torino, Consiglio Comunale, settembre 1997 16 cfr. M. Tarozzi op. cit Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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concrete action 17.

This means using all "facilities" available to create positive integration that will lead to academic success of students in our schools and of adults in the social, cultural and economic world, and to support families in their relationship with the teachers and school authorities by providing them a cultural mediator and multilingual information tools. In addition, specific activities to teach both the adults and their children the host country’s language. Not forgetting initiatives aimed at facilitating cross-cultural communication between the parents.

The experience of the school's autonomy makes an intervention of this nature even more necessary and can be quite useful for schools to refer to a single point of the projected expertise and service, able to modulate specific needs in a social and educational context 18.

2.8. Psychological problems of the “foreign� student The first thing to consider when welcoming and integrating a foreign child in class, is his psychological appearance, since his complete educational career is based on his wellbeing and feeling good at school. The definition of "foreign and nomadic student" does not stress the different stories these children have lived, it is possible to distinguish various types of foreign students: those born in their host countries; those "reunited", meaning those who arrived alone or have been swept away by a collective exodus; those who arrived through international adoption; and children of mixed couples with one parent being an immigrant and member of the native or foreign Romani community 19.

Children who were born in Italy and in many European countries are destined to become, on their eighteenth birthday, fully "Italian/ European citizens". Parents watch them with a little bit of fear in their eyes, seeing the gradual erosion of their roots and their family culture. Those who came here to "rejoin" the broken families and live again with their parents, after years of estrangement, seeing them almost as strangers, have stopped communicating with them and sharing their everyday life. Children and adolescents who arrived in Europe to escape war, miserable situations and had great difficulties to survive, carry with them both moral and physical wounds. Foreign children arriving in their host countries as a result of international adoption, coming from Asia, Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, are forced to remove parts of themselves associated with their first life experiences and to assimilate the reality of the new country.

Children with a foreign mother or father already experience the management of differences within the family, and so they get used to be a bridge between different worlds. Romani children, with native or foreign nationality, are considered the most distant and carry the greatest number of negative stereotypes and prejudices20.

The common element is the way children and young people with different biographies "experience migration". For them it's not only moving from one place to another, it also means a profound change, a redefinition of the bonds of belonging. A change that results in feelings of loss and separation influencing the spatial and temporal references, the way 17

cfr. A. Belpiede op. cit cfr. tratto dalla Relazione op. cit 19 cfr. A. Belpiede op. cit 20 A. Perotti op. cit 18

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they see their country of origin and the country they migrated to, resulting in uncertainty in the image they have of themselves, of everyday life and the culture of origin. Disorientation can lead to difficulty, vulnerability, fragility and discomfort when the child fails to deal with the situation effectively even with the help of his family and his new environment. Only when children feel that their story is accepted and respected, when their needs are recognized and their knowledge respected, we can speak of a process of openness to the world.

2.9. Methods and strategies of reception The foreign student, and at the same time all the other students in the class, must find and/or build around him: 1.

A school environment prepared to receive him, to welcome him with sympathy, interest, affection, love and ready to involve him in individual and collective dialogue that values and focuses on all cultures (welcome posters written in multiple languages, posters in the name of coexistence, multicultural calendars, maps, world maps, thematic maps, photos of previously carried out multicultural activities, drawings ...). Teachers and cultural mediators can find valuable support to their activities using projects, materials, monographs, books, videos, bibliographies, dictionaries, files, teaching guides, intercultural shelves, music cassettes, links with representatives of foreign communities, consulates and embassies, multimedia tools.

2.

An environmental journey translated into several languages that allow him to understand the location where the school life takes place: classrooms, provided services, head office, canteen, gymnasium, laboratories, janitors’ address, consulting room, garden or courtyard, library, parents’ room, meeting room...

3.

He must feel an affectionate and calm attitude of teachers and classmates, interested in his presence and his origins, as a new member of the group, without becoming, to the exclusion of others, the center of all the psychological and educational attention (extended conversations about life experiences of each child, presenting their stories, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, legends, songs, games, music, festive celebrations, traditions, construction of maps that mark the journey that led him to us, the preparation of a "presentation paper" of everyone ...)

4.

He must be able to access, gradually, the knowledge of the host country’s language socializing in class, always in close relationship to his mother tongue. Initially through the acquisition of immediate use and simple nomenclature, simple sentences, graphic signs, through comprehension, expression and production of, written, read and spoken texts, linked to different contexts and curricular report.

5.

He must be able to rely on a linguistic and cultural mediator, who paves the way for understanding, communication, enhancement of his identity. The mediator has to be a keen observer of behavior, attitudes, emotions, physical and temporal relationships, learning, and must know how to use these expressions to work on coordination and training. The mediator has, therefore, a complex function that has to be fully recognized, Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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coming in close contact with the child, as well as the school structure, the families, the local authority, and will characterize his identity as a "social worker” 21.

In summary, the linguistic and cultural mediator interacts with: the teacher and pupils, the individual student and the class, the family and the families, the laboratories and the gymnasium, the collegial bodies and the territory, creating a dense network of relationships all designed to answer the needs of the foreign and nomadic student, guiding him with all his peculiarities and a proper definition of himself in relation to the world in which he lives, inside and outside the school.

Goals and Guidelines Assuming the school is the center of the new dynamics, requests and needs, the immigrant students and teachers must find an answer in new methodologies and contents that encourage interaction between students children of immigrants and natives providing at the same time equal educational opportunities.

Interculturalism is not limited to the value of tolerance and coexistence. The school is gearing up with language laboratories and support teachers, as well as training courses for those who are in service. However, it is essential that, people coming from countries with high immigration to Italy and, in particular, to the region of Emilia Romagna, get a supporting mediation figure in the school helping them particularly with the language, the relation with students, their families and teachers.

After the application of the new regulations about school autonomy that launches significant innovations and perspectives in this area, everything seems possible and desirable. In fact, the functional and flexible model introduced by the autonomy, "[...] is a guarantee of freedom, teaching and cultural pluralism and consist in the planning and implementation of education, teaching and training measures aiming at the development of the human being, adapted to different contexts, family demands and the characteristics of those involved, in order to ensure their educational success [...]. To this end, each school prepares the training plan [...]. " Article 7 of the same regulation promotes, in order to achieve the goal, agreements and conventions with "institutions, voluntary and private social associations" and the ability to obtain, upon presentation of a project, grants, loans, additional staff resources, in particular for those schools that are located in poor and risky areas or in areas with high immigration 22.

The figure identified to attend in the intercultural education process, in order to meet the demands and needs of the schools on one side, and the immigrated students and their families on the other side, is "the Linguistic and Cultural mediator”.

The cultural mediator’s professional role, can act as a bridge between the immigrated student and the school to which he belongs, taking into consideration his world of origin and the world in which he currently lives 23.

21

cfr. A. Surian (a cura di) Mediare parole e significati Rivista Cem/mondialità, Novembre 2000 www.linda.it/status.htm 23 cfr. Cooperativa Dedalus (a cura di) Documento tratto dal progetto CASBA, Azione integrata di formazione dei mediatori culturali per la prevenzione e la riduzione dei fattori di esclusione sociale Napoli 1999-2000 22

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The mediator intervention takes place in three different areas: linguistic, cultural and relational.

1 - Language: it’s necessary to provide language support to facilitate: a) Communication, and therefore the relationships in the group / class and with the teacher, during the first phase of integration and welcoming; b) Comprehension of educational courses offered by the teachers; c) Comprehension of disciplinary languages; d) Learning consolidation.

2 - Culture: In this area, the mediator, precisely considered as "the one who is in the middle" can’t be just a member of his/her own culture or an interpreter of the host culture, because in this case he/her would not implement any type of interaction between one side and the other, but should represent the element that allows for dialogue, facilitating the "relativization" of positions, and therefore, the relationship. Too often we make the mistake of thinking about culture as a fixed and static identity, instead culture is dynamic, characterized by continuous changes and interactions resulting the phenomenon of intermarriage which is the real protagonist of history. An example could be, the choice, and therefore respect, of certain shared rules, which aren’t unilaterally imposed by the host culture but by mediation and negotiation between different instances in a secular context such as that of the Italian school.

3 - Relational: the mediator’s task is to establish a relationship between the families of the immigrated students and the teachers and in general with the school institution, with the purpose of making parents aware and involve them in the educational process of their children. Therefore dialogue and relations between the different components are facilitated, which usually is very difficult due to the mutual lack of language understanding.

This can’t be considered a secondary activity; on the contrary, given the importance of cultures to meet, it should be treated in a particular way. Therefore it needs time and should be included in the programming.

The linguistic and cultural mediator must know the school system of the host country as well as the system of his/her country of origin and must be able to work in agreement and collaboration with each teacher, but also with the Class Council and the Academic Board, by which is officially recognized, because the school should be in charge of the intercultural educational process.

The cultural mediator must:  provide adequate support to teachers regarding the integration and welcoming of students from "other" cultures;  make the teachers aware of initial difficulties, behaviors, habits and prior skills of the immigrated students, facilitating integration, comprehension and consequent academic success; 3- perform the function of cognitive mediation, supporting the teachers, regarding: a-translation and comprehension of the school curriculum; b-comprehension of the host country’s school programs for immigrated students; c-comprehension of spoken and written host country’s language; d-comprehension of disciplinary language.

4- facilitate the dialogue and relations, both from a linguistic and cultural point of view, between teachers and 24 families of immigrated students .

5- contribute to plan an intercultural lesson involving foreign students.

6- act as an "animator / social worker, organize cultural events with the aim of making the participants aware 25 of cultural diversity and promoting the comparison between them."

Conclusions The mediator is likely to become a kind of entertainer who gladdens with costumes, food 24 25

cfr. Testo dattiloscritto La cultura dell’Intercultura AMIL Bologna 2000 cfr. E. Nigris (a cura di) op. cit Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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and dances. In many "good" speeches that are made, we always forget that many of those people who need mediation, don’t even have access to a written form of their mother tongue, because this has been replaced by other languages such as French, English, Spanish. The internalized cultural models have very little of the original ones and are "contaminated" because they are the result of yesterday's colonialism and today’s globalism.

It often happens that the cultural mediator is called only once the intercultural intervention planning is finished, assuming in this case, a folkloristic function or being a simple interpreter of the given information. Instead, the mediator should be involved from the beginning, in the planning and development of contents, forms and methods of operation.

A real mediation can only take place in a context of equal opportunities, where both cultural and socio economic variables must find place. These variables operate in the relationship between the subjects of the mediation. For this reason it is preferable to speak of socio cultural mediation and intercultural communication operator.

2.10. The effort to show the coexistence Viewing the pogroms against the Romani people, the daily evictions and expulsions, the institutional and legalized violence, leads us to see the other as a fugitive, someone who can’t and isn’t allowed to stabilize and have that necessary respite to settle in a territory, to grow on its land and speak with its people, along with the old and new citizens who think and interact putting themselves at the same level passing from a situation of integration to one of social mobility. Talking about the Romani people as binomial nomadism / permanence is simplistic and prone to distortion, it becomes absolutive and takes us away from the responsibility of our direct actions as well as those from the various institutionas.

It’s necessary to go further and focus on the combination of escape-truce to get a first approach of thought and dialogue. Start with the difficult questions to find proximity of knowledge and coexistence.

Since it is a minority, we easily think of it as a unique thing, described once and for all as monomorphic, not distinguishing the inside from the outside, it's necessary to consider the entire constellation of groups of Romani people and Sinti people and all what concerns "nomadism" as a presence that varies both as a group and as an individuals. We find it hard to understand that some of them are children and adults, men and women, and that there are not elderly people, and we continue to insist, to make policies on nomadism, alternating evictions and pogroms, policies that do not permit their stability in the territory.

In Emilia Romagna we still have law 47 dating from 1988, which speaks of policies and promotion of nomadism, when the so-called "nomads", once confined in camps, have never moved away from the outskirts of these cities and now need measures of deinstitutionalization in order to embark on a path of integration and social inclusion. No one, not the people with political responsibilities, not the people with technical responsibilities wonder about the opportunity and the justice of implementing this law today; creating a paradoxical situation in which the rights are suspended through law as conceived in the L.R 47/88, and a lack of consideration / satisfaction of needs through their re-invention in drafting the law.

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process, a continuum, where discrimination and racism are practiced, sometimes institutional racism, which is impunibile. You can refer to the "nomads" in a racist and discriminatory way and the reference is "natural" a securitarian context, no one gets indignant, we can mistreat others because they are "nomads" and / or "gypsies", therefore, subject to correction and venting. The speech tangles up and distances us more, in discriminatory terms, in our daily operations: where we should have the duty to approach and work with them, we self-referentially exclude their ability to change every approach in all social and health areas, whenever there is a report of service delivery, a helping report and institutional duty, the "nomad" is mentioned as a person who cannot learn and therefore cannot change through learning and a cultural bio-political "programming", objectifying him and placing him in the discrimination of our racism. From this point of view we must return to reflect on nowadays racism to overcome, to approach and understand better what is differentialist racism: an acted racism, not always intentional and prepared, which recognizes the difference, and so, leaves the subject with no other possibilities: “You were born a gypsy and you will die a gypsy". Racism that affects the dynamics of the approaches and relationships, making the encounter useless, reinforcing the stereotypical image of not being able to change creating collision and indifference.

We approach the Romani people and the Sinti people, actually surrounded by silence, through their silence. We learn that this silence is not a ‘not being’ or the absence of noise, but a presence / multiform reality, varied and, at the same time unique, not subject nor an alternative to our presence. Silence / presence should be considered, valued and recognized as "their other", which proceeds with misunderstandings and misconceptions, which builds arguments to justify the distances: those taken in dehumanizing distance necessary to implement the repression.

Our silence, the silence of "their other", sometimes full of noise, tends to be global and is invested institutionally and politically. It is a silence that confuses the individual and collective responsibility, by making us "forget" our responsibilities. It is the silence of one who speaks wickedly, of those who approach us using a constantly-oriented disorientation relative to the discomfort of tolerance, of those who "work" in seeking the distinctions of individual and collective responsibilities. To clarify, once again, today making a distinction between individuals and groups is an imperative and has become an educational device, an individual and professional duty but also a duty as a citizen, towards us and everyone we deal with.

We still find it hard to consider the history we have in common, and even harder to find alternatives to this story, we take it for granted, something determined by destiny.

Research at European level is not interested and is silent about the “gypsy” slavery period in Europe. Our universities, direct their attention to farther slavery, on the other half of the globe. "Gypsies", on the contrary, are our other inner-selfs, our slaves to re-educate, important for our courts, but they are too close and could be - and for us they are – carriers of social and other kinds of danger, because they are "wrongly made ".

We, Europeans, cannot be represented as an object of study, we have immunity; barbarism is something that only belongs to others. It is the absence of self-doubt and lack of interest, which however, fill us with fatigue, even to learn from forms of socio-cultural mediation.

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THE INTERCULTURAL MEDIATION Theory, Criticism and Scientific References

By Dimitris Argilopoulos

In this chapter we wish focus on the new professions under the names of: • • • • •

the mediator, the intercultural mediator, the socio - cultural mediator, the linguistic mediator, the facilitator between cultures.

The various figures of "mediator" mentioned above require a precise definition of the domain that characterizes them, because depending on the user, their culture reference to gender, age, and the context in which, if it concerns the social services or the administration, different needs arise, that must match the specific mode of action of the operator - the mediator.

The concept of advocacy differs from that of empowerment, which seeks to help a person to speak for himself, to help himself by using the best information obtained and more effective intervention strategies, in other words, it helps the individual to achieve the greatest possible independence. The mediator represents the ability for the user to represent himself in an autonomous way, even with the help of someone who facilitates linguistics and culture communication with the service and its operators 26.

3.1.1 Historical overview Mediation is the result of a long evolution. The point from which you can understand the mediation, is the awareness of the different mechanisms of ancestral domain from man to man. However, the manifestation of this realization coincides with the rejection of the disorder by "civilized man".

Firstly, the mediation means "to be in the middle of", its earliest use dates back to the Sumerian writing and its function was theological, acted as an intermediary between God and man. Afterwards the term mediation has acquired the sense of "division" to assume, then, in the modern era, the meaning of action designed to reconcile the people, the parties to the dispute. More precisely, the term refers to the position of mediator "between" the two parties to the conflict 27.

The concept of mediation is not completely new; it is rather a mixture of practical conflict of widely different peoples and cultures. If you look at the four most important basic ideas of mediation, namely: the intervention of third parties on the basis of impartial mediators, the involvement of all parties to the conflict, the extrajudicial plan as well as not constraint, both in the proceedings and the acceptance of the outcome, there are many variables in this type of conflict mediation in other countries, cultures and periods 28.

26

cfr. E. Nigris (a cura di) op. cit Cfr. J. Morineau op. cit 28 cfr. J. Folberg, A. Taylor Mediation. A Comprehensive Guide to Resolving Conflicts without Litigation San Francisco 27

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"The concept of mediation is most widespread in China and Japan, where religion and philosophy has always attached great importance to the consensus, cooperation and harmony. In ancient China, the mediation was a means to resolve disagreements and in Japan was up to the village leaders to help people to resolve their disputes. In ancient Greece, the conflicts between the cities - had been reconstructed with the conciliatory intervention of other cities. In many African tribes, there is the popular assembly as an institution, everyone has the right to convene such an assembly, in which a person who enjoys particular respect acts as a mediator to help the parties involved to resolve their conflicts without having to use a process that provides for appeal to the court or the application of sanctions. Other examples of mediation have been found in the villages of Jordan, Melanesia, Latin America and Spain, as well as representatives of churches and religions have often assumed a function of conciliator of conflicts29. In Western Europe during the Middle Ages, the Church was the most important instance in mediation and conflict resolution, because the priests acted as mediators in family disputes, in crime and in the diplomatic conflict.

"Since the sixties, the concept of mediation, in contemporary usage, is being developed in the United States. Those years were characterized by their original ideas of the protests against the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, the student protests and the redefinition of roles between the sexes meant that you should develop alternatives to the traditional legal system perceived as inadequate. The Community Relations Service (CRS) of the U.S. Department of Justice, founded in 1964, is an institution that should help to resolve conflicts and discrimination of race, ethnic or national origin, through the mediation and negotiations. With the abolition of apartheid had created a lot of potential for conflict that should not be expressed on the streets or in a violent way or brought to court, then through this institution have defused many of the major battles of those years" 30.

In the seventies increased consistently the dissemination and application of the process of mediation, were established in the communal area the first Neighborhood Justice Centers (NJC), which provides mediation services free or low cost, dealt with disputes between landlords and tenants, family disputes and matrimonial problems with neighbors, vandalism, violent discussions. The area in which mediation has grown faster is that of family conflict, due to the rapid increase of the separation between spouses.

It’s amazing that only in the eighties, some individuals have carried the concept of mediation in Europe, although there were and there are similar approaches in the work of counseling, psychotherapy talks and theory on the conflict.

In international politics, the concept of mediation is not well defined. "In the meaning that the United Nation makes means all activities of reconciliation that is based on explicit and implicit or tacit party to the conflict and in which the mediators offer the proposals of content and procedure for the settlement of the conflict " 31.

3.1.2. What is meant by mediation 1984 (p.p 1-7) cfr. W. Moore The Mediation Process San Francisco 1986 (p.p 19–24) 30 C. Besemer op. cit pp. 47-48 31 K. Skjelsbaek The UN Secretary-General and the Mediation of International Disputes in Journal of Peace Research XXVIII 1991, n.1 p. 110 29

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There is still no clear definition of mediation, we can find, in fact very different descriptions, and difficulty to provide professional advice and specific and precise operational indications. For example, mediation is described as "a delicate and valuable role that fosters communication and allows going beyond a simple act of interpretation, the establishment of a real dialogue that takes into account the different cultural values and social systems of indicated reference subjects ", and the mediator "means a person becoming part of a team working on intercultural collaboration and contributes to defining and solving problems" 32.

In this regard, we recall the importance of a collegian work and complementarity, indicating that the mediator "is called to respond to the needs of the region through participation in a work, which includes a larger group of operators complementary between them�33.

Elsewhere we speak about linguistic mediation in terms of interpretation, but also of cultural intermediation "through the acquisition of socio - anthropological tools and methods, the intermediary figure can help to decode the users' needs, indicating the formulation of specific strategies intervention and actively recover the cultural values that immigrants bring with them" 34. Others have spoken about a role of mediation / facilitation, which is expressed in response in the different levels: to mediate between individual users and services, helping the first to understand the proposals, decisions, procedures relating to him and to express the most of their needs and motivations; bring to the attention of the competent authorities and operators of services that the in policy and practice of work is found more or less suited to the interests and needs of the user35.

In the area of supranational, the French experience offers two types of mediation that could also be transferred.

The first is to facilitate communication and understanding between people of different cultures, in dispelling misunderstandings between social workers and immigrants, who build an obstacle to a proper practice, these misunderstandings are inherent in the intercultural integration and concerning, partly to differences in the systems of codes and cultural values, from high to status differences, prejudices, stereotypes and mutual resentment.

The second type of mediation refers to the resolution of value conflicts that may arise between immigrant families and the host society, or conflicts that may arise within the families themselves, who experience the process of acculturation�36. Analyzing the definitions in the Italian dictionaries, the new Zingarelli defines mediation as "the activities of those who interposes between two or more parts to facilitate relationships and agreements" and the mediator "as those who contribute to the achievement of an agreement between two or more parties". The Garzanti dictionary refers to the word mediate in terms of "being interposed, being in the middle". The Devoto Oli defines mediation as "action taken by third parties in order to achieve a meeting and an agreement 32

cfr. G. Favaro (a cura di) testo dattiloscritto Interdialogo. Donne Mediatrici per costruire ponti e tessere relazioni Centro Come, Milano 1997 33 Cfr. Harambe, Associazione culturale Mediatori culturali e corsi di formazione per mediatori culturali Riflessioni e proposte per il comune di Torino 1994 34 L. Bandera Integrazione degli immigrati europei in Immigrati/risorse, Atti del seminario, COSPE Bologna 1993 p. 43 35 cfr. COSPE Progetto di formazione di tecnici per attivitĂ specifiche in Immigrati/risorse, Atti del seminario Bologna 1993 36 E. Nigris (a cura di) op. cit p.p 384-385 Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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/ understanding, especially in the diplomatic and commercial field". If somebody wants to contribute to the definition of this term, the first limit to be imposed is numeric. The mediation, in order to be carried out, requires the involvement of at least three parts. The role of the user of a service, the bearer of specific needs to which the service is called to respond, it is quite clear, but it is necessary to distinguish the role of an operator to that of a mediator. The main difference lies in the fact that an operator of a service, usually represents that part of the service and its staff, both as a stable figure either as a consultant or volunteer, while a mediator is interposed between the two parties. Mediation, therefore, takes place in a "mental space between them, which maintains a central position with respect to several parts comparison, different from each other, but compact and highly consistent within them, unable, however, to identify elements that allow realizing a meeting and a constructive exchange" 37.

According to E. Nigris, the second aspect that contributes to characterize the mediation and the mediator is impartiality, where impartial is defined as one who judges dispassionately and objectively. For example, in a school the mediator cannot be nor the defender of the child or the family of ethnic minority, or the defender of the school; if the impartiality of a mediator is compromised it will not be possible for the two parties trust mediator, who becomes an ally or enemy, lawyer for the child or for the school38.

The NGO ICS, speaks of cultural mediation that defines as follows: "to carry out the professional activity of the mediator is to build relationships between different cultural systems. The work consists of an interpreter activity, to establish a communication between the immigrants who do not speak the language of the host country, and operators of hospitals, the sanitary services, the clinics and public offices39. But not only, to mediation means to translate the structures of thought, language, culture and religion, to interact with people from different countries".

According to D. Demetrius, all educational activities and / or social constitutes a mediation.

Education - as claimed Mialaret - is a specific form of communicative relationship between persons who, in an asymmetric position, are involved in a process where communication is always translation or mediation.

Each professional of education and of the of social services filed knows his own way of behaving and communicating the different knowledge and different modes of possible problem solving, and is born from a specific way of interpreting the world, society, the purpose the values, the meaning of life itself.

As he writes D. Demetrius, "each one, more unconsciously than rationally, communicating, translate his way of thinking always and in all cases, and implement, in doing so, always a cultural mediation" 40. When we are faced with a social or education situation we are dealing with operators, professionals that should be aware of this process and therefore should also consciously strive not so much and not only to translate (transform a message from a code to another), but rather to invent a method, an intermediate zone and that 37

cfr. M. Zoccarato Strategie di mediazione culturale nelle società multietniche: risultati di un’indagine empirica sul profilo professionale del mediatore culturale nell’area milanese Tesi di laurea Università degli Studi di Milano 1994-95 38 cfr. E. Nigris (a cura di) op. cit 39 http://ip21.mir.it/ics/accoglienza/coopmediazione.htlm 40 D. Demetrio, G. Favaro Bambini stranieri a scuola La Nuova Italia, Firenze, 1997 p. 5 Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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allows them to understand each other and independently from the prejudices and beliefs. If this is the case, then every teacher, every trainer, every social worker is in itself intercultural mediator as is communications specialist.

The action of mediation is to identify the different positions represented, gaps or differences that prevent effective communication, the possible hooks and common points to build a shared language through which the protagonists can engage in a dialogue increasingly autonomously and effectively, rather than reveal and / or manage conflicts that may arise.

In summary, we have seen how mediation can be defined as "an action between two people or groups that participate freely in institutional transitions and whom will still have responsibility for conducting the transaction, as well as the right to make final decisions with respect the work required by the user to the service. The act of mediation is intended to promote new and more effective forms of communication between the two parties, or heal those cracked in order to foster mutual understanding, both linguistic and cultural, between users and service (among children and teachers, directors, principals ...; between latter and the family) in overcoming gaps, prejudice, mistrust, mutual fears" 41.

3.1.3 Intercultural Mediator: a definition The definition of intercultural mediator, still taken from Demetrius, can be summed up: "intercultural mediator is the teacher that with knowledge, asks and organizes himself to promote not just the transition from one culture to another but the synthesis, where possible between cultures in order to create pedagogical moments able to go beyond their differences" 42. The "good" mediator must be put in a fourfold self-reflection that concerns, first, the purposes of his report, in which climate or environment implements he communicates, what he wants to communicate, and to finish what he wants to know the other party that listens. From self-reflection is created a virtuous circle of intercultural communicator that faces the problem of choosing the correct forms, build an interactive space appropriate to identify the themes and subjects to tell and to be told, show interest in the personal stories, the styles of life, narratives.

It is not, as it can be seen, to get hold of other cultures but rather to build in a mediated way, reasoned and informed a place, a relational sphere, or a network of mediation where differences can occur, talk, meet, distance, self-recognize and hector- recognize. Thus ends Demetrius, "mediation which is already part of the teaching profession becomes Intercultural when the teacher prepares the conditions so that there will be established the four previous requirements in relation to the views, lifestyles, desires, and finally to feelings" 43.

As a result derives the definition of cultural mediator in education field "he or she who as members of communities of children have a responsibility that they are not completely dispersed and make them known to Italian children." 44 41

www.pavonerisorse.to.it/intercultura/2000/mediatore.htm#quattro D. Demetrio G. Favaro op. cit p. 5 43 D. Demetrio G. Favaro op. cit p. 8 44 www.pavonerisorse.to.it/intercutura 42

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The cultural mediator, then, first of all facilitates linguistic and cultural communication between user and operator, fostering mutual understanding, preventing conflicts or contributing to the constructive management of those who eventually emerge.

3.1.4 The linguistic cultural mediator As for the linguistic mediator is a person "skilled in the language and culture of the country of origin of the students". 45 Obviously the linguistic mediator operates not only on linguistic mediations to the native language, but also of mediation on language and culture of foreign origin, that is, restoration and preservation of the language and culture of origin; interventions in literacy of foreign adults, and finally, work on the linguistic mediation from the host country’s language into the languages of foreigners 46. The Cies, NGOs based in Rome, working on training projects, speaks of linguistic-cultural mediation, proposing the following definition: "the linguistic and cultural mediator is a new professional figure, foreigner himself, which facilitates the entry of foreign nationals into the social context of the host country, acting as an intermediary between the needs of the migrant and the answers offered by public services. It is a professional that acts with respect to the neutrality, of equidistance between the institution and a user, using the professional secrecy. Coming from the same country of origin of the migrant, the mediator ensures interventions not only of linguistic interpreting, but also cultural orientation. To establish a real dialogue between foreign users and service operators, as well as the translation of words, there is a need of an explanation of the ideas and behavior. Every language conveys messages, values and beliefs that are constitutive elements of communication: the correct interpretation is the basis for an effective dialogue". 47 3.1.5 The ethnic tutor The "1997 Report on the situation of children and adolescents", affirms that in the interest of foreign children, ethnic identity should be a choice and that this leads to a precise verification of what this opportunity is guaranteed, evaluating meanwhile the difficulties that could prevent its realization. The report, after stating that they are essentially three major obstacles to overcome, such as: lack or excess of visibility, the obligation of migration, the identity earthquake; stops to point out some specific positive action, aimed at strengthening the original ethnic identities, intermediate step along the path to real multicultural and multiethnic society based on intercultural matrix.

Among the positive actions the report considers as essential a new and specific professional figure, which can be defined ethnic tutor with the task of "taking care of the child with a view to ethnic protection and an advisory role in particularly significant places as the border, the police, the child-care facilities, school, hospital, prison, recreational facilities, care centers, local authorities, etc.. 48"

45

M. Castiglioni La Mediazione linquistico-culturale F. Angeli, Milano 1997 www.cies.it 47 A. P. Pisani (a cura di) L’utilizzo della risorsa di etnia minoritaria in campo sociale e sanitario in Italia ed in Europa testo dattiloscritto 2000 48 www.pavonerisorse.to.it/intercultura/2000/mediatore.htm#quattro 46

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In some respects the ethnic guardian seems to be approaching the figure of the cultural mediator, often reduced to a single role of an interpreter. Instead, says the Report "the activities of the ethnic tutor go beyond and begin by the need to ensure respect for ethnic identity of the child, even in a perspective of defense and mediation. It’s a very important task is aimed at promoting the mediation between minor, family, arrival society and, if present, the community of origin. 49

3.1.6 The mediation as communicative action in the intercultural field: theoretical framework Mediation, and this is seen in the operation of services, is a communication in a given socio - cultural space between different actors. In fact we can say that the socio - relational space is structured as a network of symbolic codes and meanings. This is also true for personal services and the training system as a whole. The operator of intercultural communication must have a whole of knowledge and know-how which refer to a relational approach based on the principle of listening sympathetically 50.

As stated by H. G. Gadamer, "The problem of mediation between two worlds, the world of work (for us immigrants) and the world of the reader (the mainstream population) is a problem of interpretation of the meaning and significance through a communicative process of encoding, decoding and recoding. Understood as a problem of integration as circularity of mutual understanding. Listening to the others involves the effort of understanding and understanding should be thought of as a part of the event of meaning is the product of a communicative space meaningful for all stakeholders". The theory of the intercultural experience as you experience raises the question of the meeting as possible between different horizons, the immigrant and the services of mainstream society. As Gadamer says, "in the relationship with the other [...] what matters is how you really experience the you, that is be able to listen to his call and let him talk to us. [...] Without this radical openness to each other there is no human connection. Being related to each other always means, altogether, know how to listen to each other. 51" It can be seen from these considerations, that the operator - mediator of intercultural communication goes beyond the simple function of interpreting language, whose role can be thought of in an optical system in an integrated work of the network. This means the relationship with other professionals working in social services - education and involves the question seriously about upgrading the skills of these figures which are in contact with the users immigrant 52.

49

http://ip21.mir.it/ics/accoglienza/coopmediazione.htlm cfr. M. Castiglioni op. cit 51 cfr. H. G. Gadamer op. cit 52 cfr. Conferenza op. cit 50

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The needs of mediation and its functions 3.2.1 The needs of mediation and its functions The need of a mediation process, arises when people belonging to different cultures, establish two-way communication, in socio - institutional contexts characterized by an imbalance of power between the participants in the interaction.

On the one hand we have those who belong to the dominant culture, and for this reason are considered bearers of truth, civilization and progress, while on the other we have the members of minority cultures, in respect of which the majority group develops stereotypes and prejudices. These situations are a source of misunderstanding and misunderstandings that can lead to blocks in communication or ineffective communication, if not racism more or less evident, with the violation of human rights of foreigners 53.

Analyzing the needs of mediation of users belonging to minority cultures and operators who must respond, we can define mediation as a process of decoding dual and mutual communication which is carried out at three levels: a practical level – orientation - is a type of mediation explicitly requested by users of ethnic minority, which bewildered in front of a network of services foreign to them, ask to be guided and accompanied in their first contacts with the institutions of the new country. The mediator's task is to explain the operation of the service, indicating the most feasible routes within the public and private system.

The linguistic - communication level, sees mediation as interpreting, taking, however, into account the cultural determinants such as blocks and communication difficulties. Cultural differences can be very confusing, so an interpreter "to fill information gaps, explain the differences, cultural misunderstandings, the way of thinking of one part to the other and drive both to a satisfactory understanding" therefore cannot be an empty container that simply translate words from one language to another54.

Cultural mediation has the task to understand the messages of both sides, through the creation of a broad context of communication including both of them, so that an individual is able to enter in the cultural imagination of the other. The mediator must have a deep knowledge of both cultures, and diversity, prejudice, stereotypes and disadvantages that ethnic "minority" suffer with respect to indigenous peoples.

The third level, called psycho - social underpinning the concept of mediation itself and the possibility of its implementation on the recognition of the plurality of cultures and history as a multidimensional process. The concept of mediation - cultural, refers to the concept of culture, understood as a dynamic process in which certain ways of life may disappear, to be replaced or modified, while others can be met by different cultures and be gradually recognized or modified 55. From this point of view, cultural mediation becomes a dynamic agent of change that promotes the exchange and the change of values and meanings assigned to words, gestures, actions, behaviors considered hitherto unchangeable 56.

53

cfr E. Nigris (a cura) op. cit cfr. J. Shackman The right to be Understood Nat. Extension College, Cambridge 1984 55 cfr. B. Bernardi Uomo, cultura e societĂ Franco Angeli, Milano 1991 56 cfr. P. Rossi Cultura e antropologia Einaudi, Torino 1983 54

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Mediation is a tool used to demonstrate the porosity and the dynamic nature of culture, through which we can connect to the concept of "cultural identity" and how it undergoes processes of change followed the experience of migration, which brings the subject to get in migrant discussion, to rethink, redefine himself 57. Finally, do cultural mediation is not just an activity of interpretation, to establish communication between the immigrants who do not speak the language of the host country and service operators, but it means "translate" the structures of thought, language, culture, religion, and the interaction of people from different countries. The operator must deal with patterns of behavior and socio - cultural traditions, not only different from the host country’s system, but that can often come into direct conflict with our policies, our customs and traditions. This requires the mediator with interpersonal communication skills, the ability to create a relationship of trust and above all requires that the operator knows in depth the foreign cultural systems, together with National and Community legislation on the rights of foreigners, their integration at school and on the host country’s system. The activity takes on specific characteristics according to the different areas in which they act: we can speak of education facilitating, interpretation, cultural mediation, school mediation, reception and first orientation, etc. the work involves very different interventions, in order to set the action each time and to seek appropriate resources and partnerships as a result of the degree of autonomy of the foreign citizen to whom it applies, the severity and type of problem, culture of origin, age and sex 58.

3.2.2 The mediator's role in intercultural communication The inclusion of this figure in the social - welfare services, community health and education, would lead to a change in response to social needs, improving the services provided by the services and promoting the rights of citizenship under fair conditions for immigrant minorities. The function of the mediator would help the development of intercultural policies in line with an increasingly multiethnic society, where the goal becomes equal partnership with the immigrant population and not just a duty of care 59.

The mediator must be a communications expert in the field of interculturality, a professionally trained person to be a facilitator in the interactive processes of communication in different contexts such as school, social relations in the neighborhood, health, social services, the world of work, the situations of discomfort, "[...] to allow different cultures to meet as fully as possible, showing impartiality. 60" The appearance featuring a mediator is not so much the knowledge of a language other than the mainstream language, but the fact that they have built through their migratory experience, a system of knowledge and know-how that should be strengthened, developed, reworked as a set of communication skills in the social – cultural area. They should, therefore, have revised their migratory path and must be able to transform its existential competence in professional skills 61. This means that the operator - the mediator, through a good training, become an expert in the field of communication since, just the fact 57

cfr. C. Geertz Antropologia interpretativa il Mulino, Bologna 1991 cfr. M. Tarozzi La mediazione educativa. Mediatori culturali tra uguaglianza e differenza CLUEB Bologna 1998 59 www.pavonerisorse.to.it/intercultura/2000/mediatore.htm#quattro 60 E. Nigris op. cit p. 378 61 cfr. Conferenza op. cit 58

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of being an immigrant does not mean being in possession of the requisites necessary for the action of mediation.

The mediator has a range of knowledge and practical know how that allow them to interpret, to decode the question of immigrants, then decode it in an understandable way to an encounter of services and the area of languages, histories, cultures and different communication styles.

The operator - mediator integrates and supports a set of existing professional resources because compensates for the work of the service operators, transmitting their knowledge, information and know how essential for the management of hospitality 62.

Finally, the mediator must have the cultures in their entirety, without value judgments, and without censorship for fear of a possible conflict in cases where there may be incompatibility. No need to hide a conflict, but it is up to the mediator to prevent differences from becoming conflict, and to manage and resolve a conflict if and when it occurs63.

The figure of mediator of interpersonal communication, we can contrast the functions implemented by a "linguistic mediator" whose function is limited in facilitating communication and understanding language, between ethnic minority user and the operator of a service in a context of unequal power, respecting the rights of both parties. In addition, he undertakes to keep abreast of the latest regulations, circulars, laws, etc. pertaining to the situation of the users and operators. The mediator shall share the messages and clear and comprehensive information in the content, and finally, in the case of injustice, lawlessness, lack of respect, sexism or racism against him, has the right to withdraw, and reserves the right to protect themselves in the legal field. 64 By the case of requests for mediation by cultural services, it appears that the linguistic mediator is more required than the socio - cultural mediator. This can be caused by a lack of involvement of operators in the project of integration of socio - cultural mediation in the services, as some operators do not consider cultural differences an important feature to work properly against citizens "others." Or it may be that some cases require only interventions on interpreting language. The socio - cultural mediator is also an interpreter, but not only, because in some cases must interpret only the language but also in other traditions and customs. In this regard, one of the conditions that prompted the mediator is the knowledge of the mainstream language, at least one European language and a good familiarity with the languages and dialects of the geographical area of origin, surely this can be done through a good professional training.

One of the elements that arises distinction between the operator and the mediator, is the fact that the mediator even outside of work continues to be present in your community or in the foreign community in general, and lives continually community problems, remaining also for many years with the same services. This is a valuable continuity that is opposed to the continuous movement of the operators from one service to another.

In addition, there may be facts of illegality and irregularity of the user, due to the fact that he is in a different country, with rules, rights and duties are often unknown, which affect the 62

cfr. C. Geertz Interpretazioni di culture Feltrinelli 2000 cfr. E. Nigris op. cit 64 cfr. COSPE Le regole del gioco Una procedura per la mediazione linguistico – culturale Testo dattiloscritto 1993 63

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response to respect their needs. To avoid this unpleasant situation, we can imagine a statement by the mediator to act as a "buffer effect", blocking indirectly specific requests of foreign users or downsizing their illegal claims, making them understand that they cannot ask certain things. Therefore, the mediator is given a very important task, which is to direct the user on the path of legality, since compliance with the legal is a force of the immigrant 65.

3.2.3 The skills of the mediator of intercultural communication With regard to the level of cultural knowledge and skills that must have a mediator, some believe that it is enough to belong to a foreign culture, while others claim that the experience of immigration provide a sufficient basis to exercise the role of mediator, working with users of any ethno-linguistic group. Belonging or origin in our opinion, are necessary but not sufficient for this role: to settle cultural identity or experience as immigrants, would mean the downgrading of this figure and providing a unprofessional service. Being born and raised in a country or as part of a culture does not mean to understand the culture itself.

On the other hand, the mediator must also have sufficient knowledge of the mainstream culture and the structure of our society; is not so easy, however, to determine what is meant by it, and where to place the boundaries of that knowledge 66.

In Italy, as in many European countries, in public service mentality is essentially monocultural, consumers are increasingly multicultural and operators are mostly of Italian origin. It is difficult, therefore, to see what skills a ethnic Italian, for example, mediator may provide, other than those already owned by the operators of Italian ethnic origin, especially if the operator has been trained to work in a multicultural environment. In addition, a service that will be truly multicultural is one where there are professionals belonging to different cultures, rather than one where mediators are used to bridge the gap between a monocultural service and a multicultural consumer and cope with contradictions arising therefrom. It is therefore necessary, according to E. Nigris, that the mediator of the same ethno-linguistic origins of the people with whom you want to work. At the same time, we must recognize the fact that it makes little sense to offer a cultural mediation service if you cannot then respect the cultural specificity of the users in the allocation of mediators. From the point of view only linguistics it may be possible for a mediator Somali fluent in classical Arabic to act as a interpreter to a Tunisian who, too, pearl well the same language, but attempts to provide a Chinese mediator to work with users Peruvians do not have sense.

We need, therefore, for at least a match between ethno-linguistic mediator and user 67.

The mediator must learn: 1. Communication skills, the mediator will facilitate communication between people from different cultures; 2. Ability to manage the negotiation process in the relationship, the mediator shall be manufacturer and maintainer of the reports; 3. Ability to manage conflict constructively, as a diplomat or an expert on peace education, 4. Decode and help operators to decode the user demand for immigrant and to recode it in terms understandable and useful for this, since we can only interpret the demand of user immigrant but not provide an understandable and usable answer 5. Bring 65

Documenti di lavoro Il servizio di mediazione culturale nei servizi comunali Torino 1995/96 cfr. Alma Terra op. cit 67 cfr. E. Nigris op. cit 66

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about positive change in the perceptions and representations of the actors who interact; 6. work in the network, constructing paths of interaction and meeting with operators and users 68; 7. Awareness of the infinity of his tasks, hence the sense of limitation and imperfection to be transformed into positive characteristic, greater awareness and responsibility for any action or decision. 8. Pedagogical skills, relationships that he establishes relationships are always educational and require specific knowledge and skills: communication techniques, animation, management of the group, personal identification, of managerial type. 9. A good knowledge of the mainstream language and at least one of the working languages of the ethnic groups in the area coupled with good communication skills. 10. The professional background of the cultural mediator also consists of individual abilities, both natural and cultural, that as subjective, are inherently unclassifiable but are also the hallmark of a subject 69.

3.2.4 Requirements for admission to vocational training courses The purpose of the training courses for mediators, is to train people to be included in institutionalized contexts and in public services, to help improve relations between the institutions and services, and users of ethnic minorities, through: direct intervention of interpretation between clients and services, the translation of material from the mainstream language into the languages of members of ethnic minorities, reception and orientation by facilitating mutual understanding of the needs, rights and obligations of users and institutions and providers of services, and planning the activities of the service, in collaboration with other professionals. A comparison of training, shows that "there is broad consensus on the need for training that includes a general section on communication and intercultural relations, and a specialization with respect to input areas: school-education, health, safety and justice, hospitality [...]. 70" The requirements for admission to courses are: belonging to a foreign nationality, knowledge of its language and culture, being an immigrant and live in the host country, a good knowledge of the language of the host country; diploma of secondary school; and personal attitude to the report of action 71.

The feature that distinguishes the specific professional mediator, might be the help relationship, able to bridge the gap between the demand expressed by immigrant and attitude response by the services.

The areas of intervention of the mediator in the different areas of services can be summarized as follows: analysis and interpretation of cultural differences; provide tools for knowledge of other cultures, and to promote new mechanisms of communication between operators and users, through a proper understanding of cultural diversity and encouraging the development of new organizational models for services, according to requirements of user immigrant, design and develop training services common in high functional integration, to meet the specific needs of different users and complex, in respect of specific of each, and finally, build relationships between cultural groups of immigrants in the 68

cfr. conferenza

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cfr. M. Tarozzi op. cit Cnel, Organismo Nazionale di coordinamento per le politiche di integrazione sociale degli stranieri Sintesi dei Gruppi di lavoro Roma, 1999 p.36 71 cfr. Cospe Il diritto di farsi capire Il corso del Cospe per Mediatori Linguistico-Culturali per la Regione Toscana Firenze 70

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territory, transforming the host phase to a phase of cultural integration, capable of promoting networks of social enterprises72.

The presence of the mediator is to be expected in relation to the immigrant population, as most cultural groups present or most marginalized, which refer to social services and social health of the mother and child, developmental, deviance and vulnerability, family services, early childhood, adolescence, within the territorial jurisdiction.

The different services, based on its type of operation and programming of its activities, may include in the forecast management of resources, the role of mediator in the following manner: on call to deal with situations that require immediate action, activating situations " helpdesk " for information of the first level; one as a type of operator that performs specific activities in collaboration with other operators, as part of the team; as a figure who acts as a liaison between the community of belonging and community services, and finally, as figure performing their professional activities on specific projects, programmed by the services themselves. These different modes of use of the mediator does not exclude the possibility of a management with more organizational models and with the presence of multiple figures of mediators simultaneously. 73 3.2.5 The risks of the mediator of intercultural communication The mediator runs several risks: 1. The presumption of knowledge, i.e. the preconceived idea that the cultural background of the mediator is a guarantee of knowledge of the world from which he comes, however immigrants superficially know the country of origin, so you have to learn it before transmitting it. 2. Difficulties in managing the processes of identification, many immigrants project prejudices, stereotypes, not revised emotional components, in relationship with other immigrants, and that too much involvement does not allow the proper distance necessary to understand the experience of intercultural communication. On the other hand, it may happen that the active mediator such an identification with the host society that can no longer read the people who come from the country of origin. In this case behaves as "regulatory agent", while in the first case as a "separation agent". 3. The required not authority, the operator immigrant can be delegitimized in its role as operator by his countrymen or other immigrants and by operators of the host country. Only when this figure will have its own regulatory framework, will always be seen as a figure belonging to volunteering. But this profession requires solid skills, because it is a job that fits in acculturation processes of encounter and confrontation between the majority culture and minority cultures. In the future will be provided training for mediators on transversal basis, with subsequent specialization in different sectors of activity and intervention. 74 4. The mechanism of delegation by the institution, and a lack of responsibility of the operators that load on the mediator to the outcome of a request, the ineffectiveness of a service, the failure of a performance. 5. Be in a position of power in relation to the ethnic group of belonging, it is not positive that a mediator be appointed by a group of national fellows, or that he covers functions of representation or leadership. Or a mediator must be able to separate his "professional" role by any "political" or representation roles. 6. It is not a figure that can operate on the pure voluntary basis, the issue of equitable remuneration of their business comes from the prejudice that their work, 72

D. Bonini, S. Kouider, C. Calzolari, G. Valenti Gli interventi della formazione professionale degli stranieri in Italia e all’estero Milano-Bologna 1994 73 www.Pavonerisorse.To. it/Intercultura/ 2000/ mediatore.htm#quattro 74 cfr. Conferenza op. cit Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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going to the benefit of another immigrant, must of course be provided on a benevolent basis or be an immigrant itself to meet this expenditure. 7. The myth of impartiality. The risk is that the mediator finds himself disputed between the two parties and cannot cope with this difficult situation. In addition, no one can deny the mediator's right to exist as a human entity, must be able to explain his choice of worship, as well as political ones, the mediator has a history and a present that cannot be deleted, they assert their right to exist.

It must be recognized their right to be social and political actors in the evaluation and the development of programs, as social and political purposes of a specific project 75.

3.2.6 The rights of the cultural mediator The mediator has the right to be informed on the matter, to refuse an assignment where there is linguistic, cultural or personal relationship incompatibility with one of the parties. In addition, he can refuse to break the laws of the host state or the regulations of the service or agency for which the mediator is employed or provide advice. May refuse to participate in cases of discrimination or racism, offensive to morals, values or beliefs of the user, operator or mediator. Finally the mediator, cannot carry out tasks for which has not the necessary skills 76.

The areas of a successful intervention of the mediator Emergency situations. It is often the case with the work of interpretation with respect to persons who have come from a foreign country. But these are limited situations and short time that should end upon termination of the emergency.

Back office function. Not helpdesk or direct assistance, but advises to controllers of the various services for everything that concerns training and updating of teachers, purchase materials, school organization, strategic choices, etc..

Intercultural animation. Currently this figure is linked to sporadic interventions of informative character. It is to go beyond reaching the figure of intercultural animator. 77 3.2.7 What is not the mediator The mediator is not the expert on intercultural matters which is asked about everything related to intercultural education and the integration of non-natives.

It is unthinkable that all the functions of mediation is carried out by one person that, however, should possess unlimited skills and capacities.

It is not legitimate to delegate in total to a mediator the role of agent, principal or exclusive of the social change. This type of expectation, which becomes a proxy, it is even more worrying as index of inaction or indifference. 78 75

www.pavonerisorse.to.it/intercultura/2000/mediatore.htm#quattro cfr. COSPE op. cit 77 cfr. A. P. Pisani (a cura di) op. cit 78 CD/LEI Corso di formazione: mediatore linguistico e culturale in ambito scolastico Bologna 1999-2000 76

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The cognitive mediation, or the constant presence of a mediator to assist the work of the teacher in a classroom, where many children ethnic minority are involved, is a function not only difficult to achieve, but not desirable. Building an interactive appropriate space, as claimed by Demetrius and Favaro, it is up to the teacher and not others.

It does not seem desirable even the figure of the mediator as an informant, or as one who enters the class with sporadic interventions to know the culture of a particular country. This represents the risk of reducing the culture on the folkloric dimension 79.

3.2.8 Conflict and cultural mediation: Situation of conflict in the relationship among operator, mediator and user Analyzing experiences of mediation in different situations, it was possible to detect the presence of a conflicting relationship between mediator and user, shown mainly in two situations, namely in the presence of negative responses to a user's request and in the presence of an authoritarian intervention of social services, as for example in repatriations, adoption procedures or expulsion of minors. In the presence of negative feedbacks, the cultural mediators are subjected to conflicting pressures from both the user so that the mediator interfere in their favor, either by the operator, who often swing between the request for a loyal translator and to take an active role in giving direct answers 80. It should be emphasized that if the mediator was only a linguistic interpreter, that probably would increase conflicts in many situations, but if he would identify himself with the service, he would lose the ability to mediate.

In many foreign communities, the mediator who is related to a user may encounter situations of personal risk, without the necessary coverage of institutional role, not being that of the mediator recognized as a profession in its own right. So it would be advisable to avoid direct exposure of the mediator at times such as communication or decision by the Judicial authority or anticipation of action of the repression authority. Therefore, in these situations, if it is not expressly provided the inclusion of the mediator for technical reasons, it is desirable to use an interpreter 81.

On the internal level of the service, when there is no sharing of intervention actions, levels of cultural misunderstandings between operators and mediators are likely to create a situation that can slip into mutual mistrust, with negative consequences that spill out onto the mediation process. However, the complexity of the work and the large number of information that cultural mediator and operator must know in order to properly carry out the intervention, requires active collaboration of both. Instinctive and emotional interventions that can occur before difficult situations are not suitable to deal with the case, it is necessary that the relationship between the operator and the mediator, in the time of intervention, preclude any personal problem 82. Deontology and professional ethics of operator and mediator, should allow them to have a degree of flexibility in the evaluation and proposal of solutions, in drawing up projects, because even if sometimes the cases are similar, hardly a case can always be the footprint of another.

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cfr. CD/LEI op. cit cfr. P. Auer La formazione continua dei lavoratori occupati: un’Europa della diversità in Cedefop 1992 81 cfr. Documenti di lavoro op. cit 82 cfr. Alma Terra op. cit 80

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Referring to situations faced by the City of Turin, in the presence of a serious marital conflict, with intervention of the Juvenile Court on the children, it was considered necessary for an early work of mediators to express directly to the court, the way to dealing with conflict in the law of the community of the couple and his point of view, to clarify from the outset the framework in which to move and prospects. While in the not serious conflicts of couples, there is a need to mediate the situation, or a work of mending according to the cultural codes of the people. During the phase of the assumption of the task should be that the actions are directed by the mediator, supported, however, by the intervention of mediation networks, such as the presence of a mosque, groups or other couples. For example, a Nigerian cultural mediator showed that in Italy changes many things, such as the role of women and men, compared to her country of origin. In fact, in Nigeria in the couple conflicts there is the intervention of other families and the community, while in Italy the intervention of the social operator, at times, means to open a new conflict.

So, when you are not in the presence of serious conflicts in a couple, you need the direct intervention of the mediator to talk, release the misunderstandings or to bring out problems.

The significant differences between the point of view of the host country’s operators and the mediators on the vision of role conflict in families and how to deal with it, reiterated the importance of places of confrontation between operators and mediators, because according to them "the role conflict in the family recurs frequently for important social and cultural changes produced by the path of immigration. So it would be appropriate, in the context of non-severe entity, to implement interventions that take into consideration the internal point of view of the culture to which they belong. 83 "

83

cfr. documenti di lavoro op. cit Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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A SCHOOL OF COMMON LIVING Analysis and Scheduling

By Andrea Cusatelli

We have seen how the intercultural mediation moves and works at the heart of dynamics of group membership. In the opposite diagram, The Mediation Circle 84 we find many terms used by mediators to visualize the social dynamics. But unlike politicians, these social feelings are never seen as absolute ideal models to be achieved. General feelings (the yellow circle) and cultural activities (white circle) opposite, always find themselves present in social groups. If we are honest, the mediator should not have his own model of integration to propose. He must let it find the city, the social services and a school of the community living it. Often you are ready to give the mediator the role, of the one that has to build a society that can integrate all of its citizens, in an intercultural reality, created by a mixing (melting pot) of many languages and values from different sources. However, the mediator is not an activist of ethnic minorities. He does not supersede the work of emancipation, that should be done by the same subjects discriminated against, and organizations for civil rights.

The mediator (Ombudsman) must be at the centre of opposing social tensions , even if he does not agree. He is therefore never for only one of the parties. He is not a lawyer for the minorities, even if it is part of the job to strengthen the weaker party. Finally, his goal is to make sure that the comparison is done in the most profitable manner and without casualties. In short, he must keep communications open, creating conditions for a cultural comparison, eventhough sometimes it is a difficult task, between instances which are always contradictory and which should always remain without a prevail, made unconditional or without the elimination of the opponent.

The culture presents at the same time phenomena of contamination (the melting pot) and assimilation (the dominant languages sanction the minorities, erasing the differences). On the other hand, the culture in some ways complements and welcomes, recognizing diversity, but the foreigner often finds himself discriminated against. Intercultural mediation plays with these polarizations, keeping them balanced. It handles the contradictions when the comparison is made too hard and unbearable for those involved. Reduces the risk of intercultural conflict, knowing how to bring tensions to the areas of indifference and 84

Andrea Cusatelli, Poche note: metodologie di mediazione interculturale, unpublished 2012 Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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separatism (defined as the Schismogenesis of G. Bateson), but never getting to fully assume these attitudes. Because once again, the tensions of an intercultural dialogue must, to the mediator, remain fluid and involve stakeholders within a circle of active relationship. Now we can imagine this graphical circle as the area populated by the school social network that gravitates towards it: the intercultural mediation is the work of educators. Rather than just ensuring integration and the melting-pot in a school, the mediator must teach on how to fight effectively. Not mostly to eliminate the adversary (separatism), which is always the easiest, but to produce creative solutions to problems which evolve from living together.

4.1. Models Roma T & T The model of an intercultural school, is able to help Roma children to become familiar with the educational processes of their host society, the output is more important than the whole project Roma T & T expects. So once again, the model is in-working, it will be the end result of constant revisions until the spring of 2013. At the time we write we have a clear Model_α of "Intercultural Kindergarten", defined in the first project, with which it was financed. It defines the method, subjects involved, time, and objectives. In short we can summarize to: At the moment the intercultural school is a group formed by: • Three associations for the civil rights of the Roma • 1 Association of intercultural mediators (scientific officer) • 1 Company of social managership (responsible for the organization and communication) • About 200 people made up of families with children 0-6 years mainly Roma • 1 intercultural mediator • 1 intercultural mediators of language and Roma origin • 4 trainers on intercultural education • Some public institutions involved (nursery schools, Social Services, University, etc.). a) Its aim is to experiment with four pre-school cenetrs in four countries on the southern and eastern Europe: pilot projects. b) The model of the intercultural school will be the most important output to be realized. c) It would achieve as an outcome, the facilitation of children of Roma culture to the entrance and the enduring attendance of compulsory education.

We have now specified that from this Model_α we are going to elaborate other 2 versions.

The Model_β of "Intercultural Kindergarden" will be composed after the Meeting of Bologna through the discussion, comparing the ideal Model described here and the technical presentation of the 4 local models, which will be Model_ β1, n. At the end of the project, towards spring of 2013, we will produce third major update, which would actually yield the output accomplished and will then be the Model_Roma T & T Intercultural Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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Kindergarden. This process is consistent, moreover, with intercultural mediation which advances step by step according to the pragmatic method and abductive action research, as developed by G. Bateson and adapted to intercultural mediation by some interpretations of the Italian Group Abele or recently by M. Sclavi 85.

The subjects involved in the drafting of the 3 versions of the model, are all those named above.

This means participatory planning, which will see how authors of the model the all stakeholders, the educators, the families along with four local trainers. The diagram on the side 86, to the merit of simplicity and authority of K. Lewin clearly shows how.

Now our Model_ β1.n all four define other important traits. Some of the methodological principle (and we have anticipated them in these guides), and others such as background conditions, which may not have been even budgeted, but now appear common to the four pilot projects. Lets see the main.

4.1.1. The Legal framework: Like a pilot project, they do not have and cannot have, a legal status fully accredited by the National States. The Intercultural Kindergarten is not a kindergarten equalized to programs and activities outlined by the various national standards. In Italy, for example, it is impossible to mention the word "school" associated with our project, in the official documentation to avoid an abuse. It is well, however, that it implements a process of institutional recognition, which affects the long-term continuation of the project. The approval and funding of the EACEA / Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union, such as the authority of the various associations partners of Roma T & T, are the legal basis to start from. We suggest for the four piloting, a framework for activities such as a recreation center, parental support, parental educational group, territorial association of cultural promotion and social center for education, etc...

From this uncertain legal status - but in accordance with the methodology mediation and the program deliberately experimental - it results in an informal character which very much conditions our model: Intercultural Kindergarden is a community center, informal of free parent sharing. The informality, such as poor legal identification, tilts positive as an important opportunity for independence and freedom, not to be wasted. In fact it relates to 85

Di G. Bateson ha condizionato molto la mediazione interculturale il suo Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972) e per chi si occupa di apprendimento non potrĂ prescindere da rileggere ancora con enorme interesse. La vastitĂ dei suoi lavori, English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist, coincide con l'area di intervento della disciplina attuale. See wikly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Bateson 86 Action research comes from K. Lewin and through g. Bateson shows all its potential for action. Towards the end of the last century, the Gruppo Abele (who devotes the name of your magazine just to the method of action research), the psychoanalyst Roberto Merlo and parallel M. Sclavi who had studied at the school of Chicago, recover these theories and methods, staring at the Italian practice of cultural mediation. To get an idea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_research Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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the duty and the right of a local community to give itself its own education, even in the most immediate and informal forms.

Our legal framework refers directly to the important resolution for the freedom of education in the European Community, as cited on the side.

4.1.2. Context: Among the various four models, we are finding other aspects in common, linked to their relationship with the territory. In fact, the project from the beginning showed a Kindergarten proximity, close to the areas of residence of Roma families.

Now in most cases they are located in the suburbs. So the context of our Intercultural Centers are the suburbs of European cities. The rooms that will accommodate the children will be in premises of schools offered by the municipalities, offices of the associations involved, or at least in premises not exactly built for children. In the perspective of landscape, it will thus be a familiar place. However, for the Gypsy-Roma associations , which will trigger the play areas within their active associative structures (ie. where adults work), creating a sort of "corporate nest", and involve the children of workers in the same building, then this familiarity between the child and the environment will be even stronger, as will be the case, for example Amiss in Bologna. Recall that an open space, or rather a garden, whether equipped with games or not does not matter, it is still essential.

4.1.3. Economical: Children do not necessarily need enchanted gardens like those of the Disney parks. In fact there are pedagogies such as Waldorf, where the essence, the gap, collection of wood, stones and wool, and over time building your own objects with teachers is an integral part of the program. The cult of technology is grown in the sensory and deep tactile relationship, such as manual dexterity. You do not put the latest technology into the hands of those who still struggle to have a good balance. Collecting objects, learning how to select "natural" materials from the carcinogens, building your own games with the most suitable components, making sense out of things and not being just an instrument of pre-built technologies, is always a better suggestion 87.

In this perspective Roma children will have a double advantage. They will not be involved in the race of consumerism, just as most families have become, filling the rooms of the children with plastic and fetish TV objects, which is now becoming the first 87

The different blue spot with quotes from Waldorf 1996, all from the book prepared for the 44th International Congress on Education of UNESCO, and translated by us from Italian, from Freunde der Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiner, 1996. To investigate the pattern of Waldorf schools, you can leave the official site Wiki http://www.thewaldorfschool.org/ and R. Steiner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_steiner and read by F. Carlgren and A. Klingborg Erziehung zur Freiheit, Verlag 1990 (Teaching to Freedom), edited in Italy under Educare alla libertĂ , Filadelfia Editore, Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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social learning language. Differences in skills related to the pure fascination of technology and knowledge derived from television, will be eliminated, to the advantage of a poor environment, which is rather vital and healthy. There will be fewer play objects and games in Kindergarten which is better. Also because economic resources are very limited, for the school as well as for the family life of many children. It is better to buy the essential creative tools (glue, nails, hammers, files, threads, fabrics, needles, wooden bowls, flour, paper, etc...). Better buy them or find them from time to time when the teacher knows what they need them for.

In short, the financing of the school greatly affects the project. For the games we have seen that this is more of an excellent opportunity. Instead, for food and nutrition, the absence of lunch is a grave offense. In kindergarten state, the time dedicated to teaching on how to and what to eat, how to clean up or not to mess up, is very extensive. The ritual of feasting, of being together, which is sharing food, is very important. All of this in our model of Intercultural Kindergarden is reduced to a short snack or breakfast. The purely economic reason for this absence, however, will not prevent organization of exceptional moments for lunches or picnics with the children and their parents.

So, one of the common features of our model is the "poverty" or essentiality of the structures and composition: an economic narrowness, which invests only in the faculty, and not even for an annuity of the entire school. The duties of caring for, cleaning and the administration will be on a voluntary basis. This leads to a principle of voluntary participation which is involvement that characterizes the entire project.

4.2. Intercultural mediation applied in pedagogy Above we have listed some features of our Modello_β from "Intercultural Kindergarten."

Deriving all from the choices and conditions imposed into the design phase. The model inherits them, while the limitations into trying to transform meaningful paths and trying to connect them with a solid educational experience. The initial project has then made a courageous choice: to put intercultural mediation in the center of the model - usually the mediator is an auxiliary figure 88. And you can imagine that good mental habits and intervention practices, or the ethics and the method of the mediator, condition the kindergarten. In preceding pages we have seen what the intercultural mediator does and how he thinks. In a very deductive manner we can draw some basic rules and limits to better define which intercultural educational model are looking for: a) Principle of Mediation: The mediator is placed discreetly at the center of group tensions, neutralizing their cultural Ego (avoiding to play the role of the star). He is more attentive to the relationship between the parties, trying to stabilize and deepen it, rather than achieve goals of transferring knowledge and default skills: he does not even teach interculture, but builds the conditions because they self-produce from the relationships between different entities.

88

A consideration well known by Ivana Bolognesi and others, with her relevant research on intercultural kindergarden start up with Dipartimento di scienze dell'educazione of Bologna University: Di cultura in culture, Esperienze e percorsi interculturali nei nidi d'infanzia Franco Angeli, 2006. And other important player for the rising of the Intercultural Mediator profile in Italy was since 2000 CNEL a State Institution then define the Roma inclusion on http://www.cnel.it/application/xmanager/projects/cnel/attachments/shadow_documentazioni_attachment/file_allegat os/000/172/700/Strategia_20inclusione_20Rom.pdf Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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b) Principle of action research: the stories and listening, is the main instrument of mediation. The pitfalls of intercultural conflict and migration pathologies are often related to ruptures or censorship of sense. And as for psychoanalysis, the narrative is at the same time the moment of investigation and moment of action. And as for the teacher, the telling of tales is the first task, even for the mediator to tell the story of others (interpreter), their habits and customs, or cultural differences in one word, is almost half of his main job. The other half is dedicated to bring out and talk to others (active listening technique, borrowed from cultural anthropology), taking heed as a researcher in unstructured interviews or guiding a focus group. Finally to complete, the mediator analyzes and programs. After analyzing the dynamics, his research aims to create and schedule ad hoc projects, build meaningful situations and see the effects. c) Principle of Interculture: A group cannot be considered Intercultural if there is no relationship between different cultures, if there is one multi-cultural situation there cannot even be the condition that they establish relationships. Separatism or mono culture makes mediation a paradox: all classes should have children of different origins and cultures, even if in small minority, the model should never be mono-ethnic. d) Principle of Non-elimination: Logically connected to the above rule. Here it is extended not only to cross-cultural conflicts, but to all forms of "unacceptable behavior".

The mediator cannot accept that people put as a condition, the elimination of other entities.

The solution to relationship problems is never possible through the elimination of one actor of the problem. In practice, once accepted into the Kindergarten – a ritual that can also take time - no child or family can be excluded. e) Principle of Exemplariness: We said that educators are role models in the eyes of children - this leads to consistency between what is said and what is done - while a mediator instead tends to neutralize what he says and moderating what he does, leaving the focus of the role of the educator. The mediator must be an example of an informal tolerance, also known as the host. f) Principle Community: Mediation is a cultural and social nature of language itself, it can only work on a community. Unlike the psychotherapist, the mediator acts on a target that is never the individual, but at least a couple. For the mediator a kindergarten is a community not only by children, but all the meaningful relationships that children have in their unique lives (parents, siblings, relatives, neighbors, etc..) Given technically, that this target, as extensive as it is, he assumes a working network. In addition to tracking for each child a map of his relationships, he selectively involves the subjects in the mediation processes, and facilitates new connections between networks. Normally it is his task to involve families and the school environment. g) Principle of Participation: ask the mediator to put in the hands of all parties / actors in a given network in a place, the responsibility for solving problems and choices of cohabitation. In other words, all the subjects listed in the extended community of a Kindergarten must be able to participate freely in accordance with the model definition.

The mediator is not a representative of the community, does not decide with a delegation, nor does he perform by a commission of some other person, is, and must be independent, just because he lets the subjects involved choose.

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h) Principle of Deuterolearning. The concept is simple and very popular now: it is more important to learn new ways of learning, than learning something as true – particularly when the true is cultural related (or relativist).

Organizing from time to time the cognitive system, getting out of habits and narrow logical mechanisms, improves one's way of learning.

This is something more than information. Each translator and linguist knows that to learn a new language, you have to pretend to start from scratch, as a child, when you are much better at learning how to learn. From here one derives the mediating principle according to which interculture is learned, that is not given. Not only through the application of learning, but especially with new forms of learning. Creativity, implied by deuterolearning, is essential for the creation and understanding of new languages. The intercultural mediator intervenes on this meta-educational level, on the construction of the cognitive processes of learning new languages. Human beings never cease to learn, and never exhaust their learning potential.

But do the schools, the teachings and educators fail to arouse in the child, a joy to learn that this becomes his companion for life? As the Waldorf model questioning, education is a perennial challenge for us. Learning is not usually halted with the final exam. Only those who have "learned the pleasure of learning" new things will be able to independently manage their own self-education.

Having settled all these designed stakes and methodological skills, the model remains completely free and may be interpreted differently in each place and community of the four pilot projects. In the next section we propose an ideal model of intercultural mediators, which can - with all possible autonomy and freedom - inspire creative work.

4.3. The Ideal Model From the common features and the choices made so far, we can also imagine an Intercultural Kindergarden as a circle of educators and families who pool together, for some mornings, for the time and the education of children. The educational system will be built in an informal approach, because a free school is one that allows educators together with the parents, determine independently, based on their knowledge of life and love for children. So a school that is looking from the certain point of view, that there is a garden that allows families to leave their children of 2-6 years, in an open and free, but much more protected from the "streets" or the abandoned home. The Given pedagogical model mostly provokes children to a nicer socialization, not endorsed with the dominant culture.

4.3.1. The infrastructure A room indoors no smaller than 30 square meters with at least 2 toilets with a corner turned into a nursery and a nearby garden _ which is securely accessible, make up the essential infrastructure that is required. The furniture, as we stated before would be poor Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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but essential_ easy to clean and better. In addition to a pedagogical advantage (the simplicity experimented in Waldorf schools), there would be an advantage in reduction of tension, and the management fatigue _ which we said, weigh on _both the educators and voluntary help of the families. Equipment and games, will also be the subject of research and voluntary donation. They would be rarely purchased. Educators will work on this issue, the space, not by filling the "void" but by teaching a proper relationship with things stimulating research but also selecting objects one can and cannot bring, thus empowering the local regulations. Symbols, fetishes, icons, and games brought by the children will be left in a special deposit out of the common area. Their integration in the common area of the class, is designed as a stylized and highly significant element of the school program.

4.3.2. Target: To involve and welcome In our model, the main target is about 15 children of different origins and culture. To this, as a secondary target, shall be added at least 30 resource persons for children, which would be their primary network, and at least five opinion leaders of the communities involved. Overall, the project would operate on 50 people. Of these, at least 20 must - for design efforts - be recognizable to Roma / Gypsy / Sinti culture. The system of selection according to pre-established ethnic quotas is not part of our logic. However, the degree of intercultural education by the various local pilotings, would be closely connected to this relationship of "mixing" (melting pot).

Although the model applies in circles where 90% could be all Roma children, we would recommend educators to plan a campaign of communication and involvement, appropriate enough to also integrate into the Kindergarden, indigenous children and foreigners, children of migrants and non-migrants, linked by living in the same neighborhood. The children of mixed couples are very important and should not be missing from the group, because they will be our implicit mediators and would be of great help.

Given the timing of the project, we know that even with the slightest sense of being in a group, the identification with the club can only be created in the last weeks of service. The frequency, if not adjusted vertically (only those who sign up before ... absences are not permitted ... to resign, you must ...) will be uneven with simple turnover effects.

But it will be better to accept a sincere voluntary involvement, rather than waste time in useless coercive systems. But it would also be necessary to create two clear categories of participation "full members" and "guests". We must invent a ritual and "privileges" or skills to all effective members. For example you can state as a rule, that guests children can come only 5 times a month, then they should decide whether to belong and share the roles and responsibilities of the Community. For families who have decided to attend on a regular basis, this would be thought of as a welcoming ceremony, perhaps by being inspired by the Roma tradition.

4.3.3. How to communicate the model The pair of intercultural educators is presented as free help and uninterested service to the mothers, as a kind of female solidarity and parental, but not too "purposeful". Families will fill with their needs, the sense of the Circle. Interculturalism will be an appeal perhaps for some indigenous families for leaders and activists of cultural associations, but not for the Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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majority of parents.

Mention the lack of education of Roma children, or the urgency of integration, like all sensed motivations of social policies towards minorities, which are at the basis of the Roma T & T project, will not have an absolutely good effect. Communication as the representation of the model itself must be inspired by the simplicity and tenderness.

Themes and concepts raised in these Guidelines would be translated and offered for sharing only when the community is sufficiently composed. When you ask one reflection and discussion on itself and intercultural differences. At the beginning, we can forget all our theories and concepts . For our model to be capable of including and educating, it will be the results and not necessarily the motivation of the families to entrust their children to the teachers.

4.3.4 The deal with the families: The subsidiarity principle 89 is a regulator of many charter schools and communities. Now the totally free exchange of our service as set by the project towards Roma children and families, is likely to cast doubt on the subsidiarity: what is expected in exchange from the families? Nothing but the kids and their parents to develop favorable attitudes toward school, or appreciate our gift. In our model this exchange must be enriched by mutual expectations. Meanwhile, it can be offered in a cost-free manner, as long as it is publicly funded, but will require a mandatory participation in the management and maintenance of the spaces. So users do not pay money, but with time / voluntary work. In addition to this, request for coresponsibility placed at the target, will have in return the freedom to participate and contribute to the educational process: the parents (and significant people in their social network) will come to the Kindergarten to teach. If the model does not allow this level of autonomy and community participation in the school (ie if it is directed and managed technocratically by the project managers) it will lose the subsidiary character that characterizes “Community” schools in the whole of Europe Such that if an entity that is "below" is capable of doing something, the one that is "higher" should let this task be accomplished by that entity, possibly also supporting the action. The principle of subsidiarity and project partners associations must be interpreted in a participatory manner, because civic responsibility and democracy are true educational experiences: the model must be able to transform the target into stakeholders.

4.3.5 The educators role-play 89

“This usage of "subsidiarity" encompasses the notion that the responsibility to address a social need should lie exclusively at the level of social organization with the greatest competence regarding that issue, to the exclusion of higher levels of social organization. By contrast, the more common usage of the term, as found in Catholic social teaching and in European Unioin law and social policy, encompasses the notion that "higher" or more remote levels of social organization have a duty to render assistance to the most immediate, competent level of organization, while respecting the primary jurisdiction of that more immediate level, and, ultimately, the dignity and freedoms of individuals participating in society” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidiarity ) Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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The couple of educators will be involved in a role-playing game which lasts throughout the project. The native Roma will act as mediator (interpreter) in all respects, while the nonRoma mediator educator will play the role of the _ European. The two "masters" are an example of a positive intercultural relation. Whether we want it or not, much of the level of inclusion achieved depends on this game of relationships, rather than from the lessons.

We emphasize on the agreement between the two educators, pushing them to think of it as a play-act, or if you prefer social animation, because intercultural mediation is used to seeing its own cases of intervention as a scenario where multiple narratives collide. And everyone knows that dramatizing with children is the best trick to get their attention. If the two colleagues, chief executives (in effect) of the pilot project, can effectively play spontaneously between a teacher who is more of a mediator, and a more pedagogic educator , with both being able to clarify and program, of the interplay between these two characters as in a script, then they can effectively drive the processes. In addition, the awareness that all is not yet clear between the educator and the mediator, and even when they come together in single project, shaping the intercultural educator, it is more convenient to "pretend" that he still has two distinct figures. Only with this simulation, played in a conscious way, to distinguish between two different professions, can we move forward in the focus of the aspect of the intercultural educator. The first task of the pair will then be, to discuss in depth, the Guidelines; reach a programmatic agreement on the teaching direction and how to involve other stakeholders in this Kindergarten direction, and finally to appear publicly as two different professionals even though they are both "masters". Then in times of disagreement between the couple, it would be enough for them to remember that they should each resolve the issue according to their respective roles (this would not then become the "game" in which the native teacher commands, inspite the idea that the Roma mediator obviously knows better!).

This activity of reflection and methodological study, is in fact quite different from being together and taking care of children. It does not have, for example, fixed schedules, it does not necessarily take place live when the children are present, in short, is a work of parallel programming and updating, which in the early days coincided with the course for intercultural educators, described in the next chapter "Intercultural Children Educators".

4.4. Selection of the staff We just said that the initial staff is composed of the mediator-educator pair, and that is for them to enlarge the group. Now they are guided by the local manager of the project Roma T & T, but for the ideal model, this pair has no executive management, self-governing together with the assembly of the parents. Of course, we recommend the selection of professionals with advanced skills. But remaining on the indispensable minimal qualities, it is necessary to measure in terms of the complementary pair (already thinking of possible combinations) this is the pair that should have the highest number of required skills. For example, if one does not know the English language (to be able to compare with the other piloting), it is not a problem, when we guarantee that the other teacher understands it. No matter where, but there are some essential skills, that at least one of the two must have.

4.4.1 Essential skills in the couple: •

At least one of the teachers must have worked as an intercultural mediator for at Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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least two years, facilitating foreigners or the discriminated minorities (alternatively must have had at least 300 hours of training on mediation).

• • • • • •

At least one must have worked as an educator (or baby-siter), for at least 2 years (instead of must have had a three-year training as an educator).

One should have as mother tongue, Native Roma, and the other an indigenous.

One must have worked as a link between public institutions and Roma families At least one must demonstrate organizational and programmational skills in their curriculum One must have a good and direct parenting experience (home economics, hygiene, nutrition, etc.).

Have had in his life history, a direct migration experience.

4.4.2. Which educator It is not that important, the training or the educational qualifications achieved, compared to loving and being happy to be with the kids. Then, the other qualities will eventually come.

This condition is that only the sensitivity of the selector must perceive, the educator must possess •

The ability and experience to manage and treat a full educational group. Because in our case, he covers all three professionals who generally find themselves in our public schools:

•

Coordinator

•

Educators / teachers

•

Workers in general and auxiliary

The educator's Intercultural skills A scientific reference and of quality that all stakeholders, and in particular, all educators should read is a work which is easily retrievable online (http://www.iaie.org/insetrom/) in its native language, which focuses on the difficulties of integration of the Roma in the school and the skills that the teacher must be able to activate.

The INSETROM: Teacher In-Service Training for Roma Inclusion project focused on fostering school and Roma family partnerships in order to establish an environment of cooperation and shared goals for children’s education.

Teacher awareness about the Roma culture and perspectives was enhanced in order to encourage the participation of Roma parents in their children’s education and consequently keep Roma children in mainstream education and ensure their participation in the broader community.

This was achieved through teacher training in methods to actively involve Roma parents in their children’s education. The training was carried out at target primary and secondary schools attended by Roma pupils or in Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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areas with traditional Roma communities in Cyprus and the partner countries (Austria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom).

4.4.3. The mediator profile The intercultural mediator 90 is a social worker who facilitates communication between individual, family and communities as part of measures to promote and facilitate the social integration of citizens immigrants and social groups in risk of exclusion. Conducts mediation and information between the immigrants and society reception promoting the removal of cultural and language barriers, the promotion of culture membership, promoting a culture of openness, the socio-economic integration and use of rights and the observance of the duties of citizenship.

The intercultural mediator facilitates the expression of user needs on the one hand and of the characteristics, resources and constraints of the system of supply on the other, offers the performance, collaborating with authorities / operators of public and private services supporting them in carrying out their activities and participating in the planning, design, implementation and evaluation of interventions.

Has adequate knowledge of the native language, a good knowledge of the mother tongue or vehicular language choice for the purposes of mediation and cultural codes underlying the group of immigrant situational reference and scope in which the activity takes place. It has adequate communication skills, of relationship and conflict management.

AREAS OF ACTIVITY Perform linguistic mediation

Implement individualized accompaniment

Facilitate the exchange between immigrant/minority person and operators / services / institutions / companies in the area of reference

Make intercultural mediation

Interpret verbal and nonverbal Decode the codes of communication and cultural implications Support the guidance and assistance Provide information Propose behavior favoring the autonomy of beneficiaries Collaborate activation of problem-solving strategies Rework notices, communications, materials Inform service operators and foreign users on their customs and cultural codes Advise on constraints, procedures and opportunities in access to and use of services Encourage provision of equal opportunities in access to services mediate in conflicts of a discriminatory To pave the implementation process of mediation with service operators

90

Translated and quoted by REFERENCES TO CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS International Classification of Occupations ISCO 88 (COM), 3460 (social work associate professionals), Isfol - Directory of Occupations: Association Activities - Cultural mediator at

http://circa.europa.eu/irc/dsis/employment/info/data/eu_lfs/LFS_MAIN/Coding_lists_explanatory_notes_and_classi fications/ISCO_88_COM.pdf Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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Make intercultural mediation within the community group

Develop in accordance with the bodies in which it operates and the proposed actions of intercultural mediation Present intervention of intercultural mediation Carrying out cultural exchange Acting paths of community mediation Validate the service project of intercultural mediation Disseminate programs in favor of inclusion and cooperation Promote gender equality and equal opportunities culture Orient and enhance the second and third generations

SKILLS Analyze user needs and resources of the immigrant/ minority person

Bring out requirements and needs of the immigrant/ minority person Identify critical issues relating to the situation of immigrants/ minorities Helping the user to make explicit their needs, symptoms and needs Analyze the context of Identify constraints and opportunities of local contexts intervention Identifying information about local services Developing tools and action plans in collaboration with service operators Orient foreigner Promote the identity of the individual in respect of differences Identify the needs of the migrant condition Spread the values of citizenship and integration Design initiatives and Define key aspects of the mediation service instruments of cultural Adapt interventions offered integration within the different Define the services offered mediation and intercultural contexts of life integration Schedule the delivery of interventions to the person Mediate between immigrants/ Assist with facilities and services operating under minorities and institutions reference Tile the social and medical teams, educational - cultural, educational - and legal work-administrative Participate in moments of transition between services and voluntary Promoting Intercultural Dialogue Supporting contexts of collaboration / integration

Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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INTERCULTURAL CHILDHOOD EDUCATORS An hypothetical training course In this chapter we look at the formation of Intercultural Educators. We have seen that it is not easy to find this professional profile readily available in the labor market. We have said that the Intercultural Educator is a more recent form of the mediator: he may either appear as a cultural mediator who taught in schools as a second job, or as an educator who has had a long experience working with foreigners. Yet apart from a few short intercultural courses for teachers, or very experimental university courses 91, we must fend internally to cover up this gap.

The project Rome T & T has designed two training processes in parallel: a)

the inclusion of an intercultural mediator in the pair of educators;

b)

a structured course which directly updates the pair of teachers;

Remember, were thought in the project two phases of this course (b) on interculture, with a direct follow-up of the formation of the local intercultural by the trainer educators: 4.5 Organization of transnational workshop in Italy for exchange of experiences between the trainers of the partner countries (two days); 4.6 Organization of training workshops from 10/01/2012 to 15/10/2012 in the four partner countries for the training of intercultural intermediators (15 days) These tasks already being budgeted, it would be better to also sum the immediately following step: Development of Guidelines for the 4 piloting (5 days from 15 October). Also because the training is just to clarify what both educators must do, must precisely guide their implementation of the piloting. Added to that, if effective, training must also be closely linked to the whole evaluation activity (5.3) and development (8.2) of the educational model. In other words, we consider training as a reflection and an increase in the competences of teachers, and this then projects throughout the activity, ideally setting up a 91

In Italy we point out two important strands in the Universities of Turin and Bologna, especially with the research and teaching of Francesca Gobbo, editor of the European project among other INSETRom mentiohttp://www.istruzione.lombardia.it/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/relazione-Francesca-Gobbo.docned above.

For an online presentation see also . Francesca Gobbo, at the University of Turin leads a study from a theoretical point of view, methodological and educational conducting ethnographic research three interconnected to the European INSETRom (see www.iaie.org / INSETRom). These studies were carried out in 2009-2010 by Federica Setti, Giorgia Peano, Irene Martini, in three different classes of the same school, where pupils are enrolled and Roma pupils. Then see the research that was funded by the Faculty of Education at the University of Turin, in reference to the strengthening of vocational degrees first level and was carried out by the working group that produced the research participated Ester Battioli, David Roccati and Paul Pignatelli, coordinated by Roberto Di Monaco and the direction scientific Adriana Luciano, who oversaw the research report. Is available online in PDF For example http://sciform.rettorato.unito.it/sciform/JOB/jobplacement/ricerca.pdf Bologna should be remembered a network of teachers and researchers engaged since 1990 in the top Canevaro, curator of the other of a whole series on mediation "Domain mediator" including Stones that emerge: Mediators effective education with domino logic, ed. Erickson 2008. Also active in training teachers on the basis of intercultural mediation are Alessandro Zanchettin, Ivana Bolognesi, Adriana Rienzo, Stefania Lorenzini and of course Dimitris Argilopoulos who collaborated in this paper.

Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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great job of verification and research on what you do and what you would like to improve.

In support of this idea, there are other considerations on the professional resources involved: who are the mediation / intercultural education trainers? In logic they should be mediators and / or educators with a level of experience and study of the subject, much more extensive than that of the selected operators to work in Intercutural Kindergarten. But we will see that often, the trainer coincides with either the intercultural mediator selected for the same pair of teachers, or the manager of the project, or with directive figures of the various partner organizations. This simplification will not only save the project, but also because it has a reasonable basis: on one hand the opportunities for coordination and comparison of the various stakeholders are so rare, that takes advantage of the formative moment, then on the other an external trainer figure would not be able to finalize his lessons towards the objectives of the project, as an internal figure.

For all the reasons outlined above, we propose a restructure of the training program, integrating a training which is strictly closer with the activities, rather than play the one-off course before starting the piloting. It is not important whether the trainer is internal or external to the Roma T & T organization. The essential, however, is that this figure should be very close to all the activities of research and monitoring carried out in parallel, for the duration of the pedagogy (meetings, planning, management, mediation with families, promotion, etc..). Well, we rather see the role of tutor trainer or consultant, than the one who frontally deploys his experience in a concentrated way, and then, in a totally disinteresting manner, disappears. Also, because two weeks of training are insufficient to create an intercultural mediator from scratch. Better to use this "poor" resource as a scientific support an expertise to work alongside from time to time when the need arises, involving them responsibly in the project throughout its course.

The course that we propose here maintains the amount of hours planned in the original project, but changes the agenda of the lessons and the training method: 1. No more than a crash course in the first two weeks, but it is anticipated from October to March; 2. It is no longer an intensive frontal training with the two educators, but an active support, or consulting group to help the programming exercise, verification and all moments of research of both educators, and also the directive staff.

In conclusion, we believe that the training phase must be more integrated into the project, along with its method of action research: The training course should be applied as much as possible to all decisive nodes of the model. Those who decide to focus on training in the two weeks before the pedagogical period, would also be able to take advantage of our training program, but must be able to translate the content (cases) here below, as methodological concepts. In any case, the following paragraph gives practical advice to freely program the training, according to the different resources at their disposal, of the individual piloting.

5.1. Designing the course Let's start by integrating time training with the "decisive" periods in the life of an informal group of families who decide to pool the education of their children, by giving and getting both educators involved in a given space. We then apply the educators' course to the three phases of this concrete experience: Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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Guidelines for Intercultural Education: How to train mediators for an inter-cultural kindergarten i. The establishment of the group, ii. Its accomplishments iii. Its self identification

We have about 80 hours of training to be deployed in three different phases, which if looked upon closely, in the project, they coincide with: a) The concrete preparation and the actual start of the Kindergarten (October-November), b) The daily organization of social -recreational and educational activities (December-January), and c) The testing and development of the project (February-March).

Or better still, we suggest unpacking the course in three modules of 26 hours each to be carried out in 8 weeks. In addition, we have to significantly break components 1. Theoretical 2. Methodological 3. Application (workshop).

Not one for each module, but all three in each module: it is a matter of style. Similarly, the target (the students of the course) need not always be the same. Because we need not imagine that teaching intercultural mediation applied to children's education, is a metaphor of who nourishes two educators with intercultural food, and then they distribute it to everyone else. You can also imagine that the trainer directly forms all the players in the project, or rather, sets an example for educators on how to relate to others in a crosscultural exchange value. The classes will be three different targets: 1. The pair of educators 2. The Class (educators and children together) 3. The Group extended, or "community of the administrators, project managers, partners, associations)

Child"

(parents,

teachers,

The main task of the trainer is to build these 3 targets, precisely in the maieutical sense of the teacher seen as a tutor. The trainer will have to mature individual subjectivity, with the help of the pair of educators (as long as it is not yet accomplished) in a collective subject (the being together, living together is in fact the leit motive of the course). Thanks to his classes the trainer will turn educators into a well-functioning pair, the children in a class and the anonymous network of the various families, together with the whole project staff, in a community that shares an educational culture.

So then, in each module you will: Style Theoretical Front (analytical-reflective)

Metodological (Design & technica)

Target

Hour

Educators

6

Children's Class

0

Extende Group

2

Educators

8

Children's Class

2

Extende Group

0

Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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2

Phenomenological (Participated observation Children's Class in events) Extende Group

6 2

For example, in theory, the trainer will set up two lectures (3 + 3 hours), with a lot of prepared slides, discussions and case studies on intercultural education, confidential and intended solely for the two educators. This maybe programmed at the beginning and at the end of the entire module. The methodological lesson for children is to be understood as an intervention for an entire morning, organized and directed by the trainer. In this occasion the trainer programs and indirectly shows educators, how to explain and educate children to intercultural relationships by doing something together. Yet at the same time organizes practical experience through which children can discover the "culture" behind the differences of their mates. The two hours devoted to intercultural theory for the extended group, can be understood as the intervention of the trainer during the meeting or general assembly of the Kindergarten (at the end of the first module) and the assembly or closing ceremony (at the end of the third form). With the technique of participatory observation, the trainer will discuss a little, could mediate the third discussion, maintaining a finalized style or question as in focus groups, or truly free of a pure observer. Made on the premises of how and how much they can change the lessons of the trainer. We stressed the importance of integrating the trainer as a figure effectively involved in the project, with an explicit role of formation and "wise" to which reference and inspiration, but also a supervisory experience. Let's see the content to which all the others could be involved.

5.2. Training for intercultural educators plan Ti Title me

Issue

Task

T ar g et

S t y le

Theory on discrimination Make intercultural mediation within the immigrant group

E T

Construction of the Group

Me/ others

OCT

The Concrete Preparation and start of the Kindergarden: 5.2 Organization of the piloting in intercultural ways 3

A diverse pair: The game of the Intercultural role

• Perform linguistic & cultural mediation: Decode the codes of communication and cultural implications (es. the Roma family and the gender difference inside). • Daily rituals and myths ... the theatrical animation • The role of mediator: Carrying out cultural exchange

Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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How to train mediators for an inter-cultural kindergarten

2

How to meet the demands The Networking: • • Encourage provision of equal Mapping and opportunities in access to identify resources services and problems in • Inform foreign families on our accessing the customs and intercultural codes service

Bring out requirements and needs of the immigrant

E M

Identify critical issues relating to the situation of families

4

First days in Class: Welcoming new children

• The children confidence one by one • The empathic and non-verbal language educators

Bring out requirements and needs of the single child

C F

2

Analysis of needs: Construction of confidence and listening techniques

• Manage agressiveness • Psychology of interpersonal communication and relationships in situations of linguistic aid.

• The stress of not understanding: concepts, signs, prevention in language learning.

• Listening communicates itself: how to make an intercultural relation • Empathy over verbal language

Bring out confidence, requirements and needs of the single chield

E M

2

First Parent Meeting

2

Game “The Castle Game”

• Writing and confidence: From competition to collaboration

Discover one another and the problem o confidence

C M

2

Listening Skills, Programme Analysis

• Participating in the parental selection and welcoming • Participating in the programmation

Measuring the capacities of cooperation.

Agreeing on and designing the pair.

E F

4

The programmation

• Define key aspects of the mediation in the class • Collaborative activation of problem-solving strategies • Punti di vista diversi: soluzioni diverse (il vantaggio interculturale)

Developing tools E M and action plans in collaboration Schedule the delivery of interventions to the person

• Sharing and defining of the programme/schedule • Individual knowledge of training needs • Multi contexts cross-Mapping networks of children's families.

Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

The educators G F competence to identify critical issues relating to families Analyze user needs and resources

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• L'agenda e il diario di classe 3

Intercultural Mediation

• Acting paths for community mediation • Identify constraints and opportunities of local integrative contexts • Promote the identity of the individual in respect of differences

Main issues for the E T meditor's role Identify the needs of the migrant condition

2

Analysis of the conflicting dynamics

Appunti

mapping The class group with respect to the dynamics of conflict identified

2

Intercultural Kindergarden: The School, the writing and the common street

• The benefits of multilingualism • Spread the values of citizenship and integration • In common: to be welcomed and educating children

Introducing one's G T self to the group, defining the role of a mediator, motivating to share

Il suo fare

T ar g et

S t y le

4

Promoting Intercultural Dialogue without theoretical concepts

• Recognizing differences: the Roman childhood educational system, the foreigners and the local ones.

• The social interrelations as a theatrical playing: use your bodies (and the twosome games) for making sense.

• Identiying gaps and obstacles of intercultural linguistics That impede or render the communication problematic • Communicating to parents the essential elements for understanding the values and opportunities of the Kindergarten

E T identifying the conditions and expectations of parents to enable their participation Find the most appropriate method to facilitate families to support children in schooling

3

How to support the aim of cooperation

• Seduce the voluntary participation of the parents and harmonize it with the educative services.

• Supporting contexts of collaboration / integration

Start-up the Mast Assembly

4

Negotiation and

• The conflict analysis and pattern

JEN

Me for Other

DIC

L'organizzazione quotidiana delle attività sociali-ludico- Task: 5.3 educative: Monitoring of the functioning of the pre-school center

C F

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management of conflict

of their representations • Relational strategies for the user to manage the emotional escalation • The wait and the time taking • The communicative approach in peace processes and negotiations

techniques to manage conflicts in the classroom

2

The individuals in Participative observation the group

2

Game “Let's move a car!”

• A collaborative game which The children demonstrates that certain tasks discover the group can only be carried out working in unity

2

Pair diagnosis : the degree of efficiency

• Conduction of interviews for the Evaluate the E F self-evaluation of piloting cooperative skills of the educators and mediate problematic aspects

4

Other models in comparison: Waldorf and the "Mallette Pédagogique"

• Messa a fuoco del modello di Intercultural Kindergarden • Best practice for comparing and learning • Biografical and Web review on Intercultural Education

3

Individual problems of bonding with educators

2

Partticipative Observation The decisionmaking assembly: how does it work?

2

Resources and organizations in the city for migrants

Participative Observation

• The actors and the integration between the actors of the Welfare (public, third sector, private social organizations, families and informal networks).

• Knowing the branch network of the leading public and private services: educational, social, health, legal, employment services and facilitated access for foreigners

View changes of ownership and identiication between the individuals and the group

C M

To have an external E M point of view, to cut off and rethink the model

5 clear suggestions for educators, to fascilitate the link with the children

C F

5 clear suggestions G F for the stakeholders for a better collaboration Promoting the G T rights of foreigners Enhancing the cultural center as a place of access to the city

Task: 6.4 8.1 Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

C F

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ar t g y et le

The testing and development of the project; Definition of Indicators for Evaluation + Definition of the project's sustainability strategy Come si percepisce la classe?

Participative Observation

Identify expectations and ties within the group,

C F

3

The narration of experience and failure management

• How to make sense out of intercultural experiences • The narrative as a mediation technique • The failures of integration processes • Promote and enhance intercultural education

Discuss the methodological basis of the mediation

E T

4

Assistance at the testing organisation

• The indicators of good Help the testing intercultural relations process and re• Organizing and managing focus thinking the model groups with parents • Check completeness: to hear the opinion of the minority • How to analyze the location and use of the experience

2

The individuals and the group

• Participative Observation

Compare the C F relationships between individuals and groups with respect to the initial mapping

2

Game“You are him, and you look after yourself”

• The imitation and irony of children: Recognizing one's self in others

How to psichologically approach discrimination

C M

2

Final reflections intew.

• Unstructured Interview (narrative) to individual educators

Individual auto evaluation of the educators

E F

4

Reprogrammation of the model

• The focus of the structural barriers and context • Moving the point of view and techniques of creative solutions in the face of failures • The lateral and unexpected results

Helping in the E M development of the model

3

Promo: Theories and Practices in Social Marketing

• Promoting within their own networks • The scientific and the political recognition

Orientate the search E T for sustainability and dissemination of the project

Il suo riconoscersi

MAR

Me & others

FEB

4

Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

E M

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• From the dissemination to the search of new funding 2

Final Celebration

2

Feedback

Participative observation

• Trainer's final thoughts to various target

Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

Focusing on the G F relationship created between educators and families G T

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BIBLIOGRAPHY ON INTERCULTURAL MEDIATION Sociology-Anthropology La solitudine del cittadino globale

Feltrinelli

2008 (1999)

La società sotto assedio

Editori La Terza

2007 (2002)

Dal Lago A.

Non-persone: L'esclusione dei migranti in una società globale

Feltrinelli

Lèvi-Strauss Claude

Antropologia Strutturale

Est

Quayson, Ato

Postcolonialism: theory, practice, or process?. .

Polity Press, Blackwell Ltd.

Piselli F. (a cura) Said Edward

Bauman Z.

1999 1998 (1964)

ISBN0-7456-1712-3.

2000

Reti: L'analisi di network nelle scienze sociali

Donzelli ed.

1995

Orientalism,

Random House,

1978

Philosophy Derrida Jaques

Writing and Difference The Ear of the Other: Transference, Translation

Otobiography,

Oggi l'Europa

ISBN 0-415-25383-7

1978

ISBN 0-8032-6575-1

1985

Garzanti

1991

Pera M. e Ratzinger Senza radici: Europa, relativismo, Cristianesimo Mondadori J. e Islam

2004

Rifkin Jeremy

2004

Il sogno europeo

Mondadori

Cognitive and Communication Bateson G.

Steps to an Ecology of Mind (Verso un ecologia della mente)

Adelphi

1976 (1972)

Eco U.

La ricerca della lingua perfetta nella cultura europea

Laterza

1993

Marianella Sclavi.

A una spanna da terra : indagine comparativa su una giornata di scuola negli Stati Uniti e in Italia e i fondamenti di una metodologia umoristica

Milano : Feltrinelli,

1989

Arte di ascoltare e mondi possibili : come si esce dalle cornici di cui siamo parte La signora va nel Bronx .

[Milano] : Bruno Mondadori, .

[2003]

- Milano : B. Mondadori,

c2006

Intercultural Education Aluisi Tosolini , Simone Giusti, Gabriella Papponi Morelli (a cura di)

A scuola di intercultura: Cittadinanza, partecipazione, interazione: le risorse della società multiculturale

Ashley Montagu

Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin, A. Vallardi, ITA Il linguaggio della pelle, Milano,

Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

Erikson

2008

1981.

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Banks J.A.

Multicultural Education: An Introduction to

Pearson

2008

Bolognesi I. , Adriana R., Stefania L.

Di cultura in culture, Esperienze e percorsi interculturali nei nidi d'infanzia.

Franco Angeli,

2006

Erziehung zur Freiheit, (Teaching to Freedom F. Carlgren and A. or, Educare alla libertà), Verlag Klingborg

Cannevaro Andrea

Pietre che affiorano: I mediatori efficaci in educazione

1990

Erikson

2008

linguistica interculturale: Esplorare Gabriella Giornelli , Educazione le diverse basi della comunicazione non verbale, Erikson Adele Maioli orale e scritta

2008

European Roma Il Paese dei campi. La segregazione razziale dei Pubblicazione Rights Center (a Rom, Cooperativa Carta cura di),

della AA.VV.

Consiglio d’Europa, Rom, Sinti, Kalè... Zingari e Viaggianti in ed it. a cura di Lacio Drom, Strasburgo 1994 Europa, Roma, Karpati M. (a cura La politica fascista verso gli Zingari, di)

in "Lacio Drom", n. 2-3,

Kenrick Donald e Il destino degli Zingari, Puxon Grattan,

Rizzoli.

Liegeois Pierre,

Jean Zingari e Viaggianti. Dati socio-culturali, dati ed it. a cura di “Lacio

(2000)

1996 1984 (1993) 1975 1985

socio-politici, Consiglio d’Europa, Strasburgo,

Drom”, Roma,

Comunità girovaghe, comunità zingare,

Napoli, Liguori.

1995

Un mondo di mondi

Napoli, L’ancora

1999

Popoli delle discariche,

Roma, CISU.

1991

Lisa Parkinson

La mediazione familiare: Modelli e strategie operative

Erikson

2009

Surian Alessio (a cura di)

Lavorare con la diversità culturale: Attività per facilitare l'apprendimento e la comunicazione interculturale

Erikson

2009

Sgorlon C.

Il calderas,

Milano, Mondadori

1988

Vaux De Foletier

Mille anni di storia degli Zingari, tr. di M. Milano, Jaca Book Karpati.

1978

Wiernicki Krzysztof

Nomadi per forza. Storia degli zingari,

1997

Zanni P.

Significati del confine. I limiti naturali, storici, Milano, Mondadori culturali,

Piasere L.

Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

Milano, Rusconi

1997

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Bookmark and download relevant for Roma T&T : The official site: http://www.romateaching.eu/index.php

• • •

www.gruppoabele.it www.osservatoriobalcani.it http://www.iaie.org/insetrom/, Project on Roma integration is INSETRom: Teacher In-Service Training for

Roma Inclusion and for tools in different language: http://www.iaie.org/INSETRom/1_materials_handbook.html http://tandis.odihr.pl/documents/hrecompendium/rus/CD%20SECT%201%20laws/PR%20SEC%201/UNESCO%20&%20CoE%20Guidelines %20quality%20education%20for%20Roma%20children%20.pdf see in advance MALLETTE PEDAGOGIQUE – TEACHING KIT FOR ROMA CHILDREN • http://urbact.eu/en/projects/active-inclusion/roma-net/our-project/ An other European Project involving the City of Bologna, Roma-Net project: Integration of Roma populations is the focus of our: how to improve consultation and engagement with the Roma community.

• •

• • • •

http://www.thewaldorfschool.org/ Sul modello Waldorf: and R. Steiner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_steiner http://www.gfbv.it/3dossier/sinti-rom/rom2009-it.html An European dossier on Roma http://www.click.vi.it/sistemieculture/Santoro.htm A case study of intercultural children school in Bologna. http://www.errc.org/index The European Roma Right Centre, a network against discrimination.

Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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The Authors Andrea Cusatelli

Intercultural mediator www.senlima.it andrea.cusatelli@senlima.it

Consoling and manager for research-develop-communication for Senlima soc coop, and for a migrant women organisation (Amiss), born by two early workers' groups of intercultural mediation in Italy. Expert for training and evaluation process in intercultural mediation for the Emilia-Romagna (Italy). For several years, he has been moving and working on the issue of cultural changes in Europe. Therefore he worked for the cities welfare offices as projects consulting on migration and social conflicts. He studied semiotics with Umberto Eco in Bologna; there he works as a journalist and scriptwriter. His first film on interculturality, “Call me Babylon�, a ZDF long documentary nominated and winner of Adolf Grimm Prize 2004. He likes to blend ethnographic research and documentary for telling on the communicational cries and social evolution.

Dimitris Argiropoulos Professore a contratto http://www.unibo.it/docenti/dimitris.argiro

PhD in Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Bologna (2004), with a doctoral thesis on the topic: Places, methods and practices of mediation in training programs and integration with the Roma. He currently works with the Department of Education of the University of Bologna with the Chair of Special Education and Pedagogy of Marginality and Deviance of research topics related to the social inclusion of disabled people at risk of exclusion. He is interested in the issues relating to disability and migration with special reference to the role and competences of social educators in contexts of extreme marginality. Partner, member of the Society of Special Education since 2008.

Project: 357110- LLP- 1- 2011- 1- GR- KA1- KA1MPR

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