Schools partner-up to improve international cooperation

 

Collaborations between schools improve cultural awareness, intercultural learning and understanding and introduce international perspective into the classroom.


Teachers acting as international school coordinators around Europe play a crucial in fostering this international perspective and intercultural awareness. Offering trainings for intercultural school coordinators is the main goal of the Multilateral Project 'International Coordination Training for Intercultural Education and Diversity' (ICTPIED), coordinated by the British Council.

The pilot training course took place at Easingwold (UK) in March 2012, the participants came from 7 different EU countries as well as from India, Lebanon and Algeria. This enhanced the intercultural dimension of the course. The next “intercultural training course for the School International Co-ordinator” is now advertised in the Comenius Catalogue online:

Course 1 (Belgium): From Sunday 24 February to Friday 01 March
Course 2 (Romania): From Sunday 14 April to Friday 19 April

(Deadline for both courses: 1st September 2012)

The main objectives of this new training course are to:

• enable international coordinators in schools to gain intercultural competences
• demonstrate how intercultural issues can jeopardise school partnerships and to offer practical solutions and ideas during the course
• develop project management skills with a focus on the intercultural context
• encourage participants to develop their leadership role in school and to become active disseminators for intercultural education for other staff and students.

The course is the result of the ICTPIED project which involved partners from the UK, Austria, Germany and Romania in constructing and testing all of the activities. This process was supported by over 300 teachers in focus groups.

Methodologies
The course will use a range of methodologies including presentations, group work, role play and open discussion. Participants will receive information on intercultural education, leadership, project management, student perspectives and opinions, and the creative use of school partnerships. One important feature will be the inclusion of a number of intercultural scenarios which feature some of the main issues faced by those who manage international activities in school.

The collaborative forum created for each course will allow participants to keep in touch after the course is over. Course participants will be encouraged to undertake an intercultural task in their own school (modeled on one of the course activities), record their impressions of how this went and share this work with the others.

What defines a good school partnership?

A good partnership …
…is sustainable, not entirely funding led, soundly managed, motivates staff and pupils alike, is supported by senior management, involves the wider school community, is integrated into the curriculum, is strategically planned, addresses global issues and contributes to key competence development of teachers and pupils.

All of these factors were included in the development of the intercultural training course for the School International Coordinators (UK-2013-1676-002).

Teachers and teacher-trainers have the opportunity to apply for a Comenius In-service Training Grant to attend this course.The Comenius website will include full instructions on how to apply for the Comenius grant covering travel, accommodation, meals and course fees. If you are having any problems with this process please email: R.Kirtley@hull.ac.uk

Project website: http://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/ictpied