Intercultural Communication - Education for a multicultural society - NAPOLI 2003

Abstract

The project was started in 1997 by the Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli, supported by funding from the European Union. The group comprised partners from Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Belgium and England. Although most members were involved in teaching, others came from community groups working in related fields. All were drawn into the project to address intercultural education and how this could be made more effective for our students. The issues involved are both broad and complex and need to be viewed alongside the current global and political climate, which, of course is constantly changing. During the project, partners shared experiences of teaching in multicultural settings, and also addressed the problems faced by teachers dealing with new arrivals. The team decided to focus on: • producing classroom materials • devising a teacher training course • producing strategies for involving parents and community in the work • valuing the importance of local traditions. Members of the project met together to update one another on their work, to work on common projects and to agree on common terminology. Reaching a shared understanding of terms such as ‘multicultural’, ‘monolingual’, and ‘mother tongue’ was not always easy, as these expressions vary according to the country and language of the user. Some of the agreed definitions have been included in the glossary at the back of the book. The products resulting from the collaboration were varied and included CDs, videos, surveys, classroom materials and resources for teacher education. Because some of the products were developed with specific contexts in mind, it became apparent that they could not all necessarily be used in Presenting T.I.M.E for Teachers 10 other contexts, so we decided to summarise the aims of each product and to suggest ways in which others may try out similar ideas in their own situations. The details of the original products can be found in Section 5 together with how the authors can be contacted directly if further details are required. The outcomes of the project do not attempt to replicate the wealth of materials already available, but instead, summarise useful existing ideas and present some new practical teaching resources. As we write, we are aware that situations are constantly changing as people move from economically impoverished and troubled areas of the world to areas which are comparatively wealthy and safe. Many teachers in Europe are involved with ethnically and linguistically diverse student populations and are having to constantly review both what and how they teach. Sharing experiences and developing teaching materials has proved to be an extremely valuable experience. We hope that this book will enable others to share in the flavour of the project and to benefit from some of the practical ideas for developing multicultural education.