Transcultural Education Alliance in Croatia and Hungary

Closed

Almost every day, local, national and international news facing us with a world where intolerance, prejudices, ignorance and fear of differences are sometimes the common denominators. Children and teenagers have natural curiosity to explore who they are, world around them and come in contact with various differences - social, racial, ethnical, language, religious, cultural etc. Croatian and Hungarian society is polarized, not all diversities are welcomed and integration is often mistaken with assimilation. In this social environment some pupils may feel isolated or threaten against students who come from different backgrounds, cultures or religions. School teachers face these situations more frequently and need to be prepared to respond and take actions to address these challenging situations. Educational institutions in multicultural societies have a key role in developing cross-cultural and global competences of students. Unfortunately, cross-cultural competence is not a constitutive part of teacher education in Croatia and Hungary. Teachers lack knowledge and practical skills how to teach cross cultural content to pupils in order to promote diversity, acceptance, understanding, mutual growth and open mentality. Project TEACH wish to tackle above challenges with these basic strategic goals: 1. Education and empowering of teachers for cross-cultural learning 2. Creation and implementation of interdisciplinary cross-cultural learning curriculum for primary and secondary schools 3. Development of digital tools, materials and methodology for cross-cultural teaching 4. Cross-border networking and exchange of key stakeholders in education. More specifically, project will contribute to objectives of the Programme by: a) raising cross-cultural competences and teaching skills for 20 primary and secondary school teachers b) creating network and implementation of cross-cultural curriculum in 8 primary and secondary schools c) raise cross-cultural competences of 200 pupils in primary and secondary schools d) development of materials on cross-cultural teaching/learning for teachers (handbook for teachers, interactive web page, social game app, quizzes, pop-up traveling exhibition) e) conducted research with specific emphasis on intercultural content in school textbooks and sensitivity towards minority and marginalized groups and their culture f) increasing social inclusion of Roma and other minority groups in education activities. Project will be conducted in border region (Osijek-Baranya County in Croatia and Baranya County in Hungary; Osijek and Dalj in Croatia and Pecs in Hungary). Duration of the project is 20 months. Main target groups are teachers and pupils from 8 primary and secondary schools. Participating schools in Croatia are: Primary school F.K. Frankopan Osijek, Primary school Dalj, Architectural – Geodetic School in Osijek, School of Art and Design Osijek. Participating schools in Hungary are: Primary - Bartfa Utcai Altalanos Iskola, Pecsi Szieberth Robert Altalanos Iskola; Cserepka János Baptista Középiskola és Sportiskola, Pécsi Művészeti Gimnázium. Partnership of the project TEACH consist of two NGO’s (NDC and EEA) and cooperation for project implementation is established with listed schools (support letters are provided). NDC is lead beneficiary in the project because of extensive experience in intercultural education and cross-border programs connected to schools. EEA on the other hand have expertise on working with youth and ways how to take advantage of new technologies in educational process. EEA will bring their expertise in production of these outputs. Partners will work together on every element of the project. This project will enhance cooperation between Croatian and Hungarian education system by creating a network of schools, NGO’s, institutions and other supporters for cross-cultural education, creation of joint cross-cultural curriculum and providing practical tools for cross-cultural learning.

Medium