The project "Pedagogical and cultural approach to inclusion of foreign cultures" has its background in the immense flow of refugees coming to Europe because of humanitarian disasters, especially in the Middle East and on the African Contintent. The European countries will be influenced by groups of people coming into our countries, who have no knowledge of our languages or our cultures. If the inclusion shall be successful, it is necessary that schools, kindergartens and all kinds of cultural organizations have good tools and methods to give them a good start and at the same time be able to communicate and tell about and present their culture in their new home countries. This will contribute to mutual multicultural competence , and give new perspectives in all affected institutions.The participants in the project, 4 schools and 2 kindergartens in Norway, Denmark and Germany, intend to meet four times in two years. There will be staff as well as students involved in the project. The schools involved will have 3-4 staff at each meeting, the kindergartens 2-3 staff. Each school will have 3-4 students involved at each meeting. First the participants want to exchange methods of practice and develop new and better methods through workshops and observations in schools and kindergartens. They want to include cultural institutions in each country, which have proved to be successful when it comes to inclusion of refugees and immigrants. The schools will bring students into the project to enable observation practice in schools and kindergartens- Students will be able to create new ideas and reflections and they will have to communicate to the partners in the project and their fellow students at home. Their findings may be used for thesis and parts of their curricula. The results after each meeting will be tested in all countries and the results will be presented on the next meeting in order to discuss how they could be improved, and the final results will be collected in a "Tool box", which will be presented in a leaflet as well as digitally in Wordpress. The digital product will have an easy access and can easily be revised in accordance with the needs of the various organizations making use of it. In the participating institutions there will be responsible for the updating and maintenance of the tool box. The results of the project will be published in the press and TV in the three countries and be presented at a conference at the end of the project. The results will further be introduced for the authorities locally, regionally and on national level, in order to influence future contents in the curricula of schools and kindergartens.
The context/background of the project is the refugee flow to Europe, and the need to develop good strategies of including the refugees in the European society. The idea of developing activities on a "mutual" basis, means that the newcomers shall have a chance to keep their own culture and bring it on to their new countries, to help supporting and developing multicultural understanding to a higher extent. There have been 4 upper secondary schools and 2 kindergartens involved in the project. There have been a mixture of academic and vocational teachers and students involved, and from the kindergartens the leaders and pre school teachers have participated. Children have been involved in all meetings. Kleppestø Kindergarten has participated with about 20 children throughout the project, participating in musical activities and football games. Kita Ringelblume in Erfurt participated in the meeting in Germany with about 15 children, and the same number of children from their partner kindergarten, Kita Brühler Gartenzwerge, when they cooperated with the refugee class and other students in a choir at Marie Elise Kayser Schule. All over, there have been activities with students and children, also in connection with refugee classes from all countries. The activities have been a mixture of artistic, social and athletic activities: Music, dance, arts and craft, football, competitions, games. We have stressed that the activities should create trust and fun, and the competition aspect should be of secondary value, the emphasis should be put on social contact, building friendship, having fun, learning from each other, being helpful. The students of the project have been enabled to observe the practice of inclusion in schools and kindergartens, and also organisations outside school. Consequently they have created new ideas and reflections have been exchanged by communicating with the partners in the project and their fellow students at home. Their findings will be used for their graduation thesis and be included in their curricula, which will be passed on to the coming students. The activities were tested in all countries and the results were presented on the next meeting in order to discuss how they could be improved. The cooperation between refugee groups, kindergartens and upper secondary schools has proved to be successful, as they have a mutual interest of creating a positive atmosphere, to get to know each other and have a peaceful coexistence. The results of the activities are to be found in our Toolbox (O1) which describe and explain them, and make it possible for everyone to try them out and adjust them to their needs. This Toolbox should be useful for all kinds of organizations, and may be extended and adjusted. It may also be used as a bank of ideas for anyone who wants to develop strategies for inclusion for as well refugees, or any social networks that might be in need of a structure. The learning platform Moodle, introduced by our project partner Andreas Gordon Schule, has proved to be a useful tool of communicating and keeping control of the various items in our project. The structure of the learning platform and the access to it has been changed and restructured during the project period, which is also a part of developing knowledge of IT and developing an efficient platform for the purpose of international projects.