The heterogeneous nature of European society continues to expand due to processes of change brought about by specific national compensatory programmes that support an increase in the numbers of refugees and asylum seekers. Heterogeneous learning groups within Member States from school education right up to third level are increasingly characterized by differences most notably concerning educational background; level of school education completed; motivation and willingness to learn; vocational career plans; language barriers as well as social and cultural differences. If goals of inclusion and integration for refugees and asylum seekers are to be achieved there are a wide range of personal, social, cultural and professional competences that need to be acquired for integration with host countries, entry to the labour market and for achieving sustainable employment. The 8 key competences set out by the European Commission in 2006 are still extremely pertinent throughout European society. They are an immediate and identifiable baseline of achievement for migrants and refugees on which educators throughout Europe need to focus their efforts. This is, however, easier said than done when educators at all levels are faced with such linguistic, social and cultural differences and barriers. Educators need to look at a wide range of alternative teaching approaches if they are to successfully build the key competence profile of these displaced communities. In a pedagogic context, the centuries old techniques of storytelling, drama and music have faded into the background and are rarely now considered as appropriate techniques for knowledge transfer and key competence building. History tells us of a different era when literacy and language were for the few rather than the mases; when the wisdom of the wise and the rule of the powerful were transmitted by stories, morality plays and in rhyme and song. The art4inc project will endeavor to bring these unique and effective techniques into the modern age to help overcome linguistic, social and cultural barriers and build key competences among our refugee and asylum seeking neighbors. Specific steps in the development of the art4inc project will include: 1. A comprehensive in-service training course for adult education staff to support them in the use of artistic disciplines like storytelling, drama and music for training with heterogeneous student groups to build key competences 2. The adaptation, modification and production of a range of pedagogic resources that use the different artistic disciplines to build key competences for inclusion within the refugee and asylum seeker target group and the presentation of these new resources in media-rich formats in a digital toolbox of alternative basic skills development resources 3. Providing a bespoke, multi-lingual e-learning platform to support learning in dynamic on-line environments 4. Draft a Scientific Paper that captures the learning within the framework of the project and make key recommendations for future developments
What was Art4Inc about? Art4inc was developed in response to the challenges facing adult educators who are working with an ever-increasing number of marginalized people, in particular migrants and refugees. Educators are the key enablers to support these communities on an educational journey to the highly valued key competencies that are essential for social inclusion and personal fulfillment. Yet many front line staff working in community programmes lack sufficient training to help build the key competences of their target groups, and adequately address linguistic, social and cultural barriers. What did Art4Inc do? Art4Inc used the ancient artistic disciplines of storytelling, music and drama to develop, test and implemented bespoke training resources that support adult educators in engaging with the acquisition of the key competencies among migrant and refugee groups and other marginalized communities of Europe. What has Art4Inc achieved? 1. IN-SERVICE TRAINING PROGRAMME AND HANDBOOK - Learner manual and research report that contributes to the continuous professional development being relevant to any educator working to support the inclusion of marginalized groups in any educational setting. 2. BUILDING BASIC SKILLS - Art4inc teacher's toolbox e-book is a suit of 12 open access learning resources in all partner languages, 4 for each of the three artistic disciplines selected: storytelling, drama and music. The resources developed support the acquisition of basic skills and are useful to any front-line worker engaging adult migrant 3. MULTI-LINGUAL E-LEARNING PLATFORM - In-service training programme providing access to the full suite of Educators Toolbox of Alternative Educational Resources and optimized for mobile access on laptop, tablet or smartphone 4. SCIENTIFIC PAPER - The document examines the experience of the project partners in 6 different countries and making key recommendations for future developments. How did Art4Inc achieve its objectives? The primary target groups of the art4inc project were adult education professionals and migrant support workers who are engaged at the front-line of the migrant integration process. The 7 project partners had extensive close contacts with the adult education and migrant integration professionals working in a range of diverse adult and community education settings with whom they interacted on a daily and weekly basis. This was also the initial target group for dissemination activities outside our partnership in the early phases of project planning and development. Each partner established a research control group comprising 6 to 8 adult education or migrant support workers. These forums were been used to test and validate the development actions of the consortium and the products and resources developed. This was an important element of the dissemination strategy in that has helped to build a cohort of advocates for the project in each local area. Once the development process had started, project partners extended their dissemination activities beyond the local and individual focus to regional, national and international level to organisations and institutions dealing with adult education, integration of migrants, lifelong learning and social integration. These organisations have been important multipliers in the dissemination strategy of the project. Local Learning Festivals have taken place in Germany, Ireland, Romania, Spain, Czech Republic and Finland and a final conference in Germany. These public events were used to present all project outputs to relevant target group representative bodies. All project results were presented to the relevant target group representatives at these public events. More than 25 adult migrants took part in learning activities during the festivals in each participating country and 90 adult education and migrant integration sectors participated in the final conference in Germany. In addition, at least 10 education managers and policy-makers participated in the National Campaign Events in each partner country at the end of the project when the scientific paper was finalized. The project was considered to be innovative among local participants because neither the adult educators nor the migrant learners engaged in local implementation activities had ever completed targeted training that helped them to use artistic disciplines to support integration activities. Some local projects have as early as used storytelling to support the integration of migrants in the past. But using storytelling still requires a certain level of competence in the host language. By using drama and music techniques, Art4Inc has made it possible for local adult educators to reach migrant learners with no English language skills at all and supported them to engage these adult learners in personal and social development programmes. This represents a significant innovation for adult education in the regions of partner countries.