Acceptance for cultural diversity - remembering, developing, testing Against the background of the current movement of refugees into the countries of the European Community, the project takes up the question of how adult education can contribute to promoting the acceptance for cultural diversity within the host societies. The emergence of an inclusive society in which humans of different religious affiliations and ethnical-cultural origins are accepted, requires attitude changes in the population of the host society, dealing with prejudices, and the sensitization for discriminating practices. In a consortium of five partner organisations from Germany, Poland, Austria and Romania suitable didactic concepts and methods are to be exchanged and examined. The project proceeds from the assumption that a historical-biographical approach in adult education, as well as learning in the social surrounding, is particularly suitable for promoting this attitude change. In addition, it takes up the demand made of adult education to examine its own offers critically for cultural attributions and “unconscious biases “. The goal of the project is, therefore, to become acquainted with and test concepts and methods of participative work in the social sphere and of remembrance and anti-discrimination work, in an exchange with partner organizations. The innovation of the project consists in the attempt to connect the methods and systematic reflection under the perspective of “promoting the acceptance for diversity”. Approximately 100 people are to be reached with the project, people who are active as adult educators and coaches in anti-discrimination work, refugee work and the human resources development of teachers and social education specialists. An additional 100 persons, who are concerned with the topic as stakeholders, experts, citizens' initiatives, are to be included. In the course of the project three conceptionally linked (short time) learning activities (workshops) will be conducted in the regions of Frankfurt/Main, Vienna and Warsaw. The methodology of the workshops follows the principles of subject and experience orientation. It is expected that the participants will extend their competence related to the attention to diversity (in school and municipality) and recognize discriminating practices, that they will recognize the learning chances of participative processes with the admission of refugees, and pay attention to the meaning of remembrance work for intercultural openness. These effects should result in the modification of didactic-methodological concepts of the institution, in co-operation with new network partners for adult education in the regional area, and in the connection to a European culture of remembrance, which appreciates the refugee experiences and forced evictions of the 20 th. century as a mission to accept responsibility for the suffering of the refugees of the present.
Acceptance for cultural diversity - remembering, developing, testing Against the background of the current movement of refugees into the countries of the European community, the project pursues the question of how adult education can contribute to promoting the acceptance of cultural diversity in these countries. Didactic concepts and methods were exchanged and tested in a consortium of five partner organizations from Germany, Poland, Austria and Romania. The project proceeded from the assumption that a historical-biographical approach to adult education, as well as learning in a social environment, are particularly suitable for promoting attitude change. In addition it took up adult education's required critical examination of its own offerings regarding cultural ascription and "unconscious biases". The goal of the project was to become acquainted with concepts and methods of participative work in the social environment, memory work, and anti-discrimination work in an exchange with partner organizations. The innovative aspect of the project was the attempt to link the methods and the systematic reflection under the perspective of "promoting the acceptance of diversity," and the identification of "conditions for success". Four elements were decisive in the project's process: the learning groups of the partner organizations (4 - 10 persons), three European workshops, a semi-public blog for the exchange of evaluations of the learning groups, and the transnational meetings of the project team. In the course of the project three conceptually related learning activities (workshops) were conducted in the Offenbach district in the Frankfurt/Main region, in Vienna, and Warsaw; these took up the aspects of "participation", "memory work" and "anti-discrimination work". The methodology of the workshops followed the principles of subject and experience orientation. The learning groups sent 3 - 7 members to each workshop. There were also day guests. In the workshops the participants presented their own work experiences and concepts, they tested methods of biographical work and anti-discrimination work. At the end of the project it could be determined (in the evaluation) that the participants had enhanced their capacity for action related to the attention to diversity (in school and community), and become sensitized for discriminatory practices. In excursions and discussions they became acquainted with the participative approach to the admission of refugees, and could discuss its conditions and risks. The "opening" effect of biographical work has been confirmed, but also the special conditions in a multicultural group became clear. Experience-based learning also pointed out the borders of their own acceptance. Thereby both their own personal prejudices as well as their attitudes could be articulated and brought to reflection. Within the framework of the project we were successful in recognizing various levels of acceptance and in conducting open-result discussions. The results of the project with respect to the identification of "conditions for success" have been published in a documentation for further dissemination as "Recommendations". The project reached approximately 80 persons working as teachers, counsellors and trainers in adult education, anti-discrimination work, refugee work and staff development of teachers and social pedagogues. Another 120 people involved in the issue as experts, citizens' groups and stakeholders were involved. Feedbacks to the Project: "As a whole, the experiences from the workshop are important in order to be better able to estimate the contexts and conditions of one's own work. In fact the objective European exchange and the cross-linking is the greatest gain for us. The experiences from the workshop will become part of our continuing work. “ "My participation in the workshop has increased my consciousness and my knowledge of the situation of foreigners in Poland enormously. I use this knowledge in discussions with students in the Department for Pedagogy and Psychology at the university in Białystok."