EU’s 'Europe 2020 Strategy' promotes social inclusion and states that lifelong learning is for everyone. The European Commission’s Social Investment Package and the Recommendation “Investing in children: breaking the cycle of disadvantage” emphasize the importance of early intervention and preventative approaches. Member states are encouraged to look for innovative ways to prevent inequality and have particular attention to children who face an increased risk of exclusion, such as children with special needs or disabilities and migrant or ethnic minority children. Since the arts and cultural sector became an independent topic in 1993 with the Maastricht Treaty it has grown significantly in its influence and extent. In a European context it has developed from being an area that was difficult to place anywhere to become a strong and independent member of the family; a member that today is listened to and given authority. By promoting exchange, dialogue, self-empowerment and mutual understanding the sector is today acknowledged to have an important impact on the European education, employment and growth. The Art EQUAL project takes its starting point in the belief that artistic and cultural activities can make a significant difference in the earliest stages of development for all. By promoting young children’s innate ability to explore anything that comes to hand, they learn how to build a relationship with the world and feel a sense of their own presence. A learning environment that focuses on aesthetic experiences has an in-built character of being inclusive and unprejudiced. It moves beyond practicality and supports the children’s development of basic emotional, social, cognitive and physical skills. The project is based on a shared need to further develop methods on how to face inequality and promote inclusive education for young children through artistic and cultural activities. By combining the competences of professionals in early childhood education and care (pedagogues and teachers) and professionals in art and culture (visual and performing artists, musicians and cultural educators), the project aims to build tangible products that can be used effectively in educational contexts across Europe. The key objectives of the project are: - to study and highlight good practical examples of educational programmes on how to integrate art and culture in the daily lives of young children; - to build an Educational Resource based on high-quality learning tools and methods with the aim of improving the competences of childcare staff, pedagogues and teachers throughout Europe. The resource consists of: a publication with useful learning tools and good practice examples; an online educational platform based upon “action learning” in scenario-based training; a curriculum for a live training course; - to develop an Implementation Strategy that promotes dialogue across sectors and supports the sustainability of the project’s results; The project’s partnership consists of 6 partners from 5 different countries: Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Latvia and Norway. It is based on the individual competences and expertise of each partner organisation, and this is reflected in a clear distribution of responsibilities within the interdisciplinary consortium. In terms of developing the project’s results and collecting educational material for the project’s products, the partners will implement a range of activities, including research in existing ECEC programmes, content and test workshops, transnational job-shadowing activities as well as 2 international events: a mid-term seminar and a final conference. By offering a “universal language” the arts and culture is a field that has potential to develop joint European solutions in reducing inequality and promoting the social and individual competences of all children. The aim of this project is to develop new pedagogical methods for professionals in early childhood education and care, which in the long term can improve the quality of social inclusion in the European world of education. Promoting artistic and cultural activities in ECEC will be a social investment to address inequality and challenges faced by disadvantaged children through early intervention. In the short term the project will provide a platform for exchanging interdisciplinary knowledge and skills and making visible the potential outcomes of working across sectors.
The Art EQUAL project is based upon a shared need for qualified methods to create learning environments that foster young children’s well-being, self-empowerment, participation and sense of community. The partners in the project are rooted in the arts and cultural sector and have many years of experience with art- and culture-based programmes for and with children. The partners have experienced how these programmes can have a positive impact on the learning environment, the individual child and the child group. The children experience they have a voice that interacts with other voices in a way they might not find in other learning situations. This is especially relevant when working with inclusive education. The partners have experienced that artistic and cultural activities can have a natural inclusive approach by providing a room for all expressions. There is a lack of competition, and nothing is right or wrong. The children can participate in new ways, and when it works well the children are free to explore, play, follow their own motives and find their own expressions in a group with others. The aim of the Art EQUAL project has been to integrate the partners’ experiences into the pedagogical practice of early childhood education by setting up interdisciplinary collaborations between professional artists/culture workers and early years professionals. These collaborations have proofed to have a strong impact on the way artistic and cultural activities become present in children’s everyday lives, and in general how these activities can have a positive influence on pedagogical practice, especially in connection with the social integration of children with disadvantaged backgrounds or special educational needs. The aim of the project has thus been to help early years professionals to develop a new perspective on how art and culture can be integrated into their daily practice, and the other way around to help art and culture professionals to get an insight into and learn from pedagogical approaches and ways of working. The project has provided a range of practical workshops in local nurseries, kindergartens and schools based on collaborations between the pedagogical staff and invited artists or culture workers. The partners developed a common method to ensure a room for equal collaboration and involvement of the professionals’ different experiences, skills and perspectives on working with children in art and culture-based activities. The method is based upon the principles of action learning with the aim of analysing and reflecting on your own practice and learning from your experiences. Throughout the project the practical workshops formed the content of the project’s intellectual outputs. This process was supported by an external evaluator from VIA University College in Denmark who pointed out several recurring values and introduced the partners to relevant evaluation frameworks, such as writing narratives. The experiences from the workshops were collected and formed the basis of the project’s educational resource. The resource includes: - An online platform including a reflection and documentation tool “Let’s Collaborate” for early years professionals: http://artequal.eu/en/ - A process guide describing the different steps in collaborative processes based on action learning principles and inspirational models to use in joint reflections - A methodology handbook as an extended version of the process guide including the background of the Art EQUAL project, essays by relevant experts, case studies from the local workshops and basic tips and ideas from the partners - A training course curriculum including a methodological description and practical ideas of implementing the material in training at various levels: national, regional and local. Along with the project’s educational resource the project partners have set the framework for an Implementation Strategy with the aim of encouraging early years professionals, artists, culture workers, decision makers and other relevant stakeholders to implement and make use of the Art EQUAL methodology and resources. In the longer term the aim is to improve and empower the development of inclusive education for children through art- and culture-based activities, at local, regional, national as well as international level. The strategy presents the partners perspectives on how to ensure the project’s results go into real-world practice and benefit both adults and children. It describes the different aspects of implementation in the Art EQUAL project and presents the partner’s basic ideas and recommendations to relevant professionals and stakeholders in early childhood education and care.