NEW GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY FORMS IN EASTERN EUROPE IN THE PATHWAY OF ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION THROUGH COOPERATION, MOTIVATION AND INSPIRATION OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS

Project summary

Horizontal priority: 4. Educators Educational priority: 1. Strengthening the professional profile of educators Teacher training is a key focus for all three institutions for the high quality of education and tecahing. We believe that constant development and reformation of our educators result not only in professional development, but helps to prevent burn-out and also strenghtens the connection with children, which is the fundamental element of successfull teaching and education. This is one of the reasons that this project was developed. The relationship between the partner institutions was extended to kindergartens by controlling entities; and all three insittutions wish to meet the requirements of the priority by the following activities: Professional trainings (work shadowing, sharing best practices, short term trainings). International partner meetings. Informative publication for parents, who are interested in the institutions and the Waldorf pedagogy. Educational film for educators about the Waldorf holidays and festivities. Dissemination, sharing the results of this project. Project start date: 1st Dec, 2017-Project finish date: 31st July, 2019 (20 months)5 main streams of the project: 1) Professional trainings. (Observation of lessons and best practice sharing amongst partner schools. Short term trainings) 2) International partner meetings 3) Preparation of a special publication for parents and anyone who is interested in Waldorf education 4) Film for educators about festivals and holidays for training purposes 5) Dissemination, sharing the results of the project Activities are shared amongst three partner institutions as the following:Hungary – Paks (main applicant) – coordination and activity1, 2, 4 and 5 Croatia – Rijeka (partner) – activity 1, 2, 3 and 5 Slovenia – Maribor (partner) – activity1, 2 and 5 Activities of stream 1 and 2 are always handled by the actual organizing country. 1. During project period, we plan to have 6 international trainings for educators, 2 per each host country. We visit the hosting kindergarten/school, we explore each other’s organizational structure, operation; we observe lessons and attend to short term trainings. (2-2occasions per all three institutions.) We have six short term trainings, which will be the followings: • The importance of holidays and festivities in the Waldorf education - Paks • The theory and practice of anthroposophy - Maribor • The importance of handicraft in Waldorf pedagogy/ Organizational structure and operation - Rijeka • Creating and caring for traditions in kindergarten and school - Maribor • Relationship with parents / Internal and external - Rijeka • The importance of movement and play in the development of children - Paks 2. We organize 3 international partner meetings to manage coordination, administration and to enhance successful implementation. The objective of these meetings is dissemination, progress monitoring, risk management and support of reporting and accounting. 3. The aim is to inform parents who are either interested or already joined our institutions. The publication helps to familiarize parents with Waldorf pedagogy and the given institution. The later part is only similar in structure, but contains the specificities of the actual institution. An English version will also be prepared, which will be equally shared amongst the three parties, and local language versions will be distributed.4. All institutions agree that the preparation and mentoring of the newly joining educators is a high priority. The film will help them to see the importance of the holidays in a Waldorf institution. The film will show the common characteristics of all three parties, and also the differing specificities. People who appear in the film, will speak on their mother tongue, therefore it will be subtitled in all three languages and in English as well.5. Coordination is the responsibility of the main applicant. For dissemination purposes, the films and news about the project will be published on all three partners’ websites. All three parties are responsible for gathering all local press releases related to the project. Waldorf education is a pedagogical methodology that follows the same values everywhere in the world. Our project’s objective and innovative item is to show that there are some differences in each country which are perfectly in line with Waldorf methodology, still making each institution unique. To show these differences, we make the film about holidays and festivals. The film is an innovative and unique way to show the multicultural aspect of the pedagogy. Our goal is to train our teachers individually but with the help of this film we can develop the thinking of the whole community of the institutes.In that way communities in different countries can come closer to each other by understanding each other’s culture. So the values of Waldorf pedagogy can move from global methodological values to multicultural understanding.