Europe is continuously facing challenges related to migration, concerning integration, cultural shifts, religious and cultural identities and populist movements threatening its cohesion. In December 2017 the European council emphasised at its Gothenburg summit that “education and culture are key to building inclusive and cohesive societies“. A new Agenda for Culture is under preparation which will point to the crucial role of culture and heritage for social inclusion and European cohesion as basis for economic success. This is the starting point for the DELPHI consortium to develop this project proposing cultural heritage as the ideal learning context and heritage interpretation as the ideal approach to tackle these challenges. The DELPHI project wants to emphasise and strengthen the role of cultural heritage in non-formal learning, in inclusion processes, in finding European value frames and in creating a European identity. To this end the project will focus on professional development in Heritage Interpretation (HI). HI is the art to create a relation between the elements of a heritage site, a collection or an intangible cultural asset and the meaning making and value frames of the visitors. Heritage Interpretation creates cognitive and emotional links between the visitors and what they can discover on-site. The target groups for this project are heritage interpreters, cultural heritage staff & volunteers and adult educators delivering informal learning and European culture awareness in inspiring heritage contexts. In DELPHI the consortium will further develop a comprehensive HI competence framework, training materials and a learning outcome validation system for CPD courses on heritage interpretation in line with the EQF. A holistic learning platform will be established delivering a fully-fledged learning environment which bridges learning, validation and documentation in three areas (LMS, LEVEL5 and e-Portfolio). This will also lead to further mainstreaming into formal education at EQF level 5-7. DELPHI will focus on European aspects and European value elements which can be discovered in local heritage. This will help interpreters to better frame heritage within European contexts and to bring the European idea alive for local communities. The project will also focus on the learning aspect. How can a heritage site turn into an inspiring environment for lifelong learning? How can interpreters use the power of first-hand experience of concrete, real-world phenomena in times of scripted realities and fake news? How can interpretation enhance thinking skills? DELPHI will develop heritage interpretation methodologies that consciously facilitate learning experiences discovering the European dimensions of local heritage. It wants heritage interpreters to improve their competences to reveal to migrant groups as well as locals with long-standing family roots how local heritage in their (new) home village or neighbourhood is connected with Europe. The DELPHI HI competence profile, its curriculum and training model will focus on competences in those fields. Heritage in this context will not be seen as a static relict from the past but as an evolving value and meaning reference from a dynamic European population. In earlier and recent past this population was & is composed of groups from different socio-cultural backgrounds. The project will focus on a multi-perspective interpretation approach as a fertile ground for an intercultural dialogue. It will facilitate learning about how cultural diversity enriches people and societies provided there is unity in the appreciation of the EU’s fundamental values. This way DELPHI will contribute to raising awareness of the importance of Europe’s cultural heritage to ownership of shared values, such as equality, freedom, non-discrimination and social inclusion and to foster the development of social, civic and intercultural competences, media literacy, and critical thinking.
The DELPHI project wants to emphasise and strengthen the role of European cultural heritage in non-formal learning, in inclusion processes, in finding European value frames and in creating a European identity. To this end the project focuses on professional development in Heritage Interpretation (HI). HI is the art to create a relation between the elements of a heritage site, a collection or an intangible cultural asset and the meaning making and value frames of the visitors. Heritage Interpretation creates cognitive and emotional links between the visitors and what they can discover on-site. DELPHI focuses on European aspects and European value elements which can be discovered in local heritage. This should help interpreters to better frame heritage within European contexts and to bring the European idea alive for local communities. The project also focuses on the learning aspect. The products developed in DELPHI within the two years include the following: - A Stocktaking Report on approaches in HI and existing (digital) learning materials and projects. - A detailed Competence Framework, refering to EQF-Levels 4-7. Describing key competences in the fields of European Identity, Social Sustainability, Regional Development and creating a learning experience - A modular blended learning CPD Course for Heritage Interpreters and Adult Educators including all learning ressources, webinar schemes, eLearning modules and a one week face-to-face workshop concept - A Toolkit for the further use of DELPHI Materials in different training contexts. The Toolkit allows trainers to develop a course for three different target groups (Heritage Interpreters, Community workers, Adult Educators) and on different competence levels (EQF 4-6) - Two fully fledged Learning Pathways on the learning platform "OWL" addressing Adult Educators to apply skills of the Heritage Interpretation for Adult Education and for the implementation of European Values in Adult Education. - A Validation-System allowing course participants to self-validate their competence development. - 12 demonstrative local projects developed by the trained professionals during the project, providing examples of good practices both for heritage interpreters and for adult educators. The modules and course concept was developed on the basis of the Competence Framework that indicated the areas of skills, knowledge and attitudes that need to be covered in order to gain the intended competence growth and reach the course objectives. The 18 participants testing the DELPHI pilot course developed projects out of their participation by applying their gained knowledge to their professional environment. After the course and the evaluation of the course all the material has been compiled within the DELPHI Toolkit which includes sound information on how to apply the competence orientered learning materials to own training concepts. The project activities and outputs were disseminated widely during the project. Potential beneficiaries were involved as associated partners, as participants, in the stocktaking report and in expert interviews which helped to further develop and improve the products. To promote the project outcomes - mainly the DELPHI Competence Framework, the Toolkit, modular Course design and transfer potential - the partners organised an online conference and used newsletters and further distribution channels to reach potential users. The project consortium included 7 partners from Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy and United Kingdom and an associated Partner. Research Institutes worked together wirth training and consultancy providers. Each partner brought specific expertise and resources to the project and benefited in turn from the other partners` contributions. All DELPHI Products are available in English and can be downloaded or accessed from the DELPHI homepage which will continue to operate.