The main obstacle of participation in European educational space for our workers was the lack of language experience, digital competences and exp. of staying abroad. We also noticed how, due to the pandemic, we were increasingly closing ourselves off: into the institution, into the edu. group and into ourselves, which was inconsistent with the long tradition of fostering cooperation (with parents, the social community and other edu. institutions in the country and abroad). It was impossible for us to mix edu. groups, cooperate, monitor work and exchange experiences within the institution and with other preschool institutions, which led to educators not questioning their implicit pedagogy, and not expanding it with new knowledge and experiences. We considered it necessary to leave the institution, to cooperate with colleagues inside and outside the country, to reflect on the edu. practice with others, and to be open to introducing innovations into the work. We also wanted to support the mental health of educators as an important factor in the quality of work, and that is why we included work on understanding emotions and managing emotional states as well as the adoption of techniques for dealing with stress, in the project goals.
Living in the richness of diversity is the first principle of our curriculum, it stems from the fact that we consist of 7 district and 2 main kindergartens, some are 45 km apart from eachother. We stretch all over central Istria and each region has its own peculiarities, culture, dialect and other characteristics. In all educational groups, there are children of different ages, SE and religious status, nationality, and we also work on inclusion of children with developmental disabilities. We implement the project method in working with children and introduce elements of alternative concepts: Waldorf, Montessori, Reggio and forest pedagogy. We work with children aged 1-6 years (600 children), we provide parenting support (through individual consultations, lectures and workshops) and are actively involved in the life of the local community to develop awareness of the importance of early and preschool education.With this project, we wanted to strengthen the institution, by strengthening the professional staff who are part of it for participation in the European education area, because, considering the size of the institution, in previous Erasmus+ projects, a relatively small number of educators showed interest in participating.