About the project

Name of the operation

Interculturalism as a new form of coexistence.

Professional staff’s competence improvement for the effective integration of immigrant children in education and training.

Operation No. C3330-13-269000

A brief description of the operation

The implementation of the operation is partly financed from the EU’s European Social Fund and the Ministry of education, science and sport. The operation is being carried out within the framework of the Operational Programme Human Resources Development for 2007-2013, the developmental priorities of »Development of human resources and life-long learning«; priority directions »Improvement of the quality and effectiveness of education and training systems« and the public tender of the Ministry of education, science and sport for the selection of operations of »Professional staff’s competence improvement for the effective integration of immigrant children in education and training«, published in the Official Journal of the Republic of Slovenia, no. 65, 2. 8. 2013.

The basic goal of the project is to contribute to the strengthening of support in educational institutions for the development of interculturalism and its values and ensure proper information and training for professionals in order to ensure successful integration of immigrant children from other linguistic and cultural backgrounds in the Slovene educational system. The project’s goal is also to ensure appropriate training for professional workers who are in contact with the immigrant children, and the training of professional staff – multipliers for working with practitioners of educational institutions included in the project.

Name of the beneficiary

ISA institut

Consortium: ISA institut, Osnovna šola Koper, Osnovna šola Antona Ukmarja, Osnovna šola Milojke Štrukelj Nova Gorica, Osnovna šola Muta, Osnovna šola Livada, Osnovna šola Karla Destovnika-Kajuha Šoštanj, Osnovna šola Tabor I Maribor, Osnovna šola Leskovec pri Krškem, Osnovna šola Grm, Osnovna šola Trzin, Osnovna šola Martina Krpana, Osnovna šola Matije Čopa Kranj, Osnovna šola Srečka Kosovela Sežana.

The total cost of the operation and the amount of public funding

748.270,00 EUR

Start and end dates of the operation

2. 8. 2013 – 31. 8. 2015

The Managing Authority

Ministry of Economic Development and Technology

http://www.mgrt.gov.si

Contact persons

Mateja Štirn, administrative co-ordinator
M: 00 386 41 424 564
E: mateja.stirn@isainstitut.si

ISA institut
Prešernova 5, 1000 Ljubljana
www.isainstitut.si

Anton Baloh, professional coordinator
M: 00 386 51 374 900
E: anton.baloh@siol.net

Osnovna šola Koper
Cesta Zore Perello-Godina 1, 6000 Koper
www.os-koper.si

Mojca Jelen Madruša, professional coordinator
M: 00 386 51 604 088
E: mojca.jelen-madrusa@guest.arnes.si

Osnovna šola Koper
Cesta Zore Perello-Godina 1, 6000 Koper
www.os-koper.si

More detailed about the project

Set of policies and programme

The number of children of immigrant background is recently increasing in Slovenian schools. Consequently, there are more and more teachers and professional staff directly involved in working with these children.

The guidelines for integration of immigrant children in schools and kindergartens state that education and training are the two most important factors for successful integration of immigrant children, which most effectively contribute in ensuring equal opportunities for successful personal development, participation in work and social life to everyone, regardless of sex, origin, beliefs and other features. Thus it is very important that the integration process is carefully planned and that allows the integration of children who overcome the difficulties in learning the language, through ignorance of the differences between cultures and new environment, differences in school systems and educational programmes between the countries of immigrant children and Slovenia.

Professional workers, who come into contact with immigrant pupils, have the awareness that it is necessary for them to know the field of the integration of immigrant children and their families in the social, linguistic, educational and intercultural range. Consequently, professional workers have to obtain a professional competence in the field of multiculturalism and intercultural learning. The demand for this expertise and knowledge in the field of teaching and other educational activities increased in the past year.

The project offers different professional trainings for professional staff giving the latter the opportunity to improve the knowledge in the area of integration of immigrant pupils in education and training.

First and foremost it is the training of professional staff, multipliers, who will pass the acquired knowledge and material gained throughout this project to as many professional workers in their own organizations, collectives of participating schools, at the regional training events, as well as the rest of the schools in the respective regions. The work will be oriented in searching, finding, testing and developing new models and strategies of integration of immigrant pupils and students with the implementation and upgrading different good school practices already in use in the field of integration of immigrant pupils and students in education (preparatory school for immigrants as initiation before the start of the school year and continuation during the school year with the various forms of assistance, both in the social and educational field, that will contribute to better integration in a new environment, class hours of interculturalism and acceptance of diversity, teaching Slovenian as a second language with learning and didactical materials and overall presentation of graphics material Slika jezika, Slovenian as a teaching language, preparation and monitoring of learner’s individual programme, pupil’s portfolio, personal folder, didactic-methodical adjustments in education, cooperation with parents taking workshops and courses for parents, workshops and courses for students learning the language by meeting different cultural habits and customs, tutoring and peer assistance, cooperation with the local community).

The project, widely planned and regionally covered, enables cooperation of a large number of schools included in the network of school-educational institutions and at the same time it is also a chance for a large number of professional workers to take part in it and gain knowledge to ensure a successful integration of the immigrant pupils and students.

Target group of participants in the project

teachers and advisers in primary school – multipliers,
professional staff of school-educational institutions in the Republic of Slovenia, which carry out educational elementary/primary school programme, special needs elementary/primary school programme with lower educational standards, special neeeds elementary/primary school programme with equivalent educational standards, secondary educational programme or special needs secondary educational programme with lower standards, middle vocational educational programme or secondary professional educational programme and grammar school programme,
new immigrants, to be or already included in the Slovenian educational system,
the families of the immigrants, to be or already included in the Slovenian educational system,
classmates of immigrants and their parents,
representatives of local communities and NGO representatives working in local communities (through the direct implementation of the programme activities with the immigrants and their families),
professionals and decision makers.

Qualitative goals of the project

to prepare and implement comprehensive professional training programme designed for professional workers – for the successful implementation of multipliers of the project for the direct pursuit of school-based activities with the immigrants and for the training of professional staff in primary and secondary schools in order to ensure the successful integration of the immigrants in education and training,
to present the ways of implementation and use of mechanisms of already developed expertise and didactic materials, strategies and models to work with immigrants,
to inform and sensitise educators to develop a supportive environment for immigrants,
to train teachers to teach English as a second language, to sensitise the appropriate didactic instruction, personalization, and other educational activities that help in the integration of the child into the new environment, enabling practitioners to provide the best possible response to the individual needs of an immigrant pupil,
to strengthen the skills of practitioners in order to succeed in a fast adaptation and responding to changes in the local environment and in this way enable them to help immigrants in overcoming learning problems due to insufficient knowledge of the language and the differences in the school systems and educational programmes between their state of origin and Slovenia, the differences between the culture of the family and the culture of the environment and in society,
to strengthen the involvement of the incomplete participation of the immigrant’s families with school and the local environment,
to strengthen the support network of fellow students and their parents with the immigrants and their families,
enrich the offer of extracurricular activities, giving the possibility of better social integration of immigrants and greater communication capabilities,
to ensure the successful integration of immigrants in a new environment and through this contribute to a better quality of life major development opportunities and their potential, future enforcement on the labour market,
through the establishment of a network of teachers – multipliers and schools involved in the project, ensure the long-term continuity of the results and the implementation of the programme in primary and secondary schools,
through the establishment of a network of experts– a professional training programme providers, involved in the project, regional professional staff trainings and organised meetings (conferences, closing conference) contribute in ensuring wider professional support access to teachers in implementation of the project,
to contribute to the development of interculturalism as a new form of coexistence throughout promotional activities.