In a world more and more characterized by multiple identities and sense of belonging, it is important to teach children to respect cultural diversity. How can we help teachers to develop competences, tools and new educational strategies based on an intercultural approach?
On 28th-30th June the final event of the BODI – Cultural diversity, body, gender, health in early childhood education – project was held in Barcellona (Spain). The project partners and pre-primary teachers from Cyprus, Austria, France, Spain and Italy were involved in three days of debates and workshops on diversity education in an intercultural perspective.
The first day, during the international conference, the project results and final products were presented and various guests – expert in the fields of education and anti-discrimination – introduced the open forum on the importance of talking (or not talking) about discrimination in early-childhood.
Throughout the other two days, parallel workshops on interculturality, racism, health, gender and sexuality took place in English and Spanish, offering the partners the chance to practically share some of the activities developed in the readers for parent inclusion and for working on the BODI themes directly with children.
The event ended with a party where we had the chance to meet the teachers, parents and children who took part in the project activities at the local level.
And now? Heading towards the end of the project, in September 40 pre-primary teachers will test the BODI e-course, a resource that will allow to explore the materials of the various products in a more interactive way.
BODI – Cultural diversity, body, gender, health in early childhood education is a two-year project co-founded by the Erasmus+ Programme, Key Action 2: Cooperation for innovation and exchange of good practices – Strategic Partnership in the field of school education.
The project aims to contribute to the development of innovative policies and practices for intercultural education through the enhancement of teachers, school staff and parents’ competences in order to encourage full inclusion and engagement of children and parents from different cultural backgrounds.
The project partnership holds together 5 organisations:
- Elan Interculturel (France, coordinator);
- Cyprus Pedagogical Institute (Ciprus);
- Kindervilla (Austria);
- La Xixa Teatre (Spain);
- CESIE (Italy).
For more info on the BODI project, please visit the website and follow the Facebook page!
If you are a pre-primary teacher who wants to help us improving the online course – available in English, Italian, French, German, Spanish and Greek- , please contact please contact Alessandra Cannizzo: alessandra.cannizzo@cesie.org.
