Promoting social Inclusion of migrants and refugees through Multiliteracies

Course Overview

The increasing cultural and linguistic diversity in today’s school communities calls for a shift from the formalized, monolingual and monocultural literacy pedagogy to a broader perception of literacy that would go beyond the language-based approaches. In this context, emphasis should be given on the creation of a multicultural school environment that will promote not only migrants’ and refugees’ social inclusion, but also language learning and affirmation of their cultural diversity.

Multiliteracies has emerged as an approach that promotes the variability of meaning making modes that takes place in different cultural, social, and educational settings. By applying non-formal methodologies and activities, it increases student agency and ownership of learning, language and literacy development, affirmation of students’ language, culture and identity, student engagement and collaboration, as well as critical literacy.

Attending this 5-days training course, teachers, educators, mentors, cultural mediators, youth workers, NGO workers or whoever works with migrants and refugees, can be benefited from acquiring knowledge and skills on how to design step by step an inclusive course addressed at a multicultural classroom, while making use of multimodal resources.

Target Audience

This course is addressed to teachers, trainers, educational counsellors, school psychologists, headmasters, school management and administrative staff working in primary schools, secondary schools, vocational schools, training centers, adult education schools, higher education, cultural mediators, mentors, and NGOs.

Course Objectives

• Creating an inclusive multicultural environment
• Designing student-centered courses utilizing multimodal resources (e.g. videos, texts, music, Internet, Web 2.0 tools)
• Promoting language learning through non-formal activities (e.g. role-playing)
• Acquiring intercultural management skills
• Creating an intercultural educational environment by applying the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS)
• Bringing migrants’ and refugees’ identity into the classroom through non-formal activities; Example: The Identity Texts

Methodology

The course methodology will be based on active involvement and experiential learning, since participants will be engaged in case studies, role plays and simulation exercises. Moreover, the course will apply Inquiry Based Learning and Collaborative Learning Techniques, since it will be consisted of short theoretical inputs, concrete exercises, and group discussions. Reflection upon and applying each approach/tool in your everyday teaching practice, you will gain new perspectives in the creation of an inclusive multicultural school environment.

Furthermore, the participants will receive preparatory material, which will cover all important concepts to be presented during the delivery of the course. If appraised, the trainer will also send you a questionnaire to identify needs and interest. By the end of each training day, the participants will have the opportunity to pose questions and exchange feedback with the facilitator and the other participants.

Topics Included

• Multicultural education
• Non-formal activities
• Role-playing
• Drama pedagogy
• Identity texts
• Collaborative techniques
• Digital tools (Web 2.0 tools)
• Language learning
• Intercultural management skills
• Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS)

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this Promoting social Inclusion of migrants and refugees through Multiliteracies course, participants will be able to:

• Deliver student-centered courses utilizing multimodal resources
• Design linguistic tasks based on non-formal activities
• Create a collaborative learning environment using digital tools
• Apply the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS)

Type of Certification

• Certificate of attendance of the training course
• Europass mobility certificate – to be issued by the applicant’s NA