Teacher Education for Change: Pestalozzi Programme

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Eva Vitkova

As governments and leaders around the world realize the growing importance of the change in how we educate the 21st century citizens, we can see intercultural and global competencies making their way to educational policies and more concretely into curricular documents around the world. This trend as such won’t make a difference unless it’s embraced by educators and that’s why we should be asking: How does the policy get translated into practice, into the day-to-day reality in the classroom?

One of the initiatives that strives to respond to the above mentioned challenge is the Council of Europe Pestalozzi Programme. It is a program for the professional development of teachers and education actors which aims to deliver the message of the Council of Europe and its values – democracy, respect for human rights and dignity and the rule of law – into the practice of education (formal, non-formal and informal). It supports its member states in the move from education policy to education practice in line with these values by offering training activities, publishing and sharing resources and creating an on-line Community of Practice.

The program targets teachers, school principals, inspectors, educational advisers, teacher trainers, textbook authors and other education professionals and supports them in the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes they need in order to guide and facilitate the learning of the young members of their societies.

The growing need for the development of transversal knowledge, skills and attitudes among teachers to make them fully equipped for educating the 21st century citizens is a belief that is also strongly present in the work of AFS Intercultural Programs, which cooperates with teachers and educators in many of the Council of Europe member states, as well as with those outside of Europe.

Pestalozzi program represents an inspiring and valuable resource for anyone who works on intercultural competence development of pre-service and in-service teachers, educators and other related audiences. Visit the FAQs to learn more about the program or explore how to take an active part in the training events and modules.

Atlantic & Aspen Institute – New York Ideas Event: How AFS Can Get with the “Blended Learning” Program

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Eva Vitkova

Today, we are reposting a blog article from the Global Education blog of AFS USA, one of the AFS Intercultural Programs’ member organizations, with permission of the author Sarah Ingraham.

What a spectacular day at the Atlantic/Aspen – New York Ideas event on May 7^th, a gathering of innovative thinkers and groundbreaking discoverers who monitor trends, create possibilities, and navigate our increasingly globalized 21^st century world with excitement and good intention. From the founders of Google to Zipcar to women on Wall Street to a socially conscious eyewear designer with 100% carbon neutral products, the room was buzzing with brilliant minds. And online education, fused with traditional, brick and mortar education – now known as “blended learning” was definitely a hot topic.

As AFS approaches its 100th year anniversary, it is good time to reflect on the valuable advancements our world has made in e-learning, new technologies, and their application in a disparate world – and how AFS will become part of the innovative mix. David Levin, co-founder of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) spoke about serving under-resourced communities with online, open-enrollment, college preparatory schools, and noted the successful interplay between guided and independent practice and strong student retention rates.

Anant Agarwal, President of edX, talked of online courses reaching remote locations. He was asked, “Does e-learning equalize or widen the social divide?” and responded with a scenario of a student in rural Mangalore, India, where university professors are few and far between so are merely required to hold a Bachelor’s degree to teach at this level. Would this student be better off taking an online science technology course at Berkeley from a PhD expert on the topic? Good point.

David Levin asserted that in the long run access to technology and e-learning tools will only serve to democratize education and narrow the gap. However, the importance of great principals and quality teachers alongside e-learning tools is of paramount importance for the best possible results. How can AFS-USA help to promote e-learning in its intercultural programs for students and teachers? An important question to consider.

For more information on blending learning, please see the following helpful resources on the topic:

The Basics of Blended Learning

The Definition of Blended Learning

Evaluating What Works in Blended Learning

AFS USA Resources for Educators

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Eva Vitkova

Global competency, 21st century skills, intercultural communication competence – these are all buzz words present in most curricular discussions and educators’ conversations nowadays. Understanding the importance of the role of educational institutions in nurturing these highly demanded skills is without a doubt the key starting point in shifting the focus of our educational systems. But how do we apply this new approach in practice? How do we work with global competence development in the classroom?

AFS USA, one of AFS Intercultural Programs’ member organizations which runs all of AFS’s exchange programs to and from the US, has recently launched a brand new section on their website that aims to provide inspiration and answers to some of the questions above. Their Educators website offers a variety of resources and tools that are not only relevant for US based Educators, but that can also be used by other teachers around the world.

Browse the Teachers Toolbox that includes suggested lesson plans and curricular resources or learn about the AFS Educational Goals. The portal also presents the various offerings AFS USA has for schools: group educational programs, scholarship opportunities for individual students or AFS school clubs are some of the examples.

Do you want to receive Education and Intercultural Learning news from AFS USA? Subscribe to the Global Classroom Newsletter that will bring new inspiration directly to your inbox every three months!

Join Us and Stretch Your Cultural Comfort Zone!

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Anna.Collier

We are happy to share a fun, informative activity brought to you by AFS Intercultural Programs, Inc. that you can use to bring Intercultural Learning concepts to life!

Stretch Your Cultural Comfort Zone® is an exercise that aims to raise awareness of personal preferences in cultural contexts and encourages users to explore the boundaries of their comfort zones. The exercise is built around several cultural dimensions as defined by Geert Hofstede and Edward T. Hall. It asks participants to identify with one of the extremes* on six different scales representing six different dimensions, then try out activities or tasks that represent the other extreme and are not necessarily comfortable to them. The activity can be used as an interactive and self-guided display, or it can be used in a training situation with space provided for facilitated reflection and discussion. While the original activity is in English, all the documents are able to be edited and transformed into other language versions. We invite you to make your own language version using the templates provided and share them with others who are interested in working across cultural differences.*For the purpose of this exercise, participants are asked to pick one of the extremes on the dimensions scales; the authors acknowledge that reality is much more complex.

Intercultural Link News Magazine v4 i1 – Global Edition

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Anna.Collier

The newest edition of the Intercultural Link News Magazine has just been launched. Read it on-line or download it here. Enjoy!

AFS Intercultural Programs is pleased to announce the January/February/March/April 2013 issue of AFS Intercultural Link Newsletter volume 4, issue 1 – Global Edition, which can be shared with everyone interested in learning more about intercultural education.

The AFS Intercultural Link News Magazine is the quarterly magazine on intercultural learning in the AFS Network. The magazine features content shared by the Intercultural Learning Work Group as well as other AFS Partners and guest writers, including information on trends in intercultural education, interviews with experts in the field and overviews of upcoming and previous conferences.

Concept of “Cultural Intelligence”

Posted on March 19, 2013 by arturo.romeropereda@afs.org

Today we recommend an article on the concept of “Cultural Intelligence” by Clodagh O’ Reilly. The article is published on the site TrainingZone.co.uk, a portal with resources and articles for trainers and educators.

“Cultural Intelligence” is a concept that is directly related to cultural values and dimensions and to cultural adaptation. Generally, cultural intelligence consists of understanding the values, attitudes and behaviors of a culture group and a knowledge of how to appropriately apply this to achievement a specific goal (Earley & Ang, 2003). One’s own cultural intelligence is therefore developed not only by learning about other cultures, but also by interacting closely with people of cultures other than our own. By paying special attention to the motivations and emotional maturity of others during our own process of developing cultural intelligence, we can better foster this ability in others. According to O’Reilly, cultural intelligence also requires an intrinsic demonstration of respect for the other culture.

Cultural intelligence is relevant for individuals, but also for teams. Research shows that in multicultural teams and organizations, especially those with diversity in leadership, can offer more creative and innovative outcomes. However, diversity does not just happen by having diversity within a team. Unmoderated cultural diversity may increase team conflicts and miscommunication; therefore, cultural intelligence is necessary in teams in order to minimize the chances of experiencing conflict and increasing the successful communication that leads to innovation, Earley and Ang (2003) say.

To read more about cultural intelligence, check out Earley and Song’s book Cultural Intelligence: Individual Interactions Across Cultures or several books by David Livermore. Also, the Center for Leadership and Cultural Intelligence in Singapore and the Cultural Intelligence Center in the US are important points of reference in the study of this concept, not only with their research but also with professional and educational activities.

While defined differently by different groups of researchers and trainers, cultural intelligence is a concept that can expand the focus AFS places on increasing intercultural competence. As we learn more and incorporate frameworks and concepts into our work, we should keep an eye on research and practices in cultural intelligence that connect with our Intercultural Learning in focus (for instance: understanding values, attitudes and behaviors) and in our mission to promote heightened understanding between cultures.

The Value of Intercultural Skills in the Workplace

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Anna.Collier

Intercultural Skills is becoming a buzzword in educational and work environments, but why do employers value such skills? And which specific skills are employers actually looking for? British Council, together with Ipsos and Booz Allen Hamilton (a market research and consulting company, respectively), recently conducted a study on the Value of Intercultural Skills in the Workplace which addressed these particular questions.

The study found that “employers are under strong pressure to find employees who are not only technically proficient, but also culturally astute and able to thrive in a global work environment.”

The intercultural skills that where shown to be most important were:

The ability to understand different cultural contexts and viewpoints
Demonstrating respect for others
Knowledge of a foreign language

And these skills were so highly valued because employees with them:

Brought in new clients
Worked well within diverse teams
Supported a good brand and reputation for their organization

The study also suggested that policy makers and education providers could contribute to the development of these intercultural skills by prioritizing:

Teaching communication skills
Offering foreign language classes
Opportunities for students to gain international experience

These results from British Council’s study provide further justification for the importance of developing intercultural skills and sensitivity to differences – especially for the younger generations who have not yet entered the job market.

AFS is proud to have a long history of providing opportunities for its audiences to develop intercultural skills – as an exchange student, host family, volunteer, or staff! Read about the AFS Educational Goals and the Intercultural Link Learning Program as examples of how AFS activity contributes to this global theme.

Intercultural Competence in European Youth Work

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Eva Vitkova

If we search for the definition of Intercultural Competence, we find a whole variety of answers – the term is defined differently by experts on Intercultural Communication, consultants working with Global Teams or by Intercultural Education theorists. The definition also varies across countries and regions of the World. Given this reality, we might be asking: Is there a need to redefine what seems to be well defined already? Probably not if our societies were static organisms that are not impacted by migration, to name just one global trend observable in many parts of the World, including Europe.

Changes that have occurred in society in the last decades and, in particular, trends that will shape Europe in the next ten years were the driving forces of a long-term project started by SALTO Cultural Diversity. The goal of the project was to redefine and review the concept and practice of Intercultural Competence Development in youth work at European level, in order to be able to provide more adequate support to youth workers and youth leaders in the future.

The belief that the traditionally used tools and approaches based on the understanding of culture as a static concept are not always achieving the educational objectives of youth trainings led SALTO to develop a new definition of Intercultural Competence:

Intercultural Competence (ICC) developed and demonstrated within the framework of European youth work…are qualities needed for a young person to live in contemporary and pluralistic Europe. It enables her/him to take an active role in confronting social injustice and discrimination and promote and protect human rights. ICC requires an understanding of culture as a dynamic multifaceted process. In addition, it requires an increased sense of solidarity in which individual fear of the other and insecurity are dealt with through critical thinking, empathy and tolerance of ambiguity.

This working definition (as defined by the SALTO Intercultural Competence working group in 2009/2010) was at center of the Research, which aimed to investigate it’s validity as well as link it to current practice.

It is by no doubt valuable for organizations who work with ICC development, such as AFS Intercultural Programs, to be familiar with how other actors see and define it. It is remarkable that the above presented definition can be easily linked to AFS Educational Goals. It’s context (Non-formal Education and Youth work) makes the definition also extremely relevant for any other organization working with Youth.

To learn about the practical outcomes of the research as well as about the reference literature behind it, access the full Research Report in English.

International school partnerships do make a difference!

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Eva Vitkova

Class exchanges, individual student mobility, international projects connecting schools across borders – these are all examples of activities that schools pursue in order to become more “global”, “international”, or in the European context more “European”. What is the educational impact of such activities? What do students learn during these projects and how does it affect their school and its environment?

A recent study conducted for the European Commission has shown that international school partnerships realized within the Comenius Programme have a significant impact on students and teachers, as well as on the schools as such.

Comenius, the younger brother of the well-known Erasmus program, is part of the EU’s Lifelong Learning Programme and it focuses on all levels of school education, from pre-school and primary to secondary schools. It supports bilateral or multilateral projects that bring teachers and students from different countries together. According to the study, participation in these international partnerships improves strongly key skills of students, cultural awareness and expression being the one that was reported to improve most significantly (see chart below).

Impact on students: improvement of key skills

The study also points out that the impact of Comenius school partnerships on participating students is strongest at secondary level and that student mobility, when it is made available, significantly increases project impact.

The results of this study confirm some of the major beliefs that are the backbone of the AFS educational approach: that schools, and secondary schools especially, are the places where intercultural dialogue can be fostered and that real personal encounters are key for development of intercultural competences. The AFS network is investing in building sustainable partnerships with schools more intensely than ever in order to be able to create more opportunities to connect students, teachers and school communities not only in Europe, but all over the world.

To learn more about the results of the study, access the executive summary (in English) or the full study report (in French).

Are you a globally focused youth?

Posted on October 5, 2012 by laura.schaack

Do you consider yourself a global citizen? Would you like to become more involved in global issues? The organization New Global Citizen (GNC) provides globally conscious youth with opportunities to make their reach go farther and their impact stronger in relation to some of the world’s greatest challenges. It’s an organization for youth– and by youth!

One youth team focused on the right to education for all children around the world.

GNC offers a wide range of global projects, such as providing sanitation and clean water, shelter, education and doing many more important works to improve vulnerable populations around the world. Their main focus is sustainable development that is not the “cookie-cutter” approach. Instead, they hope to find solutions while keeping the population and culture in mind.

For those of you in education, they also have initiatives for you to use in your classroom, including team building exercises and curriculum to develop intercultural competency.

If you are a youth interested in global causes, this is an organization you might want to explore! Learn more on their website: http://www.newglobalcitizens.org/ or their blog: http://newglobalcitizens.wordpress.com/