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Multicultural/multilingual learning in early years
Start date: Sep 1, 2016, End date: Aug 31, 2019 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The aim of the project MUTUAL Multicultural/ multilingual learning in early years is to develop and further disseminate the comprehensive response to the integration and inclusion of children with migrant background in the early years and to improve the quality of the practices in early education as well as attainment of vulnerable children in preschool (both priorities under EC document Early Childhood and Care).This will be done through equipping the early years practitioners: child care professionals: preschool teachers, child minders, family support workers, volunteers, with the skills of how encourage the pluricultural/plurilingual education through early years education and care. Essential in this process will be the close cooperation and involvement with parents, local communities as well as policy makers. The reason and the need for the project comes from the fact that our time is characterized by immigration of historic proportions. Even before the recent migration trend, the OECD report (2008) stated, at least 15 percent of the school population aged below 10 within the ‘old EU member states’ was either born abroad or has both parents born in another country’. Particular increases have been monitored in the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Italy and Spain, where the percentage of school pupils born in another country has multiplied by a factor of three or four since 2000. However recent OECD’s analysis shows that further migration waves in 2015 have indeed provoked the unprecedented migrant crises. Not only because of the large numbers arriving in Europe, but also because of the differences with refugee flows in the past. This calls for support from countries which have limited experience in dealing with such flow. Further promotion of migration and mobility by the European Union in the context of Europe 2020 strategy, shows the need to improve the effectiveness of policies aiming at integration of migrants (Global approach on Migration and Mobility). The child care professionals, the kindergarten teachers, childminders and other carers are often among the first persons from the new cultural and education environment that the young migrant families build the relationship with.However the challenges the preschool teachers as well as other child care professionals are facing are sometimes overwhelming. The examples from the partner country show the following pictures: in childcare in Soderhamn (areas of (areas of Lillberget, Kilsmyra and Ljusnevägen) the children come from as many as 25 different linguistic and cultural environment. The situation is similar Bradoford with as many as 17 languages and in east Leads with 34 languages in Czech Republic they are facing the increased population from Poland and Ukrain, in Kilis the immigrant population currently equals the local population. The project multicultural/multilingual learning in early years will therefore develop the grounds to share, disseminate and further develop the approach of multicultural/multilingual education in early years. More specifically it aims: • To identify, compare an exchange and further develop the practices, methodologies and approaches as response to the needs of the immigrant children. • To increase the quality of the early years education through developing and implementing competence based accredited training modules on multilingual education in preschool for preservice and inservice training in preschool education, training of parents and other childcare professionals, such as case workers, children’s’ centers supervisors as well as volunteers. • To develop a comprehensive model for parental involvement. • To use the response to the needs of immigrant children and their families as a means to favor educational and social inclusion of children and families belonging to minority and/or disadvantaged groups.All of our activities will therefore include valuing children’s first language, involving the families in the language learning and promote their home language and culture while building the second language skills, which influences attitudes to education for a lifetime. Centre to our project are therefore issues of equality, diversity and inclusion.
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