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Sustainable food for kindergartens: Open educational resources for pedagogues, caterers and kitchen staff
Start date: Sep 1, 2016, End date: Aug 31, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The aim of the Strategic Partnership is to develop an e-learning course and interactive online portal “Sustainable food in kindergartens”, offering learning materials and OERs on sustainable food in kindergartens for pedagogues, kindergarten staffs, caterers and kitchen staff. The content of the developed English pilot course will be transfer and adapt it to the seven partner countries. New requirements for kindergarten pedagogues and staffsThe vocational profile of and requirements for pedagogues and staffs employed in kindergartens, children crèches and schools in Germany and other countries in Europe have changed radically in the past 10-15 years. In nearly all European countries the number of hours a child stays in kindergarten is increasing, in Germany the all day care up to 48,9 %. Pedagogues and kindergarten staff have to take over responsibility for a lot of new tasks and operational processes. One important topic is the care for food and full board service with 2-3 meals a day. The curricula of vocational training for kindergarten pedagogues do not contain training elements meeting the appropriate nutrition expertise requested. The project aims to enhance and complete the professional profile of kindergarten pedagogues and staffs by learning offers on sustainability of meals and food. Parallel to this the food issue is a good subject to strengthen the communication with parents and especially to force the integration of refugee families in the kindergarten society.New challenges by refugee childrenNew challenges for kindergarten staffs and manager rise for the integration of refugee children and families. Germany and many European countries have to integrate refugees from various countries. The kindergarten is the place where families with young children meet and where there is a way to integrate them into the European culture through direct interaction and knowledge exchange. But to integrate families as well as children from other countries kindergarten staff has to have basic knowledge about the eating habits, the religious background and rituals for not offending the children or the parents with our European consumption patterns. The project a puts a special focus on these needs.Main results and outputs• Guidelines and didactic concept on “Sustainable food in kindergartens” (O1);• Content for the training course (O2)• Online portal on “Sustainable food in kindergartens” with various OER in all partner languages (O3)• English pilot e-learning course “Sustainable food in kindergartens” (O4);• 7 versions of e-learning course “Sustainable food in kindergartens” adapted to all partner countries and languages (O5) • Test and Evaluation Reports (O6)• Dissemination workshops (8) in all partner countries (E1)• International NetworkThe e-learning course will comprise 5 modules and 15 learning units covering the following topics: Module 1: The key role of kindergarten staff to change food habits Module 2: How to raise quality and make food more sustainable Module 3: Outdoor learning as a good opportunity Module 4: Food taste and intercultural eating skills Module 5: How to communicate with and inspire parentsThe course will be evaluated during a testing phase with at least 15 participants in each country. They will test the e-learning course, modules and content as well as the online portal and give their assessment by interview and questionnaires.Target groups and partnersThe main target groups are pedagogues, cooking personnel, kitchen staff and chefs in kindergartens as well as caterers for kindergartens who need a specific education in sustainability and its aspects in nutrition and food system that they can transfer this knowledge to children and their parents. Another important target group which needs to be addressed are headmasters and personnel manager of kindergartens, decision makers in public administration, universities and higher schools educating (future) teachers, students and parents.The e-learning course and portal “Sustainable food in kindergartens” will bring a new and innovative field of skills and competence with a high relevance for the above mentioned target groups. A minimum of 250 persons should be reached in each country by the project activities. For dissemination purpose a European network, formed as a “Community of practice for sustainability in kindergartens” with stakeholders from the participating countries, will be installed. It will also give feedback on the content and applicability of the e-learning course.The partnerships consists of 8 partners from 7 countries – Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. The partners are institutions with experiences and competences in different areas of sustainability and education and this partnership will cover a wide area within the European Union.
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