Interculturalizing education in Bulgaria: the contribution of the National Helpdesk for intercultural learning materials

Abstract

Whilst there has been extensive discussion of the models and policies concerning intercultural education in Bulgaria, there has been to date surprisingly little work undertaken regarding the potential contribution of Bulgarian school textbooks across the curriculum towards the objectives of intercultural education. The National Helpdesk for Intercultural Learning Materials has been established to address this need. In this article, we describe the context against which the Helpdesk needs to be understood before discussing its mission statement, evaluation model, textbook evaluation project and ongoing activities.

Notes

1. This Helpdesk can be contacted via http://www.helpdeskbg.org.

2. See for example http://www.eubusiness.com/imported/2002/08/89322 (accessed 5 January 2005).

3. In the 2001 census (http://www.nsi.bg/census_e/census_e.htm (accessed 5 January 2005)), the overall population was recorded as 7,928,901, of which approximately 6,655,210 (84%) were categorised as ‘Bulgarian’, 746,664 (9.4%) as ‘Turkish’, 370,908 (4.6%) as ‘Gypsy’, and 69,168 (0.9%) as ‘other’. Thus, nearly 15% of the population are classifiable as being of an ethnic group other than ‘Bulgarian’.

4. See for example http://www.unfapa.org/europe_asia/bulgaria/dpccfbul2.pdf (accessed 5 January 2005).

5. For example, in the Syllabuses for Foreign Language Teaching – Ministry of Education (2004) , II, III, IV, V, VI, VII u, VIII клac, [Syllabuses for grades II, III, IV, V, VI, VII and VIII] (Sofia: Pedagogic Publications, Ministry of Education), 372–373 provide eight general objectives for teaching and learning German as a foreign language in Grade 8 of secondary school. Four of these are positioned in the area of intercultural education:

•	to stimulate the learners’ interest towards the people and the countries where the German language is spoken;
•	to encourage learners to seek information from a variety of sources and to communicate in a proactive and intercultural way;
•	to stimulate the adoption of positive and unbiased attitudes towards foreign languages and cultures; and
•	to form attitudes of tolerance and understanding by raising awareness of similarities and differences between own and other cultures.

6. The websites for the virtual Helpdesks, accurate at the time of writing in January 2005, are as follows:

• Belgium (www.steunpuntico.be)

• Bulgaria (www.helpdeskbg.org/title‐uk.html)

• Greece (http://alex.eled.duth.gr/dimple/)

• Italy (site under construction) (www.trentina.it)

• The Netherlands (www.parel.nl)

• Poland (www.intercultural.gower.pl)

• Romania (www.cedu.ro)

• Spain (www.dimpleinterculturalidad.arrakis.es)

• Sweden (www.sam.kau.se/religion/laromedel).

7. Another example of this broadening interculturalization of education outcome of the projects concerns the intercultural insights into distance learning which resulted from the network’s development of the Intercultural Studies for Language Teachers course (British Council, 2001), insights captured variously in Fay et al. (2002) and Fay and Davcheva (2005).

8. It should be noted that the Helpdesk’s review of such legal documentation predated the January 2004 enactment of the Anti‐discrimination Law which is clearly relevant to the Helpdesk’s objectives. The process of preparing for accession to the European Union is necessarily leading to legal harmonization of Bulgarian Law with the European Union’s extensive and standardizing legal basis and this will have the effect of strengthening the legal sanction for interculturally relevant educational practices and resources. For example, work is now in progress on a Strategy for the Integration of Children and Students from the Ethnic Minority Communities in Bulgaria. Interestingly, this Strategy begins by considering the relevant legal documentation already available to underpin the strategy.