Intercultural education in primary school: a collaborative project

Abstract

In this article, we present and discuss a collaborative project on intercultural education developed by a group of educational partners. The group was made up of 12 people representing different institutions in the community, namely primary schools, cultural and social associations and the local council. The project takes an intercultural approach to diversity by focusing on strategies aimed at: (1) increasing language awareness through intercultural education in primary school, (2) promoting intercultural dialogue and (3) enhanced development of intercultural competence of all participants. Data were collected through a 30-minute interview, carried out individually with each of the partners at the end of the project. Participants' responses showed that the activities carried out during the project were an important way to promote the development of their intercultural competence. They also mentioned that working in partnership was a successful method to promote reflection and to improve their working practices concerning intercultural education.

Neste artigo pretendemos apresentar e discutir um projeto colaborativo sobre educação intercultural desenvolvido por um grupo de parceiros educativos. O grupo era composto por 12 representantes de diferentes instituições da comunidade, tais como escolas do 1° Ciclo do Ensino Básico, associações culturais e sociais e a Câmara Municipal. O projeto partiu de uma abordagem intercultural da diversidade, focando-se em estratégias com os seguintes objetivos: (1) sensibilizar para a diversidade linguística no 1° CEB através da educação intercultural; (2) promover o diálogo intercultural e (3) desenvolver a competência intercultural de todos os participantes. Os dados foram recolhidos por meio de uma entrevista de 30 minutos a cada um dos parceiros do projeto. As suas respostas mostraram que as atividades desenvolvidas no âmbito do mesmo desempenharam um papel importante no desenvolvimento da sua competência intercultural. Referiram ainda que o trabalho em parceria foi permitiu a reflexão crítica de todos os participantes e a melhoria das suas práticas de trabalho em educação intercultural.

Keywords:

• intercultural education
• intercultural competence
• intercultural dialogue
• educational partnerships

Notes on contributors

Marta F.J. Santos is a primary school teacher. She also holds a five-year degree in Communication Design and a post-graduate degree in Educational Multimedia. Since 2008, she has been working as a science and philosophy teacher in extra-curriculum activities in several primary schools of Aveiro (with children from 6 to 10 years old). In her early career she worked in Geometrix aiming the development of educational software on Mathematics and Ecology for primary school. She is currently doing a PhD project entitled ‘Intercultural education in primary school: partnerships involving schools and the community’, under the supervision of Maria Helena Araújo e Sá and Ana Raquel Simões of the Open Laboratory for foreign Language Learning (LALE) of the Research Centre Didactics and Technology in Education for Trainers (CIDTFF).

Maria Helena Araújo e Sá is a Professor at the Department of Education of the University of Aveiro (Portugal), where she teaches Language Teacher Education and coordinates the LALE – (Laboratory of Research and Training in Foreign Languages). She has participated in international projects concerning intercomprehension and intercultural communication and she runs several training courses at national and international levels. She coordinated Galapro – Education of trainers for intercomprehension in Romance languages. She has published extensively in the field of foreign languages teaching and plurilingual communication.

Ana Raquel Simões is an Auxiliary Researcher at the Department of Education of the University of Aveiro (Portugal). She has published in reviewed book chapters, scientific international and national journals and proceedings. She has also taken part in the scientific commission and organisation of scientific events and is a member of international and national research projects. She is a research founding member of LALE (Open Laboratory for the Learning of Foreign Languages), based on CIDTFF/UA, since January 2000, where she is responsible for activities within the fields of research, dissemination and cooperation with society.

Notes

1. Project co-funded by the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) under the programme QREN – POPH – Typology 4.1 – Advanced Training (subsidized by the European Social Fund and the MCTES (Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education).

2. All of the extracts have been translated into English by the authors.