Three delegates from the Secretariat for Catholic Education (SfCE) recently took part in an educational visit to Sweden as part of an Erasmus+KA220 project entitled Indi (Inclusion and Diversity).
The project partners came from educational institutions from Sweden, Belgium, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta, the latter including both the SfCE and St Albert the Great College kindergarten. The partners shared a common vision of developing high-quality pre-school and primary school education that addresses the challenges of inclusion for children with diverse learning needs and cultural backgrounds.
The project aimed to identify, test and implement innovative methods and practices of participation in the context of socio-economic and cultural diversity, to improve strategies and approaches for parental involvement, and to improve inclusion and interaction between stakeholders, including children, professionals, families, and communities.
As part of the project, the SfCE produced a digital book called It’s OK to be me! to raise awareness among young children regarding diversity, with the message being that we are all unique.
As part of the project, the SfCE produced a digital book called It’s OK to be me!
The delegation’s visit to Sweden was hosted by Upplands Bro Municipality in Stockholm. They visited four preschools where the curriculum is based on three key themes – play, learn and care – and is centred on project-based learning in accordance with the Reggio Emilia approach.
The latter is an educational philosophy where the child is seen as an individual who has a strong potential to develop, has rights, learns through the hundreds of languages of mankind, and who grows through relationships with others.
The philosophy holds that whatever can be done indoors can also take place outdoors. In line with this, the schools use the outdoors – be it nearby forests or the schools’ garden or play area – daily as a learning venue where children interact with one another and with nature.
Visual aids are found both inside and outside the schools as these are universal languages used to communicate with everyone, including students of diverse educational and cultural backgrounds. These visuals also provide a platform where children are immersed in literacy and where they are introduced to sign language.
The Maltese delegates also visited Härnevi School, which caters for students who would have just migrated to Sweden. Students are grouped according to language ability rather than age, and are taught their mother tongue as well as Swedish and English.
A novel concept was that of the open preschools, where children who did not attend preschool could participate in educational group activities with their parents. The day’s programme is designed according to the needs of those attending on the day and includes singing, crafts and play.
Parents are taught parental skills, behaviour management and how to bond with their child, while the children are exposed to language-development activities such as storytelling and phonological awareness. These open preschools operate in conjunction with child healthcare professionals, midwives and social services.
This international collaboration provided the Secretariat for Catholic Education a valuable chance to witness inclusion and diversity in action, and to reflect on how to improve local educational practices related to inclusivity and diversity.
For more information, visit this website.