Sardes International: Social skills and Social cohesion
Development of Life Skills and Key Competences of Children and Youth
In 2007, Sardes participated with Vilans and ICDI in a Matra-Flex project on the development of life skills and key competences of children and youth in Slovakia. This project aimed to mainstream innovative programmes into the child and youth welfare and educational systems in Slovakia. The Dutch experts shared their knowledge and expertise about this (policy) process with their Slovakian counterpart, the Cildren of Slovakia Foundation. The Slovak stakeholders developed and disseminated a Plan of Action for the mainstreaming process.
In March 2007, a Slovak delegation came to the Netherlands and visited Sardes. In June 2007, a meeting was held in Bratislava to discuss the concept Plan of Action. In July 2007, the Plan of Action was presented at the final conference at the Slovakian Ministry of Education.
More information: Jeroen Aarssen
Ethnic and Cultural Education in Multi-Cultural Regions as an Instrument in Enhancing Social Cohesion
In the Krasnodar region people from many different backgrounds have lived together peacefully for a very long time. In recent years, tensions between different groups seem to increase. A coordinated approach in policy and education may help to alleviate or remedy ethnic-based tensions and thus to increase social cohesion. Such an approach should focus on policy-makers, teachers and students.
The overall aim of the project was to enhance social cohesion in the Krasnodar region, by developing instruments to support policy-making and educational practice aimed at fostering inter-ethnic understanding. More precisely, the project aimed to develop:
1. A monitoring instrument that gives policy-makers (administrators) an insight into the impact of social policy.
2. An instrument that schools can use to develop a language policy that takes account of ethnic and linguistic diversity of their school population.
3. A profile description and activity package for after-school activities teachers, aimed at fostering the social skills of students in multi-ethnic groups.
The project was commissioned by Cross Agency and was carried out in the period 2000-2002. Instruments were developed by a project team of Dutch and Russian experts and were tested in schools in the region of Sochi. Participants from the Russian side included school teachers, in-service teacher trainers and staff from the Sochi College of Multi-Cultural Education. The resulting instruments were presented at the annual Pedagogical Festival in Sochi in September 2002.
Click here for the final document, with the instruments in Russian.
Information: Kees Broekhof
This site has been modified on 13-03-2012