The Future of Education

The level of migration across Europe has vastly increased over the years.  In order for the successful integration of migrant families to occur in their new homeland, it is important to understand the process of language development and to encourage intercultural awareness and tolerance. 

High quality early years education and care has been defined as a priority and pre-school education has a key role and responsibility for fostering cultural inclusion.  The stage of child development during which language acquisition takes place is seen as a vital period in which to nurture social participation.  But it also coincides with a time where children from immigrant backgrounds will face difficulties when presented with a lack of support in bilingual language acquisition.  The extra-institutional education sector plays a very important role in childcare but there appears to be a lack of general knowledge in educators and adults working in this sector on the topics of supporting language learning and intercultural competences. 

A European partnership was set up to address the need to improve the level of competency, in adults working in extra-institutional child care, about language development and intercultural issues. The Language Meets Intercultural Competencies (LiMErIC) project aimed to gauge the level of knowledge of language development and intercultural issues of those working in pre-school child care and to develop a blended learning training programme.

A target group of adults working in the early years child care sector was identified in each partner country.  A needs analysis questionnaire was then developed to gauge the level of need and interest for a non-formal training programme.  Data from the needs analysis survey provided a snap-shot of the current level of knowledge, awareness and competencies in language development and intercultural issues and provided the starting point for the development of the LiMErIC curriculum.  Ten modules were written; each consists of e-learning and face-to-face units.  The module contents were then incorporated into a handbook for the course trainers which included detailed notes together suggested didactics and methodology.  The training programme was implemented in 4 of the partner countries and evaluated using pre- and post- course self-rated questionnaires.  Overall, the course was evaluated as being appropriate for the target group and response was positive for both the topics covered and content. The e-learning sections of the course proved to be quite challenging for most participants and was also more time consuming than had been expected. 

The LiMErIC project has developed and piloted a non-formal training programme for adults working in the early childhood education setting.  Those working in this sector are often a parent’s first experience of a country’s education system and have a vital role to play in promoting inclusion and maintaining cultural diversity in Europe.