The Future of Education

Educational policies are the strategic directions for the development of the educational system and include legislatives norms applied in practice through methodologies, controlled and monitored, and ultimately evaluated through impact studies. Biodiversity and societal diversity created a suitable environment for education, leading to the concept of a multicultural education, so much required in today’s student’s development. This metamorphose faced by the European societies refined the education providers and policy-makers, coming to a paradigm shift, from „Teaching about diversity“ to „Creating diversity, teaching for diversity, learning in diversity!”. Youth is our present and future - and we must make concerted efforts to open as many people as possible to our young people, especially in the current economic and financial crisis. However, European Youth Policy is a fairly recent developed area, with the first official references being included in the Treaty of EEC (1957). Lack of knowledge base on the preparation of youth educators, lack of systemic policy approaches towards inclusion and diversity, established the framework of this study. Raising awareness on the importance of well-prepared teacher trainers for diversity in Europe and harmonizing teacher intercultural competences within a European framework integrated in the curricula, will point to societal diversity as an asset that applies to school-related youth diversity. EU state members should prepare teachers for diversity promoting multicultural education as a normal teaching-learning environment. Thus, the EU needs new methods and tools to produce teachers for diversity. One of the programmes that promote multiculturalism and interculturalism is The Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission and includes sub-programmes like Erasmus+. At the same time, NGO’s and educational partnerships bring together different actors in the field and educational community to share good practices for youth diversity and inclusion. It should rise the level expertise in this field.

Keywords: educational policies, educational partnerships, types of partnerships, youth, cultural diversity, multicultural education;