Anti Bias and Intercultural Learning in Context of Youth Work and Informal Education

English German Croatian Italian Polish

Training Report

The basic Anti-Bias training session served as a collaborative beginning of the practical work on the project “Anti Bias and Intercultural Learning in context of youth work and informal education”. At the time four people from Poland, Croatia, Italy and Germany took part in the training from September 4-12, 2007 at the Berlin-Brandenburg Regional Institute for Schools and Media (LISUM) in Ludwigsfelde. The seminar was led by three experienced team members from RAA Brandenburg. All content and discussion was translated into all respective languages during the entire training session. Furthermore, all working materials were available in every language. Our heartfelt thanks go out to the three translators who were also excellent support beyond their actual work at the seminar.

The goal of the training was to make the 16 participants competent in the Anti-Bias approach after an intensive period of getting to know each other. It was also to support them in incorporating the content and methodology into their own working fields and training work.

The central content, alongside getting to know each other and the introduction of the participating organisations, was a self-reflective discussion regarding the group of topics: prejudices, power and discrimination. The starting point was for the individuals to reflect on their own personal backgrounds and experiences with discrimination. The subsequent discussion about individual values and styles of child-raising created the basis needed to work on an individual concept for the respective working fields from the of an Anti-Bias approach’s perspective.

Many methods were used during the training. The work was principally affected by switching between individual and group work as well as periodical times for reflection during the plenary meetings. In addition, short theoretical inputs were worked through, supported in part by multi-media presentations. Various methods of “energizing” or “warm-up” were used intermittently in order to loosen up and to maintain concentration.

As part of the social program, the participants were given time to get together to sing various pieces of music from the partner countries, led by a musical teacher. On another day, they had a session with a dancing teacher where everyone danced together. Other collective activities were a tour of Berlin Kreuzberg and of Potsdam and a large final dinner celebration at a restaurant.

The intensive training period is still a powerful memory for everybody and has provided a really good foundation for further collaboration. Since then, additional plans for the multiplication seminar as well as youth meetings in 2007 and 2008 have begun. The next meeting with all the participants will take place in March 2008 in Palermo.

Facilitation:

Maggie Peine, Jörg Stopa, Oliver Trisch

Translation:

Magdalena Sowa, Marina Sokcevic, Elisabetta Zeni

Participants:

Dobiesław Barczyński, Barbara Benyskiewicz, Maria Furtak, Ewa Pelińska, Danijela Beretin, Ana Mihaljević, Marijeta Šestan, Franjo-Dubravko Šokčević, Anke Bienwald, Manuel Mittelstädt, Gabi Moser, Fiamma Scheller, Rosalia Catania, Elena Grilli, Timothy Pape, Antonella Venezia