An important milestone (work package 2) in the Advenus project is reached with the completion of an almost 60-page-long report about mapping and benchmarking cultural sensitivity.
The report consists of three sections:
The first section presents a review of the key points to be noted in a Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP) with respect to adult refugees, which include concerns about: culture, gender, nationality, race, worldviews including those that are informed by religion, student learning context (e.g. degree of access to on-line resources), language literacy and language background (reading, writing, mother tongue or second language), individual cultural identity including personal histories, and impact of personal culture on professional practice (e.g. receptivity to and communication with teachers and trainers in the new host country). Additionally, it presents the key points for online resources, trainers and teachers, translated into: multiple worldviews, learning theory and practice sensitive to diverse learning styles, focus on teaching for diversity, content related to and based on local community, instruction and assessment built on student’s cultures, learning environment that utilises local sites, involvement of family and community as partners.
The second section offers an overview on the goals, methodology, organization and results of the focus groups sessions carried out in Italy, Macedonia, Norway and Portugal with adult refugees and with teachers and other practitioners who work with adult refugees. The focus groups aimed at collecting data concerning different and triangulated points of views on intercultural sensitivity perceived on hosting process of adult refugees, competences needed for their adaptation, and the role of online resources on acquiring them. There were a total of 12 focus groups sessions with a total of 64 participants in the discussions, for a total of more than 20 hours of records. A detailed report of each focus group is presented in the report.
The third main section is a summary on the main implications for the adaptation of ADVENUS e-learning courses to adult refugee learners also concerning the issue of cultural sensitivity. This report results in a dataset with feedback from the focus groups and key priorities for the redesign of the e-learning courses taking into account culturally responsive pedagogy points: learning language needs and language background and domain diversity; awareness of cultural diversity of adult refugees and the need to learn the culture of the host society; work an inclusive view in training and education interventions considering identity, gender, race and religion. These results lead to the discussion of target audience of the courses (within the scope of adult refugees) and their main learning needs, mostly related with their host country’s language and culture and employment.
The report and its analysis provides an important foundation for the upcoming work package: The redesign of the courses and the development of a MOOC and webinar for teachers and trainers.
The UPORTO team has been in charge for this work package.