“Building a future” - Cultural Intelligence: TheEssential Intelligence for the 21st Century

Context:Culture is the fundamental building block of identity and the development of a strong cultural identityis essential to children’s healthy, sense of who they are and where they belong.The main idea behindthe project is to develop awareness among children from an early age that diversity in our worldmake us culturally richer.In our country in 2017 year we realized an exploration with a goal to assess the children developmentaccording to the standards of early education and development as unbreakable tie from the nationalprogram in the kindergartens.The results has shown that the children from the marginalized familiesare having lower results in these measurements.One of the reasons beside the lower level of theparents conscious for active inclusion in the kindergarten is also the inappropriate approach of theteachers,by their different cultural identity.That is why there is a need for enhancement thecompetences of the teachers to work with children with different cultural and ethnic background aswell as program enhancement with contents that will contribute to the children to develop empathy,altruism and assertiveness.Kindergartens from Croatia and Bulgaria also include children of different cultural backgrounds andneed to exchange good practices in this domain of action.Kindergartens from Italy and Portugal have developed a range of strategies and activities that willenable us to make better changes in our program.We, primary school teachers, want to learn from each other, present our success stories and our challenges and work together to make a difference in our schools and communities.The main goal of the project is cooperation in the field of acquaintance and implementation ofmethods and forms of developing basic skills for children in the social-emotional domain using thecultural diversity in the European world. Participants will seek innovative solutions, new forms andmethods of work which develop Positive Learning Outcomes in children such a: strong sense ofidentity, confident and involved learners, effective communicators. By promoting understanding ofdifference and diversity, early childhood educators will gain skills for teaching strategies andtechniques which will help them to be more successful in assisting children and their families inbuilding positive relationships among each others, with their peers and with their localcommunities.Objectives:- To help teachers identify their basic knowledge about cultural diversity and to provide them withpractical strategies to improve performance when working across cultures.- To encourage staff to improve their cultural intelligence and to provide them with tools for workingmore effectively with children from different cultural backgrounds-To provide the KG teachers with strategies and tips for creating an inclusive classroom environmentand teaching a culturally diverse population of children.Good practices will be put on paper and we will develop a Guide for educators with game-based activities (а toolkit for early childhood educators on cultural diversity and responding to prejudice) and Materials for parents with tips for encouraging they child to understand and appreciate the different cultures.We and our partners want our kindergartens to be more socially inclusive by respecting thedifferences of all the children, where all the children are feeling valued and their basic needs are met.Our main goals are:- improving the approach of the children and their families from the marginalized groups in theprogram for early child development-improving the ability, opportunity and dignity of the those children who are disadvantage on thebasis of their identity.NUMBER AND PROFILE OF THE PARTICIPANTSChildren: indirect 80 X 5=400 total: 400Teachers: Direct 25 X 5=125 indirect 13 X 5=65 total:190Administrative Staff: 2 X 5=10Families: 150Local Community: 100Activities:C 1 - Including cultural diversity in our setting’s practices( curriculum)C2-C4- Including cultural diversity in our day-to-day practices( classroom management);Developing aGuide for educators with game-based activitiesC 5- Celebrating different cultures( building partnership with diverse families) Developing Materials for parents with tips for encouraging they child to understand and appreciate the different cultures.Impact:All the partners will use the Multicultural Education lessons uploaded on the online platform during the project and after its completion, which means that the material basis of the kindergarten/school will improve. Teachers can develop new courses for children using the materials produced during the project.The project will also involve the development of the human resource training, which is beneficial both in the short and in the long run. Teachers will develop professional relationships with their colleagues from other European countries and they will have the chance to develop future project ideas.