Objective
To develop methodological recommendations for adults with disadvantaged backgrounds inclusion into the education, organizing adult educators training and exchange of experience.
Priorities of the project:
- Extending and developing educators’ competences
- Inclusive education, training and youth
Implementation period
1.10.2016 – 30.09.2017
Financing
€ 45 540
Project manager
Ingrida Muraškovsk,a Education expert +371 67331634
+371 22195600 ingrida.muraskovska@kurzemesregions.lv
The project has developed methodological recommendations for the inclusion of adults from disadvantaged backgrounds in education. The aim of developing the recommendations was to gather information on approaches and solutions that allow involving adults from different disadvantaged backgrounds in education. It is well known that people who are the least motivated to study are those who have low qualification and low-paid jobs alongside other representatives of similar groups. The situation could not be changed neither through diversification of educational offer nor through quality improvement. There should be a deeper understanding of reasons behind the obstacles that prevent these groups from getting involved in learning, and ideas on how to overcome them.
The strategic partnership of three representatives coming from three countries has been developed in the framework of the project ODEon. These include Kurzeme Planning Region (Latvia), a non-governmental organisation OPEI (Cyprus), and a social theatre NUCLEO (Italy). Partners shared a common idea that adults from disadvantaged backgrounds need community support. The community is the nearest and the most accessible support environment. In contrast to individual projects, the community is able to provide a continuous support, which is essential for people with low motivation. At the same time, one of the aims of adult education is the integration of a person into society, hence into the community. Therefore, in the framework of the project the issue of involving adults in education was addressed as an issue of interaction possibilities between adults from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and their local community.
The project allowed outlining the specificities and advantages of an approach offered by each partner.
Adult education in Cyprus follows the needs-based approach where the process is simplified as much as possible and the bureaucracy is being avoided. The process relies on the initiative of education providers, building cooperation based on mutual trust between public bodies and adult education providers.
An important actor in the sector of adult education in Italy is the social theatre which uses the drama method in its various forms when working with migrants, prisoners, the mentally disabled and other adult target groups. The activities of the theatre serve as a certain preparation that contributes towards involving these groups in education. They help to raise self-esteem, promote a sense of freedom and motivation for self-empowerment as well as a sense of belonging to the community.
The approach used in Latvia for involving adults in education relies on the cultural and historical traditions of the community and the promotion of self-organised learning among different social groups. Involving people in finding solutions to their own problems helps to improve their sense of self-efficacy, motivation to learn and to develop and improve their own life and the surrounding environment.
These recommendations are based on the partners’ shared understanding of the difficulties and possible solutions rather than on the summary of individual partners’ experiences.
The recommendations were developed in several project activities:
- The training session in Cyprus 5 days (24. – 28. 03. 2017), 20 participants
- The training session in Italy 5 days (2. – 6.06. 2017), 20 participants
- The training session in Latvia 5 days (10. – 14.07. 2017), 20 participants
- Learning between sessions– descriptions of teaching methods, methods piloting and commenting, preparation of methodical recommendations, dissemination of project results
They are published on the European platform for adult learning EPALE: https://ec.europa.eu/epale/lv/resource-centre/content/ieteikumi-pieauguso-no-nelabveligas-vides-iesaistei-izglitiba
