Integrating Immigrant Children into Schools in Europe

Chapter 6 – The Intercultural Approach at SchoolImplementation of the intercultural approach in schools, which requires the exercise of complex skills byteachers, thus calls for special support on the part of the education authorities. Initial teacher educationand continuous professional development are two important components of this but other forms ofassistance also seem to be necessary. Over 10 countries have taken action along these lines, in some casesvery recently.In the Flemish Community of Belgium, the Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Austria,Slovenia, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom, this has entailed providing teachers withguidance and teaching materials which emphasise the importance of the intercultural approach ineducation, or which may guide them in actually implementing it. Schools in Denmark may apply to theMinistry of Education for resources enabling them to develop teaching materials for interculturaleducation. In Germany in 1996, the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and CulturalAffairs stated that its aims would include promoting the inspection of school textbooks in order toidentify negative prejudices vis-à-vis other cultures or societies, and the preparation of educationalguidelines on the intercultural approach for schools. In Latvia and Norway, meetings are organisedbetween teachers so that they can enhance the multidisciplinary dimension of intercultural education,or develop their intercultural skills jointly by analysing practical situations. In Slovenia, schools maycontact the National Institute of Education for ad hoc support from specialists in interculturaleducation.65