We are a rainbow: Bridging cultures via peer learning

As the world has become a global village, we need to learn how to live togehter better and gain 21st century skills to be able to keep pace with fastly evolving world.Learning to live in culturally diverse societies has become a vital competency for being a global citizen.As diversity at schools and societies raise both in EU countries and Turkiye,we wanted to share and learn more from each other to support unity,dignity and sustainabity.Depending on our research and observations,we found out that our partner countries where many immigrants live and face with numerous hardships such as othering, racism,inequity,labelling and discrimination need to come together to share solutions, exchange information and support each other.With multicultural gatherings and meetings,we aimed to contribute to educational and social equalization and toleration by eliminating problems rooting from social injustice we face at schools and among young people in general.Hopefully, these main problems mentioned above could be addressed with the activies applied in the project and we could raise an awareness and competency in our participants and organisations in terms of inclusion and diversity

Our project is designed to support sustainablity of societies in terms of inclusion and diversity. We aimed to foster peer learning to prevent fragmentation among young people and raise awareness and knowledge of diversity for young people, teachers and NGO members.We wanted to use peer learning to let our students learn from each other and feel closer and more comfortable,work collaboratively,learn how to live together and gain vital 21st Century skills.We aimed to support building a more accepting and open environment at our school and in societies in general to enable disadvantaged immigrant students to express themselves freely and feel that they are not left behind and being treated in an equal way. Besides, by providing diversity and inclusion trainings and experiences gained in this project, we wanted our teachers and NGO members to be more sufficient and comfortamble with teaching and leading multicultural young people and groups more efficiently.We also aimed to share information on different language learning and teaching methods for immigrants, observe and learn regulations,policies,goals,strategic plans and practices of participating countries,EU and European countries and on social inclusion and immigration.

We applied three mobilities, activities in and outside the school,online activities and dissemination programs at different schools and other governmental bodies within the scope of our project.For the first mobility held by Spanish partner UNO,we met in Valencia,Spain and we had trainings on multiculturality,immigration and language teaching policies and methodologies,social inclusion in schools.Besides,we had a live testimony of inclusion by a visiting NGO La Tartaruga Onlus and examined sport as a tool for inclusion.The second mobility was held by Italian partner Melting Box,in Rome,Italy.During the mobility,activities involving art, music,dance, drama and theatre were used to understand and practice a form of integrating people.Also, Melting Box led a practical activity on developing an EU and Erasmus+ projects.The last mobility held by Tavas Anatolian Imam Hatip High School took place in Denizli,Turkey.Peer learning, collaboration,drama and gamification were examined and practiced as a means of inclusion in detail in the mobility.Also,a “Culture Fiesta” program including varied multicultural items such as dances, songs, peoms and food was prepared and offered by all of the teachers,students and participants of the project.

As it was planned during the creating phase of the project,the results of the project have been assessed and evaluated via observations,interviews ,surveys and reports.According to annual reports provided by partner organisations and interviews conducted with participants,it is indicated that there is a positive change in students, teachers, NGO members in terms of fostering peer-supported learning and teaching,collaborating and embracing among young people,awareness of diversity and inclusion. Positive outcomes of the project have had an impact on more than a thousand people through activities and dissemination.A clear increase of promoting equity,diversity and inclusion and a more positive and embracing community at school can be seen easily.According to results gained from pre and post tests of "Self-assessment tool on inclusion in and around schools'' questionnaire, inclusion competency of the participants has significantly increased from 40% to 80%.Also,the results of pre and post tests of “Multicultural Perception Scale” show that participants’ multicultural perception level of the has risen from 50% to 80%.In short, the benefits can be seen both in the behaviours and perceptions of the participants.