Intercultural Moderation
“Intercultural Moderation” as an Intervention Strategy in Neukölln Schools
- Younes Kheir, intercultural moderator, with children at Franz-Schubert Elementary School. Source: Reuterplatz district management
Since March 2006, “Intercultural Moderation as an Intervention Strategy” has been a project initiated by the Reuterplatz district management, and the Youth Welfare Service Association, Neukölln North East, and has meanwhile been implemented in four schools. The “Intercultural Moderation” concept is an essential module of the “En route to the Kiez School” project.
At participating schools – Rixdorf and Franz Schubert Schools (elementary schools) as well as Rütli and Heinrich Heine Schools (secondary schools), Turkish, Arabic and Serbo-Croat social pedagogy professionals are employed as intercultural moderators.
In the school context, intercultural moderation is heavily oriented towards the intercultural education model and the city-district-oriented working method. The target groups, alongside the pupils and parents, are the respective teachers.
In schools, the intercultural moderators mediate between the different stakeholders due to their native-speaker language and cultural competencies. The goal is to understand different perspectives, overcoming prejudice and developing schools to be an attractive learning and living environment.
- Intercultural moderators at Rixdorf Elementary School. Source: Reuterplatz district management
The positive results of the work were quickly evident, e.g. parents' growing participation at events and in parents’ evenings in schools, establishing a parent group, initiating association projects, interest in intercultural advanced training for teaching staff and creating a positive atmosphere in the schools.
In the context of greater influence of the city-district-oriented approach, the intercultural moderators organised the process of opening the schools to the community in close cooperation with parents, professionals inside and outside school, and the relevant networks in the Kiez.
The success of this project, which was documented by an external scientific evaluation of the University Potsdam, has earned its model project status, since summer 2007, from the Senate Department of Urban Development. The objective is to obtain, from 2008, statutory financing for all six schools from the Berlin Administration Department of Education, Science and Research.
Provider: “Youth Living in the Kiez” - Jugendhilfe GmbH
Implementation: “Youth Living in the Kiez” - Jugendhilfe GmbH
Funding: Social City
Funding amount: €290,903 (2006 and 2007)
Field of activity: social infrastructure, integration
Funding:
2006
101 32 698 €61,648.00
101 31 541 €100,000.00 (advance from school year 2007)
2007
101 33 965 €129,356.00 (to end of school year 2007 – thereafter, model project of Senate Department of Urban Development)
Total: €291,004.00
Kurzbeschreibung_IKM.pdf (29,6 KB)
Short guide to the "Intercultural Moderation" project.
Zwei_Jahre_Fachgespraech.pdf (26,7 KB)
"Two Years ICM" - Expert dialogue in June 2008 on "Intercultural Moderation".