Abstract:

The project Challenges of intercultural coexistence was applied as a project under the call of the Slovene Ministry for Education, Science and Sports »Strengthening of social and civil competencies of professionals«. The project started in July 2016 and will end on September 2021. The first important project steep will be in September 2018, when the innovative inclusion programme will be presented to the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports. If accepted the programme proposal will be adopted in all schools in Slovenia.

The consortium of 15 primary and secondary schools in Slovenia is managed and coordinated by the ISA insititute and Osnovna šola Koper/Scuola elementare Capodistria. Additional 75 kindergartens and schools (primary and secondary) are included in the activities of the project - that mean network of 90 institutions in all.

The aim of this article is to describe the above mentioned project, which will contribute to the strengthening of supportive environment in educational institutions and development of competences of teachers in order to ensure a successful integration of immigrant children from other linguistic and cultural backgrounds in the Slovene educational system. One of the core project activities is the implementation of trainings for teachers and other school staff. At least 6000 professionals will be involved in trainings. Special focus will be given to the training of 15 teachers who will work in the network of 90 schools and kindergartens and perform the program “Challenges of intercultural coexistence”. They will implement the second core activity of the project: conducting different activities with immigrant children and their families and working with other teachers and school staff, with the aim for them to be more successful in ensuring proper support to immigrant children and their families.

One of the goals of the project is also to develop a programme for successful integration of immigrant children into Slovene educational system at preschool, primary and secondary school levels.

Project activities will focus not only on increasing the linguistic capacity of immigrant children, but also on promotion of their social integration, flexible and innovative learning methods and didactic materials, career orientation for children and strengthening of social competencies of children. Next to immigrant children and school staff activities will be developed and conducted also for families of immigrant children and local communities.

In the article we also make an overview of the results achieved over the first year of the project, highlighting the strengths and individuating the possible weaknesses, which can be adjust during the remaining four years.

Keywords:

Integration, immigrant children, linguistic capacity, social integration.