Training on intercultural conflicts and cultural mediation

On the 26^th of January 2022, the group of over thirty teachers from five Sardinian schools that started the Includ-EU capacity-building program in December 2021 attended the fourth session on intercultural conflicts and cultural mediation.

The training started with a brainstorming exercise on how they would handle two cases of intercultural conflict. After the teachers proactively engaged in an interactive dialogue and expressed their views, the trainer provided the definition of conflict, the different types of conflict and the main causes of intercultural conflict, which include the inability to recognize the different cultural frameworks, ethnocentrism, fear of differences, stereotypes, prejudices and non-verbal communication.

How language and cultural mediation and its techniques can be instrumental in dealing with intercultural conflicts was the focus of the second part of the session, along with the role of intercultural mediators and teachers in handling intercultural conflicts and managing diversity. The participants could not only learn how to maximize their work with intercultural mediators at school by defining the intervention details and their roles in advance, but they also reflected on their own role as mediators, mirrors, animators and regulators. By facilitating discussions and conflicts in multicultural classrooms, questioning themselves, ensuring the participation of all students and giving them the answers that they need, but also by encouraging them to raise doubts and stimulating their reflections, teachers can handle intercultural conflicts effectively.

Thanks to the contextualization of the learning contents and to the several opportunities to share ideas, exchange opinions and ask relevant questions, the teachers were constantly involved in the session and could find multiple connections between the training topics and their daily work in multicultural classrooms.