Municipality/Region

West Pomerania Region, Poland

Summary

By promoting intercultural competences, Poland’s West Pomerania Region wants to address some of the pressing challenges European societies face: the intolerance, prejudice, and discrimination toward minority groups. An evidence-based way to counter these phenomena is introducing educational interventions among children aged five to 18 years, with the ultimate goal to harness an educational system that teaches young people to respect people of other national, ethnic, and religious groups.

With this in mind, the pilot Each of Us is Unique and Important actions under the Arrival Regions project helps:

• students in primary and secondary schools to develop intercultural competences;
• create capacity for teachers to encourage the students’ active participation in learning about other cultures;
• strengthen students’ ability to cope with cultural shock.

Areas of integration covered by practice

• Fighting discrimination and promoting diversity;
• Integration of migrants in the education system

Background and purpose

Background

• Increased migration and more foreign pupils

As Poland sees an increasing number of migrants, the role of the educational system in Poland becomes more and more important. The West Pomeranian Social Insurance Institute (ZUS) has observed monthly increases in the number of foreign residents, with statistics showing an additional 4 500 persons coming to the region from April to October 2019. In the town of Szczecin alone, there is a total of 23 000 non-Polish residents, with the majority of them coming from Ukraine (19 000), as well as from Belarus, Tajikistan, Malaysia and Mexico. In addition, over 800 foreigners have established their own companies.

The number of foreign pupils in Polish schools has also increased. Data from the Educational Information System run by the ministry of education shows that in the 2017-2018 school year, there were 44 000 foreign children studying in over 7 000 schools, compared to 30 000 across 6 000 schools in the previous academic year. And in 2012, there were just over 4 500 non-Polish pupils.

• Children in refugee status determination procedure

Documents from a previously attended school abroad are required by the Polish educational ministry to admit foreign student to a local school in Poland. Foreign students have the right to at least two hours of Polish language lessons per week, and for 12 months they may also take on additional compensatory classes in other subjects if the teachers determine such a need. The total amount of additional Polish language classes or compensatory classes cannot exceed five hours per week.

The Office for Foreigners notes there are about 850 school-age children undergoing a refugee status determination procedure. Most of them currently live in 10 centres for asylum seekers, with the majority based in Auków, Czerwony Bór and Linin. Most of them come from Russia (Chechen), Ukraine and Tajikistan. 

These children attend 110 public schools on the same basis as Polish children. However, the Office for Foreigners notes that children applying for international protection are not always enrolled in the classes corresponding to their age, mainly due to gaps in their education record.

Purpose

In this context, the West Pomeranian Region and the University of Szczecin wanted to ensure that intercultural competences are incorporated in the educational system so that local children understand and respect their immigrant peers, and constructive and positive relations are fostered between them. Polish students are often not prepared to welcome children from abroad, which sometimes leads to aggression, conflicts, and use of hate speech. The teachers, on the other hand, are not prepared to conduct intercultural education.

The current practice draws on the idea that prejudice occurs above all due to the lack of accurate knowledge and exposure to different cultures – issues which can be resolved through education.

The project thus drew both pupils and teachers into workshops run by experts. The workshops aimed to equip all participants will strategies and information to help increase their intercultural competence. The participants in the pilot are seen as multipliers of the practice.

Timeframe

The project runs in the 2020-2021 period.

How does it work?

The Each of Us is Unique and Important actions include:

The Ambassador of Multiculturalism competition

A competition entitled Ambassador of Multiculturalism invited school-age children and adolescents from the region to submit individually or in teams:

• artistic and technical works promoting multiculturalism,
• ideas for self-government activities in the field of multiculturalism support, such as the organisation of workshops, festivals, exhibition, and more.

Image: One of the winning artworks in the 7-to-10-years-old category. ©Hubert Hendzel, Szczecin

Workshops for children

A total of 20 workshops, each lasting 90 minutes, are carried out in the first schools to apply. The workshops introduce students to the concept of multiculturalism and migration. The classes are designed to reach out to students who are currently witnessing the transformation of their place of study and residence into a multicultural community.

The events use non-formal education methods and are carried out (online) in the period November 2020 to June 2021.

Lesson scenarios

Educational materials and a model curriculum were prepared for three different age groups. Lessons are taught through scenarios, with work cards allowing teachers to conduct exercises and verify the acquired knowledge.

The materials are available for download here.

Results and evaluation

An assessment will take place after the completion of the action in July 2021. As a preliminary evaluation, it is important to note that:

• This first pilot action engaged, to various degrees, four type of stakeholders: children, teachers, parents and the institutions from the region. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the continual remote learning, however, the role of parents proved to be just as vital as that of teachers – a development which was not provisioned for before the start of the pandemic. It is therefore important that parents are involved more effectively.
• At the same time, a positive development is that schools in villages and smaller towns became interested in taking part in the workshops. This indicates that the importance of multiculturalism is also noticed at the local level. Similarly, institutions from the region have responded positively to the invitation to take part in the jury of the Ambassador of Multiculturalism competition.
• Finally, many children submitted their work in the competition. The majority of the participants came from the younger age group – up to 11 years old, and therefore further activities will be directed to this age group.

Funding

The planned budget amounts to 30 700 EUR, sourced under the Interreg Central Europe Programme’s Arrival Regions project, as well as the West Pomerania Region’s own budget.

Contact

Marta Ciesielska, Senior Advisor

Marshal’s Office of the West Pomerania Region, Territorial Cooperation and Tourism Department

e-mail: mciesielska@wzp.pl

Further information

Webpage of the practice