Project Summary

 
The Project “DiversityCapacities (DivCap)” aims to support and promote inclusion and diversity in adult education. We aim for a comprehensive approach which involves the adult education centre as a whole, not only the classroom setting. The project is working with an integral approach to develop and implement diversity management in adult education organizations focusing on all levels in the organizations and in checking and testing this simultaneously in practice in the collaboration with colleague organizations.

We plan to develop supporting structures for a change-management in adult education institutions for enabling them to successfully deal with diversity in their institution, staff, trainers and learners.

Each partner organization will work together with a colleague adult education organization which is willing to develop one step further in the implementation of diversity management.

The results of this piloting phase will be published: helpful case studies will be highlighted, as well as the tools and checklists developed and used in practice. As further results, guidelines for educational and noneducational staff will be developed, as well as recommendations for managers. Moreover, methodology for experimental learning settings will be published.

The objectives of DivCap are

  • to increase the awareness about diversity issues at a personal and organisational level in AE organisations,
  • to introduce concrete measures to promote inclusion and diversity on an organizational level and
  • to augment personal competences of staff of AE organisations in dealing with diversity.

Those elements intent to promote non-discrimination and support inclusion and equal access to AE.
Furthermore, it also should improve the work environment for and competences of staff in AE.
Our understanding of diversity is broad, but in this project we focus on the categories of “race”, “culture”, ethnicity, religion, encompassing challenges in adult education in relation to migration, without forgetting age, class or disabilities as other important categories.

Target groups

Direct target groups and participants will be educational staff, non-educational staff and managers of AE organisations. During the case studies and pilots, in each of the seven partner countries two organisations and their staff will be involved. Indirect target groups will be disadvantaged learners, in particular adult migrant and refugee learners, who are the final users benefiting from the diversity management in the organizations.

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