Fedactio Education Conference Album

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International Conference on EducationDIvErsE TalEnTs for ThE fuTurE of EuropE

Strengthening Europe through civil grassroots initiatives in education5-6 March 2012, Brussels

ConfErEnCE alBuM

First published in Belgium

© Fedactio 2012

Federation of Active Associations of BelgiumFederatie van Actieve Verenigingen van BelgïeFédération des Associations Actives de Belgique

Paleizenstraat 27 | Rue des Palais 271030 Brussel | 1030 Bruxelles

www.educationconference.euwww.fedactio.be

twitter.com/fedactiotwitter.com/educonf

facebook.com/fedactio

All rights reserved.

Dear Guest,

It was a pleasure to meet you at the ‘Diverse talents for Europe 2020’ conference. We hope that you enjoyed it and that it inspired you in your endeavours to improve educational opportunities for all in

Europe...

Different stakeholders participated in the conference: policy makers and government officials, staff of international organizations, civil society organizations, academics and professionals from the education sector. We believe that the exchanges were successful in shedding a new light on the role of ethnic minorities in European education systems. Whereas the debate usually tends to problematise the performance gap of immigrant students in European education systems, this conference has mainly reflected the enormous commitment of ‘new Europeans’ to education. The label ‘new Europeans’ refers to the fact that second and third generation immigrants feel at home in the EU: they are here to stay and want to fully develop the talents of their children for a brighter common future. What is more, Europe needs these diverse talents in the context of globalization. Our common goal is not just to bridge gaps, but also to make this diversity benefit to all.

The conference programme included policy plans, research, educational projects and civil society initiatives. The latter include early childhood intervention, pedagogical innovations, school-parents- community liaison projects, language support, tutoring and mentoring, extra-curricular activities, etc. We realized that communities of new Europeans can be a genuine source of social and cultural capital rather than a burden for our education systems.

I would like to thank Mevlüt Akgüngör and his team, the staff and volunteers of Fedactio, for the perfect organization of the event; UNITEE for generously sponsoring it; the European Parliament and the Flemish Ministry of Education for hosting the conference; the colleagues from the organizing committee for designing the programme; all speakers and moderators for their inputs; L’Ecole des Etoiles and Foyer for sharing their enthousiasm and expertise; and all participants for contributing to the pleasant and inspiring exchanges.

Let us keep in touch. Let us extend and deepen this network, and be creative in improving the equity and effectiveness of education – to the benefit of all.

IDEs nICaIsE

Organising Committee

President

prEfaCE3

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The volunteers of Fedactio have been searching for an answer to the following question instead of hiding behind the clichés like “integration”: How can we contribute to this society that we are honoured to be a part of as second and third generation immigrant children? Fedactio, with its member associations, platforms, and

hundreds of volunteers, is maintaining its proactive, emancipating, and solution oriented approach and avoiding empty promises, slogans and

reactionary attitudes. Every project of Fedactio projects aims to create a peaceful and cohesive society in which all diversities can live together in harmony.

The international conference on education organised in 2012 by our Platform Education and Youth, is one of the many projects geared towards this purpose. Millions of New Europeans, whom we term ‘diverse talents’, have the abilities and the qualifications necessary to solve the many problems that Europe face. This potential is a big opportunity for European countries which have reached a certain level of prosperity and are having difficulty to motivate their people for more as long as they do not ignore the existence of it and support it with correct and relevant policies. The New Europeans are promising a new future through their civil initiatives, investment in education, different perspectives that are developed by their multicultural background, strong motivation and will enough to overcome any difficulty when necessary. In addition, they are also displaying a model of the discourse that has been transformed into action with the concrete examples from within.

To increase these models is only possible by becoming aware of this fact. The conference on “Diverse Talents for the Future of Europe” had a vital mission in that respect. It is important for all Europe with its policy makers, civil servants, academics, intellectuals and civil society to have some idea about these initiatives and to support them to increase the number of steps on this path. From this perspective, this conference is a milestone. It carried out its mission successfully with 350 participants, of whom more than 70 are professors and as many policy makers, researchers, educators and civil society representatives. The conference achieved its goal with a good academic quality of content, impressive partners and organisation committee, and the way it handled the problems and organisation quality. Therefore, on behalf of Fedactio who do not delimitate its activities for one conference and continue developing educational projects all year long, primarily I would like to thank, the organization committee consisting of our precious academician friends, and also the European Parliament, the Flemish Ministry of Education and Training, UNITEE, partner universities, institutions and NGO’s which served their ungrudging support for this conference.

İsMaİl CİnGÖZ

Fedactio High Advisory Board

President

a WorD froM fEDaCTIo

MIlEsTonEConTEnT

a WorD froM fEDaCTIo 5

ThE ConfErEnCE 6Diverse talents for the future of Europe 6

Organising committee 7Programme 8

WElCoMInG 11

Day onE 19

Day TWo 37

QuoTEs 54

ConfErEnCE rEporT 58

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Investment in education and the consequential improvements to educational systems features heavily in the Europe 2020 strategy which sets two targets for education: firstly reducing the number of

early school leavers and increasing the role of education in employment and secondly competitiveness by fostering long-term schooling. Among young

people, in particular those coming from an immigrant and low socio-economic background, the school drop-out rate is too high, and the likelihood of obtaining a university qualification is too low. Furthermore, the newly enlarged European Union has become increasingly diverse and educational systems are becoming influenced and transformed to deal with this diversity.

Providing the young generation with the skills and qualifications to participate in the labour market is emphasized as a crucial role of the school. In this regard, a major challenge for Europe is to equip the young generations with the necessary skills and competences to succeed in a changing world, and to exploit cultural diversity in a constructive way in the context of globalisation.

By doing so, it will address the growing need for young generations to obtain a global perspective and intercultural competences. The business world, civil society and governmental organisations with a high degree of cultural sensitivity will flourish and will be able to navigate social and cultural changes in the ever-changing marketplace more efficiently than their competitors. In addition, they will also be able to attract the best and brightest talents. Multicultural minds will gravitate towards work environments in which they feel engaged, valued and are given the opportunity to contribute to success at the highest level. We have to consider the students’ diversity as an asset for their transition to the working life in order to handle the challenge of rapid social changes and transformations.

Today it is a fact that our education systems are not sufficiently dynamic and do not adapt to the changing reality of labour markets and multicultural societies. It appears that many of the educational systems of EU member states are not well adapted to the multicultural society in globalised economies. On the other hand, civil society, which is the important driving force for change, adapts to diversity and improves according to its needs. Grassroots initiatives can more rapidly and more efficiently provide an answer to the challenges raised by pluralism and diversity. Civil society also innovates more — often successfully – in the educational systems.

This international conference looks at what civil society organizations have to do in order to improve education and social cohesion in multicultural European societies.

The aim of this conference is to discuss different experiences with educational policies and systems in order to highlight the civil initiatives and to investigate the institutional arrangements that deal with diversity in education and labour market.

ThE ConfErEnCE

DIvErsE TalEnTs for ThE fuTurE of EuropE

prof. Dr. IDEs nICaIsE Research Institute for Work and Society (HIVA), KU Leuven

Belgium

prof. Dr. DIrk JaCoBs Groupe de recherche sur les Relations Ethniques,

les Migrations et l’Egalité (GERME), ULBBelgium

prof. Dr. MaurICE Crul Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR),

University of AmsterdamThe Netherlands

prof. Dr. MarC DEMEusE Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Mons

Belgium

prof. Dr. pIET van avErMaET Centre for Diversity and Learning, Ghent University

Belgium

prof. Dr. MarTha MonTEro –sIEBurTh Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, University of Amsterdam

The Netherlands

prof. Dr. MIEkE van haEGEnDorEn Department of Political and Social Sciences, Emeritus-Professor, Hasselt University

Belgium

Dr. alTay Manço Institut de Recherche, Formation et Action sur les Migrations (IRFAM)

Belgium

Dr. Gürkan çElIk The Netherlands-Turkey Friendship Foundation (NTFF)

The Netherlands

Dr. aDEM kuMCu European Turkish Business Confederation (UNITEE)

Belgium

ThE ConfErEnCE

orGanIsInGCoMMITTEE

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09.00 rEGIsTraTIon anD CoffEE

09.30 kEynoTE spEakEr

10.00 panEl II: IMplEMEnTInG DIvErsITy froM EDuCaTIon To ThE laBour MarkET

Chair: Dr. Adem Kumcu UNITEE

Prof. Dr. Sandra Groeneveld Erasmus Univ.

Prof. Dr. Carla Dahl-Jørgensen, NTNU

Dr. Altay Manço, IRFAM

Ms. Brenda King, European Economic and Social Committee

11.30 DIsCussIon

12.00 WalkInG lunCh


Prof. Dr. Jagdish Gundara, UNESCO Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in Intercultural Studies and Teacher Education, University of London

13.30 panEl III: CIvIl soCIETy anD EDuCaTIon, GrassrooTs InITIaTIvEs

Chair: Prof.dr. Martha Montero-Sieburth, UvA

Prof. Dr. Ides Nicaise, KU Leuven

Dr. Jana Huttova, Open Society Institute

Mr. Mitsou Kanemaki, Verikom, Projekt Junge Vorbilder

Dr. Murat Alici, NPoint

15.00 DIsCussIon

15.30 ClosInG rEMarks By prof. Dr. DIrk JaCoBs (ulB)

08.30 rEGIsTraTIon anD CoffEE

09.00 WElCoME spEECh

Mr. Mevlüt Akgüngör, Education and Youth Platform, Fedactio

Prof. Dr. Ides Nicaise (KULeuven), Organising Committee

09.15 vIDEo

“Diverse Talents for the Future of Europe”

09.20 opEnInG rEMarks

Dr. Adem Kumcu, UNITEE


Mr. Pierre Mairesse, European Commission, Directorate General for Education and Culture Director for Lifelong Learning

10.10 panEl I : DIvErsITy In EDuCaTIon polICy, InTErnaTIonal pErspECTIvEs anD Eu 2020 TarGETs

Chair : Prof. dr. Maurice Crul , VU Amsterdam, Erasmus University

Dr. Angelos Agalianos, DG Education, European Commission Education and Inequality in the EU

Mr. Thomas Huddleston, Migration Policy Group

Dr. Maciej Jakubowski, OECD

11.30 DIsCussIon

12.00 WalkInG lunCh

13.00 TransfEr WITh Bus

13.30 fIElD vIsITs

ÉCoLe DeS ÉtoILeS (HAreN)

Foyer (MoLeNBeeK)

proGraMMEproGraMME

Day TWoTuesday 6th of March 2012

vEnuE: flEMIsh MInIsTry of EDuCaTIon

Day onEMonday 5th of March 2012

vEnuE: EuropEan parlIaMEnT

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WElCoMInG

Fedactio organized a welcoming programme on Sunday 4th of March for the guests who came to Brussels from abroad. The aim was to let our guests know more about our federation and the Belgian culture. Our programme had three parts:

• a breakfast at the headquarters of Fedactio in Brussels;

• a trip to Brugge, one of the important medieval cities of Europe in the afternoon;

• a dinner reception at Golden Rose, one of our associations.

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Traditional foods from Belgian and Turkish cuisines were offered to the guests in an environment where all the guests had the opportunity to meet each other.

Mr. Mevlüt Akgüngör, president of Education and Youth Platform at Fedactio and the coordinator of the education conference made a welcoming speech and informed the participants about the programme. Mr. Ahmet Ulusoy, secretary general of Fedactio, introduced its aims and activities.

Member associations of Fedactio also seized the chance to introduce themselves and their aims and activities. Mr. Mücteba Akgüngör, director of Prisma Education Centre, presented the activities of Prisma.

Mrs. Elif Uyanik, secretary general of Belgian-Turkish Dialogue and Friendship Association (Beltud), enlightened the guests about the activities of the association and their approach to build friendship bridges between Belgium and Turkish societies.

Dr. Ali Alpan, academic coordinator of Belgian Student Platform (BS. Platform), presented the structure of the student association. He explained their functions by saying that education should not be limited only to education foundations; it should also be supported by civil society initiatives. BSP is an umbrella organization of student associations active in different universities in Belgium.

Mrs. Lien Vanhoorne from the Flemish Olympiad Assocation (VOV) talked about their activities.

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After breakfast the guests were invited to a delightful trip to the medieval city of Brugge. The historical places were visited with a guided tour and the guests learned about the history of the city. The guests were fascinated with the medieval image of the city during the boat tour on the canal.

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Following the trip, the guests returned to Brussels to have a dinner at Golden Rose, one of the member organizations of Fedactio. They had a pleasant evening together with Fedactio team and other participants by listening to the presentation about the association. Mrs. Elif Alduman, president of Woman and Society Platform at Fedactio, introduced the aims and the activities of Golden Rose during the dinner.

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Day onE

The first panel of the International Conference on Education, Diverse Talents for the Future of Europe, was held in European Parliament on Monday, on the 5th of March. It was important to start the first panel in the European Parliament to get through a message on the international perspective of diversity in education policy and the European Strategy 2020.

Welcome speeches were given by Mevlüt Akgüngör (Fedactio) and Prof. Dr. Ides Nicaise (KU Leuven). The keynote speaker of the first panel was Mr. Pierre Mairesse (European Comission DG Education) and the chair was Prof. Dr. Maurice Crul (VU and Erasmus University, the Netherlands). Mr.Thomas Huddleton (Migration Policy Group) and Dr. Maciej Jakubowski (OECD) stated their opinions about the diversity in the education policy.

After the first panel at the European Parliament, the program continued with field visits. The purpose of the conference was not only to create an academic environment but also to bring academics and education practitioners together. For this reason, we included the field visits to observe how theory can be put into practice.

We visited first Ecole Des Etoiles, a primary school that was founded by educators and entrepreneurs, who are second and third generation Turkish immigrants. In this context, the school can be seen as an example of immigrant descended civil initiative’s contribution to education.

The second visit was to Foyer in Molenbeek, a civil society organisation which develops projects for youth, families, municipalities and schools in the field of education.

At the end of field visits, the participants were provided a dinner reception at Fedactio. During the cocktail they had a chance to see the drawings from the international cartoon contest, which had taken place in the honour of the 50th anniversary of the Turkish migration to Belgium. The program ended with a dinner reception, where our guests exchanged their feelings and ideas about the conference and the field visits.

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prof. Dr. IDEs nICaIsE, ku lEuvEn:

Immigrants are today ambitious to overcome social and economic problems to build a better future. Education is important in developing potentials and talents, and this is vital to reach European 2020 Strategy. This conference is original, different perspectives from politicians, educators and civil society can come together and share their unique experiences and ideas, which are invaluable for the progress of our education system and development of immigrant children.

MEvlüT akGünGÖr, plaTforM EDuCaTIon anD youTh, fEDaCTIo

Mr. Akgüngör gave the welcome speech of the conference and pointed out the motivation behind the organisation: “This conference has been organised by Fedactio in order to overcome the challenges of Europe in the context of education. This is our first conference on education and we, as a grassroots civil society initiative, are willing to contribute actively to education policies.”

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Dr. aDEM kuMCu

In his opening remarks, Dr. Kumcu called out to the civil society and policy makers, and advised them to take initiatives together to focus on the solutions rather than the challenges. “We are not immigrants, we were born here and raised here, Europe is our home, we are New Europeans!” Our mission is to help New European entrepreneurs and business professionals to expand and grow their business into new markets. But like any other European business, they cannot do this in the long-term without the skilled employees to make it possible. The decisions taken in regard to our education system today will have a direct bearing on the business world of tomorrow. We have to transform our education system to train young students for them to meet the needs of the economic market, because New Europeans are not interested in going back home, they will stay and help solve the problems of the continent that has been and will always be home to them.

Mr. pIErrE MaIrEssE, DIrECToraTE GEnEral for EDuCaTIon anD CulTural DIrECTor for lIfElonG lEarnInG:

“Our short term goals are to serve the rapidly changing labour market in developing necessary skills like innovation and creativity, and there is no conflict between this and the view of education for personal development, because these same skills help create good citizens. Investing in early childhood education and care is vital for acquiring full benefits from education. Social solidarity counts on the early education of children. Education requires investment and reform and the European Commission with the Erasmus, Leonardo and Bologna projects has already given start to very successful projects.”

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prof. Dr. MaurICE Crul, vrIJE unIvErsITEIT aMsTErDaM:

“Amsterdam, the city where minority became majority.” We have to learn from immigrants and their experiences, not only see them as people who should be educated but people who will help us couple diversity with excellences. Immigrants are not just drop outs, there are many people with BA’s and MA’s who have an immigrant background, and who can help us change the fate of Europe and put it back on track towards progress and development.

Mr. ThoMas huDDlEsTon, MIGraTIon polICy Group:

“Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPAX) is a tool to ask whether countries have adopted policies for equal treatment and education. The first dimension of MIPAX is to determine, whether all immigrant children have access to equal education. Are countries trying to achieve equal access to education, are immigrant children staying on track? The second dimension is not only teaching language but also the student’s relation with school environment and the family education level. The third dimension is creating new opportunities with immigrants, and fighting against school segregation. Finally the fourth dimension is about intercultural education policies and whether if there is an explicit curriculum and whether education systems are encouraging schools to adapt the school day and other areas of curriculum.”

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Dr. MaCIEJ JakouBoWskI, oECD:

The OECD’s PISA 2009 research on the performance of students with an immigrant background covers countries that make up eighty percent of the world’s economy. “We don’t tell countries what to do, we tell them what is possible to do!” OECD is not just a test that is on the school curricula but it also covers questions related to the student’s background. The goal of the Pisa test carried out by OECD and was applied to half a million of students is to address the problems and meet the needs. Policy examples from several countries demonstrate that school systems can nurture immigrants full social and economical integration into their adopted country by identifying the obstacles to high performance that are particular to immigrant students and development programmes tailored to meet these student’s needs.

The panellists were presented by Mr. Musa Soydemir, President of Fedactio, with Belgian chocolates and participation plates at the end of the day.

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fIElD TrIp To EColEs DEs EToIlEs

Ecoles Des Etoiles, a primary school founded with the help of Turkish initiatives was visited by the conference group. The guests were amazed and pleased with the modern technology, healthy and spacious environment and the devotion of the teachers. Mr. Abdurrahman Demir, Administrative Director of the school, presented the history and structure of the school.

“Our vision is to build the future generation, to raise educated citizens who have adapted to living in a multicultural society. We focus on intellectual, personal and social development, and promote common human values. We bring together the school environment, staff, children and parents to work hand in hand and build strong ties for the future of our children, our society. “

The guests showed their interest with various questions after the presentation by Mr. Demir. As response to questions from the participants, Mr. Demir mentioned what makes them different from other schools is trust! “We have the quality and infrastructure of a private school, but we function as a public school.”

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After the presentation and questions, the guests had the opportunity to explore the school with the guides who provided information about the infrastructure and technological equipments that are used in thee school.

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The second presentation was on personal development of students that are labelled as troubled by their school, mainly immigrant children. They mentioned how Foyer as institution makes learning fun for these students and helps them go back to school and if they are older, helps them acquire a skill and eventually finding a job.

Our guests were very enthusiastic about Foyer and all that it has achieved.

fIElD TrIp To foyEr

The second field visit was to Foyer, located in the Molenbeek region of Brussels. It is active on the municipal, regional and international levels, focusing on the global integration problems of ethnic minorities, education, multilingualism and interculturalism.

Foyer has several ongoing projects and during the visit two of them were presented: the Language Awareness Program and the Centre for Part-Time Training. Language awareness means learning about languages and is intended to create a positive attitude towards languages and cultures. The director of the Language Awareness Program mentioned the background, methodology and teaching aims of the program and by the questions of the guests it was evident that they took much interest in it. There was a presentation on language awareness in children and how to generate awareness in children of different languages that exist around them.

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During the dinner, some of our guests shared their opinions on the content of conference and the organization itself. The guests relaxed in a warm environment and had a pleasant evening.

In the evening of the first day of conference, Fedactio welcomed the guests for a dinner reception. During the reception, our guests had the chance to exchange ideas about the first panel and the field visits. They enjoyed classical music while exploring the caricature exposition. Dinner started together in an intimate and relaxed atmosphere with traditional Turkish music.

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Day TWo

The second day of the conference proceeded in the Flemish Ministry of Education, which is actually one of the partners that organized the conference. It was very meaningful for the conference to take place at the ministry since the European Parliament represented its international dimension and the ministry represented the fact that taking action is finalised at the local level. The Flemish Minister of Education, Pascal Smet, warmly welcomed the participants through a video recording and expressed his ideas and feelings about the conference.

The second panel, Implementing Diversity from Education to the Labour Market, was chaired by Dr. Adem Kumcu (UNITEE) and started after the keynote speech of Prof. Dr. Anja Heikkinen (University of Tampere, Finland). The speakers of the second panel, Prof. Dr. Sandra Groeneveld (Erasmus University, the Netherlands), Prof. Dr. Carla Dahl Jorgensen (NTNU, Norway), Dr. Altay Manco (IRFAM, Belgium) and Ms. Brenda King (European Economic and Social Committee) discussed the contribution of diverse talents to the labour market.

The speakers of the third panel of the conference, Prof. Dr. Ides Nicaise (KU Leuven, Belgium), Dr. Jana Huttova (Open Society Institute, HU), Mr. Mitsou Kanemaki (Verikom, Germany), Mr. Murat Alici (NPoint, the Netherlands), discussed the role of civil society and grassroots initiatives on education. The panel was chaired by Prof. Dr. Martha Montero-Sieburth (UvA, the Netherlands) following the keynote speech of Prof. Dr. Jagdish Gundara (University of London). The conference finalized with Dirk Jacobs’ closing speech and the gift ceremony.

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prof. Dr. anJa hEIkkInEn, unIvErsITy of TaMpErE :

Experts come together for economical problems and exchange, but not to exchange ideas on educational problems. Every country has its own specific cultural and political context so we cannot depend on sectoral decisions; we have to analyze the specific conditions of our countries. Having so many different policy areas, stakeholders and actors each with different interests, ideas and priorities makes determining goals and strategies and the process of change extremely complex. The importance of education and the reason for there being so many stakeholders involved by lies in the efforts to control education and training as a struggle over how we are going to use the planet and who is going to have the power to make the decisions.

Flemish Minister of Education Pascal Smet was unfortunately absent due to other obligations, but could welcome everybody and share his thoughts on the subject in a short greeting-video:

“It is crucial to look forward in the future and integrate children with an immigrant background into the society. Everyone belongs to the society and we need to make sure they have a place. Immigrant children posses the same intelligence of other children, but the gap between those who perform better and less is immense, and unfortunately those who perform less are those with a different skin colour. To have a better future they need equal opportunities, and from the principles in the school to the child at the desk to the family at home, and especially grass root organizations, we all have to work together to build these students a better future. ”

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prof. Dr. sanDra GroEnEvElD, ErasMus unIvErsITy roTTErDaM:

“There is a decrease in performance because of negative reactions towards diversity.” Education policies are needed to foster integration in order to affect educational work climates and work climates in general. The second project looking at diversity policies among Dutch public sector workers found that there is a lack of diversity amongst Dutch teachers as well as a lack of perceived integration policies within the sector. “Integration policies are needed to help create a positive environment within diverse workforces”.

Dr. aDEM kuMCu, unITEE :

“When we perceive the problems around us, as academics we tend to look through the lenses of our professions; however we need to observe it in detail and by taking into consideration all its aspects. We look for brains outside Europe that have been inside Europe all along. Europe does have major social and economic challenges we together must endure, by implementing diversity into education and then utilizing it for the labour market.”

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Dr. alTay Manço, IrfaM:

It is vital to bring together different talents and to make sure that everyone has equal access to the rights of citizenship. Cooperation between families and youth will assist them to have a position in the world of economic investment. We have to act together with entrepreneurs, professionals, teachers and civil society initiatives against the fears of families. We must educate the youth on human rights, dialogue, immigration and equality. Intercultural communication must be carried out in a collective way, through which people can discuss, exchange ideas and become a part of the active integration process.

prof. Carla Dahl-JorGEnsEn, nTnu:

Language knowledge and skills are significant factors shaping the economic and social outcomes for transnational work migrants. The acquisition of the majority language has an influence on immigrant’s participation and integration in the labor market, as well as their possibilities for job promotion and increased earnings. The language skills increase the capacity of immigrants to traverse cultural boundaries and integrate into the society they live in.

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The panellists were presented with Belgian chocolates and participation plates at the end of the second panel. process.

Ms. BrEnDa kInG, EuropEan EConoMIC anD soCIal CoMMITTEE:

We have to ask ourselves why is that the children with poor school performance are the ones with an immigrant heritage. These children belong to specific migrant groups coming from families who haven’t acquired further higher education, so the expectations from them are not high within the family or the school environment. Education system must be adapted to the multicultural structure of societies and it must prepare a dynamic environment in which teachers and learners can feel comfortable and enrich their understanding with the inclusion of diversities and excluding all exclusions. Community organizations can work together with local authority to make a difference in this area.

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prof. Dr. MarTha MonTEro-sIEBurTh, unIvErsITy of aMsTErDaM:

The education of all, not only the immigrant children, has vital significance. Children should be given social, cultural, emotional, academic and political responsibilities. Civil society initiatives must be active throughout the whole process.

prof. Dr. JaGDIsh GunDara, unIvErsITy of lonDon:

Europe was multicultural long before the arrival of immigrants. We have to look at how we can develop European policies that are respectful at the public level and interfaith dialogue at the private level. Democratic ethos in education is not given through teaching children citizenship but making them realise that citizenship and democratic rights are practiced, consolidated and experienced by adults. The education process has to be structured in an intercultural way not in a multicultural way. We have to break away with the nationalistic memory to create more interdependence among groups. As stated by Putnam, we cannot bowl alone but we have to bowl together as a society.

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Dr. Jana huTTova, opEn soCIETy InsTITuTE:

We are developing projects in which we bring local voices to European policy makers. We aim to collect opinions from ordinary people, especially from ethnic minorities with immigrant backgrounds. They have to interact with policy makers and educators. These children are willing to build their future and get out of the marginalised positions. They want the education system to offer equal standards and opportunities for all and be inclusive. “Do not talk about us, but talk to us and let us talk” is our motto for describing the situation of these students.

prof. Dr. IDEs nICaIsE, ku lEuvEn:

A group of successful Belgian-Turkish university graduates took up the challenge of creating five “Lucerna” schools with the ambition of simply closing the performance gap between immigrant and native students in the Flemish education. The characteristics of this project are commitment to success for every pupil, parent and community involvement, extended school activities, and “active pluralist” intercultural and inter-faith climate. The relation between the school curriculum and the activities out of the school are carried out efficiently. The secret behind Lucerna colleges lies in their commitment, and commitment brings forth motivation. As a culturally sensitive institution, the colleges promote generosity and moral values. Civil society should work as a bridge between family and education; communities; government and the citizens.

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Mr. MuraT alICI, npoInT:

The purpose of the NPoint foundation is to facilitate and improve the educational efforts of immigrant youth and this way enables them to become a part of the society. The activities are founded on education, social cohesion and talent development. We try to develop solutions to social problems and take into consideration the values and realities of the Dutch society. Our aims and activities are language support resources, parental engagement, cognitive learning with extracurricular activities, peer learning and modelling, community relations the school being in the community the community in the school, the advocacy of students and self-empowerment, the opportunity to experiment with new ideas, the use of homework and follow up, the start of school at an early age, non-segregated schools, interfaith discussions, improved study skills with emphasis on cognitive advancement, afterschool programme, and sports activities.

Mr. MITsou kanEMakI, vErIkoM:

With our mentoring project, the purpose is not only the educational success of immigrant teenagers but also the empowerment of our mentors, who also have an immigrant origin. They share the same or similar social and cultural background as teenagers, so they are in a sense experienced experts and role models for these children. Immigrant teenagers have a bigger chance of success when they are advised and guided by the mentors who can understand the challenges on the path and who can build relations with families of teenagers to discuss about their performance and future career.

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The panellists, members of the steering committee and the partners of the conference were presented with Belgian chocolates and participation plates at the end of the day.

prof. Dr. DIrk JaCoBs, unIvErsITE lIBrE DE BruxEllEs:

Human capital is being wasted and social inequity is being reinforced. Overall there are big performance gaps between different groups especially for those with immigrant or low socio-economic backgrounds. A child with a mother without a secondary diploma is 7 times less likely to get a higher education degree. It is unacceptable to have good and bad schools and that minimum standards have to be met. Perceptions of vocational paths need to change and children need to be given time to discover and follow their interests. Courageous political decisions need to be made to eliminate school choice or to get quality teachers where they are needed. New perspectives need to be shaped that perceive diversity and New Europeans as positives.

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prof. Dr. MEhMET nİyaZİ ÖkTEM, DoGus unIvErsTITy:“ I have attended many education trips meetings like this and meetings about Turkish schools abroad. However, this last one really shocked me. There is now a Turkish intelligentsia in Europe, there has emerged

an intellectual structure. People among this Turkish intelligentsia have become businessmen, established business associations, then they have opened schools with

the money they collected here and these schools have started to play an important role in European integration. Now, these people are at a point that they can organize such a huge conference. Think of it, they have brought a group of intellectuals from the UK. There are some Turks among them who have settled in the UK, but most of them are English intellectuals. People are coming from many different regions of Europe, and they are discussing what we can do about maintaining diversity in education. There is a very active participation. And these active participants want to learn something. The 50th anniversary of immigration is coming. During these 50 years, the Turkish people that have come to Europe have stayed in Europe. They have reached the awareness of being a European, and then they have been executive administrators, executive educators, started to be professors in universities. I mean, they have also influenced the destiny of Europe. ”

Dr. Jana huTTova, opEn soCIETy InsTITuTE:“ I’m very energized by the plenty of ideas that here brought up by so many different speakers. Different ideas influence my work. It was very interesting. I particularly enjoyed the variety of participants, which I think is one of the highlights for me. It is a pleasure to see that the conference attracted so many different people from different areas, societies and countries. ”

pol DE GravE, flEMIsh MInIsTry of EDuCaTIon:“ I think diversity is an added value. Diversity is a lever instead of a barrier. This is a very important message that should be given to the society. ”

MIa DouTErlounGnE, flEMIsh EDuCaTIon CounCIl:“ I would certainly adopt more positive discriminating measures to form more multicultural classes and I would invest more in the teachers’ formation so every teacher can handle multiculturalism adequately and every child gets equal chances. ”

prof. Dr. DIrk JaCoBs, ulB:“ Organizations like Fedactio and the schools like Lucerna Colleges are playing an important role. (...) They are saying: “We would like take our fate in our hands and create schools that are capable to give good education and to give good opportunities.” I think this is a strong message. The existence of the schools in itself is a positive thing. (...) This should not be used as an excuse to do no structural reforms of the

educational system at large. We should make sure that all human capital that we have in our society is to be able to be developed. Structural reforms are of crucial

importance. Of course every grass-root initiative is helpful and useful for those who are concerned but to have a real structural long-lasting change we need more in-depth structural adaptations. ”

prof.Dr. JaGDIsh GunDara, unIvErsITy of lonDon :“ This is the first conference that has been organized by a civil society organization in Europe, which has the kind of vivacity and levels of imagination; which is necessary at the present time. So I think the essence of the contributions is breaking new ground by involving the community and engaging them. (...) This was a very open event and it is very ground-breaking. (...) If we are looking at Europe which is cosmopolitan and which has cosmopolitan European citizenship, it is the basis in which we can strengthen the democratic engagements of all people whether younger or old, boys or girls and from different nationalities. We need to include the best of knowledge of different sources, different civilizations, different cultures to formulate the public basis of knowledge. ”

prof. Dr. MarTha MonTEro-sIEBurTh, unIvErsITy of aMsTErDaM:“ We need to really start to think about how the schools embrace grass-roots and civil society efforts without keeping them outside. I think schools really need to be reformed in the way that they perceive children who are different whether they are called migrants or not (...) I think that civil society organizations need to stress that children come back into community with the knowledge base that they acquire and that there not be a brain-drain but rather a brain-gain. Therefore, any child that goes to school in Belgium should have the best opportunities. And the only way is that civil society become part of the discussion of the change of policy. ”

ThoMas huDDlEsTon, MIGraTIon polICy Group:“ We need to work better on intercultural education and to bring immigrant languages, cultures, teachers into our classrooms so that we can benefit from being a more diverse Europe. (...) There are a lot of great grass-roots initiatives and school leaders who are working in their classrooms. But we need a legal framework and policies at the national level to inspire others to do more, and to create these best practices. ”

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prof. Dr. Carla Dahl-JørGEnsEn, norWEGIan unIvErsITy of sCIEnCE anD TEChnoloGy :

“ What this conference underlined is the importance of civil society. Before coming to here, I was undervaluing the importance of civil society with regard to immigrants. I have realized that more resources should be allocated for civil society and they should not be used to alleviate a crisis or for spontaneous objectives, but actions should be taken in a lingering way. ”

prof. Dr. alIson sCoTT-BauMann, unIvErsITy of GlouCEsTErshIrE:“ It is always a delightful surprise to meet people who are doing cutting-edge work and have been brought together in this case by Fedactio. I learned a lot from Turkish women during the last two days. I feel enriched to have met these people. I will go back home feeling that I know a lot-more, and this knowledge and experience will improve my work. Social capital is the idea that together we are much stronger than if we retain separateness, and Fedactio indeed is a living proof for that. I think it is also part of the fight to reject sort of solidarity consumerist model and this is completely the opposite of what Fedactio stands for. ”

aDEM kuMCu (unITEE)“ Long-term solutions to problems mentions during the conference will require concerted action and joined-up thinking from all of the groups represented in the conference and indeed others too. From the academic world, we need further in-depth research to paint a clear picture of exactly what is needed to maximize the output of our educational system for the future. With this research, government in co-operation with civic society groups can work together to tackle the inequity and exclusion, which still blights our education system. From the governments, there will be a need for support both financial and political for the work of civic society organizations in providing for our future educational needs. And finally from the civic initiatives themselves, we will need them to continue their good work and continue to grow and adapt to the constantly changing world around us. ”

prof. Dr. sanDra GroEnEvElD, ErasMus unIvErsITy:“ “ I was very honored to be here to attend as a speaker. It is very nice

to be engaged in a research on diversity with all people who have practice. And that means you can share ideas and that is very nice. Furthermore, I find the

idea of diversity, but also the fact that diversity is a reality and we have to deal with. It is very much alive in Europe and that brings me back to my own country where it has a subordinate role. About the question ‘What have you learned from this conference;’ I have learned that I should think better than I already did on how I can tell and communicate better so that all people attending the conference can take and use my research in practice. ”

MuraT alICI, npoInT:“ I would first like to thank that I could speak here today as a representative of an organization that is active in the field. What I will take home today and want to implement within our organization is that it is very important that the schools are active and they collaborate with the community and the society. The society and the community should also collaborate with schools. There is an enormous need that the schools and society work together and look at the same direction. ”

prof. Dr. Ian lInDEn, Tony BlaIr founDaTIon :“ It was Albert Einstein that said it was very difficult to explain the obvious, and certainly for me the obvious is this morning’s richness bringing together with real activism and commitment with academic record and sophisticated methodology. I think what struck me most was the enormous power of the idea that the group of academics are here with impressive academic thoughts. And this morning was a spectacular example of that. ”

MITsou kanEMakI, vErIkoM:“ It was nice to see in an academic way how civil society organizations are working with methodological and theoretical background. I was inspired by this panel and in some presentations best practices were shown. Maybe we can adapt some good practices for our projects. In that way, we can learn something from each other. ”

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egy to reduce early school leaving. Panel I “Diversity in Education Policy,

International Perspectives and EU 2020 Targets” was chaired by Prof. Dr. Mau-rice Crul, VU and Erasmus University, the Netherlands. In his opening words he said that diversity is a fact in the present word and that diversity in education should be coupled with excellency.

Mr. Thomas Huddleston from Migra-tion Policy Group presented the third edi-tion of MIPEX, the Migrant Integration Policy Index research. He said that MIPEX is not only a research but also a policy tool. It measures integration policies and their implementation, and asks whether all residents have equal rights, responsi-bilities and opportunities to become equal members of society and citizens. MIPEX

has shown that political will counts over cultural traditions. This is evident from the fact that Scandinavian countries but also countries like Spain and Portugal are favourable for integration. MIPEX has also shown that policies are more diversified when there is no binding EU law. This ap-plies especially to education, political par-ticipation and access to nationality.

Education is one of the seven policy ar-eas that MIPEX analyses. It is measured with four indicators: access to education, targeting needs, developing new opportu-nities, and supporting intercultural educa-tion. In general countries rarely see and address the needs and opportunities of new diverse generation in the field of edu-cation. Only in approximately half of the

countries surveyed there is equal access to all levels of education and there are only few targeted measures in this regard. There are also few systems to diversify schools and teachers, and uneven support for in-tercultural education. Hardly any formal systems exist to recognise children’s previ-ous skills. In targeting specific needs there are few legal entitlements and standards, and little support in languages of instruc-tion but the Nordic countries make an ex-ception in this regard. This, however, has not to do so much with the general stance to immigration but rather to education. Most education systems are missing out on opportunities the migrant pupils bring to classroom. There is some guidance on im-migrant languages but less on cultures and segregation. One finding of MIPEX is that

countries like Canada and Australia, and the USA in some regards, have far more fa-vourable integration policies in the field of education than the EU27 countries.

Dr. Maciej Jakubowski from OECD presented the evidence from the OECD’s PISA 2009 study on the performance of students with an immigrant background. PISA study covers 74 countries and 87 % of the world economy. Over half a mil-lion students took a 2-hour test assessing not only what they know but also how to creatively apply their knowledge in dif-ferent situations. The study seeks to sup-port governments to prepare students for the rapidly changing labour market and to provide a basis for policy dialogue and global collaboration in defining and im-

he first day of the conference took place in the European Par-liament. Welcome speeches were given by Mr. Mevlüt Akgüngör, conference coordinator and

president of Education and Youth Plat-form of Fedactio, and chair of the steering committee Prof. dr. Ides Nicaise (KULeu-ven). Prof. dr. Nicaise presented the out-line of the two-day conference and after that a video entitled “Diverse Talents for the Future of Europe” was shown to the participants.

In his opening remarks Dr. Adem Kum-cu from UNITEE (European-Turkish Business Confederation) elaborated the concept of “New Europeans” and under-scored the role they play in the European economy, especially in the time of the current economic crisis. Dr. Kumcu said that the Europe 2020 goals are ambitious but at the same time crucial, and the key to achieving them is education. Cultural and ethnic diversity presents a challenge in the education but in addition to speak-ing about challenges, we need to speak about concrete solutions. Enterprises need skilled workforce, and interaction with other cultures is not only a fact of life but a necessity for an entrepreneur.

Keynote speaker Mr. Pierre Mairesse, Director for Lifelong learning, horizontal policy issues and 2020 strategy (DG EAC, European Commission), started by point-ing out the important role education and training play in generating growth and

jobs. This is also noted in the Europe 2020 Strategy where education is one of the main focuses. The headline targets in the field of education and training are early school-leaving and higher education. Mr. Mairesse reminded that education is not only about developing competencies for the labour market but also for personal development. The labour market is chang-ing rapidly and skills of creativity and learning to learn are needed. He also un-derlined the need to review the education and training systems and to adjust them to the present reality. Four aspects are impor-tant when reforming these systems: early childhood education and care; focusing on the right target groups; developing learn-ing outcomes; and assuring a smooth tran-sition between the education system and the labour market. Concerning learning outcomes labour supply has to be better matched with demand and labour mobil-ity has to be facilitated. The Commission has suggested the use of structural funds to certain European countries suffering from high rate of youth unemployment. Mr. Mairesse also stressed the social dimen-sion of the Europe 2020 strategy saying that education cannot solve all the prob-lems but cross-sectoral policy is needed. He finished by mentioning concrete ac-tions that the Commission and the Coun-cil have taken in the area of education and training: the Commission has proposed a strategy on early childhood education and care and the Council has adopted a strat-

International Conference on EducationDIvErsE TalEnTs for ThE fuTurE of EuropE

Strengthening Europe through civil grassroots initiatives in education

rEporT

MosT EDuCaTIon sysTEMs arE MIssInG ouT on opporTunITIEs ThE MIGranT pupIls BrInG To ClassrooM. ThErE Is soME

GuIDanCE on IMMIGranT lanGuaGEs BuT lEss on CulTurEs anD sEGrEGaTIon.

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plementing educational goals, policies and practices. It was noted that in most coun-tries, immigrant students lag behind na-tive students in performance but there is also country-specific variation in the per-formance of first generation and second generation students in relation to native students. In most of the countries native students perform better than immigrant students, even after socio-economic back-ground and the language spoken at home are taken into account. The exceptions for this rule are countries like Qatar and Israel where immigrant students outperform na-tives. A clear trend of concentration can be seen when reviewing the number of immi-grant students in schools: immigrant stu-dents attend schools with higher levels of concentration of immigrant students than

native students. As regards educational policy, learn-

ing climate (discipline, teacher behaviour, parental pressure and teacher-student relationships) positively associated with performance. On the other hand, dealing with heterogeneity (grade repetition, prev-alence of tracking, expulsions and ability grouping) negatively associated both with performance and equity. Finally managing resources positively associated with per-formance and equity.

The gap can be explained by different student level and school level factors. At student level the explaining factors are socio-economic background and speaking a different language at home, availability of educational resources at home, reading at

home at a young age, and preschool educa-tion. Positively affecting factors at school level are more hours per week used for lan-guage learning and higher school average socio-economic composition. Higher con-centration of immigrant students at school on the other hand has negative effects on performance. In order to narrow the performance gap, suggested school-level policies include effective language sup-port, teachers for diverse students, school leadership for diverse schools and parental and community engagement. Suggested system-level policies include managing variations in educational support, funding effectively, building capacity for monitor-ing and evaluation, and managing school composition and concentration in some schools.

The conference continued with two field visits: Ėcole des Ėtoiles primary school and Foyer integration centre. Ėcole des Ėtoiles was presented by the Chair of Governors of the school, Mr. Abdurrahman Demir. The school is free and non-denomination-al and has two branches, one in Haren, Brussels and one in Charleroi. The Brus-sels school was established in 2005 and the one in Charleroi in 2006. The secondary school will start in September 2012. Over 50 % of the pupils are of Turkish origin, about 30 % of Moroccan origin and the remaining 17 % from Belgian and other origins. About 20 % of the teaching staff is Turkish and 80 % of other origins. As for financial sources, the school receives about 60 % in subsidies from the French Com-munity of Belgium and the remaining 40

% is private financing. Mr. Demir told that they consider the school as a global edu-cation system that focuses on pupils’ intel-lectual, personal and social development. The school emphasises the importance of collaboration between parents, teachers and pupils, and therefore maintains strong ties with parents in the form of different activities.

The second field visit was to Foyer in-tegration centre situated in Molenbeek, Brussels. Foyer is a non-profit organisa-tion focusing on the global integration problems of ethnic minorities and work-ing on education, multilingualism and in-terculturalism. It was founded in 1969 and is subsidised by the Flemish community. Foyer seeks to develop new approaches in close touch with the different communities

and also develop innovating projects and integrate them in existing structures. They also pay attention to basic needs, for exam-ple ensuring necessary health care. Foyer has several on-going projects and during the visit two of them were presented: the Language awareness project and the Cen-tre for Part-time Training.

Language awareness means learning about languages and is intended to create a positive attitude toward languages and cultures. It also facilitates language learn-ing and communication and enhances language competences through other lan-guages. Language awareness was originally created in England in the 1970s to develop the language skills of English children. Its methodology is based on cooperative and discover-learning and it is used both

in homogeneous and heterogeneous lan-guage groups.

The Centre for Part-time Training offers Personal Development Pathways (POT) for young people aged 15-18 who are reg-istered in part-time vocational secondary schools and are not yet able to work in a labour-oriented fashion. They are socially vulnerable due to often multiple and com-plex social and personal problems. POT can be preceded by a preparatory pathway or a bridging project. A POT is considered to be successful when the youngster moves on to alternance learning system, to (full-time) employment or to (full-time) edu-cation/training and also has a good com-mand of other aspects of life.

On the 6th of March 2012 the second day of the International Conference on Educa-

tion took place at the Flemish Ministry of Education and Training.

In the opening remarks Prof.dr. Ides Nicaise reminded that it is not a typical academic conference, but rather a stake-holder conference, bringing together pol-icy makers, educators, NGOs, European Institutions, OECD and others. He also expressed some concerns about the future of the Europe. As he said: Europe runs out of natural resources, so now more has to depend on brain resources.

After the opening remarks the audience could enjoy again the film entitled Diverse Talents for the Future of Europe, which was the introduction for the speeches. The film was followed by the short greeting-video, in which Flemish Minister of Education,

EColE DEs EToIlEs EMphasIsEs ThE IMporTanCE of CollaBoraTIon BETWEEn parEnTs, TEaChErs anD pupIls anD

ThErEforE MaInTaIns sTronG TIEs WITh parEnTs In ThE forM of DIffErEnT aCTIvITIEs.

In MosT of ThE CounTrIEs naTIvE sTuDEnTs pErforM BETTEr Than IMMIGranT sTuDEnTs, EvEn afTEr soCIo-EConoMIC

BaCkGrounD anD ThE lanGuaGE spokEn aT hoME arE TakEn InTo aCCounT.

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stressed the fact that ethnic minorities are underrepresented in the education work-force, which means that students are not reflected in the teachers (for 60% of stu-dents with minority background, there is only 5% of teachers). She recommended fostering working climate through diver-sity management policies.

The chair, Dr Adem Kumcu, commented that in case of diversity policies the invis-ible hand takes too much time to work, so these policies need to be introduced soon-er, but only the one that are effective. He also reminded that in case of New Europe-ans equal qualifications do not mean equal opportunities.

The next speaker, Prof. dr. Carla Dahl-Jorgensen from the Norwegian Univer-sity of Science and Technology (NTNU)

in Trondheim, spoke about the language policy, language education in the context of integration of migrants into the labour market. She stressed that skills in the ma-jority language are crucial for participa-tion and integration of migrants into the labour market and for their future success (promotions, increase in earnings etc.). As an example she took the situation in Nor-way after the EU expansion in 2004 and languages policies that were created at the same time.

After opening of borders to transnation-al labour migrants from Central and East-ern Europe countries in 2004, high level of migration between Poland and Norway was noticed. But not all of the Polish im-migrants had the same rights and obliga-

tions in terms of language. Three different groups were created:• the group with free of charge lan-

guage courses• the group that was obliged to take

language courses• and finally the group that had nei-

ther right nor obligation in terms of languages courses

So that, for example, the lack of highly skilled physicians in health sector was filled by import of Polish labour force, but before their arrival they were obliged to take up intensive language course (around 6 hours, 5 days a week for 4 to 6 moths). The needed workforce for construction fields was also recruited in Poland, but on the other hand they were usually hired as

temporary workers with no access to lan-guage classes.

In addition, after the accession, the lan-guages policies changed: in order to obtain permanent residency, immigrants had to follow 300 hours of Norwegian language course. This policy created high barrier to permanent residency and it was sign of migrants’ discrimination.

This created problem of social dumping, in particular after the 2008 crisis occurred. The stagnation in construction left many Poles unemployed and even if they quali-fied for the unemployment benefits, with-out necessary language skills and informa-tion they were not able to obtain it anyway. The lack of the language skills was also an additional barrier for finding a new job,

Youth, Equal Opportunities and Brussels Affairs, Pascal Smet, could welcome eve-rybody at the venue place.

The first speech was given by a keynote speaker Prof. Dr. Anja Heikkinen from University of Tampere, Finland. She dis-cussed the 2020 targets from the perspec-tive of orders of knowledge. Important questions are how higher education and research are feeding into the EU strategies and what has been the educational contri-bution of “international”, “multicultural” or “cross-cultural” study and research programmes. She also asked what the con-sequences of the expansion of “globally recognised and competitive” studies and research are. Lastly she presented a trans-national research and development project “Re-enter, Re-integration” which created

an evaluation tool for re-integrative peda-gogy.

After the first keynote speech of the day, the second panel of the conference proceed with the issue of Implementing Diversity from Education to the Labour Market. The chair of this panel, Dr. Adem Kumcu, reminded us of the inefficiency of the current education system in terms of preparation for the labour market and for diversity. He raised the question of how to prepare young talents for Europe 2020.

The first speaker of the panel, Prof. dr. Sandra Groeneveld from the Erasmus University Rotterdam, tried to answer the question of what is the impact of increas-ing ethnic-cultural diversity on perfor-mance in education using empirical evi-

dence from the Netherlands. She noticed that there is some inconsistency of the ef-fect of diversity: on the one hand there is a positive effect on information (from the decision making perspective), but the neg-ative effect can be seen in terms of social categorization perspective.

In order to analyse and clarify the effects of diversity of student working group on students’ performance in higher education an experiment was conducted at a Dutch university using the CEM model (Catego-rization-Elaboration Model). Nine groups of around 20 students, where the percent-age of minority students differed between 9% and 77%, were asked to do 1 hour as-signment in collaboration, after which they had to discuss the results and retake the task. The survey of the background

was also provided. The results of this ex-periment showed that there is a negative diversity effect on elaboration and affec-tive reactions, which is even bigger when identity threat occurs. That means that students in diverse working groups evalu-ated the working group climate as less safe and less stimulating compared to students in homogeneous groups.

Prof. Groeneveld concluded that in or-der to avoid this negative effect education-al policies should focus on fostering elabo-ration and make investment in working group climate.

In the second part of her speech prof. Groeneveld made an attempt to answer the question if the diversity and diversity policies in education are effective. She

Dr. aDEM kuMCu CoMMEnTED ThaT In CasE of DIvErsITy polICIEs ThE InvIsIBlE hanD TakEs Too MuCh TIME To Work, so ThEsE

polICIEs nEED To BE InTroDuCED soonEr, BuT only ThE onE ThaT arE EffECTIvE.

ThErE Is soME InConsIsTEnCy of ThE EffECT of DIvErsITy: on ThE onE hanD ThErE Is a posITIvE EffECT on InforMaTIon (froM ThE DECIsIon MakInG pErspECTIvE), BuT ThE nEGaTIvE EffECT Can BE

sEEn In TErMs of soCIal CaTEGorIZaTIon pErspECTIvE.

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formance even though they have no lan-guage problems and they are immerse in the culture of the country. The explanation seems to lie in the specificity of their fami-lies, where nobody went to higher (or even sometimes secondary) education, and the specificity of the area where they are liv-ing. Their parents are unemployed or so-called working poor, so that the children see no link between education and work life. Other problem lies in the teachers that do not live nowhere near their students, hence they do not fully understand them and their problems. Another issue is the large segregation in schools, which creates schools with high percentage of migrant concentration.

The employers assure that they want to hire the best people, but at the same time

they blame the schools for not equipping students with the necessary skills.

The education system should help the children to make the link between educa-tion and work outcome and should show them what skills are actually needed on the labour market.

The teachers must feel comfortable with the diversity in their schools and must consider it as their professional challenge rather than a problem that need to be dealt with.

And at the end, Ms. King reminded that it needs to be insured that the burden is not entirely on schools, but also on local authorities, parents, community groups.

In the questions part that followed some doubts were raised. One of them was: when

we talk about diversity and equal opportu-nities, why we are constantly measure the students and want them to reach the same level? As Ms. Brenda King answered: the diversity has its reflect in the different ways in which children are learning, but it is not incorrect to measure their performance using the same criteria, since there is some standardized goals that they all need to achieve.

The third panel was dealing with the is-sue of Civil Society and Education, Grass-roots Initiatives.

The keynote speaker for this part was prof. dr. Jagdish Gundara from the Uni-versity of London. His speech tackled the problem of Intercultural education and Civil Society in a Multicultural Europe. At the beginning he reminded us all that,

especially in times of crisis in which Eu-rope found itself in, the issue of diversity is not important only to migrants, but to the whole Europe. As the world found itself in an era of global dictatorship of financial markets and the human labour is being fast replaced with machines, the cultural nationalism is not the answer.

He talked about giving the power back to the citizens, instead of governments and stock exchanges. The civil society initia-tives should make a role of a social glue in order to empower people and their com-munities. In his opinion the first step to rebuilding trust is to make dialogues that can lay foundation for cooperation. He also reminded that in order to make these dialogues we need time, effort and skills.

since all the new offers required knowl-edge of Norwegian language.

The Polish society in Norway tried to fight with this situation: special language school for unemployed migrants was cre-ated by Polish immigrant, who came to Norway in the 80’s. But without the sup-port of government or private sector the school was able to provide only the course of 2 hours a week with unqualified, volun-teers teachers, for which participants had to pay.

In conclusion prof. Dahl-Jorgensen said that new languages policies in Norway shift from multiculturalism to sending im-migrant back to their home countries and that marginalizing migrants for less fa-vourable employment created the problem of social dumping.

In his comments, Dr Kumcu stresses the importance of learning the language of the host country for the cohesion (being a part of society) and for the entry on the labour market, but he also reminded that one should be careful with the language poli-cies since they can be a tool of discrimina-tion.

Afterwards the audience listened to en-ergetic speech of Dr. Altay Manço from IRFAM, in which he stayed away from the statistical data, but in return he gave some practical and basic information about in-tegration in schools. He reminded that in order to improve school system, we need everybody and we need improvement at all the levels (system, class and actors). Parents have to be explained that they

should not be afraid of a cultural absorp-tion of their children by the culture of the host country. They should be helped to overcome that fear and because of that we need intergeneration communication. He also talked about a need to accompany families and youngsters towards entrepre-neurial spirit, which could help them on the labour market in the future. The cur-riculum should be opened to diversity and it should focus and work on potential, not problems. The need of the best practices exchange was also underscored. All the ac-tors, parents, teachers, should play an ac-tive role in the education and they should be helped with developing inter cultural and linguistic abilities in order to fully un-derstands their students, their children. He provided also an interesting example

of France, where the Ecole Normale Supé-rieure, can be find. They emphasised the importance of ‘Normale’ as if teachers have to normalize students, whereas teachers and schools should highlight the diversity.

The chair, Dr Kumcu, agreed that not only students, but also parents should be educated, especially when cultural gap be-tween parents and children is growing. He stressed the importance of knowing your-self in the first place.

The last, but not least remarks were made by Ms. Brenda King from the Eu-ropean Economic and Social Committee. She talked about the children of immi-grants, the 2nd or 3rd generation, called by UNITEE – the New Europeans. She was wondering why they still show poor per-

ThE EDuCaTIon sysTEM shoulD hElp ThE ChIlDrEn To MakE ThE lInk BETWEEn EDuCaTIon anD Work ouTCoME anD shoulD shoW ThEM WhaT skIlls arE aCTually nEEDED

on ThE laBour MarkET.

parEnTs havE To BE ExplaInED ThaT ThEy shoulD noT BE afraID of a CulTural aBsorpTIon of ThEIr ChIlDrEn By ThE CulTurE

of ThE hosT CounTry. ThEy shoulD BE hElpED To ovErCoME ThaT fEar anD BECausE of ThaT WE nEED InTErGEnEraTIon

CoMMunICaTIon.

66 67

some of them do not even enter the school, but on the other hand there are those who are very active and come to school even on weekends. She said that there is a need of four different engagements:• social• cultural• academic• politicalShe also stressed the importance of the

private sector and their role in encourag-ing meaningful jobs that can lead to future growth.

The first speaker of the panel was prof. dr. Ides Nicaise from the Catholic Univer-sity of Leuven, presenting the project of Lucerna schools that start its existence in 2003. These schools were created by suc-

cessful Belgian-Turkish university gradu-ates with an aim of closing the perfor-mance gap between immigrant and native students in the Flemish education. • The challenges in front of them were

diverse:• the significant gap in performance

between Turkish and Flemish chil-dren

• the knowledge of Dutch language among Turkish pupils was poor

• and they were under represented in higher educational

Other challenge was also generated by the specificity of Flemish education sys-tem, where:• extreme competition exist (but some

parents do not have access to the same information)

• early tracking exist – the future of a child is determined at the age of 12, which sentence immigrant children with poor Dutch knowledge for vo-cational schools

• there is strong assimilationist cli-mate (Dutch first), which is not ef-fective for all groups

He also spoke about the vicious circle that could be spotted in Flemish region concerning social capital. Even though all the schools are subsidised by the state (the amount of financial support depends on the number of pupils and also there is priority funding for disadvantage pupils), not all the schools are equal. The inequal-ity could be seen in terms of:

• private infrastructure (in the wealthy areas there is wealthy infrastructure)

• resources (parents do not have the same social nor cultural resources)

• teachers (equal teacher-hours does not mean the same quality of teach-ing)

Lucerna’s response for these challenges is to build the school based on the eth-nic capital of the Turkish-Belgium com-munity. This creates commitment, which generates motivation, which reinforces the performance. What are the characteristics of Lucerna’s school?• Their leaders comes from the suc-

cessful second generation of immi-grants

He also warned us that in the time of threat, like the time of global crisis, there might be a temptation to retreat to the safe and mythical mono-cultural past. Nothing further from the truth, he said. In these times what we actually need is to move be-yond nationalism into secular, cosmopoli-tan, multicultural and more economically equal policies.

The next important issue that according to dr. Gundara needs to be discussed is the ‘belongingness’ – diverse groups need to feel that they belong to society and its in-stitutions in order to cooperate and collab-orate. This feeling needs to be strengthen in all the education groups (from the pre-schools to adult learning), and also across communities.

He also stressed the importance of secu-

lar schooling and protecting the rights of all citizens. But as he explained, by the term secular he does not mean the sepa-ration of church and state, but rather the right to believe or not to believe in the sa-cred. The role of secular school is not be in conflict with the religious, but rather its role is to provide protection to those with no beliefs as well as those of different be-liefs. Furthermore, he reminded that the adults should also be active in a school life and they should also be educated them-selves.

One of the greatest challenges for inter-cultural education in opinion of dr. Gun-dara is the difficulty of living together for groups who are view as being very dif-ferent, like nomadic groups: Roma and

Traveller communities in Europe. Very often the settled communities think that nomadic groups have not the same rights, which creates the huge tensions.

The other very important responsibil-ity of education is teaching people how to be well informed and critical citizens, and allow them to remain apolitical. In dr. Gundara’s opinion, young people are not being taught history properly and hence the absence of understanding who “we” are and who the “others” are exist. What young people need in order to understand the complexity of contemporary societies is a critical reading and understanding of the past.

To conclude he mentioned the phenom-enon of multiple identities. He gave an ex-ample of Das from the Asian Dub Foun-

dation who describes himself as Hindi British Asian, English, Bengali European. And once again he reminded how impor-tant it is to young people to belong to the communities, no matter how complex they are.

The last panel, chaired by prof. dr. Mar-tha Montero-Sieburth from the University of Amsterdam, was discussing the role of Civil Society and Education, Grassroot Initiatives. In her introduction dr. Monte-ro-Sieburth raised the issue of citizenship: if there is talk about active citizenship, does the passive one exist? Who is the real citizenship? According to dr. Montero-Sieburth we should look for the answer in civil society at the grassroot level. She gave an example of parents: as could be seen

luCErna’s rEsponsE for ThEsE ChallEnGEs Is To BuIlD ThE sChool BasED on ThE EThnIC CapITal of ThE TurkIsh-BElGIuM

CoMMunITy. ThIs CrEaTEs CoMMITMEnT, WhICh GEnEraTEs MoTIvaTIon, WhICh rEInforCEs ThE pErforManCE.

In ThE TIME of ThrEaT, lIkE ThE TIME of GloBal CrIsIs, ThErE MIGhT BE a TEMpTaTIon To rETrEaT To ThE safE anD MyThICal Mono-CulTural pasT. In ThEsE TIMEs WhaT WE aCTually nEED Is To MovE BEyonD naTIonalIsM InTo sECular, CosMopolITan,

MulTICulTural anD MorE EConoMICally EQual polICIEs.

68 69

The main goals of the project were:• To create community level frame-

works to combat inequality and fos-ter equal educational opportunity

• To develop innovative methods to enhance youth participation in civil society;

• To promote and develop “the school” as a key connecting point for activity around learning and social cohesion

• To look at disenfranchised youth as resources in their communities for both personal and professional de-velopment

It was also important to break the tradi-tional power structure that occurs during dialogue with the authorities, where there is unequal division of power. Their aim is

to empower the marginalised communi-ties.• The key messages that they obtain

from the citizen panel (CP) were:• The youth have strong and vibrant

desire to get out of the marginalised position through participation.

• All students and young people in-volved in the CPs want to get rid of their victim status.

• They are eager to participate in building an inclusive education.

And the key policy recommendations were:• Promotion of the inclusive educa-

tion (nobody wants to be separated in different schools)

• Combat school segregation (teach-ers with the knowledge of the moth-ertongue of the pupils, scholarships, mentoring, tutoring)

• Language support (not only for childern, but the parents as well)

• Intercultural compensates of the teachers (anti-bias training)

The main conclusion of the project was the quotation: Don’t talk about us, talk with us, let us talk.

More about mentoring and empow-erment we could hear from Mr. Mitsuo Kanemaki from verikom e.V. He showed as how student-mentors can be role mod-els for young students and for the society at large illustated by the example of pro-ject Junge Vorbilder. This project begun in

Germany in 2004 and since then trained more than 150 mentors with different cul-tural background. The situation of immi-grant children in Germany is difficult as anywhere else in Europe:• Immigrant students have to accom-

plish higher social and cultural ad-aptation levels

• Their parents show less participa-tion in everyday school life

• They receive less qualitative home-work support from family

• Teachers give up and underestimate students, when they show weak per-formance

• They are confronted with prejudicesThe performance gap according to Mr.

• They receive financial support from Belgian-Turkish entrepreneurs

• There is high commitment of the teachers – they are more demanding towards their teachers, who have to work hard and do extra curriculum activities, like: home visits, individ-ual tutoring.

• The parents are also committed to the partnership – they do voluntary work and they are sponsors

• The peers are mentors for young-sters

The school has also an extended strat-egy that goes beyond just cognitive de-velopment. They have summer language courses, they invest in sports, arts. They even have an Ipad classes. They make link

between the curriculum and extra activi-ties, in other words, they connect formal and informal learning together.

Their aim is also to create a culture-sen-sitive schools, which give to their students free choice of religion or moral education and they teach them values and attitudes of immigrant communities, like: generos-ity, nurturing excellence and gender sen-sitivity. They create the win-win situation for parents and schools in order to help each other give the best for the students.

Since the project is quite young it is too early to measure all the effects of it, said dr. Nicaise, but some achievements can be already noticed: • the majority of their students re-

mains in general, and not vocation-al, education

• performance of their students is bet-ter than Turkish students elsewhere, but the gap between the natives still exist

• parents involvement is significantly raised

• transition into and success rate in higher education are gradually im-proving

Dr. Nicaise concluded that civil society should work as a bridge between:• family and education• communities• government and citizenship The next speaker was dr. Jana Huttova

from the Open Society Institute presenting

the project IDEE (Integration and Diver-sity in Education in Europe), which aims to bring local voices to policy making. The project was realised in parthership with lo-cal non-governmental organizations from 5 countries (Austria, Germany, United Kingdom, Romania and Slovakia) with rich experiences in working with disen-franchised groups. Participants (from 10 to 26 years old) of the project came from diverse and often marginalised groups, like ethnic minorities (Roma, migrant communities with diverse religion back-ground). The project was bringing their input from local to European level. The communities were listened to and they had voice that later was heard by the high level authorities.

IT Was also IMporTanT To BrEak ThE TraDITIonal poWEr sTruCTurE ThaT oCCurs DurInG DIaloGuE WITh ThE

auThorITIEs, WhErE ThErE Is unEQual DIvIsIon of poWEr. ThEIr aIM Is To EMpoWEr ThE MarGInalIsED CoMMunITIEs.

ThE sChool has also an ExTEnDED sTraTEGy ThaT GoEs BEyonD JusT CoGnITIvE DEvElopMEnT. ThEy havE suMMEr lanGuaGE

CoursEs, ThEy InvEsT In sporTs, arTs. ThEy MakE lInk BETWEEn ThE CurrICuluM anD ExTra aCTIvITIEs, In oThEr WorDs, ThEy

ConnECT forMal anD InforMal lEarnInG ToGEThEr.

70 71

performance at school is very important, it is also important to develop talents of the childern. That is how other project, Devel-opment of the talents, came to life. There the pupil have participated in different interest clubs, like for instance: Robotica Club, where children built their own ro-bots, which later on were fighting in com-petitions. Later on, in 2007, they set other program of educational evets, like talent and science festivals (they have even ob-tain A Guiness World Record).

In his closing remarks Prof. Dr. Dirk Jacobs referred to the Europe 2020 strate-gy and the PISA study that were discussed on the first day of the conference. He said that the PISA study shows also positive re-sults but we have to face the fact that not everything is going well. He pointed out

the fact that a child of a highly educated mother is seven times more likely to have higher education than a child of a non-educated mother, but also reminded that that not everybody has to go to university. Certain minimum standards are, however, needed and every school should be a good school. He said that there is an unneces-sary negative stigma on vocational train-ing. Everybody should follow their heart in choosing their education. Dr. Jacobs also spoke about socio-economic segrega-tion in schools. The problem is that the best teachers are not going where their skills are most needed, i.e. the lower per-forming schools. And while we should not only talk about challenges but also about success stories, he mentioned two poten-tial dangers associated with segregated

schools. The first is “cream skimming” with which he referred to elite schools for immigrant children. The second is not to use such schools as an excuse not make necessary structural changes in the educa-tion system.

At the end, the chair, prof. dr. Martha Montero-Sieburth, pointed out the best practice, that are needed:

1. language support resources2. parental engagement (following

the meetings with teachers etc.)3. extra curriculum activities4. peer learning and mentorship5. community relationship (school

in community and community in school)6. self-empowerment of students

(advocacy – teachers should help the stu-

dents to see themselves as they are)7. opportunities to experiment with

new ideas8. use of homework and follow up9. the start of school at early age10. non segregated schools11. discussions (especially interfaith

discussions)12. improve study skills (students

need to feel good about what they are learning)

13. after school programs14. sport activities

Kanemaki is also created by students’ de-motivation, the fact that they are less self-confident and their feeling of being mis-sunderstood.

The program Junge Vorbilder was build to focus on social-emotional compan-ionship, without any pressure on perfor-mance, on subject-specific tutoring and also on future prospects of career or study that were realistic to achieve. They wanted to achieve the independence of mentees (who has to take responsability of the fu-ture success) and empowerment of men-tees and mentors as well. For the program success the choice of the right mentors was crucial. All of them:• have a immigration background• successfuly graduated from the Ger-

man higher secondary education

system• are “experienced experts”• are close in age to the mentees • are bridge-builders between parents,

teachers and menteesIt was important that the mentors be-

came an active part of society, to give them the possibility to develop and get promo-tions. They were paid for their job. At the end the program gave some significant re-sults. Mentees get better grades at school, the learning climate in class imporoved and their parents became more involved in every day school life. But the mentors also obtain some gain: they got qualified, skilled and prepared for later career.

Since the beginning of the program

more than 150 mentors with different cul-tural background were trained and now there are around 40 active mentors includ-ing group mentoring at schools

Due to personal recommendation with-in families, neighborhoods, schools etc. and recognition by society they did not need any PR and even the interest in coop-eration from schools, foundations, admin-istrative bodies increased.

With the final world Mr. Kanemaki con-fess that they still have some problems, mainly financial, but as they advice to their mentees, they never give up.

The last speaker of the panel, Mr. Mu-rat Alici, presented NPOINT foundation, which is an educational platform created by a local iniciative for young Turkish-Dutch students. Their objectives are:

• achievement of exellence in educa-tion and language development,

• creation and exchange of innovative ideas

• encouraging volunteersTheir target group were students be-

tween 10 and 18 years old. Their program covers almost all the Netherlands. As Mr Alici reminded they are not a school, but they want a good quality education for their students. During the weekend classes they do Dutch and mathematics in max. 7 pupils groups. They repeat the curriculum from the school and recived help in doing their homework.

In 2006, after some time of functioning, they realized that, even if working on good

EvEn If WorkInG on GooD pErforManCE aT sChool Is vEry IMporTanT, IT Is also IMporTanT To DEvElop TalEnTs of ThE ChIlDrEn. ThaT Is hoW oThEr proJECT, DEvElopMEnT of ThE

TalEnTs, CaME To lIfE.

IT Was IMporTanT ThaT ThE MEnTors BECaME an aCTIvE parT of soCIETy, To GIvE ThEM ThE possIBIlITy To DEvElop anD GET

proMoTIons. ThEy WErE paID for ThEIr JoB. aT ThE EnD ThE proGraM GavE soME sIGnIfICanT rEsulTs.

72

Flemish Ministry of Education and Training

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