Purpose: Mediating between cultures and languages to promote intercultural integration at schools
Stimulus/Rationale:
Process:
Berlin-Neukölln supports the organisation “LebensWelt” (“Living Environment”) in its intercultural mediation project at the Rixdorfer Primary School in Neukölln, which is visited by 19 different nationalities and by many children with families that do not speak German or English.
The intercultural mediators work with parents and teachers to solve specific conflicts or problems, such as learning difficulties or other problems that teachers and pupils have with one another.
Moreover, the mediators familiarise parents and children from minority/migrant background with the German school system and offer advice on upbringing and how to support their children’s education. Parents are thereby encouraged to take part in their children’s school life and to see that their children’s education is the task of both school and parent.
School time can sometimes bring with it problems that the intercultural moderators try to solve together with the parents and teachers. These can be learning difficulties, problems with teachers, classmates or even within the family.
Collaboration between parents and school is beneficial and always desired. During the consultation time there is the opportunity to get to know each other in a relaxed atmosphere and to reduce any fears of contact. Parent topic evenings, which are prepared with the teachers, provide information about school-relevant topics, such as learning success, violence, etc.
The intercultural moderators offer parents the opportunity to talk about various problems in their own language; They moderate between students, parents and teachers, taking cultural differences into account. They offer advice and information and also intervene in cases of crisis if this is requested by the school. If necessary, the intercultural moderators also make home visits.
Impact:
Key reference documents: https://www.lebenswelt-berlin.de/93-interkulturelle-jugendhilfe/projekte/abgeschlossene-projekte/82-interkulturelle-moderation
