"Teachers for Tolerance and Cultural pluralism" - TTCP
11- 13 February 1999, Prague

Final Report
by Laura Laubeova (GSFI)

Background:
The project was initiated and supported by the GSFI* Regional Initiative Programme of the University of Cambridge and was targeted at teachers and educators from Central and Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia) and South Africa.
Additional financial support was received from the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Prague, mainly to cover local expenses and coordination costs. This support enabled the organiser to allow participation of much higher number of Czech teachers than was originally planned and thus contributed to the overall success of the conference.
The aim of the meeting was to provide space to teachers for sharing and exchange of information and experience; to initiate mutual support and cooperation; to empower teachers to bring changes within the current educational systems.

* Global Security Fellows Initiative was an action research program at the University of Cambridge, UK, that has brought together professionals and academics from Central and Eastern Europe and Southern Africa, who aim to contribute to the quality and sustainability of social and physical environments in the world.

Co-organisers:
The conference was held in Prague, at the Secondary Police School (SPS MV CR). A great deal of organisational work was done by volunteers provided by Bohemia Corps, a Czech volunteer NGO. The project was promoted with help of the following organisations: Association for Citizenship and Democracy Education (SVOD), Association of History Teachers (ASUD), Secondary Police School Prague, United Nations Information Centre Prague, UNESCO Associated Schools Project and others.
The conference was organised within the Campaign " 30 days for the civic sector".

Participants:
A total of 55 people took part in the conference, out of which 44 were from the Czech Republic (35 teachers, 5 students, and 4 volunteers), 5 teachers from Poland, 3 from Hungary, 1 teacher from Slovakia and 2 from South Africa. Participants represented teachers from elementary schools, secondary schools, universities, teachers trainers, and NGO educators. The following subject specialisation of the participants were included: Civics, History, ESL (English), Global education, Environmental education, Business Science, Romani education, Intercultural education, etc.

Programme and outcomes:
The conference programme consisted of short presentations (list of presentations is attached), discussions, and activities leading to sharing information, exchange of good practice and networking. The program was oriented to future action planning.
All participants were fully engaged in the programme and contributed to the very positive atmosphere of the meeting. Many expressed importance of having such opportunities for exchanging experience, networking, and planning joint projects.

Among the practical outcomes of the conference there are:

  • Establishing cooperation between various projects and organisations within the Czech Republic, eg. the Tolerance and Respect project; the Association for Citizenship and Democracy Education (SVOD), Association of History Teachers (ASUD), and Association of Committed teachers (PAU). Similar cooperation of NGOs and teachers organisations proved to be very successful in Poland and led to improvements of the Polish educational system.
  • Exchange of information, linking similar projects together, and multiplying existing good practice (an activity resource package was developed by participants, which was copied and distributed later the same day).
  • An internet networking was agreed to be used by those participants who have access: exchange of information on "www.obcanet", and creating a TTCP e-mail conference group.
  • Establishing cooperation with Bohemia Corps in preparing follow up activities

    The experience from South Africa enabled central European teachers to draw parallels and commonalties. The main difference seems to be that in the South Africa, though the history of democratic development is shorter there, the government managed to introduce major democratic changes in the educational system that have had instant impact at the school level and on the teaching and learning atmosphere (such as students rights, focus on learners, change in teaching methodology). Such a systemic change seemed to be missing mainly in the Czech Republic. What both regions share are difficulties in implementing equal opportunities policies and concepts (if only at least some policies existed in the CR), high resistance to changes, occurrence of racism, prejudice and stereotypes, and others.

    Follow-up activities:
    The conference initiated regular exchange of information and establishment of cooperation among organisation within the Czech Republic (e.g. SVOD, ASUD, PAU for negotiating with the Czech Ministry of Education) as well as internationally (eg. initiating contact between schools, planning joint projects).
    Two follow-up working groups were created under the name of TTCP Initiative:

    1. A local organisational committee that is in charge of monitoring similar projects, linking them together and facilitating communication between teachers from various school levels and subjects specialisation. It is also in charge of preparing the follow-up conference next year as well as other events.
    2. An international planning committee (Czech-Polish- Hungarian-South African) that will work on programmatic outline of the next transnational conference as well as on other follow up joint projects.

    One of the first follow-up projects organised by Bohemia Corps in cooperation with the TTCP Initiative will be the TOLERANCE AND RESPECT PROJECTS CONFERENCE which will be held in Příbram, Czech Republic, in April 22-25, 1999.

    Due to a very high quality of presented papers, the participants suggested that a publication should be made and distributed to all participants as well as other parties who are interested in the conference topic.

    Conclusion:
    The programme as well as organisational side of the conference were highly praised by all participants who expressed their evaluation in final questionnaires.
    Regarding the Czech participants, the conference brought together teachers and educators who have been active in their schools or teachers´ organisations and thus helped to overcome dispersion and isolation of similar projects. It also initiated more intensive cross-curricular communication among Czech teachers from different school levels.
    Internationally, comparing policies and practice of different countries, as well as drawing parallels, showed that transnational cooperation is a viable instrument for improving ones own society as well as our global society as a whole.

    Prague, 17 February 1999
    Press Release

    In February 11-13, 1999, the seminar „Teachers for Tolerance and Cultural Pluralism“ was held in the Secondary Police School in Prague. Fifty-one delegates from Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, South Africa, USA, and Czech Republic discussed problems of global education, education towards tolerance and respect, most effective methods in teaching tolerance, and concrete examples from practical life.

    Presentations of colleagues from other countries were met with tremendous attention – for instance Polish colleagues talked about paradoxes of tolerance, and about activities and successes of NGOs in educating towards tolerance. Hungarian colleagues talked about their work with disabled citizens and about educating majority population towards tolerance and respect for disabled people. South African colleagues talked about the situation of their country before 1994 and afterwards. In 1994, South Africa had its own „Velvet Revolution“ and from then all the minorities are equal according to the law. Before 1994 the education was separated for all the minorities, since 1994 the educational system legally guarantees education for all in integrated schools. The delegates discussed the so called affirmative action – in the USA they started to leave the idea of favoring one group over another after some time of applying the concept in the society, in South Africa the action started to be implemented just recently and people have certain troubles of its acceptance, and in Europe people do not seem to have a clear idea about the issue.

    Seminar was organized thanks to the idea and perseverance of Dr. Laura Laubeova, thanks to the financial support of the Cambridge University and the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Prague, and thanks to the work of Bohemia Corps Volunteers. Czech Republic delegates agreed on better ways of communicating among teachers involved in educating new generation towards tolerance, and on creating a coalition of already existing associations that would represent teachers in negotiations especially with the Czech Ministry of Education.

    All the delegates agreed on the need for meetings like „Teachers for Tolerance and Cultural Pluralism“, and on regular exchange of practical experience. Also, it would be nice if guests from different ministries who promise their attendance really showed up for meetings like this one was. Most of the delegates represented different teachers associations or NGOs that bring new, non-traditional and positive examples from real life that could be included in official policies created by individual governments.

    The seminar was also announced as an activity of the currently running campaign "30 Days for Civic Sector", but not even one representative of the Czech press showed up…

    back Prepared by Lída Horáková, 13 February 1999