Hi everybody! I'm Federica and teach English and Spanish as foreign languages in secondary school (11-14 years old students) on the outskirts of Milan. Population is diversified and more and more foreigners are joining the community. I feel impelled to learn more about intercultural skills and competences. I hope this course can give me hints how to handle and emphasise diversity in class.

Why are you taking the course and why do you feel it is important to learn about cultural diversity in our classrooms?

I am taking this course because it is very actual and corresponds to my teaching reality. Diversity does not just refer to origin countries or skin colours, the cultural background matters as well. In a class of 20-25 pupils you might find many different realities. How to deal with each of them? How to blend them, if possible? How to enrich through differences? I would like this course to teach me how to teach to embrace diversity rather than fear it.

When it comes to diversity, acceptance and identity there are huge emotions involved. It is not just a question of logical thinking, guts feelings are present too. I teach 11-14 years old kids, a delicate phase of personal development. I meet boys and girls who need to find their way out in the society they live, in the family they live, in the class they share. Being different (and possibly not accepted by the group) or similar (popular and accepted), no matter on what level is a serious issue for them. At the same time they strive to become unique person. I feel the real challenge to develop intercultural competences as a teacher lies within the acceptance that pupils are different from you, they are from a different generation, different values and different approach to life matters altogether.

If you like share any reflections after the activity here.

I share my experiences of everyday life with the class. It is like a break from the main lesson. I usually pick up an anecdote correlated to the topic discussed. I lived abroad for number of years in different countries, my hubby has different nationality than mine. To teach fundamental or philosophical principles I start from everyday life. For example, shanking hands or kissing on the cheek (one side, both sides, three times?), is talking about acknowledge, recognition and role of a person within a society. Such a little and automatic action, in fact reveals a lot about cultural background. Do you kiss a stranger? Or just friends? Do men kiss each other, or simply shake their hands? Do you keep distance, or you look for closeness? I like to tell about confusion created when two persons from different background meet. It happened to me, to my hubby. Something you give for granted (the way to introduce yourself, to sit on a table, to eat etc) is in fact a product of the culture you grew up in. That's part of what you are, it forms your identity too. You start noticing it just when it is not so common and other people act differently. Then you realise that it is just another point of view. For some people that's scary because it rocks their foundations, their roots, their way of thinking and naturally reject anything different. That is racism, the fear and rejection of what is different. We are all a bit racists, it is the way our brain works (prejudices are shortcuts of complicated thoughts). Nonetheless, we can understand and direct our primordial reactions into logical thinking and empathic approach to overcome irrational fears. When we do not feel safe in our own country, we become more aggressive. Sharing my experiences I hope to teach kids to feel safe as they are, to get comfortable with our own weaknesses and doubts, that weak doesn't mean inferior and strong doesn't mean superior. And to recognise the influence of the society we live in.

Reflect on the various areas highlighted by Alicia and Erika in the video below and identify any other areas you feel that are important to address with your students to develop their intercultural competence. Are there any aspects Alicia and Erika did not mention? And which of the areas are the most challenging to realize in the classroom? Share your views in the Padlet below.

It was a very insightful video. I will try to follow their advice. I feel it is important to deal with these aspects to develop intercultural competences. I would add one further aspect: to develop empathy and respect for others I believe we need to learn empathy and respect for ourselves first. It seems obvious, but it isn't. From my experience, I see students with very low self esteem and very judgmental towards others. I wish I could teach them to accept differences by accepting themselves first. The most challenging aspect is to teach empathy. the Italian system is still based on marks and rewards on a personal level, there is less emphasis on team work.

In the Module 1 starter activity you shared a general introduction about yourself and your school. In this module's starter activity please share with us some general information about the students you teach. What are their cultural backgrounds? How are they diverse in other ways? Do you have a positive relationship with them? How do they interact with each other?

I teach students who live on the outskirts of a big town in Italy, Milan. Most of them come from a difficult upbringing or community. At such young age, they have already faced some rough life situations. Some do not believe in  school system. 

I haven't had so far the opportunities to work actively on intercultural topics with media resources. All exchanges came by chance and through conversations. I would like to use some multimedia platforms, such as kahoot but so far I couldn't enjoy a classroom with LIM (Interactive whiteboard) and usually in school the use of mobile phones is forbidden.  I had once the occasion to connect via Skype to show cultural differences and different English accents. Last year I worked on a project of trust development through combination of English language and physical activities.