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The melting iceberg – Learn to swim in the sea of diversity and ambiguity!
Start date: Aug 1, 2014, End date: May 31, 2015 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Interculturality and intercultural learning are essential and unavoidable issues on the field of European Youth Work. However, the notion of ?culture? and ?Intercultural Learning? as applied in the practice of the European youth field is too static and fails to address important dimensions threatening social cohesion: social injustice, discrimination, power relations, ambiguous identities. It also takes too little into account what migration and globalization general had as impact on the understanding of ?culture?, ?identity? and ?intercultural learning?. Our project aimed to stimulate critical reflection on the topic, and encourages our participants to to look behind their understanding of culture and Intercultural Learning, and to experience what it means to be diversity conscious and able to deal with ambiguity and change. This way, the project provides the opportunity and space to critically review the educational and youth work practice of participants when it comes to intercultural learning. The Melting Iceberg invited 20 participants for this adventurous journey from 5 European organizations. The organization and their participants are working in the field of youth work, social cohesion and diversity. Their common point is that they have all identified that the present understanding of intercultural learning and the methods which follow are unapt to deal with the new forms of identity which are forming as a consequence of the increasing migration and globalization in Europe. Therefore, they were willing and able to take part in a training which challenges the present understanding of intercultural learning and implement their learning outcome through their organizational work after the training. Finally, the partnering organizations completes each other concerning their different fields of actions, creating a desired syngergy for the project. The participants were representing 3 different generation. We expressed the expectation of equal gender distribution and discussed with the partners how this can be ensured during the recruitment process. Participants motivation and learning needs were inquired via an application form, while the impact of the project will be measured and recorded by the evaluation form that was filled in after the participation. The approach and methodology of the course was based on consolidated practice of non-formal learning that is informed largely by experiential learning as well as constructivist learning. It put great emphasis on the methods coming from the developing practice of the diversity ? conscious approach as well as dealing with ambiguity and change. By implementing the project we aimed that partner organizations gain a greater understanding of globalization and migration and the consequences these have on identity shaping and how to deal with it in an ambiguos way. We also believe that the new knowledge and methods was expending their understanding and engagement of their working field, and that the target groups of the participating organizations became better equipped and more able to deal with ambiguity and exercise a more diversity-conscious approach. On an European level, we believe our training contributed to the growing notion of the need of a more diversity-conscious approach by spreading new methods through Salto Toolbox, existing networks of the respective partnering organizations in Hungary, Lithuania, Germany, Austria, and Italy through the people participating in the training.

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