Dealing with strong opinions
Learn how to deal with strong opinioned students, who deny the holocaust, think homosexuals should be killed, Muslims should be sent 'home', women should be treated like property and Jews should be gassed.
Date and location
9-12 December 2014 (indicative), Copenhagen, Denmark
For who?
This course is especially useful for teachers and youth workers who work with young people on a day to day basis and who are working with severely prejudiced, conservative, orthodox or/and potentially extremist young people. Volunteer educators can also benefit from this course.
What is it about?
Many teachers and volunteer educators have experience with young people who seem not to want to learn anything and are caught up in hate. These students may deny the holocaust, think homosexuals should be killed, Muslims should be sent 'home', women should be treated like property and Jews should be gassed. Some may be planning to join the military Jihad. How do you deal with this? This course is focused on analyzing this behavior and on practical solutions for educators and group facilitators. Although the topic of this course is serious and almost grim, the course itself will provide a caring environment and fun (both being important educational conditions for the issues themselves).
What is the program?
This is a 4-day program. We explore why young people feel like this and how their emotions, beliefs, attitudes and behavior interact. We also explore how such high emotions have an impact on you as educator or group facilitator. Having created a sound understanding, we will look at a range of strategies and techniques to deal with "strong opinions" and train some of the most basic educative and coaching techniques. Finally you will learn to develop a diversity curriculum that is well suited for your specific class or group.
What will you learn?
You will better understand the key principles of fear, machismo, prejudice, negative attitudes, inadequate coping mechanisms and how these may lead to social exclusion, negative comments and violence. You will learn how to act in group discussions and in one-on-one supervision or coaching sessions. Finally you will learn how to develop a diversity curriculum that is suited for your specific class or group.
How does this link into the Erasmus+ priorities?
- The course will support learners to become experts in how to deal with social obstacles regarding equity and social inclusion. Learners will acquire knowledge as to how social exclusion among young people can be reasonably explained, skills as how to meet young people who deal with constituent emotions, beliefs and attitudes, as well as a professional attitude in how recognize and interpret them.
- The course will support teachers and youth workers in a direct sense to improve the quality of their (formal) teaching in how to deal with processes of social exclusion and violence by developing relevant curricula, and in an indirect sense to improve the quality of their (informal) teaching in how to create a better learning environment for their students in working on a community of inclusion and mutual respect and learning.
- The course will raise the participants competence in English as they in this language are to study and exchange the issues at hand.
- The course will raise the participants awareness of other countries and subcultures situation regarding social exclusion and make them learn about the transnational differences and similarities, which will strengthen European cooperation and a sense of European citizenship and identity.
- The course will reinforce the synergy and transition between formal and non-formal education regarding social obstacles to equity and inclusion, which will empower students to become European citizens who are active towards equity and inclusion.
How will it build your organization's capacities?
Against the background of a widespread social and educational embarrassment how to deal with social exclusion, negative comments and violence, and their psychosocial constituents, your organization will be empowered to proactively contribute to positive changes towards social inclusion. At a personal level your organization will have internalized tools which effectively can be used to deal with the constituent emotions, beliefs and attitudes. As organization you will profit from the participants development of (the integration of) a diversity curriculum and have internalized how this will contribute to a positive engagement with social inclusion. Your organization will be more aware of its own specific position regarding country, culture, environment and organization regarding social inclusion and the development of appropriate curricula as it in this learning process will cooperate with organizations from other European countries. Your organization will also contribute to a transnational, European understanding of the issues at hand.
What to do now?
- Send us a note of interest so we can support you and your management in making an application.
- Make sure your management submits an application on behalf of the organization (deadline 17 March).
- Register formally by filling in the GALE open course registration form, signing and scanning it and sending/mailing it to us.