"SensiClass" strategic partnership
To create didactic tools and materials which will serve teachers in different education levels to sensitively and empathetically resolve potentially conflicting matters in environments consisting of people from different origins, ethnic groups or religion – this is a goal of a project called "Tackling Sensitive Topics in a Classroom".
This project supported by Erasmus+ Programme was developed from the end of the year 2019 at four European universities – the coordinating Estonian University of Tartu, Polish SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Hungarian Central European University, and also on the University of Hradec Králové.
The team of academics from the Philosophical Faculty was responsible for creating 2 e-courses. The first one, named STATE (Support Teachers And Tolerant Environment), is focused on support of teachers, prospective teachers but also of PhD students. It aims at making supportive material that will help teachers with establishing an educational environment in which they can communicate about sensitive topics with their students. STATE is made out of two parts – the first is a guide consisting of theoretical explanations and also teaching lessons and personal stories. The second part is represented by workshops for teachers where they — besides other activities — shared their experiences and examples of good practice. The responsible person for working on this e-course is Mgr. Vanda Vaníčková, Ph.D., the theoretical part was developed by Mgr. et. Mgr. Michal Rigel, Ph.D.
The second e-course was prepared by JUDr. et Mgr. Filip Rigel, Ph.D., together with Mgr. Michal Trousil, Ph.D. Social work with foreigners course not only has an online form but is offered to students of Social Work on Philosophical Faculty as a classic course with a physical presence. The e-course is available to the public and includes videos, tests, tasks, and study texts.
The goal of Social work with foreigners course is to talk about issues related to migration and possible solutions to this matter which can be done by key institutions in the field of social work. The participants will gain knowledge about economic, legal, and social aspects of foreigners' lives and methods through which the specific problems of foreigners / refugees / asylum seekers can be solved or mitigated.
Our Czech team also supports international partners in developing their outputs – for example, MOOCs concentrating on the themes of radicalism, gender, or Islam. Another output of the SensiClass project is a toolbox providing teachers with tools, strategies, and possible solutions to overcome various cultural differences.
All these materials went through first testing in an event hosted by the University of Hradec Králové in October 2021. This Joint training for the Teachers of the Network Universities on Teaching Sensitive Issues was held online and lasted for 5 days (October 4th till October 8th). Programme is to be found here.
The project came to an end in August 2022, but all the outputs will still be available on the project's website. The last project meeting, finally in a face-to-face manner, was organized by the University of Hradec Králové and took place on our university campus from June 20th till 22nd, 2022.
Project's website: https://sisu.ut.ee/sensiclass
Project's name: Tackling Sensitive Topics in a Classroom
Project's number: 2019-1-EE01-KA203-051690
Implementation: Sep. 1, 2019 - Aug. 31, 2022
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