Intercultural Education through Physical Activity, Coaching, and Training (EDU-PACT)

Purpose of the projectAlthough in most European counties, (physical and sport) educators teach culturally, ethnically and linguistically heterogeneous classes of pupils (or athletes), teachers and coaches have not been well prepared for the task of intercultural education through sport. Research into intercultural education indicates that many teachers and coaches still do not have sufficient professional competence in this area and that initial teacher and trainer education (pre-service) and continuing professional development (in- service) neither provides them with the necessary knowledge, nor covers practices, skills, competences and appropriate models of the everyday reality in classrooms and training sessions, respectively, due to a lack of consistent guidelines and didactical concepts.EDU-PACT is an Erasmus+ funded project aiming at improving the quality of pre-service and in-service education strengthening the professional profile of both sport related teaching, professions preparing teachers and coaches for inclusive intercultural education in and through physical education and sport. The project is half way through, initiated in the beginning of 2018 ending by the end of 2020. The project aim taken into consideration, this presentation targets the conference question: Is it reasonable and realistic to expect that e.g. sport coaches, exercise professionals and physical education teachers can use sport as a tool to systematically develop societies and societal skills? What competences do these educators need to acquire and build to undertake such obligations?MethodsInitially, a rapid evidence analysis was conducted in order to scope the scientific literature and thereby obtain knowledge related to the field. The analysis formed the basis for a need-analysis template to be fulfilled by each of the participating project partners.Based on the template, each participating project partner conducted a national need-analysis in order to obtain already existing knowledge and wishes related to intercultural learning through physical activity and sport – from an academic perspective, PE teacher perspective and sports coach perspective. This information was obtained by interviews and/or focus groups with relevant stakeholders.The findings from each project partner was put together in a combined needs-analysis and the findings in the combined needs-analysis formed the basis for the development of a module related to intercultural learning containing of four different module units. ResultsThe initial outlines of each module unit is presented below:Unit 1: Understanding yourself.Content related to: Self-Confidence, Self-Awareness and Adaptability.Unit 2: Understanding others.Content related to: Communication, Cooperation, Leadership, Respect, Tolerance and Empathy.Unit 3: Planning and delivering sessions. Content related to: Critical Thinking, Decision Making, Problem Solving, Organizing and Managing. Unit 4: Reflection and evaluation.Content related to: Teaching, Reflecting, Monitoring, Reviewing Intercultural Learning Approaches and Strategies. At the moment, each unit is under further construction in order to be piloted during the “Training of Trainers” meeting in September, however, the first module draft will be finalized by the time of the ENSE forum. ConclusionThe modules are going to be available as an online tool to be used in various settings – however, primarily targeting PE teachers and sports coaches. For PE teachers or sports coaches working with children and youth with diverse ethnical backgrounds, the modules will help improve the intercultural education through physical education and sports activities.