Bulgaria : union SEB trains teachers and school principals to work with refugees and migrants
Theproject “Teachers obtaining competences for working with migrants and refugees and helping them in the process of inclusion through education” aims to provide teachers and principals with adequate professional competences to work with migrants and refugee children and facilitate their inclusion.
The target group of the project includes teachers and principals from kindergartens, as well as primary and secondary schools that have shown interest and willingness to work with migrants.
246 teachers from across the country took part in seven training seminars.
The two-day training was part of the training program of the SEB’s Permanent Academy for Science and Innovation in Education (PANIO). The training seminars were held in the city of Hisarya, Plovdiv district. Participants were divided in seven groups, with every group including participants from different regions of the country. The broad geographic scope allowed participants to share good practices and information, as well as discuss the difficulties they encountered in dealing with migrants.
After completing the training, participants gained the following competencies and knowledge:
- the cultural and psychological features of refugee children;
- basics of the Bulgarian legislative base;
- how to develop strategies for the successful integration of refugee children into the classroom;
- how to effectively cope with the problems encountered in the integration of refugee children;
- how to improve the overall integration process of refugee children in schools and in extracurricular activities.
On the basis of the feedback received from teachers involved in the training, the Bulgarian union of teachers (SEB) developed an adapted program for work with refugees and refugee children, which will be included in the Information Register of the approved programs for raising the qualification of pedagogical specialists at the Ministry of Education and science.
The Bulgarian Union of Teachers also prepared training materials (brochure), adapted curriculum and methodical aid handbook in collaboration with Prof. Rosica Penkova (Sofia University), entitled “For the first time in Bulgaria”.
