Project preparations:

A first meeting of all the partners took place to develop the project concept on 19th and 20th February 2004 in Munich. The lead representatives from the Institute for Intercultural Communication at the University of Munich all took part, as well as the British, Bulgarian and Greek partners. In addition, Georgia Stavridou Bausewein was present, who would later act as assistant and interpreter in the training course in Greece. Anja Edelhauser, who is responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of the project, also participated.

First working meeting:

The first official working meeting of all the project partners took place on January 26th-27th 2005 in Munich, at the headquarters of the Volkshochschulverband (Bavarian People’s University Federation). The central areas under discussion were the education and teacher training systems of the participating states, the ethnic make-up of each member state and, in each case, the background reasons why multi-cultural and/or intercultural competence training was deemed necessary in Primary school teaching. The relevant contributions to be made through the expertise of the partner states was discussed and finally the concept of the Munich Institutes of Intercultural Communication was put forward.


Second working meeting:

The second working meeting with all the project partners took place from April 7th- 9th 2005, in the Faculty of Philosophy, at Aristoteles University in Thessaloniki, Greece. This was preceded by a trial-run of some, as yet incomplete, materials, with a group of Primary School teachers. The aim of this was to sound out and determine a culture-specific method of communicating intercultural competence. The central topics that emerged were those of “cultural filters”, “techniques of dealing with intercultural communication” “cultural exploration” and “cultural grammar” and these were duly worked through to produce appropriate, country-specific exercises and case studies that would be suitable for Primary education.


Third working meeting:

The third working meeting took place between the 6th and 11th of September 2005 on the premises of the Faculty of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences, at the University of the West of England in Bristol. The Project Partners discussed the tailor-made handbook, systematically completing it with exercises and coming to an agreement on the final version. The contents of the training handouts, together with the national variations to be incorporated, were also negotiated. In addition, the project partners talked about possible ways in which the results of the project could be multiplied.

Fourth working meeting:

The forth working meeting was held on 23–28 March 2006 in Sofia, on the premises of the Faculty of Educational Sciences of “Sv. Kliment Ohridski” University. Its main objective was to discuss both project products, namely the handbook (to be published in German) and the exercise brochures (to be published in the languages of the partner countries). Both texts were presented to the partners in their newest versions, they had to be compared and finalized. Special attention was paid to the translations of the brochure texts (the original version been in German): the process of translation had already revealed that the change of cultural contexts required distinctive changes in the language.

The partners were shown the two designs of the book covers, that had been drawn by a Bulgarian graphic designer. The final design was chosen. The partners discussed possibilities for the effective multiplication of the handbook and the brochures in their respective professional environments and planned concrete actions.

Another important objective was the discussion and planning of the international student seminar in Ankara that was to be conducted only few days after the Sofia meeting. The partners had the chance to aquaint themselves with some of the central features of the country (Bulgaria) and the region as a whole (South Eastern Europe). The discussions focused on the specific traditional forms of multiculturalism in the area.

International Student Seminar Ankara

The international student seminar took place April 3–9 2006 in Ankara. It was hosted by the Faculty of Education of Ankara University: the Dean of the Faculty belonged to the partner team and was very helpful in providing rooms and strategic assistance throughout the whole stay. 20 students from all five partner institutions participated: each partner had sent a group of four students. With the only exception of the German students (who were students of Intercultural Communication) all students majored in educational sciences at their respective universities. The seminar lasted for one week.

The seminar was facilitated by a German and a Greek project partner (Roth/Kesidou). In the first part, emphasis was put on group dynamic work. The goal was to bridge the given cultural diversity of the group and ensure productive joint work across cultural boundaries. The work included methods from the project's brochure that were thus tested for their effectiveness. The ensuing work was based even more on the project products; the contents of the handbook served as a guideline for teaching. The students worked on the central chapters (on culture, communication, stereotypes and perception) of the handbook and discussed them before the background of their future work as teachers. This was another chance for a pilot run of the main project product.

The feedback of the students was extremely positive. They organized themselves in a network and decided to keep contact in the future, both for their professional and private benefit.