During the Intercultural Week at the Educational Studies Department, we had the opportunity to invite students to participate in two project events: debate and intercultural workshops.
The debate enabled the participants to broaden their horizons regarding the growing multiculturalism of our society and the need to engage in intercultural and interreligious dialogue. The open nature of the debate allowed the invited panelists to ask questions most bothering young people. It was also an opportunity to verify your own, often stereotypical views, which is the first step to building reliable, evidence-based knowledge. The panelists included foreigners with various length of residence in Poland and Poznań, as well as persons dealing with migration issues, working with foreigners (4 people), as well as European volunteers cooperating with CIM Horizons. The debate was supervised by a moderator – intercultural education trainer Maria Lebioda.
The whole event consisted of several elements: an introduction, a quiz checking the participants’ knowledge of the scale of migration in Poland, work in subgroups and conversations about the intercultural experience of participants / hands, interactive debate with experts and summaries. On the other hand, participants of the workshop “Everyone Different – All Equal” based on previous intercultural experience (debate) could develop intercultural skills and competences based on an interactive meeting with elements of applied drama. What supports intercultural meeting, which is a barrier in building understanding between The participants tried to answer these questions under the watchful eye of Olga Stobiecka – Rozmiarek.
