Preventing Conflict and Building Social Cohesion through Respecting Diversity through Preschool Education

Preventing Conflict and
Building Social Cohesion
through Respecting Diversity
through Preschool Education
Ingrid Jones, (Albania) & Ljiljana Vasic, (Serbia)
14th April 2015
THIS PROJECT IS FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION
Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) Civil Society Facility (CSF)

Introduction
Early childhood education and development are seen as the most crucial
elements in a child and therefore an adult’s development.
Learning about social relationships, interaction and respect for the individual and
for diversity is an important part of every young child’s development. Yet, within
preschool curricula within the Balkan Region there is little if no inclusion of these
vital elements.
The Balkan Region in the last 20 years has seen civil disruption and war and this
has left many people and countries divided and deep divisions that continue to
affect daily the lives of many. If we wish to see a future with social cohesion and
improved relationships we need to begin by working with young children.

Why did we Choose to Address Social
Cohesion through Young Children?
The ‘Partnership for Reconciliation through Early Childhood Education and
Development in Europe.’ (PRECEDE) Network was set up in December
2012 through funding from the European Union under its IPA Programme.
The project was initially funded for two years with a potential 2-year follow-
on grant.
The project was intended to develop a proactive and cohesive network of
civil society organisations and governmental stakeholders within the
Balkans to promote and implement peacebuilding, reconciliation and
tolerance within communities through working with young children under the
age of eight years old, their families, their teachers and their communities.

The Intended Results of the PRECEDE Project
The countries included: Albania, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and
Northern Ireland and from January 2015 Montenegro.
The strategy of the PRECEDE Network is to achieve the results through
five main groups of activities:
•Action Research
•Monitoring and Evaluation
•Advocacy
•Implementation of a Programme Toolkit within preschools settings and
•Ensuring quality standards within civil society organisations.

Development of a Peace Building
Programmatic Toolkit for use in Kindergartens
Three organisations, Pomoc deci, Serbia, Partnerë për Fëmijët, Albania and
the Early Years Organisation, Northern Ireland had been members of the
International Network for Peace Building through Young Children, INPB) since
2004.
Within Northern Ireland both during and following ‘the troubles’ and conflict, the
Early Years Organisation have worked to improve the provision of preschool
education and to breakdown the barriers and issues between the families and
communities.

Choosing Peace Building Programmatic Toolkits to
be Piloted in Kindergartens in the Balkans Region
1. The INPB members developed the International Toolkit Manual For
Practitioners Working with Young Children and Families in Regions
Experiencing or Emerging From Conflict for use within kindergartens or
preschool classes across the world.
2. Aflatot is a preschool manual developed by the Aflatoun Secretariat in the
Netherlands, for use with children aged between 3 and 6 years old, (preschool
children). It addresses child rights, respect for oneself and others; the child and
his/her family and community and savings and spending.
3. The Edu-Map Box of Diversity was developed by two authors in Croatia and
specifically addresses diversity through disability.

The Pilot Phase within the Kindergartens
• Five countries participated in the pilot phase:
• The pilot period was from March to June 2014:
• 48 kindergartens participated. They were chosen to represent both urban and
rural communities across the individual countries:
• Each pilot class had a minimum of 20 children aged between 3 and 6 years old:
• A minimum of half the parents with children in the classes would be invited to
participate in the interviews:
• The preschool teachers would be trained to use the specific toolkit that they
would pilot:
• 6 training programmes were implemented in Zagreb, Belgrade, Tirana, Prishtina
and Skopje for preschool teachers, kindergarten directors and other education
or pedagogical specialists.

Baseline Survey
• A guideline, consent form and interview questionnaires were developed for use
by interviewers:
• The interviewers were supported and trained by a national project coordinator
who had participated in the training undertaken by the preschool teachers:
• The baseline survey included 683 children; 83 Preschool teachers, all them
were female and 485 parents or family members:
• The parents of all children were asked to sign a consent form giving permission
for their child to be interviewed. The parent was given the option to be present
whilst the child was interviewed, but he or she was asked not to prompt or guide
the child in his/her responses. If a child did not want to respond to a question a
‘no response’ was recorded.
• Photographs were used to support all the questions the child was asked and to
ensure that there was no gender biais the photographs matched the child’s sex.

Baseline Survey – Some Photographs

Findings– Recognising Differences
• Children were able to recognise difference amongst the photographs of
the children that we used. One child was a child that typically looked like a
child from the majority population; another was a child in a wheelchair and
the other child was a child from the Roma communities.
• Children tended to choose the child from the majority population as their
first choice of a friend to sit next to, play with or to share their sweets with.
For boys their next choice was the child in the wheelchair whereas the
girls chose the girl from the Roma community.
• When ranking their friends the children repeated the same choice of
photographs, therefore supporting the initial findings above.

Findings – Recognising Exclusion
• Children found this particular exercise more difficult within the baseline
survey to initially distinguish that a child in the photograph was excluded
from the group of children playing or reading a book.
• Typically they concentrated on the group activity and or the contents of the
room, providing a long list of equipment rather than on the child sat apart
and not joining in.
• In the Post-Evaluation Survey more children commented on the child not
joining in and many added that the child was sad or left out.

Findings – Recognising Feelings
• Children were shown four girls with different facial expressions depicting;
happy, sad, angry or frightened.
• The highest number of recorded comments was for the sad face or as
some children commented the girl was crying with an equal number of
responses for the happy and angry.
• Interestingly there were a large number of children who rather than use the
words for feelings interpreted the girls as having been good or bad.
• The post-evaluation survey showed that more children were able to
recognise the feelings correctly, but with equal numbers of children using
sad or crying equally.

Preschool Teachers -Findings
• Preschool teachers in the baseline survey did not have a clear
understanding of what inclusive education meant, with the highest number
choosing the option: ‘Children with a physical disability attend the same
kindergarten or preschool group as their peers’.
• In the post evaluation survey a higher number chose the option: ‘An
accessible kindergarten with an inclusive policy and programmes where
girls and boys with many differences and unique qualities learn together’,
which was the desired answer.
• Regarding whether children recognise differences between themselves
and others over the pilot period a large number of preschool teachers had
changed their ideas to accepting that children do recognize differences in
others.

• Regarding children excluding others due to difference there was a move
by preschool teachers over the three months that young children do
exclude children because a child is different.
• Preschool teachers do think that kindergartens can influence the
behaviour of young children and this is a very good basis for starting to
work with children in the development of their attitudes and behaviour
towards all children. Equally the majority of the preschool teachers feel
that they can influence the behaviour and attitudes of young children even
where the messages that they are given at home is less inclusive.
• Little change was found in preschool teachers opinions about their
influence on young children in comparison to what children see on the
television, in cartoons, books or on the internet. This would indicate that
the materials provided to young children need to be suitable.

• Preschool teachers were in strong agreement that they and the child’s
parents need to work together to develop positive attitudes and behaviour
in young children and that on their own neither group would have much
effect if the community or society in which they live was unsupportive.
• Regarding parental involvement, the majority of preschool teachers had
discussed the diversity programmes with parents and the majority of the
parents were in favour of the pilot. The number of parents who were in
favour of the programme had doubled in the post-evaluation survey.
• The preschool teachers were in favour of using the manuals and materials
as this enabled them to discuss topics with young children that they had
previous found very difficult as they neither had the methods or activities to
do so.

Parents and Family Members -Findings
• Similarly, parents within the baseline did not think young children noticed
differences in others, but at the evaluation stage more parents were now
aware that their children did recognise differences and were excluding
some children from their play due to difference.
• Regarding the reasons why young children pick on other children, the
parents overwhelmingly in the initial survey did not think this was due to the
child being different, but they had changed their views on this after the
implementation of the pilot.
• Parents in both surveys believe that they have a major role in the attitudes
and behaviour that their children develop and therefore it is important that
we equip them with tools and means of explaining about differences to use
with their young children.

• Parents were divided when asked if their influence on their child was small
in comparison to the influence of television programmes, cartoons, books
and the internet, but in the post-evaluation survey there had been a move
to wards more of them disagreeing with this statement and an
acknowledgement that they could influence their child’s attitudes and
behaviour.
• Equally there was a change in the parents views about their ability to
change stereotypical ideas and views adopted by their child. More parents
felt they could address these issues after the programme was
implemented.
• Parents agreed that they and kindergartens needed to work together to
develop positive attitudes and behaviour towards diversity with young
children.

• Parents stated that they are happy when their child played with a child that
was different and this was replicated in the post-evaluation survey.
• Did parents see the value of young children learning about diversity. In the
baseline survey there were many who did not see the value and thought
the children were too young but this changed in the post-evaluation survey
with more parents seeing it as important and also very much more
interested to learn themselves.

Lessons Learnt
• Both preschool teachers and parents have changed their minds in regard to
the need for young children to learn about diversity and to respect
differences.
• There is a need for programmes, methods and materials for preschool
teachers and parents to be able to discuss and explain to young children
about diversity, so children understand uniqueness but also similarities and
don’t exclude others or pick on them because they are different.
• Children can if provided with the words and facial expressions recognise
feelings and how a person looks if they are happy, sad, angry or afraid.
This can lead to empathy.
• Children can through learning about feelings understand how a child feels if
they are excluded.

Next Steps
• Develop a manual that includes what we have learnt and the best
examples and activities from the three piloted manuals.
• Test the new manual and activities out in more kindergartens and for a
longer trial period.
• Attract more parents or family members to be involved in the kindergarten
activities as this will strengthen their knowledge and ability to explain and
discuss with their child confidently differences.
• Support the preschool teachers through mentorship to use the activities
and the content of the manual in daily activities and not to see it just as a
separate set of activities to be done on occasions.
• Evaluate if the findings in this pilot are replicated on a larger scale.

Thank You!
Contact: ijones_ppf@yahoo.co.uk or
ljiljana@pomocdeci.org

Preventing Conflict and Building Social Cohesion through Respecting Diversity through Preschool Education

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