IERS Project

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union

IERS Project Intercultural Education through Religious Studies

Alicia García-Holgado Valentina Zangrando

Research Group in InterAction and eLearning (GRIAL) University of Salamanca

[email protected] [email protected]

The Project

•  The IERS Project aims at responding to the educational challenges of an increasingly multicultural and multireligious Europe

•  http://iers.unive.it •  Supported by

•  European Union. Lifelong Learning Programme. Sub-Programme COMENIUS Multilateral Project

•  Reference: 539803-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-COMENIUS-CMP •  Duration: December 2013 – November 2015 •  Total amount: 400.000€

IERS project - TEEM'15

IERS Consortium

•  Università Ca'Foscari Venezia (Italy) •  Institut Européen en Sciences des Religions (France) •  University of Salamanca (Spain) •  University of Southern Denmark (Denmark) •  Oxfam Italia Intercultura (Italy) •  University of Augsburg (Germany)


Main outcomes

•  Virtual community for Secondary School teachers; •  20 IERS Digital Modules; •  Video tutorials about IERS Digital Modules’ use; •  National workshops in the Secondary Schools that

collaborate with the project; •  Pilot activities in classroom; •  Digital Modules Handbook.


IERS Community

•  Google+ community to connect teachers, students and any person interested on education in religious studies.

•  https://plus.google.com/communities/103500732350886653246

•  A private collaborative space.


•  IERS page on Facebook to provide a social public space.

•  http://facebook.com/iersproject

Digital Modules

•  A Digital Module is a ICT Application to be used in class by teachers in order to hold one or more classes on a certain topic.

•  The IERS project has developed 20 modules: –  4 modules with an introduction to the study of religions, its

methodologies and disciplines; –  10 modules give an overview of different religious traditions; –  6 thematic modules concerning the theme of “religious

diversity: conflict and coexistence, past and present”.

http://iers.unive.it/about/contents-production/digital-modules/


Video tutorials

•  http://iers.unive.it/dissemination/available-video-tutorials-about-iers-digital-modules/


IERS Workshops

•  The project partners organized national workshops aimed to offer to each national teachers’ team further training and formation on the issue of the teaching of religion themes at school.

•  Two Italian workshops has been held at the Foscarini High School of Venice and the "Antonio Canova" High School of Treviso.

•  In Germany the Chair of History Didactics invited the German teachers of the pilot phase to a one-day workshop at Augsburg University.

•  The workshops ended with a feedback session. http://iers.unive.it/about/teaching-support-actions/workshops/


Pilot activities

•  Teachers carry on the teaching tools’ pilot in their own classes.

•  Supported through the virtual community. •  Teachers are free to select the module and the

modality to use it. •  Feedback from the teachers’ experiences will be

collected by online questionnaires and interviews during autumn 2015.

•  A report of the Digital Modules Pilot will be delivered by the end of the project.


Pilots schools

•  Liceo Foscarini di Venezia, Italy •  Liceo Antonio Canova, Italy •  IES Campo Charro, Spain •  Nyborg Gymnasium, Denmark •  Klenze-Gymnasium, Germany •  Ringeisen-Gymnasium, Germany •  Staatliche Realschule, Germany •  Schmuttertal-Gymnasium, Germany •  Gymnasium Athenaeum, Germany

http://iers.unive.it/partners/schools/


Future lines

•  KA1 Erasmus+ School Staff Mobility: a teacher in-service training course related to IERS innovative multicultural approach in teaching of religions in schools;

•  5-days training course for teachers and educators to promote religious studies as a means of inclusive and intercultural education;

•  Inside the framework of Key Action 1 "Learning Mobility of Individuals" of the ERASMUS + Programme


With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union

Thank you!