Home Inspiration and news How you stimulate 240 children to think about diversity

How you stimulate 240 children to think about diversity

In practice

16 March 2023

How do you bring your city's policy priorities to life? And even harder: how do you make sure you also reach children and young people? The Belgian city of Genk is doing it with the 'Blik op de wereld' project.

A network of partners

Because the city of Genk wants to focus on world citizenship, it organises a day full of workshops for sixth-grade classes every year. And with success, because every year more than 200 12-year-olds address societal issues such as diversity and climate change.

"'Blik op de wereld' is a project of the city of Genk and the Genk North-South Council," explains Lieve Wouters, staff member for Local Global Policy at the city of Genk. "But because it is a large and intensive project, we work closely with some partners. They help us shape and guide the workshop."

Students in front of the class

One such partner is PXL University of Applied Sciences and Arts. "The teacher training college offers the optional module 'Diversity Coach'. Every year I visit the students and introduce our project as a potential internship. The students who apply, get the task to create a workshop around the annual theme. They also have to coach some of the North-South Council volunteers, because they also take on some of the workshops."

"We felt the need for professionalisation. That's why we started a partnership with Djapo."

Lieve Wouters

City of Genk

Didactic enrichment

Djapo supports the students. Supervisor Heleen starts with a comprehensive introduction to the theme and some interesting methodologies. The students are thus introduced to philosophising, creative thinking and systems thinking methods. "Precisely this didactic approach is why we cooperate with Djapo," Lieve explains. "'Blik op de wereld' has been running for about 20 years. And during those years we felt the need for professionalisation. We have been working with Djapo ever since."

Heleen also continues to coach the students during the design phase of the workshop. This allows her to give the students tips and make adjustments where necessary. "It's really nice that I can completely outsource that support," says Lieve. "That saves me a lot of time. And yet Heleen always calls me in on time if there are questions or ambiguities."

Roadmap for volunteers

Just before the first workshop, the students organise a dress rehearsal. Not with Genk classes, but with North-South Council volunteers. "That rehearsal has a double purpose. On the one hand, the students get an extra chance to fully master the workshop and receive valuable feedback from the volunteers. But on the other hand, it is also the first time that the volunteers of the North-South Council get familiar with the workshop, which they will also lead themselves in the following weeks."

The volunteers also receive a script of the workshop, prepared by the students with Heleen's help. This not only describes the structure of the workshop. The script also contains tips on how to lead a philosophical conversation in the right direction, with sample questions.

"We instruct the students to make the workshops as language-rich as possible."

And the impact?

"This year, we will reach around 240 students with the theme of diversity. Moreover, we make sure that the workshops are as language-rich as possible so that we provide language stimuli to the children. Finally, we also try to involve parents. Because for the creative post-processing of the theme, which is organised following the workshop, we cooperate with the Genk art collective The Building. A selection of the children's artworks will later also be exhibited in their art gallery. This way, the children can show their parents what they have created.

What makes Blik op de Wereld so successful?

Lieve Wouters sees several benefits in the project:

The city reaches more than 200 children with a theme the city considers very important.
The city gives language incentives to Genk students, as the student teachers are tasked with making the workshop as language-rich as possible.
The city introduces future teachers to the education landscape of Genk.
The city introduces future teachers to new themes and methodologies.

Published on 16 March 2023

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