10 December 2008 - 13:44Towards a Permanent “Laboratory” for Integration

The second International Conference of the Agency for Cooperation in Secondary Education was held on Saturday, 29 November 2008 at the United World College of the Adriatic in Duino. It was a consultative meeting with more than 70 teachers, directors and delegates from different institutions in Italy, Slovenia and Austria. They discussed a new European project which, if approved, will lead to the creation of a permanent “laboratory” that will identify, experiment with and diffuse techniques for cross border integration in the field of secondary education. This laboratory could start its activities from January 2010. Often when you try to learn about others you find yourself in a sort of Labyrinth. Our project will help students and teachers to find their way out of their labyrinth to an integrated cross border community.

The Conference opening speeches were made by ambassador Gianfranco Facco Bonetti, President of the United World College of the Adriatic and by professor Ugo Panetta, representative of the Italian Ministry of Education in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. One of the most important elements that emerged from the Conference was proposed by the students themselves (Slovenian and Italian students from the cross border areas). They would like to introduce a cross border curriculum with bilingual language courses, conflict resolution techniques, cross border arts and cultures and a focus on the skills and capacities to identify sources of knowledge. They also proposed the creation of a web site to advertise in Italian and Slovene all the events and opportunities for social networking which are already happening in the cross border area.

The participants list can be dowloaded HERE.