The intercultural mediation in the schools in Italy, especially in Ferrara, Emilia Romagna

The intercultural mediation in the schools in Italy, especially in Ferrara, Emilia Romagna

Maria Kavouri, Cristina Mikol Buozzi

Re.media CSII- Comune di Ferrara, Italy

PROJECT ABOUT ACTIVITIES OF THE INTERCULTURAL MEDIATORS REGISTER(Re.media) MANAGED BY THE INTEGRATED SERVICES CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION



POTENTIAL STRUCTURE AND THE MANAGEMENT OF THE REGISTER



The intercultural mediators profile is the Italian answer to E.U indication about the Immigrants Integration and their right to a Fair Education in their host country. To collect this new workers profile, the register Re.media was created.

The intercultural mediators register was started in 2002 inside the Integrated Services Center for Immigration thanks to a collaboration between the Center, the Institutions and the Organizations of the 3rd sector in the Province of Ferrara. The Directory is currently composed of 150 people, 30 who have obtained the regional qualification of intercultural mediator, thanks to a specific training course accomplished in the 2006-2007 school year.

The Mediators represent 30 linguistics areas and they work in four main areas

1. School

2. Health social

3. Informative

4. Law -legal



To place the people in this register we conduct interviews by filling out a form with their personal data, qualifications and experiences in the intercultural mediation field. Subsequently, they are selected and entered in Re.medias database, where we can have their information to contact them when we need it. The minimum requirements needed to be placed in the register is a very good linguistic and cultural knowledge of the people who need their mediation, a secondary school certificate, and experience for at least two years in the intercultural mediation field.



Intercultural Mediators Profile in the school

The Intercultural Mediators profile in the schools environment aims to ease the foreign students integration with his knowledge of both languages. To do this, the intercultural mediator has to know the cultural differences for both countries. He is used as a bridge between the foreign student and the whole class, as well as his family and the school. His intervention helps the student feel comfortable in the class and takes away the initial fear that prevents the student from learning. The mediator stays in the class during the whole lesson and helps the student to understand how to do his schoolwork and what is asked of him. The mediator also helps with language comprehension in comparing both languages.