The training unit (TU), developed in the Pestalozzi Programme in the Education for the prevention of discrimination (DISC) module, consists of five activities, including an assessment session for initial and in-service training.
Emotional intelligence plays an important role in preventing discrimination and it can be achieved by developing empathy. The constructs of general empathy and ethno-cultural empathy highlight the importance of reactive empathy.
These activities were concieved to be in alignment with the above domains of emotional intelligence. They offer teachers the opportunity to: develop awareness of their “world views,” while challenging their limits; identify explicitly and implicitly hostile attitudes and feelings towards people who are refugees; develop strategies to engage learners to actively oppose all attitudes and feelings, to ensure the inclusion of vulnerable groups; consider knowledge as an incomplete construct, subject to continuous questioning.
To cite this resource: Spyropoulou, A. (2012). The role of emotional intelligence in teachers’ understanding immigrants (asylum-seekers) and developing skills and attitudes for respecting diversity. In Council of Europe Pestalozzi Programme Training Units.
