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Systemic Process for Staff and Organizational Development
Date du début: 1 sept. 2014, Date de fin: 31 août 2016 PROJET  TERMINÉ 

Jursla, Simonstorp and Humpegård are preschools in the municipality of Norrköping, Sweden, incorporated under the same unit. All three preschools have children in the age range 1-5. We have a mutual framework for the work with children and we strive to use an outdoor educational perspective with focus on language learning, mathematics, science/technology, motor/sensorial skills and aesthetics. We identified a need to develop methodology and pedagogical skills that referred to outdoor education. Our staff needed to develop their leadership skills and deepen their consciousness of the role of the preschool teacher towards our beneficiaries. Our main focus on outdoor education had an impact on the choice of project activities. We opted for 10 members of staff to participate in in-service training courses provided by Kinda Lärcenter. These courses aimed to broaden and deepen their knowledge of outdoor education and learning as well as to share experiences in a European perspective. The diverse teaching methods and techniques transmitted by lecturers aimed at enhancing the teaching skills of the participants and at developing the practices of the preschool. Our criteria for our selection of participants were based on: identified needs for personal and didactic development in accordance with an individual development plan, representation from different work teams and specific staff assignments in order to grant that new skills/abilities/knowledge would be equally spread amongst all staff members, goals of the revised curriculum in which tasks and areas of responsibility of different categories of staff are specified, equal dispersion in numbers amongst the three preschools in order to grant a rhythm of development on the parallel. The in-service training courses in outdoor education equipped the participants with knowledge referred to didactics in natural environments, environmental behavior and sustainable school development. Furthermore, new experiential and sensory approaches to education and learning and the teacher's attitudes towards teaching/learning in natural contexts changed and developed. The European dimension provided by this kind of in-service training also contributed to deeper knowledge of other school systems, increasing awareness of other European realities and consequently broadened the awareness of multicultural matters. The courses enlarged our networking contacts with counterparts in Europe and hopefully they will become our partners in future projects. As a result of the courses being held in English the participant also improved their language skills. Our unit also identified a need to develop our methodology and pedagogical skills that refer to creative activities and child autonomy. We also identified a need to improve our skills that refer to parental involvement and documentation. We opted for 10 members of staff to participate in job shadowing. Our criteria for our selection of participants were based on: identified needs of the participants' individual development plan, development needs within the work teams and assignments of the participants and equal division amongst the three preschools. We gave priority to preschool teachers before preschool assistants in order to grant that the best practices of the partner school would be documented, adapted, tried out, evaluated and if needed revised. This criterion is in line with the goals of the revised curriculum, in which the areas of responsibility of different categories of staff are specified. This exchange of experiences provided by job shadowing activities had an impact on the personal development of the participants and to provided insights referred to didactics and approaches to creativity, child autonomy, documentation and parental involvement. The teachers' attitudes and behavior was influenced by partners' approaches and contributed to develop our own learning environment and to reach our goals. As for cultural knowledge, job shadowing activities gave the participants an opportunity to compare Swedish and Italian circumstances referring to culture and traditions, language and educational systems. Therefore the job shadowing activities provided the same kind of European dimension that has been expressed in the previous paragraph. Our involvement in the Erasmus plus-project has provided opportunities for our teachers to exchange and transfer experiences and elements of best practice within our focus areas. It has had a substantial impact on the teachers' skills and their personal development. It has given them an insight into other educational systems in Europe and their pedagogical approaches and it has conducted an amelioration of our own educational system. Working in transnational contexts also contributed to an improvement of language skills and a deeper understanding of diverse European realities and working conditions.

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