Kif kif and shouf shouf - Heritage and diversity in pre-schools

General Information

Leading Organisation/Person:

FARO (Flemish interface centre for cultural heritage)

Partners:

Vrije Basisschool Don Bosco (a pre and primary school in Hoboken, near Antwerpen)

Location(s):

Pilot project in Antwerpen, but with results for other schools in Flanders and Brussels

Type of best practice:

Publication

Brief description:

The title of the project, constituted from the Arabic words Kif kif & shouf shouf, symbolizes the philosophy of the project. As ‘Kif kif’ means ‘equal’ and ‘shouf shouf’ means ‘look at me’. The project has the aim to illustrate the fact and show children that they have a lot in common in everyday situations, but yet they can differ as well, without this being a problem. They learn about this by looking and listening to each other.
Kif kif & shouf shouf comprises two publications for pre-schools: a picture book and a didactic publication. The goal was to create humoristic and easy way to understand pictures by this age group.
The picture book illustrates scenes of everyday life and demonstrates different aspects of diversity of people in a society, showing people with different skin, clothes, disabilities, a.s.o., but it does not start from these differences. The picture book is made from the point of view of the child: what does it find meaningful in its own life?
The didactic publication suggests methods to have parents participate in the education of their children and it stimulates the interaction between school and home.

Specific Information

Strategic field:

Education and Youth

Geographical coverage:

National

Target Groups:

Youth

Target Groups:

Migrants

Target Groups:

Other

Please specify:

Minorities & Parents of Children

Main Objectives:

The main objective of ‘Kif kif & shouf shouf’ is to guide teachers and children from pre-schools in order to experience that all children are equal and to learn about differences and equalities in everyday life by observing and listening to each other.
Two issued publications provide teachers with a framework to work with the notion of heritage in the classroom, by means of scenes taken from lives of the children, focusing on diversity (all aspects that are meaningful for one’s identity) as an underlying basis.
This resulted in 4 objectives:
- to bring diversity into the classroom in a positive ‘non-threatening’ way (the project starts from the daily life of each child, and gives attention to their situation at home)
- to teach diversity as a main competence for children at the age of 5
- to attach more importance to the notion of heritage in the classroom, starting from everyday life
- to involve non-Dutch speaking parents in the school education of their children.

Main Outcomes:

Two publications:
- a picture book (in wich the evolution of a year is pictured: nature and the seasons, rituals, weather, private and public life, …), and
- a didactic publication for teachers to guide them along the scenes in the picture book.

Another outcome that is difficult to describe as a concrete result : the process of interaction between the heritage organisation, the school, the children, their parents and the illustrator. Almost a year was spent preparing and creating a ‘social basis’, before finalising the publications. These preparations resulted in the engagement of the different parties to work more on heritage and diversity in the near future.

Funding bodies:

- The Flemish Ministry of Education
( FARO and the school invested the time and efforts of their personnel )

Contact Information

First name:

Katrijn

Surname:

D’hamers

Phone Number:

+32 2 213 10 60

Fax Number:

+32 2 213 10 99

Street Address:

FARO. Priemstraat 51 – B 1000

City:

Brussels

Country:

Belgium

E-mail:

katrijn.dhamers@faronet.be

Website:

http://www.faronet.be