Colored Glasses – Moving Intercultural Exchange into the Classroom

Abstract

This paper describes a successful project that promotes the intercultural educational value of international exchange to students and youth groups. Colored glasses is a project of the German YFU Committee aiming to enhance intercultural education by providing intercultural learning opportunities to students in primary and secondary education. It addresses the questions of 1) how to promote intercultural understanding within a diverse society without necessarily having the experience of going “abroad”; 2) how to approach students from different educational backgrounds and age-groups; 3) how to take into consideration a society that becomes more and more diverse; and 4) which are the adequate teaching/learning methods.