The are of focus of MaTE needs attention because of the changing scenarios in our communities, in our schools and in classrooms that are creating new challenges. The challenges in the native language class have been around for some time but possibly not in all communities, not in the levels of today and also not in an environment that is one of rapid and constant change as it is now. This means that to date challenges were met through ad hoc and on a case-by-case basis. This also means that there was reactivity to change happening outside the education sector and outside the school.
The approach in MaTE is a mix between micro intervention and macro vision. The partners depart from the consciousness that innovation may be through transfer and that it does not have to be disruptive. In the process of adopting the mixed approach of micro intervention with macro vision of what is happening in education in learning in general the partners will engage in mapping and foresight methodology that will ensure that the results of the project are relevant and sustainability beyond the partnership and beyond the project lifetime.
The micro approach that is due to the fact that MaTE intervenes in a micro area of education. The two first activities of MaTE will be that of understanding and showcasing how Native Language Teachers (NLTs) are being equipped to handle new dynamics and new challenges in their classroom and later on recommend a teacher training model that upskills present and future NLTs to help them react rapidly and be proactive in respect of their challenges in the multi lingual, multicultural and multilevel student population.
The macro approach will be the result of the mapping activity that will look at new trends, technologies and methodologies in learning even outside the language and the native language classroom that are changing classroom dynamics and that can possibly by used to meet the challenges that MaTE is conceived to meet. This macro vision will help the new training design produced by MaTE be in key with what is happening in education due to social, psychological and personal changes taking place in the lives and minds of young people populating the classrooms whatever their cultural, migration / native and social background may be.
This is a brief presentation of the project in video: