Symeou, Loizos

EDucation and DIgital Cultural LABoratory (EDUCLAB) is a project co-funded by Erasmus+ 2018 of the European Commission in the field of early childhood education [grant number 2018-1-IT02-KA201-048316]. The main aim of the project is to develop training material for early childhood and care (ECEC) educators working with an increased number of students (age 3-6) with migrant background, on how to plan, organize and implement cultural and artistic workshops in the classroom in the framework of the European Year of Cultural Heritage. The focus of the project is to prepare children to visit museums, libraries, archaeological sites, theatres and musical institutions, to provide them with a "key" to enjoy such visits and to be able to interpret the art they are going to explore during these visits. In this chapter we present a suggested framework on how educational cultural workshops could be organized and implemented for children aged 3-5 with diverse cultural backgrounds at early childhood education and care (ECEC) facilities. The framework has been developed for the purposes of the EDUCLAB project. The framework is developed on the basis of an in-depth analysis of data collected during focus-group discussions with approximately 50 educators conducted across all five partner countries (Cyprus, Italy, Portugal, Romania, and Turkey); two focus-groups with a minimum of five educators each, for each partner country. The focus-groups aimed at identifying best practices and pedagogical approaches in planning and implementing cultural workshops in early childhood education, as well as the skill gaps of early childhood educators in relation to the use of digital technologies and in the field of inclusive education. The analysis of the data led to the identification of skill gaps and pedagogical approaches, as well as of other emerging themes, including school-parents' relations, characteristics of good practices relating to the implementation of cultural workshops in early childhood education and care, as well as challenges faced by educators across Europe in organizing and implementing cultural workshops. In the last section of this chapter we present guidelines, practical and useful indicators for educators, as these emerge from the analysis of the data collected and supported by references to contemporary literature.