Ilica 73
Zagreb
Croatia
- Youth and education
Our mission is quality improvement of education and promotion of child-centered kindergartens and schools in which children are able to participate actively in the educational process, express themselves freely and creatively, develop critical thinking skills, independence, responsibility and care for others, and to reach their full potential in line with their interests and abilities, in an environment which supports democratic relationships and respects diversity. By promoting child-centered kindergartens and schools, we encourage partnerships with families and the broader community.
All our activities relate to our mission. Main activity of the Open Academy Step by Step is education of preschool teachers, school teachers, and education specialists working in kindergartens and schools for the areas:
• Child-centered methods of teaching
• Inclusion of Children with Disabilities
• Education for Social Justice – Anti-bias Education
• Quality Improvement of Teaching - Applying ISSA Pedagogical Standards in the Classroom and Mentoring
We train about 1300 teachers a year and have extensive cooperation with many kindergartens and schools, local governments, and the Education and Teacher Training Agency.
Some of the recent projects:
‘Inclusion of Children with Special Needs’ was implemented in cooperation with the Centre for Preschool Education in Osijek in 2008/2009, and funded by the Co-operating Netherlands Foundations.
‘Education for Social Justice – Anti-bias education for students of the University of Osijek’ was implemented in 2007 and funded by the Netherlands Embassy and the World Bank.
‘Education for Social Justice – Anti-bias education’ was implemented in 2007 in the Town of Knin, and funded by the US Embassy.
‘Education for social justice – Program for children’ was implemented in 2007 in Beli Manastir, and funded by the Open Society Institute.