TEAM

Teaching To Marginalised Groups

According to EUGE (European Institute of Gender Equality), the term Marginalized Groups is used to address groups of people within a given culture, context and history at risk of being subjected to multiple discrimination due to the interplay of different personal characteristics or grounds, such as sex, gender, age, ethnicity, religion or belief, health status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, education or income, or living in various geographic localities.

A multitude of articles and actions can be found within the pages of the commission’s website, indicating that the need to find means to integrate those persons living on the margins of society has been identified and attempts to include them are at the forefront of EU policy (indicative titles: Socio-Economic Integration Of Marginalized Communities, Fighting Marginalisation, Inclusion Of Vulnerable Groups). It is commonplace that persons belong to more than one marginalized group, as society raises its barriers towards any difference.

Education is rightly considered to be a basic human right, without which sustainable social and economic development is rare. Nowadays the trainers are called to pass on educational information on crucial topics to an increasing number of marginalized groups; there are many projects aiming to facilitate the inclusion of minorities such as Roma, upskilling projects targetted at NEET and low-skilled individuals, organizations trying to tend to the needs of an increasing mumber of imigrants and refugees.

The raw fact is that the majority of Adult Trainers in the EU have little to no experience with teaching marginalized groups, as each group has diverse reasons to enroll to a training course, needs a different approach to embrace its training and has a different “learning curve”.