Lia Akhaladze, Tamar Jojua, Tamar Shinjiashvili

Introduction and Study of Cultural Diversity Training on the Basis of DOIT

(After the Example of Sokhumi State University)

The aim of our paper is to introduce the final account of all activities and pilot courses which were
carried out and designed at Sokhumi State University within EU grant project-“Development of an
International Model for Curricular Reform in Multicultural Education and Cultural Diversity
Training ---DOIT.”

Sokhumi State University looked for new ways and methods of the curriculum reform, of planning
and conducting the academic process successfully. EU--TEMPUS project----DOIT---“Development
of an International Model for Curricular Reform in Multicultural Education and Cultural Diversity
Training ’’ appeared to be one of such ways. We became members of this project since 2012. The
work done by Sokhumi State University DOIT team can be introduced in two directions: 1) The
curriculum reform on the basis of the international model designed by DOIT and 2) activities,
meetings, seminars and presentations of research projects at the conferences for multicultural
education and cultural diversity training. Like other participant universities and higher education
institutions of different countries in DOIT consortium working process, at our university the
curriculum reform on the basis of the international model designed by DOIT, was also carried out.
That was conditioned by the necessity of implementing multicultural training in case of
multinational Georgia. The curriculum reform had its impact on teacher training programs on BA
level and on MA level as well. The pilot courses were also launched on other BA programs. In all,
DOIT pilot courses were implemented with students of 5 BA and 1 MA programs.

SSU team participated in obtaining and designing the material for above-mentioned teaching
courses. On the ground of the decision adopted during Tbilisi International Consortium held in
October, 2012, meeting the requirements of the ongoing program accreditation procedure in
November- December, 2012, in the curriculum for Primary Teacher Training a new teaching course-
Multicultural Education was added. The above-mentioned teaching course was tested from Spring
term, 2012-2013.

BA Program: Primary Teacher Training—From Spring term, 2012-2013, the syllabus designed within
DOIT, Multiethnic and Multicultural Georgia was piloted in this BA program. In the same BA
program from Spring term, 2013-2014, the second syllabus-Children’s Rights was piloted.

BA Program: Inclusive Education-from Fall term, 2013-2014, two syllabi-Multiethnic and

Multicultural Georgia and Children’s Rights developed within DOIT, were piloted.

In 60 credit Teacher Training Program-since Fall term, 2013-2014, the piloting of DOIT syllabus –
Children’s Rights began and is still going on.

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For all these already mentioned programs DOIT courses became obligatory and accordingly all of
them passed program accreditation.

In BA Program-International Relations-from the syllabi designed by DOIT---Children’s Rights was

piloted as optional, selective subject.

From MA Programs in DOIT Project, the module of MA Program of Education Sciences-Methods of

Teaching History was involved in DOIT Project. In this program from DOIT syllabi, multiethnic
and multicultural Georgia was piloted in Fall term, 2014-2015 and in Spring semester the second
syllabus-Pedagogical Approaches that promote inter-cultural-Ethnic Understanding in the Classroom
was too. The both syllabi became obligatory for the module-Methods of Teaching History.

In all, in 14 groups up to 250 students took part in the process of piloting.

During DOIT Project 4 BA an 1 MA programs were reformed at Sokhumi State University. The
literature which was worked up during the piloting process was used in the readers designed by the
Georgian Universities. SSU team worked on creating 3 readers: 1) Multiethnic and Multicultural
Georgia, 2) Pedagogical Approaches that promote inter-cultural-Ethnic Understanding in the
Classroom and 3) Children’s Rights. Besides that, several seminars were organized by DOIT team-
meetings with SSU students, with the academic personnel of the Faculties of Education, Social and
Political Sciences, Humanities and also with the teachers of those schools, where the Faculty of
Education of SSU is involved in the process of planning and conducting the teaching practice. As for
this issue, we will speak about it in details below, now we only mention, that towards the end of this
meeting a very interesting discussion was held. The school teachers and academic personnel of the
university were especially interested in organizing such meetings in the future not only at the
University, but also at schools with teachers and pupils. At this meeting it was planned, that one
section, at BA, MA and PhD students’ scientific conference, held in Spring, 2015, would be working
only on the themes of multicultural and multiethnic Georgia.

The conference was held on the 8th -9th of June, 2015, at Sokhumi State University. We would like to
give the detailed survey of this conference below. SSU team designed and introduced the
presentations about DOIT goals, objectives and finished work at several international, national and
University conferences with the active participation of the head of the project an on the basis of the
consultations. SSU team presented research projects developed from the themes of DOIT teaching
courses. These themes related to the study of multiethnic and multicultural regions of Georgia and to
the different issues of Cultural Diversity Training: Culture and Identity, Active Citizenship,
Pedagogical Approaches that promote inter-cultural-Ethnic Understanding in the Classroom,
Mechanisms of protecting Children’s and Adults’ Rights and so on.

SSU team carried out different kinds of research activities related to DOIT themes referring to
Multicultural Education and Cultural Diversity Training. SSU team members actively participated at

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different level conferences-as at international, also at national scientific ones, seminars and meetings,
where research projects were introduced. Among them it is worth of mentioning such international
conferences which were held in Brighton and Beersheva, Kutaisi and Tbilisi. At Brighton and
Beersheva conferences we actually made the report about the work and research conducted by our
university within DOIT Consortium. So, the presented papers were:

Integration of Multicultural Education at Sokhumi State University (Beershrva). The paper was
introduced by SSU DOIT team member Tamar Jojua. All four members of SSU team actively
paticipated in the process of working on the paper.

Influence of a Tempus Project DOIT on University Research and Developmant (Brighton). The
presenter of the paper was SSU team member Tamar Jojua. All other members also participated in
preparation of this paper.

We consider among one of the notable events, where SSU team took part international conference
held in Kutaisi, in 2013, November 16-17 (representatives from different universities of 13 countries
attended the conference). Interesting papers were introduced by the members of DOIT team:

1) Culture and Identity in Abkhazia (Lia Akhaladze, Tamar Shinjiashvili);

2)Human rights and international legal aspects of state recognition (Omar Ardshelia, Tamar Jojua,);

3) Multicultural education and new teaching methods for teachers of primary level (Rusudan Pipia,
Brolisa Tsulaia);

Among them, one - Culture and Identity in Abkhazia was presented at the plenary session, in the
beginning of the session the presenter spoke about DOIT project and its importance, the presentation
caused great interest.

In 2014, February 3-5, Faculty Training Workshop and Conference was held in Tbilisi where SSU team
and assisting personnel took part: DOIT members: Lia Akhaladze, Tamar Shinjiashvili, Rusudan Pipia,
Tamar Jojua, assisting members: associate professors at the Faculty of Humanities Kakha Kvashilava
and Bezhan Khorava, associate professor at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences Omar
Ardashelia.

---In2014, March 23-24, International Consortium (TEMPUS V): Educational Encounters-Between

Culture and Pedagogy ( Beersheva, Israel).

Paper on the theme: Integration of Multicultural Education at SSU.

-----In 2014, May 25-26, the Conference/Seminar of International Consortium (TEMPUS V) was
hosted by Samtskhe-Javakheti Teaching University in Akhaltsikhe , where SSU team members-

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TEMPUS Project members: Lia Akhaladze, Tamar Jojua, Rusudan Pipia, Tamar Shinjiashvili
participated.

----In 2014, June 16, at SSU the National Scientific Conference dedicated to 82 anniversary of the
foundation of the university was held. Up to 20 higher education and research institutions from
Georgia participated at the conference. The following papers, prepared within DOIT were presented:

1) Scientific and Research Activities within TEMPUS Grant Project DOIT-presenters: SSU
Professor Lia Akhaladze and ISU Professor Nino Chiabrishvili. The paper was delivered at
the plenary session.
2) Education and Children’s Rights in Georgia--presenter: Tamar Shinjiashvili.
3) Intercultural Education, Relations and Studies in Georgia----Situational Analysis-presenter ISU
Professor Davit Malazonia.

See the information on http://sou.edu.ge/index.php?lang_id=GEO&sec_id=408&info_id=1450

and the conference program on http://sou.edu.ge/files/Ganatleba_Konf_2014.pdf

--In 2014, November 18, in DOIT room at SSU the conference-Seminar was held among SSU
academic personnel and teachers from partner schools. Several papers were introduced:

1. DOIT - Achievements and Future Prospects (Lia Akhaladze, Tamar Jojua, Tamar
Shinjiashvili, Rusudan Pipia);
2. Active Citizenship - Georgian Case (Tamar Shinjiashvili, Omar Ardashelia);
3. Abkhazia – Multiethnic and Multicultural Region of Georgia a) The Problem of Ethnic
and Cultural Identity (Lia Akhaladze, Omar Ardashelia);
4. b) Ethnic Map of Current Ethnic Situation (Tamar Shinjiashvili, Brolisa Tsulaia);
5. c) Linguistic Situation and Studying Issue of Abkhazian Language (Rusudan pipia,
Tamar Jojua);
In the history of the Faculty of Education of SSU and the whole University in
general, one of the remarkable and exciting days was the 24th of April, 2015, when in
the assembly hall of the SSU the official ceremony of bestowing Honorary Doctorate
of SSU to the coordinator of EU TEMPUS International Grant Project DOIT, Doctor
of Gordon Academic College of Education (Haifa, Israel) Rhonda Sofer was held. The
ceremony was attended by the head of TEMPUS and Erasmus national office in
Georgia, the chair of Georgian Jews’ Union, Professors and students from the
mentioned grant project beneficiary Ben Gurion University, Sakhnin and Gordon
Education colleges, representatives of the project beneficiary universities from
Georgia, representatives of Civic Development Institute and Sokhumi State
University. This event was covered by TV, press, the detailed information about the

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 ceremony was uploaded on SSU website, Dr. Rhonda Sofer’s inaugural speech and all
related material will be published in the next issue of the international journal
“Ganatleba”(Education) in November, 2015.
At last, in 2015, June 8-9, one of the sections “Multiethnic and Multicultural Georgia”
of BA, MA and PhD students’ scientific conference was completely dedicated to the
studies about different ethnic and cultural groups living in Georgia. Among the
themes presented by BA, MA and PhD students the most important were:
“Abkhazians and the Correlation of their Culture at the Boundary of XX-XXI
Centuries”, “Georgian Jews and Georgian-Jewish Traditional Relations”, “Ossetians in
Georgia----Traditions and Customary Law”, “Azerbaijanis in Georgia and Their
Traditions”, “ Armenians in Georgia and Their Traditions”.
It is noteworthy, that in the process of preparation of these themes Georgian, Ossetian and
Azerbaijani students of BA, MA and PhD programs of the Faculties of education,
Law, Social and Political Sciences of SSU actively participated. All participants of the
conference were awarded with certificates and books. On this awarding day the
rector of the University expressed his wish, that such events acquire traditional
character and be held annually.
Information about the Activities of the Team Participating in the Project The results of completed
DOIT work were systematically uploaded on Sokhumi State University website, in
the International periodical journal “Ganatleba” (Education) (in Georgian and
English) and these results were broadcast for several times. At present on SSU website
50 articles about DOIT are available, they cover International Conferences of the
Project Consortium organized in Tbilisi, Landau, Linz and Akhaltsikhe. Besides the
news related directly to the project, there are different kinds of information about the
participation of SSU team at several International Conferences and Seminars
presenting the themes in regard with DOIT, for example in Brighton, Kutaisi,
Beersheva and Tbilisi, the information about the visits of the coordinator of the
project and the Rectors of the project participant Higher Education Institutions at
SSU, the official ceremony awarding Honorary Doctorate to the Project coordinator
can be accessed on SSU website. The material stored on SSU site towards the end of
each calendar year is issued in form of Digest in International periodical journal
“Ganatleba” (Education).
So, DOIT Project appeared to be a useful, necessary and a must activity for multicultural and cultural
diversity, reformation of BA and MA level curriculum and evolution of DOIT team’s
experience at SSU.