Mozaik

Mozaik is a unique model of bilingual and multicultural pre-schooling in public kindergartens. Education in Macedonia is highly segregated based on ethno-linguistic criteria. Because children from the country’s various communities commonly attend separate classrooms, from kindergarten through high school - and even at university - most children rarely come into contact with peers from other communities. When they do, these contacts are frequently negative, complicated by prejudice and poor communication. Through such isolation, children absorb stereotypes about “others” from the adults in their lives and perpetuate negative social attitudes in their own adulthood. Since 1998 SFCG Macedonia has striven to break this cycle of segregation and prejudice by creating multilingual and multi-cultural groups in public kindergartens in which all children and their cultures are considered and treated as equally valuable.

The primary goal of Mozaik is to socialize children into a multicultural environment at the earliest possible age, to teach tolerance and respect for the diversity of cultures, and to help different ethnic communities collaborate and communicate with each other. The project has helped build confidence and trust in everyday relationships and has been recognized by Macedonia's educational authorities as a pedagogical model for all pre-school teachers.

Child-centered and bilingual approach
The project has two main components: introducing a bilingual approach in kindergartens and developing a child-centered pedagogical approach that includes age-appropriate training in conflict-resolution skills for children. Although Mozaik adheres to the standard Macedonian kindergarten curriculum, it focuses on children's social and emotional development. Through its child-centered design, Mozaik aims to build children's self-esteem and confidence and create a positive, realistic self-image. Children learn through games and play, using modern interactive methods and non-competitive models for solving conflicts. Through equal usage of multiple languages and direct contact between different cultures, Mozaik creates an environment that fosters respect and understanding among Macedonia’s ethnic communities.

Since 1998 Mozaik has been successfully implemented in kindergartens in Skopje, Kumanovo, Gostivar, Struga and Debar. The selected kindergartens met previously determined criteria, such as a sufficient number of parents and children from different communities who expressed an interest in participating; the availability of teachers interested in receiving Mozaik training and willing to engage; and the formal support of local kindergarten staff. During its first year of implementation, the project included 300 children between the ages of three and seven who were dispersed into six Mozaik groups. All groups had nearly equal numbers of Macedonian- and Albanian-speaking children. In 2003-2004, SCGM redesigned the model. The number of children per group has been reduced to 16, and their ages limited to between four and six years old.

Objectives for 2004-2006
SCGM's objective for 2004-2006 is to fully integrate Mozaik into the Macedonian public education system. SCGM is also developing a strategy to ensure the long-term sustainability and broader dissemination of the Mozaik approach. By starting new Mozaik programs within other ethno-linguistic communities including Turkish, Serbian and Roma, Mozaik will further highlight the diversity of Macedonia and continue to positively effect the multicultural socialization of the country's children.

In an effort to incorporate Mozaik into the Macedonian public education system, SCGM continues to strengthen relations with important stakeholders. Every two months SCGM holds meetings with the Professional Advisory Board (PAB) consisting of representatives from relevant ministries and pedagogical faculties. The goal of these meetings is to build the Mozaik model into the national program for pre-school education. In addition, SCGM is working with pedagogical faculties to include the Mozaik model in the curricula for pre-school teacher-training programs.

In February 2004, SCGM took the first step in expanding Mozaik to other ethnic-linguistic communities. The first Mozaik kindergarten was opened for a group of Macedonian and Serbian children in Kumanovo. SCGM is currently in the process of preparing for a new Macedonian-Turkish group and reopening a kindergarten for a Macedonian-Albanian group in Gostivar. In Skopje, SCGM opened the third Mozaik kindergarten for a new Macedonian-Albanian group in December 2004.

Parents of Mozaik children
Cooperation with families is very important for the program. Parents can visit their children at any time and suggest various indoor or outdoor activities for the whole group. Parents and teachers meet regularly every semester. The Mozaik program began with a small group of parents who really believed in the concept of Mozaik and supported the whole process. At times, some parents faced a great deal of pressure from their communities to withdraw their children from Mozaik. Now things have changed: more and more parents want their children in a Mozaik group and there are waiting lists for Mozaik kindergartens. Results from an independent evaluation in 2000 indicate that parents regard Mozaik as a crucial element in their children's development and for the future of Macedonia's ethnically diverse society. One parent told the evaluator: “My child is more self-assured, expresses her ideas and shows more self-confidence”. Another parent commented that in Mozaik, “children learn how to think and draw conclusions by themselves”.

In December 2004 SFCG organized workshops for all Mozaik parents. The main topic was communication – how to communicate with children and assure their cooperation rather then giving orders and making requests. All parents were enthusiastic about the opportunity to learn new communication techniques and were very satisfied with presentations, games and the interactive approach used. They requested more workshops in the future. Kumanovo had a real “multicultural flavour” with parents from Macedonian, Albanian and Serbian communities.

Children's anecdotes
Aleksandra, a ethnic Macedonian girl, was very close to Ensar, an ethnic Albanian boy. One day Aleksandra built a mosque with cubes and next to it a church. Later she asked everybody in the group to give ideas as to how the mosque and the church should be best positioned. Aleksandra wanted the church close to the mosque. That way, when she and Ensar were grown and married to each other, she could go to church and he to mosque and still remain close to each other.

Veton, an ethnic Albanian, and Christian, an ethnic Macedonian, are best friends. They spend hours playing and talking together. The only thing is that they don’t understand each other’s language at all. However, they found other ways to communicate with each other using non-verbal communication and always have great fun.

Mozaik in the media
Mozaik received significant media attention in 2003 through the television documentary series Why Not? The documentary portrayed cooperation between the Macedonian and Albanian communities in Macedonia. One episode featured Mozaik. The documentary was broadcast by TV ERA (Albanian) and TV Sky Net (Macedonian).

Recent events
Performances were organized by all Mozaik groups for children, teachers, parents and relatives at the end of December. These are special moments for children and teachers. Children have the opportunity to present the results of their hard work and share the knowledge and skills developed during the past months. It is also an opportunity for parents to meet other parents, teachers and guests and to exchange their impressions. Some performances were extraordinary, such as the one in Struga that was broadcast on a local television station Kaltrina during the winter holidays.

Further steps were made towards the integration of Mozaik into the National Program for Pre-school Education. In December and January, SCGM had several meetings with the director of the Bureau for Development of Education and the Chief Cabinet of the Minister of Education to discuss issues regarding the institutionalisation of the Mozaik approach. A preliminary draft agreement with the ministry of Labour and Social Policy was also prepared.

An agreement has been reached with the Pedagogical Faculty in Skopje. As a result of this agreement, students will have an opportunity to conduct practical training in Mozaik kindergartens. Macedonian, Albanian and Turkish speaking students will form several multiethnic teams and begin internships in Mozaik kindergartens.

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