<< Background >>Democracy thrives on debate and thus on the exchange of people with different worldviews in mutual appreciation and respect. However, the more plural and diverse societies become, the more radical tendencies (fundamentalism, racism, populism, nationalism, extremism, etc.) seem to spread, undermining democratic values and hindering equal recognition, participation and inclusion of all citizens. Social cohesion in a democracy is based on a culture of communication that enables peaceful coexistence between different cultures, religions, world views and groupings. As a basis for this, all citizens must therefore have the skills to be able to conduct a fair dialogue in mutual respect, even with highly diverse worldviews - both in real encounters on site and in encounters in international contexts, as well as in encounters in digital media. The ideal place to equip all citizens with communication skills for a diverse society is the school. Because the school is the microcosm of society. In school, all pupils are reached, regardless of their opportunities, their physical or intellectual aptitude, their health, their cultural, social or national background and their religions, beliefs or worldviews. The murder of the teacher Samuel Paty in France has shown how important it is to ensure from the very beginning that these social problems are not suppressed in schools, but are sensitively perceived and brought into the conversation in order to overcome them (NZZ, 15.01.2021). For even such laudable initiatives as the largest school network in Germany www.schule-ohne-rassismus.org cannot prevent antisemitic attacks from occurring in schools, as the example of the Berlin-Friedenau school proves (Die ZEIT of 14.4.2017). These are just a few examples from Europe that show that schools need didactic concepts that can be concretely implemented and tested, that can sustainably implement a culture of encounter for common values in diversity and that- reach every individual pupil, - allow pupils to learn, experience and reflect on respectful encounters in real, international and digital contexts,- have a sustainable preventive effect through habitus changes.For the implementation of such didactic concepts that lead to respectful and appreciative encounters with people of other worldviews, those subjects that deal with the so-called ultimate questions, such as the subjects of religious education, ethics and philosophy, are particularly suitable. At the same time, it is religions and worldviews that are functionalised for radicalisation and discrimination. Therefore, if pupils learn in these subjects to engage in constructive and respectful dialogue with each other about religious or secular truth claims and certainties, they will also be able to do so on less difficult issues and on other topics.But pupils can only be reached through teachers. Therefore, teacher education and training must offer study programmes that enable (future) teachers to learn about, experience and reflect on concepts of Learning in Encounter between different worldviews. Throughout Europe, there are good initiatives, programmes and projects of interreligious and intercultural university didactics at universities and colleges - the applicants have also been active in such projects for many years with research, teaching and publications. However, there is still a lack of study programmes for initial and in-service teacher training throughout Europe that train (prospective) teachers not only theoretically but also practically in how to apply didactic concepts of Learning in Encounter for common Values in Diversity in all types of schools.<< Objectives >>The school is the place where we need to start in order to have an impact on society, and teacher education and professional development is the way to bring a Learning in Encounter concept into schools.Based on their long-standing expertise in intercultural and interreligious projects and programmes in teacher education, the applicants have come together because they want to respond to the need for a concept of Learning in Encounter in teacher education and professional development that can meet the following criteria for concrete application in schools:The concept should:- already have been tested and partly evaluated in teacher education and in schools,- be so concrete that it can be implemented one-to-one in all types of schools,- bring inter-worldview religious and secular, also secular worldviews into discussion,- be interdisciplinary and subject-oriented, guiding participants with different worldviews, regardless of their background, to engage in a respectful interdisciplinary conversation about existentially significant issues,- give participants the opportunity to express their own individual religious or secular worldviews in a safe space of real or digital spaces,- allow participants to practice competences of dialogue and encounter in both real and digital spaces, - enable participants to communicate transnationally across countries and to expand their digital capacities,- enable tolerance of diversity and inclusion of participants with fewer opportunities (with physical, intellectual impairments, health problems, cultural differences, limited social competences, economic disadvantage) for all participants in teacher education and professional development as well as in school.- empower participants to engage in democracy and contribute to the European identity of participants through real and digital settings of Learning in Encounter for common values in diversity.To prepare teachers to implement a concept with their pupils, such as 'Sharing Worldviews: Learning in Encounter for common Values in Diversity', the applicants want to expand interdisciplinary, digitalise and internationalise the Learning in Encounter as WEL: (see Annex 4) on the basis of a 4-phase concept that has already been tested and evaluated in schools since 2002/03 and at the German applicant universities since 2011. It will be established at as many universities and teacher training institutions for professional development as possible throughout Europe and from there in all types of schools.WEL: stands for Worldviews Encounter Learning and the colon (:) indicates openness and respect for diversity – in regard of all key dimensions of diversity, especially of all worldviews. Therefore, the project partners are pursuing further objectives with this application: We want to develop and offer a study programme WEL:study on a digital platform WEL:digital. At the end of the project, WEL:study will be available in universities, teacher education and training centres, other educational institutions and schools across Europe as a recognised additional qualification and micro-credential WEL:cred (supplemented by didactics and materials for teacher education and professional development) in the form of OER. WEL:cred will ensure that the concept of 'Sharing Worldviews: Learning in Encounter for common Values in Diversity' spreads from teacher education and training into schools, contributing to a culture of conversation in democracies in mutual appreciation and respect. WEL: aims to empower all participants to deal with diversity and to contribute multiplicatively to a peaceful coexistence and a future-oriented European identity through the communication skills they have gained in international cooperation and digital spaces.<< Implementation >>Under the direction of the KPH Wien/Krems (KPH), a multilingual digital teaching, learning, interaction and cooperation platform 'WEL:digital' (PR1) will be set up adn gradually developed, including all project contents, communication possibilities, materials, evaluation tools, etc. Multilingualism, an account for all participants, OER offers, interaction possibilities between the participants (professors, students, teachers, pupils) and spaces for the public will be built up successively. In cooperation with the partners, a digitally supported, internationally available study programme WEL: is being developed, to which all universities and participating fields of study contribute asynchronous study offers for retrieval on WEL:digital. The partner universities have pledged to continue WEL:digital beyond the end of the project (cf. Annex 9).The study programme WEL:study (PR 2), which is based on an additional qualification of the PH HD and University of Education Karlsruhe (PH KA), will be further developed under the leadership of Ankara University (Ankara Univ.) with the partners and adapted to the study requirements of the European countries. Together with the partners, an advanced training course on didactics in higher education will be developed as a tutorial (with videos, handouts, etc. and further links, PR 3) for all interested lecturers in initial and in-service teacher training and, under the leadership of the PH KA, supplemented by the partners with innovative teaching and learning materials for teacher training (PR 4).Under the leadership of the PH HD, in cooperation with the Heidelberg School of Education (HSE), a study programme of an internationally recognised certificate WEL:cred (PR 5, see Annex 5) is being developed, adapted to the requirements of European universities and developed as a decentralised, digitally accessible transnational micro-credential as OER for teacher trainees and teachers throughout Europe. In order to implement the four-phase teaching concept WEL: in its digital, international and interdisciplinary form in the schools right from the start, the concept will initially be implemented at four schools from Austria, Germany, Greece and Turkey under the leadership of Eskisehir Osmangazi University (ESOGÜ). To this end, the teachers will be trained via WEL:digital online tutorials and will receive an initial handout (PR 6), which will be updated and later made available internationally as OER on WEL:digital together with innovative teaching materials (PR 7).Evaluation and monitoring will be defined under the leadership of Aristotle University (AUth) for each partner organisation to ensure appropriate use of all evaluation tools. Monitoring will include: (a) monitoring of project parameters (b) tracking of the engagement of different stakeholders in the project (c) development of the WEL:cred (d) implementation of the concept in the partner universities and (e) in the cooperating schools.Pre-post evaluations will be carried out several times during the project, the results of which should lead to quality improvement of the individual project outcomes and to a questionnaire for self-evaluation (PR 8).Project management activities at Heidelberg University of Education (PH HD) include setting up the project organisation, the communication channels, networking the partners and associated partners with each other and with the project management. For this purpose, a start-up meeting will be held in the 46th calendar week in Heidelberg as a hybrid event with all partners and associated partners for planning the project and to form a common understanding of 'Worldviews'. The meeting structure (training, working units, lectures and dissemination) will be repeated for the project meetings in Thessaloniki 9/2022 and Ankara 3/2023 and will be complemented by project reporting and evaluation. The steering committee meets every six weeks for project development and monitoring<< Results >>The open societies in Europe of plurality and diversity need the initiation and deepening of competences of real and digital communication and encounter for social cohesion and participation.We expect that our project 'Sharing Worldviews: Learning in Encounter for common Values in Diversity' will have the following outcomes:- Leading sustainably to a better culture of conversation, openness to diversity, understanding of each other, knowledge of conflict emergence and conflict resolution and thus to shared values of recognition and tolerance of other worldviews and beliefs through teacher education and professional development in the schools and from there in the society.- Contributing to inclusion and diversity in the fields of education through the digital, international and interdisciplinary WEL: concept through teacher education and professional development in schools and through them in society.- Anchoring digital skills and competences in society in a sustainable way through teacher education and professional development and through schools, and contributing to a digital communication culture in tolerance and recognition of diversity.- Contributing sustainably to the culture of debate of different worldviews (opinions to religious or secular truth claims) and thus to common values and participation of all people in democratic society through teacher education and professional development in schools and in society.- Reaching young citizens with fewer opportunities (with physical, intellectual impairments, health problems, cultural differences, limited social competences, economic disadvantage) through teacher education and professional development in schools and enabling their participation. In this way we help to overcome barriers linked to discriminations related to gender, age, ethnicity, religion, beliefs, sexual orientation, disability through Learning in Encounter for common values in diversity.- Contributing to the Europeanisation, internationalisation and digitalisation of research, education and teacher training.In order to have a positive effect on the communication culture of European societies through teacher education and professional development and through schools, the project wants to sustainably anchor the following results in various European countries: A multilingual digital teaching, learning, interaction and cooperation platform 'WEL:digital' (PR 1) will be the basis and tool for the other project results: a) In teacher education and professional development the project will create and offer the new, innovative and joint, digitally supported, internationally available study program WEL:study (PR 2), from which practical guidance for teacher education (PR 3) and highly didactic, innovative teaching and learning material (PR 4) can be accessed as OER. The study programme WEL:study will produce a transnationally recognised certificate WEL:cred (PR 5) for student teachers and for teachers as qualification in professional development, which can be accessed as a micro-credential throughout Europe.b) The project will offer multilingual didactics for teachers of all types of schools from primary school to grammar school, which serve as a handbook for the introduction and implementation of the four-phase pedagogical concept Worldviews-Encounter-Learning in schools (PR 6). For this purpose, innovative learning materials (PR 7) are available to the teachers. These materials will be created successively as part of the final examinations of the certificate students (WEL:cred) and from series of lessons already carried out in (partner) schools according to the concept WEL:.c) On WEL:digital the project partners will set up a questionnaire tool for a) teacher education and professional development and b) schools on WEL:digital, which enables the participants to evaluate their own projects in WEL: (PR 8).