Category Archive News

LaS: IL SECONDO POLICY LAB A MILANO

Riportare la scuola alla sua vocazione di emancipazione e inclusione è possibile, con un lavoro paziente e intelligente.

Sabato 27 gennaio si è tenuto a Milano il secondo Policy Lab italiano, che ha accolto un gruppo di insegnanti, dirigenti scolastici, educatori, giornalisti.

Solo una lettura collettiva della realtà scolastica può permettere di acquisire una sana consapevolezza: cambiare la scuola non è impossibile, non dobbiamo cambiare tutto, non dobbiamo rimuovere tutte le crepe del sistema, possiamo riempire le crepe con l’oro – come la pratica del Kintsugi, una tecnica di restauro ideata alla fine del 1400 dai vasai giapponesi.

Cosa resta davvero del nostro laboratorio politico?

La sensazione di non essere soli.

PERFECT: European School-based Cultural Production Festival

The European School-based Cultural Production Festival achieved remarkable success on Thursday 29th February 2024. The multicultural and youth-centered event took place in Sanremo at the Cinema Teatro Centrale Tabarin from 3.00 pm to 6.30 pm. 

The multiplier event was organised by the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (Sanremo, Italy) in the framework of the ERASMUS+ project PERFECT – “PERForming and Sharing of Local Histories ProjECT”. The project (2021 – 2024) represents a unique opportunity for the students of the school involved and for local communities to explore and share their own stories and cultural heritage. The main objective of the project is the promotion of an innovative approach to multiculturalism in the context of secondary education, pursued by proposing an approach based on collaborative cultural production and intercultural exchange among young people. The final goal is therefore the development of key transversal skills such as awareness and interculturality, active citizenship, multilingualism, digital skills, entrepreneurship and sociality. During the initiative, the five european schools partner of the project, coming from four European countries (Austria, Malta, Romania, Italy) staged original artistic performances including theatrical, dance and musical performances. The creation of these cultural products included several phases of research in the fields of history, literature, art history, music, performing arts and digital skills, all conducted by students in their respective countries. 

Each of the representations focused on the story of one or more key historical figures for the cultural development of his/her society, in a context of sharing, learning and enhancement of existing cultural diversity. Meeting on stage all together was a memorable and sharing moment for all participants, including the students who performed. During the event, students coming from different European countries had the opportunity to connect, which allowed them to  get insights on other cultures, identifying differences and similarities.

The PERFECT project is coordinated by the Istituto Comprensivo G. Lucatelli of Tolentino (Italy) in collaboration with the nearby IIS F. Filelfo (Italy), the International Institute of Humanitarian Law of Sanremo, the non-governmental organization Innovate4Future (Romania), the Centrul pentru Solutii Educationale Avansate – Colegiul National Sfantul Sava (Romania), the Stichting International Parents Alliance – IPA (Netherlands), the Organising Bureau of European School Student Union (Belgium), the Ministry of Education of Malta, the Borg Dreierschützengasse of Graz (Austria) and the Fondation des Régions Européennes pour la Recherche, l’Education, et la Formation, a network of European regions based in Lyon.   

Conference of INGO of the Council of Europe

On the 5th of February, the EIP lLaboratory had the chance to speak at a webinar hosted by the Committee Education for Democracy of the INGO conference of the Council of Europe.

The webinar, which focused on citizenship education, featured Ekaterina Efimenko from the European Trade Union Committee for Education ETUCE-CSEE presenting the #CONVINCE project, and Claudio DondiIrene Baraldi and Alessia Ibba representing the Education Inspiring Peace Laboratory.
The webinair represented a chance to present the CITIZED project, concluded in November 2023, its aims and results.

Zentrum POLIS 2023 report

Zentrum POLIS has published its annual report, which offers an insight into the wide-ranging work made by the organization in 2023. The previous year was characterized by the confrontation with crises and the resulting social controversies -the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine, Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel, the energy crisis, the climate emergency, as growing anti-Semitism- Zentrum POLIS included these challenges in the projects

The EIP Lab presented during the Lifelong Learning Week held in Brussels for highlighted the successful conclusion of the CITIZED project focusing on democratic school development and teacher training. You can read our contribution on pages 10-11!

Read the 2023 report here!

CITIZED: The new publication is out!

It is a pleasure for us to announce the new publication -of the CITIZED project- called “D5.1 – Policy recommendations for Citizenship Education” !

This document is produced in the frame of the CITIZED Project (Policy Implementation Support and Teacher Empowerment for CITIZenship Education -ERASMUS + Programme, KA3 Policy Support), which explored the current approaches to Citizenship Education, identified five main challenges already in the first year and organised a series of national and European workshops to collect suggestions on how to address these challenges.
This report explains how the 30 recommendations were produced (section 2), presents the list of the resulting recommendations according to the challenges they address (section 3) and finally places the CITIZED Recommendation in the policy context of late 2023, when the project held its final events, one of which fully devoted to the policy results.

LICEAL: Transnational Project Meeting in Almuñécar, Spain

On November 6 and 7, 2023, the LICEAL project consortium was hosted by the Spanish partner Learning Designers in Almuñécar, Spain. The LInking Citizenship and Employability perspectives in Adult Learning strategies and practices project – funded by the Erasmus + programme – aims at highlighting the connection between better employability opportunities and Citizenship competences, as described in the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC), among the NEETs of all ages.  The project is coordinated by Association EDIAS (France) in partnership with the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (Italy), the Fondation des Régions Européennes pour la Recherche, l’Éducation, et la Formation (France), Comitato Promotore S-NODI Gabriele Nigro (Italy), Democracy and Human Rights Education in Europe (Belgium), Learning Designers (Spain), Wiener Forum für Demokratie und Menschenrechte (Austria), Bogazici Universitesi (Turkey), Pôle emploi Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (France). The LICEAL partnership is currently working on three important products: an Analytical Review of best practices on linking Citizenship Education and employability, a Toolkit for adult learners who wish to find better employment opportunities through Citizenship competences, and a collection of Guidelines to support adult educators in integrating Citizenship Education in their training paths. The Transnational Project Meeting focused on a very important step in the creation of these outputs: their validation through stakeholders’ consultation. In Almuñécar, the partners had the chance to review internally the final draft of the Analytical Review and the structure and concept of the Toolkit and the Guidelines, while also planning the validation through the stakeholders, establishing their number and professional qualification together with the appropriate deadlines. In 2024 we will have the chance to present these important results. 

PERFECT: Transnational Project Meeting in Malta

On October 12th and 13th the Transnational Project meeting of the project PERFECT took place in Malta. Partners gather in La Valletta to discuss the development of the different phases of the project. More specifically, the school partners reported on the development of the different performances made by the students that will be soon presented in Sanremo at the end of February. The meeting also serves partners to align on the other outputs of the project.  

MUST-a-Lab: Fourth Transnational Project Meeting in Vienna, Austria

From October 18 to October 20, 2023, the MUST-a-Lab project consortium gathered in Vienna, hosted by the Human Rights Office of the Municipality.  The project MUlti STakeholders Labs for migrants and stakeholders – funded by the Asylum,Migration and Inclusion Fund of the European Commission – aims at incorporating the Policy Lab methodology in the policy-making process of six local administrations involved as project partners, in order to co-design new policies and practices for the integration of migrants together with the final beneficiaries.  For this purpose, three gatherings of the Policy Labs took place throughout the end of 2022 and 2023 in Mechelen (Belgium), Grenoble Alpes Métropole (France), Modena (Italy), Vienna (Austria), Fuenlabrada (Spain) and Livadia (Greece). The Vienna meeting’s primary objective was to review the preliminary outcomes of the Policy Labs held in the six cities, and to plan the final one, from which will result in a collection of Policy Recommendations that the Municipalities will approve and adopt in 2024. As the project aims at producing a long-term impact on the policy making process in terms of participatory democracy, 2024 will be a crucial year for the partners to multiply and disseminate the Policy Lab approach and results on a national, european and international level. For this purpose, the main focus of the meeting was on defining a roadmap for organizing dissemination events and creating networks with other cities, organisations and projects that could be interested in replicating and learning from the MUST-a-Lab experience. As the partner in charge of conveying the Policy Lab methodology and of coordinating the engagement, communication and dissemination activities, the Institute played and will keep playing a very crucial role in the implementation of the MUST-a-Lab project over the next year.

CITIZED: Final Conference in Brussels

On 28th and 29th November, the Final Event of the project CITIZED – Policy Implementation support and teacher empowerment for Citizenship Education took place in Brussels. The project, coordinated by the Institute and including partners from Austria, Belgium, France and Malta, focused on the enhancement of teachers capacity-building initiatives in the field of citizenship education and on their empowerment, as well as on fostering the schools’ efforts in the field by filling existing implementation gaps between policy statements and daily practice in the schools through the suggestion of evidence-based policy improvements.

The Final Conference was composed of two events, the first focusing on the practical tools developed within the project and the second on the policy recommendations on citizenship education. Both events were hosted within the framework of the Lifelong Learning Week, annually organised by the Lifelong Learning Platform, and registered the participation of both high-level educational experts and policy-makers, among whom members of the European Parliament, ministerial officials, school heads, teachers and representatives of many different educational stakeholders.

CITIZED: Transnational Project Meeting in Brussels

On 27th November, the Final Transnational Project Meeting of the project CITIZED – Policy Implementation support and teacher empowerment for Citizenship Education took place in Brussels. All partners gathered to discuss the project, which came to an end at the end of November, and to finalise its outcomes and their dissemination, as well as the organisation of the Final Conference. Moreover, the meeting was an occasion to explore possible follow-ups to the CITIZED project, as the partnership had a brainstorming on the aspects they would like to develop in future projects.