Call “Vicini di Scuola” for combating school segregation phenomena in Italy
Con I Bambini Impresa Sociale, the implementer of the “Fund against educational poverty of minors” (in Italian “Fondo per il contrasto della povertà educativa minorile”), launched a call for proposals on the so-called white flight for all third sector entities that wish to propose projects aimed at reducing the phenomena of segregation affecting children in the 6-13 age group.
Despite the strong inclusive vocation of Italian schools, in recent years there have been increasing inequalities linked, on the one hand, to the increase in the number of children living in absolute poverty and, on the other, to the difficulty the school system has in balancing the different levels of education. However, a democratic and modern education system must pursue high standards of equity and guarantee equal learning opportunities for each student, irrespective of gender, family background and socio-economic background.
Therefore, through the Fund, Con I Bambini Impresa Sociale aims to implement innovative projects in Italy able to promote measures that guarantee high-quality education even in complex social contexts, rebalancing the social composition of classes in schools and, thus, reducing the gaps in local educational policies.
Are you interested in the call for proposals? Consult it here!
Young Voices Contributing to Refugees and Migrants Protection: The CEPS webinar on 28th February 2022
The CEPS Young Thinkers Initiative launches its new series “Over to Youth” to give the opportunity to young people to bring their voices to the high-level policy debates. Within this series it is also included the webinar titled “Bridging the gap: what role should civil society play in supporting refugees and migrants?”, which will take place on Zoom on 28th February 2022, from 2:30 to 4:00 pm CET.
The webinar is dedicated to the protection of refugees and migrants starting from the two Global Compacts on Refugees and Migrants adopted by the United Nations in 2018, which emphasizes the crucial importance of civil society in ensuring their effective implementation. Therefore, the webinar aims at addressing relevant issues on the role that civil society actors play in the present and future challenges of migration flows in term of governance, policies and protection.
The webinar is free and open to the public, but registration is mandatory. In case you are interested, please register here.
Peace Games: Use and Development Training Workshop
From 16th to 18th February 2022, the project Peace Games landed in Reggio Emilia (Italy) for the playful and interactive Learning Activity ‘Peace games use and development training workshop’. The workshop, hosted by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE), counted on the participation of the project partners and aimed at testing the some of the games that were previously selected for the Peace Game Catalogue.
The testing phase, which was carried out during the first two days of the workshop, represented the premise for the creation of different learning paths. Indeed, the workshop resulted in the design of the following seven learning paths:
- Cooperation
- Emotions
- Decision-making
- Children’s rights and democracy
- War and peace
- Stereotypes and cultural differences
- Disabilities and bullying
These learning paths were individuated to facilitate teachers and educators in orientating themselves through the above-mentioned Catalogue and in identifying effective games to rise peaceful and conscious attitudes in pupils. The learning paths have been divided not only into topics but also taking in consideration age differences. Thus, both learning paths for primary and secondary schools have been developed to make citizenship and peace education accessible for everyone.
During the project’s piloting phase, that will be carried out in the next months, the seven learning paths will be suggested to formal and non-formal educational settings. This represents a unique opportunity to improve the learning paths as well as to introduce innovative educational tools into schools and beyond.
Therefore, if you are a teacher and/or an educator, take into consideration the possibility to participate in the incoming piloting phase.
Check out our call for piloting actions here!
Have a look at the INAPP paper “From European Child Guarantee to Community Agreements for Education”!
The paper From European Child Guarantee to community Agreements for Education published by the National Institute for Public Politics Analysis (INAPP) follows the Council Recommendation (EU) 2021/1004 of June 14th, 2021. This recommendation established the European Child Guarantee that aims to fight against child poverty and social exclusion by ensuring access to fundamental services to minors in condition of vulnerability.
The paper investigates the multifaced aspects of child educational poverty that has been exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy and in Europe. In order to do so, the Community Agreements for Education contained in the 2020-2021 School Plan as well as the European Child Guarantee are analyzed highlighting that a participatory approach at all governance levels is needed for taking actions against child educational poverty and social exclusion.
The paper is available in Italian.
PLEIADE: Pre-conference workshop to develop teachers’ inclusive learning design approach – 20 April 2022
Nowadays, European schools are characterized by an increasing cultural, linguistic, and socio-economic diversity that calls for innovative educational practices able to foster inclusion of all learners. However, teachers need support in establishing inclusion as a cornerstone of their teaching practice. For this reason, PLayful Environment for Inclusive leArning Design in Europe (PLEIADE) supports teachers in establishing innovative teaching practices and empowers learners in developing inclusive classroom dynamics.
On April 20th, PLEIADE multiplier event will take place in Sestri Levante (Genoa, Italy) as a pre-conference workshop of the ATEE 2022 Winter conference. The event, organized by the Institute for Educational Technology of the National Research Council of Italy, aims at bringing together interested stakeholders for an interactive workshop on inclusion, teaching design, and gamification.
More information about the agenda can be found here.
Check out the Handbook “Resilience against Anti-Democratic Tendencies through Education. Competences for Democratic Culture in European Social and Youth Work”
The handbook Resilience against Anti-Democratic Tendencies through Education. Competences for Democratic Culture in European Social and Youth Work was developed within the project “Resilience through Education for Democratic Citizenship” (REDE). The REDE project was implemented in the programme “Democratic and Inclusive School Culture in Operation” (DISCO) of the European Commission and the Council of Europe. The project aims at strengthening the democratic competences of social and youth workers and young people in times of polarisation and radicalisation.
The Handbook aims to identify, evaluate and disseminate innovative methods for democratic competences of teachers, social workers and trainers (from CSOs) who work with young people with the aim of strengthening resilience against radicalisation and anti-democratic extremism. The framework of competences for democratic culture of the Council of Europe is an important reference in these endeavours.
The handbook is availabe in four languages (English, French, German, Polish):
www.politik-lernen.at/demokrat
Have a look at polis – Annual Report 2021!
The annual report of polis – the Austrian Centre for Citizenship Education in Schools offers an insight into the wide-ranging work of polis. The Corona pandemic was and is omnipresent, so in 2021, among other things, an issue of the teacher’s magazine on “public health” and a dossier on “mandatory vaccination as controversial issue” appeared.
Since 2021, polis has come up with two new formats: a podcast for citizenship education as well as an online mini-lecture series on European citizenship education were launched.
In addition, polis is involved in European cooperation projects:
- In the REDE project, a handbook “Resilience against Anti-Democratic Tendencies through Education. Competences for Democratic Culture in European Social and Youth Work“ was published.
- In the CITIZED project, an innovative set of tools is being developed to support the broad implementation of civic education in European secondary schools.
- And in the framework of the EU Democracy Rally, a tool will also be developed to strengthen the democratic competences of young people.
- Democracy & Puppetry establishes a link between citizenship education and cultural education.
The report – in German – can be downloaded here: https://www.politik-lernen.at/jahresbericht2021
Peace Games Call for piloting actions!
How can you use games in the classroom to improve learning and foster peace?
What is a good practice able to contribute to the development of citizenship, democratic and social competences?
The two-stage piloting of the 55 identified peace games will start early next year! A short piloting period, aimed at preliminarily analysing different possible use of the peace games in schools, will be followed by a “deeper” piloting phase, scheduled for the summer semester of 2022.
Are you interested in the Peace Games project?
Would you be interested in joining its piloting phase?
Please contact us at sanremo@eiplab.eu with subject line reading “[Name of your institution] piloting candidature – Peace Games project”.
We look forward to talking to you and working with you on your game-based class activities!
Teaching Citizenship Education? The challenges of competences, assessment renewal and policy implementation
On 29th October 2021, CITIZED partners will be coordinating the workshop “Teaching Citizenship Education? The challenges of competences, assessment renewal and policy implementation”, taking place during the NECE Conference.
The workshop will investigate some of the challenges of Citizenship Education, with a particular focus on missing teachers’ competences.
The workshop will constitute an opportunity to share opinions, inputs and practices in the field of CE, with the final objective of elaborating suggestions and fostering reflection on possible policy improvements.
The conversation will start with a brief presentation of the research results emerging from the first period of implementation of the CITIZED project. Professor Euan Mackie will also intervene on the topic of the workshop. The project, co-funded by the European Union, aims at developing an innovative set of instruments that will help the widespread implementation of citizenship education policies in European education systems.
Interested in participating in the workshop? Register here!
1st Assembly of Members of the Education Inspiring Peace Laboratory
On September 23rd, the first Assembly of Members of the Education Inspiring Peace Laboratory was held at Villa Ormond, hosted by the Institute.
The first part of the Assembly consisted of the formal admission of institutional and individual members of the Laboratory and the election and appointment of its institutional bodies.
Professor Edoardo Greppi, already appointed as President at the moment of the legal constitution of the association, was confirmed in his role, while Ms Christiane Demontés, President of the Forum des Régions Européennes pour la Recherche, l’Education et la Formation, was elected Vice-President, and Mr Gian Luca Beruto and Mr Mauro Giancaterino were confirmed respectively as Director and Treasurer.
The Assembly of Members also established the Executive Council of the Laboratory, a key operational body whose primary task is to assist the institutional bodies in performing their steering functions. Among the members of the Executive Council, the assembly identified:
Professor Anne Bamford, City of London
Professor Claudio Baraldi, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
Professor Catherine Blaya, Université Côte d’Azur
Dr Auréa Cophignon, Ville de Nice
Professor Gabriel Dima, Polytechnic University of Bucharest
Ms Marina Moretti, ASSEFA Onlus
Ms Elena Passerini, Centro Psicopedagogico per l’educazione e la gestione dei conflitti
Ms Monica Turrini, Forum des Régions Européennes pour la Recherche, l’Education et la Formation
The group of experts will be coordinated by Mr Claudio Dondi, International Institute of Humanitarian Law, who was appointed as Coordinator of the Executive Council.
The institutional session of the Assembly was then followed by an operational Session, during which the 2022 work plan of the Laboratory was discussed with the contribution of all the members. More precisely, during this operational session members analysed the five work areas of the Laboratory: Practice, Research, Institutional Consolidation, Policy and Communication. For each of these areas, the actions already implemented in the past year were explored and the programme for 2022 was presented.
