Stronger Together – Preventing Radicalization in Schools Erasmus Project

Project Title

Stronger Together – Preventing Radicalization in Schools

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Social dialogue; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

Radicalization has become a major threat towards democracies worldwide. Within European and neighboring countries, over 11 terror attacks have been committed in 2017 and in 2016, almost one-third of the arrested for terror offences within Europe (291out of 1,002) were 25 years old or younger (TE-SAT, Europol 2017). These numbers underline the fact that radicalization among young people is a great challenge to European countries which has to be solved transnationally. This project contributes to this by involving six partners across Europe: Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Macedonia and Sweden.

Research shows that prevention of radicalization has to begin in schools (European Commission 2016, RAN 2015). Several projects have been carried out nationally and a few internationally to prevent radicalization in schools, but they are all targeting pupils in upper secondary class (Dialog Macht Schule 2009, Zak 2016, Concordia 2017, Stærke Fællesskaber 2018). This project targets pupils in upper primary school, as research shows this is the most effective age in terms of preventing against propaganda and criminal acts i.e. due to radicalization (P.-O. Wikström 2012).

The project’s objective is to develop a “Stronger Together” curriculum consisting of five modules, which main method will be a digital board game. The curriculum will focus on developing skills such as critical thinking, social inclusion, self-control and morality, skills which are known to be essential in order to resist propaganda and prevent criminal acts (P.-O. Wikström and K. Treiber 2016, Brynaa 2016). By enforcing these skills from an early age, the project seeks to contribute to the prevention of radicalization. The Stronger Together curriculum will target pupils in the age of 10-12, which corresponds to 4th, 5th and 6th grade in primary school. Thus, the five modules and game activities will be tailored to each level, which makes it possible for the pupils to advance within the theme each year up to 6th grade. The second target group is the teachers, who will be trained in facilitating the Stronger Together curriculum. Finally, the project strives to incorporate the parents in the game by directing some of the game-activities to them. The parents play a crucial role in the upbringing of their children, so the project finds it very important that they take part in the discussions of this theme, so they are able to continue the dialogue at home. Each partner will at least activate three classes locally in the testing of the curriculum, one in 4th, 5th and 6th grade.

The project is structured around four mayor intellectual outputs:

O1- Development of curriculum and design of the five modules
O2 – Technical development of the digital board game
O3 – Development of the Stronger Together Handbook
O4–Evaluation of the curriculum and of the project

The project will host a Teacher Training Event in order to train the teachers in teaching the five modules and the digital board game. It will also host a Final Conference for approximately 60 stakeholders, where the Stronger Together curriculum is launched. Furthermore, each partner will launch the curriculum locally during multipliers events at the end of the project.

The project will be carried out in close cooperation with the participating teachers and associated partners, who work with prevention and anti-radicalization on a daily basis. They will play an important role when developing the content of the curriculum. The digital board game will be developed based on the content. The Handbook will be based on the pupils, teachers and parents user-experience and serve as a manual for external teachers, so they can implement the Stronger Together curriculum in their traditional class-teaching. The evaluation will measure the impact of the project through questionaires and interviews.

The project believes that the Stronger Together curriculum will enhance the social inclusion, critical thinking, individual self-control and morality among the young pupils in a fun and educative way. It will moreover expand the inclusion in the classroom by incorporating the parents’ online participation in the game, and it will give the teachers and parents a tool to discuss a highly difficult theme like radicalization. Finally, to the consortium’s knowledge, this curriculum will be the first to target a younger age group, which we believe will contribute to a greater prevention of radicalization among young people on the long term.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 289024 Eur

Project Coordinator

Videnscenter for Integration & Country: DK

Project Partners

• COMMUNE D’ETTERBEEK
• Verein Niedersächsischer Bildungsinitiativen e.V.
• Consorzio Scuola Comunità Impresa
• Östra Göinge municipality
• Eco Logic