systemic UPscaling of Peace Education pRactices Erasmus Project

Project Title

systemic UPscaling of Peace Education pRactices

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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Social dialogue; Inclusion – equity; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

The UPPER project (UPscalling Peace Education pRactices) was carried out by 5 partners to promote peace education practices. Under the leadership of the Forum of European Regions for Research, Education and Training (FREREF), the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (IIHL), the University of Modena Reggio Emilia (Unimore), the Ministry of Education of Malta (MEDE) and the European School Heads Association (ESHA) responded to the appeal of the European Education Ministers in 2015, following the attacks perpetrated against the Charlie Hedbo newspaper calling for the promotion of livingtogether and peace values ​​of peace within European education systems.
The objective of the project was to bring together the actors to get out of a silo logic and adopt a systemic approach, because the initiatives in the field of peace education are already numerous but little coordinated.
UPPER therefore worked initially to identify existing practices, without aiming to be exhaustive, in order to analyze them and make a potential reuse by other actors. This database available online (http://eiplab.eu/database) is always likely to be enriched by a project or initiative holder who would like to be included.
The practices are considered relevant if they aim to produce a positive impact on the school in the field of peace, intercultural dialogue and civic education and must have more than one of the following characteristics:
-to be deliberately “transformers”;
-have already produced observable results;
-be planned and evaluated;
-be potentially reappropriable in other contexts;
-be considered as a good practice by the beneficiaries
On the basis of this analysis, UPPER members worked together to develop a competences model in peace education for education stakeholders. This model consists of three core competences (intercultural competences, pedagogical competences and personal competences) which are themselves divided into 14 specific competences. In order to better understand them, the partners have developed a self-positioning tool for the use of education stakeholders to help them measure their level of knowledge and use of these skills.
In addition, the partners have developed a benchmarking tool for schools, which is dedicated to the teaching team to assess their own practices, and to find ways of improvement by having a point of comparison with other schools accross Europe. This process has been described in a Handbook, making it possible to support stakeholders in the use of the various tools developed.
All of these elements were tested during pilot actions, in order to test their consistency and relevance with the target audiences of teachers and education personnel. In the end, more than 15 schools were involved in this piloting process, which made it possible to make improvements to the various tools developed by the project.
In order to also address policy makers, a separate benchmarking tool has been proposed so that local authorities can also advance their practice by having elements of comparison with other organizations in Europe.
All of these tools are still available online (http://eiplab.eu/get-involved), accessible according to the profile of the participants.

The sustainability of the project was worked on by all the members of the consortium, but also by associating new partners with the establishment of the Education Inspiring Peace Laboratory (EIP Lab) to continue the work, provide a meeting place for education stakeholders involved in the issue and promote the development of new tools, projects and initiatives in favor of peace in the world of education. The EIP Lab will be set up in association with around ten founding members when the COVID 19 situation will allow members to meet in a notary office. Based in Sanremo, and run by a local organisation group, this laboratory will continue to collect practices, promote the use of UPPER tools and propose the development of new tools that will complement the already existing results. The EIP Lab will also serve as a meeting point for education stakeholders who are willing to engage in the development of peace education practices with the proposal of new European projects on related themes (citizenship education, peacegames, work on interculturality through the arts …), some of which have already been selected under the Erasmus program.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 316141,59 Eur

Project Coordinator

FONDATION DES REGIONS EUROPEENNES POUR LA RECHERCHE EN EDUCATION ET ENFORMATION & Country: BE

Project Partners

• EUROPEAN SCHOOL HEADS ASSOCIATION
• MINISTRY FOR EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT
• ISTITUTO INTERNAZIONALE DI DIRITTO UMANITARIO
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI MODENA E REGGIO EMILIA