Children’s Voices for a new human Space Erasmus Project

Project Title

Children’s Voices for a new human Space

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: Pedagogy and didactics; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

CONTEXT OF THE PROJECT
European societies have been facing significant challenges, such as a decline in citizen engagement with democratic processes, an increase in international flows of migrants, high levels of hate crime; intolerance, prejudice and discrimination towards ethnic/religious minorities living within Europe; a rise in xenophobic political groups, and the ongoing security threat posed by radicalisation and violent extremism. In this context, launching activities aimed at promoting European values, intercultural understanding, and citizens’ participation in public life, will make an invaluable contribution to the quality of life in Europe.
This project is based on the idea that participation in democratic societies is essential to reduce the negative impact of these trends, and that young people have to be encouraged to think about the environmental, social and economic problems affecting their lives.
The project builds upon a larger project of the Council of Europe which has developed a new reference framework of the democratic and intercultural (DI) competences that citizens require to participate effectively in democratic culture and intercultural dialogue, the “Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture” (RFCDC). DI competences are not acquired automatically but instead need to be learned and practiced, and education has a key role to play in preparing students for life as active democratic citizens and endowing them with the ability to function as autonomous social agents capable of choosing and pursuing their own goals in life. The RFCDC is designed to assist educational planning towards this goal of empowering learners for life as competent democratic citizens (see www.coe.int/competences for further information).

OBJECTIVES
The overall aim of the current project was to foster the democratic and intercultural competences of both teachers and students in the primary school context, by drawing on the RFCDC. Its objectives were:
– to enhance teachers’ access to DI education practices;
– to increase teachers’ knowledge about DI education;
– to equip teachers with tools, techniques and methods to promote and assess pupils’ DI competences;
– to foster the development of pupils’ DI competences;
– to empower pupils offering them the opportunity to participate effectively in public life and in decision-making processes, making their voices heard;
– to promote the involvement of pupils with a migrant or minority background.

ACTIVITIES
In order to achieve the project objectives, a variety of activities were carried out:
– the development/implementation/testing of the CVS Training Course for teachers, aimed at improving teachers’ knowledge about pedagogical methods and techniques they can use to promote their pupils’ DI competence;
– the development/implementation/testing of the CVS Curriculum for children, aimed at fostering pupils’ DI competence;
– the development/implementation/testing of the CVS App, aimed at allowing the on line methodological supervision of trainers’ and teachers’ activities during the implementation of the CVS Training Course and the CVS Curriculum;
– the planning/implementation of the CVS Study, aimed at evaluating the efficacy of the CVS Training Course, the CVS Curriculum and the adequacy of the CVS App as IT tool for assisting teachers’ supervision;
– 2 short-term joint staff training events addressed at teachers: the first event was aimed at implementing the CVS Training Course, the second event was aimed at implementing a training programme focused on the CVS Curriculum and the use of the CVS App;
– a “virtual” short-term exchange of groups of pupils, aimed at increasing pupils’ collaboration with peers of partner schools and allowing them to share their experiences;
– a series of “virtual” multiplier events at local and transnational level, aimed at disseminating the intellectual outputs foreseen by the project.
Some activities were realized virtually due to COVID-19 pandemic.

PARTICIPANTS
Direct beneficiaries of the project were about 30-35 teachers and 200-250 pupils of 5 European public primary schools (located in Bulgaria, Italy, Norway, Romania, and Spain). Particularly, the project activities were directly addressed at: 10 Key Classes (KC, 2 for each partner school) that in the first year of the project were at the third grade (in Romania, at the second grade), about 3 teachers for each KC, one of whom played the role of Core Teacher; and about 20-25 pupils for each KC.
Indirect beneficiaries were other teachers, students and staff members of the partner schools, pupils’ families and local communities of the towns where the schools were located, and the CoE.
The online format of activities produced less impact than expected.

Project Website

https://www.cvs-project.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 406042 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PALERMO & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Secondary school “Ivan Vazov”
• CEIP Manuel Foguet
• Scoala Gimnaziala Nr. 9 NICOLAE ORGHIDAN Brasov
• UNIVERSITY OF SURREY
• Slettebakken skole
• Associazione Identità, Sviluppo, Integrazione Onlus
• Direzione Didattica Statale 2° Circolo “G. Cirincione”