INCLUSION AND EQUALITY, OUR CHALLENGE Erasmus Project

Project Title

INCLUSION AND EQUALITY, OUR CHALLENGE

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Access for disadvantaged; Disabilities – special needs

Project Summary

Through the project “Inclusion and Equality, our challenge”, the opportunity has been given to a group of students who, due to their special characteristics, are less favored by our educational system, in particular, and society, in general. This project has provided students with special educational needs (ACNEE) with a life experience that, if it wasn’t for this, they could not have reached it. This takes on a special relevance when, in many cases, we speak of families that have a disadvantaged socio-economic situation.
There have been 30 students (between 15 and 20 years old), together with their teachers, who have participated in this project in a direct way, being the first receivers of their benefits. The participating centers have been:
– “IES Villa de Abarán”, Abarán (España).
– “IISS Charles Darwin”, Roma (Italia).
– “Escola Secondaria Padre Antonio Vieira”, Lisboa (Portugal).
These students have been endowed with a series of capacities that they would hardly have
developed in another way. Some of their objectives, coinciding with the strategy
“Europe 2020” are:
• Greater social insertion.
• Acquisition of social skills.
• Avoiding dropping out of school.
• Motivation of the student towards learning.
• Peer learning, enhancing collaborative teamwork.
• Learning to function in an environment new to them.
•Attention to diversity.
• Inclusive education.
In addition, working with other colleagues has motivated them to get an
improvement in their communication skills. It will also lead them to an improvement in their
capacity for autonomy and resolution of adversal situations.
With this, a comprehensive improvement of the students’ capacities is searched, relying on
the promotion of European citizenship. As an ultimate goal, the achievement of these
competencies will lead to a very important one, which is the goal of an improvement
of self-esteem, breaking barriers that are considered pre-established previously.
In addition, teachers will see some important areas covered for their work as teachers:
• Greater professional development, greater motivation and satisfaction in their daily work.
• Exchange of pedagogical strategies with other teachers.
• Obtaining resources to achieve innovative and creative work dynamics.
An important aspect is the scheduled activities. Thus, mobility activities, in themselves, are a source of learning, since students will have to cope with new situations for them (use of public transport, purchase of tickets, …), having to adapt themselves to new cities, customs , languages, … During the mobilities, as well, other activities have been designed to: favor and improve interaction; improve attention, perception, memory and auditory discrimination; promote cooperative work; exercise basic cognitive abilities (perception, memory and discrimination); … The activities promote equality and inclusion, attending to Diversity, obtaining better achievements in learning and providing them with capacities that help them to better integrate.
The methodology has been actively active, the students have taken part in the process of learning and acquisition of competences, working together with their colleagues from other centers, improving their communication skills and social skills. At the same time, they have been given autonomy for their development, thus reinforcing this capacity.
Another important activity would have been the realization of the training seminar in which the teachers would take part. This would have made it possible to draw conclusions and develop materials that would help in the formation of ACNEEs, but it has not been possible when the state of alarm due to COVID-19 was declared in March in Spain.
The programmed activities, and the development of them, represent an innovative practice in which creativity is given greater relevance; They have been an incentive for teachers and students by allowing the departure from the “routine” of day to day.
The expected results and objectives will be obtained both in the short and long term. In the first place, they have fallen on the students, achieving the objectives indicated above, as well as those indicated for the teachers. In the longer term, it will be the centers involved that will benefit thanks to the methodological innovation and the didactic resources generated. Likewise, through the synergies generated, other centers in the environment have benefited from dissemination meetings at different conferences for teachers. On the other hand, the use of the eTwinning platform has been deepened through Twinspace, providing a new experience to students and teachers that will result in new future collaborations.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 96926 Eur

Project Coordinator

INSTITUTO DE EDUCACIÓN SECUNDARIA “VILLA DE ABARÁN” & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Agrupamento de Escolas de Alvalade, Lisboa
• IISS Charles Darwin