LearnIng Together To Live togEther: Teachers leading Ethical Education for an Inclusive society Erasmus Project

Project Title

LearnIng Together To Live togEther: Teachers leading Ethical Education for an Inclusive society

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Ethics, religion and philosophy (incl. Inter-religious dialogue); EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

Context/Background of the project
The LITTLE project set out to target primary and second-level teachers in four European countries who are engaged directly in Ethical Education or values based subjects. Teachers were identified as the primary project beneficiaries in response to a needs analysis (Schlenk & Meier 2013) which found that over 60% of the teachers surveyed indicated a lack of readiness to teach Ethical Education due to the absence of professional training in this area. In addition to meeting the needs of the primary target group, the project also sought to demonstrate the value of Ethical Education to the achievement of the European Union’s vision for education as outlined in the ET2020 report and specifically, “…to promote freedom of thought and expression, social inclusion and respect for others, as well as to prevent and tackle discrimination in all its forms, to reinforce the teaching and acceptance of these common fundamental values and laying the foundations for more inclusive societies through education…” (417/25).
Objectives: The concept of the LITTLE project evolved from previous European projects (ETHIKA and Ethos) which focused on supporting the delivery of Ethical Education in primary and pre-primary schools through the development of teaching resources. The LITTLE Project built on these by shifting the focus away from developing resources to building teachers confidence and capacity in relevant pedagogies and methodologies. The specific objectives of the project were to:
1. Promote innovative practices in the field of Ethical Education through methodologies and pedagogies which support students’ social, civic and intercultural competencies through an online interactive course;
2. Build the confidence of teachers to examine ethical issues in their own subject areas through guidance on how to develop teacher and student created ethical education content;
3. Raise awareness of Ethical Education amongst politicians and policy makers as an inclusive approach to education for pluralist democracies as part of ET2020 in the lead up to the 2019 European elections.

Number and profile of participating organisations
There were 4 partners in the LITTLE project:
1. Educate Together (Ireland) were the lead partner. The organisation is a management and representative body for over 100 schools in the Republic of Ireland in which Ethical Education is taught to all students. As well as coordinating the LITTLE project, Educate Together led the development of the first intellectual output.
2. The University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) has over 42,000 students was represented by the Faculty of Theology owing to its strong connections in the field of Ethics and inclusive education. The Faculty previously was lead partner in large-scale international projects in the field of Ethical Education. The Faculty were the lead partners in the development of the second intellectual output.
3. Petit Philsophy (Croatia) is a not-for-profit NGO that has developed a specialism in experimental education programmes for developing critical thinking in elementary school and in formal and informal education.
4. STePS (Italy) brought a wealth of experience in European projects and programmes, including on-line teacher training to the LITTLE project. STePs were the lead partner in the development of the third intellectual output.

Description of undertaken main activities
– Development of a comprehensive e-learning course in methodologies for teaching Ethical Education
– Development of Guidelines for teaching Ethical Education in a cross-discipline approach.
– Development of a policy paper on the value of Ethical Education for Europe.
– 2 Teacher Trainer Learner Events (Croatia and Slovenia)
– 12 Multiplier Events
– Numerous media features in each partner country
– Partner collaboration and engagement through face to face and online meetings.

Results and Impact Attained
Fully piloted intellectual outputs that are increasing teacher capacity continuously.
Impact is detailed in section 6 of this report and supported by dissemination logs and links to evidence of dissemination.
Summaries of the results of the evaluation that ran alongside the project activities are also provided – with supporting documentation in the annex section.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 279877,26 Eur

Project Coordinator

Educate Together & Country: IE

Project Partners

• UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI
• STEPS SRL
• Udruga za poticanje neformalnog obrazovanja, kritickog misljenja i filozofije u praksi Mala filozofija