Once upon YOUR time: storytelling for preventing early school leaving Erasmus Project

Project Title

Once upon YOUR time: storytelling for preventing early school leaving

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Health and wellbeing; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

Mental disorders are the fastest growing category of diseases health systems must cope with. During childhood and adolescence the development of cognitive, social and emotional skills goes through its crucial phases. Quality education promoting emotional, social and cognitive development of youth is recognized as the core tool for successful interventions for promotion of long term wellbeing and mental health. School is the arena where students engage with a broad range of meaningful experiences that helps them build their sense of identity, interpersonal relationships and develop emotional intelligence, resilience and self-control.
Mental health and wellbeing of teachers is also of key consideration. Educators face a number of emotions when they relate to pupils, and continuous support is essential, together with professional development. Educators are required not only to teach their own curricular subjects, but also to support students whose personal, behavioral and educational difficulties may be rooted in their difficult situations (abandonment, displacement, social exclusion), social inequalities and emotional distress. It is fundamental to support educators by providing them with tools to foster the mental wellbeing of students, preventing and addressing behavioral disorders, self-destructive behaviors and long-term consequences, such as early school leaving.
The ONCE UPON YOUR TIME project will develop and introduce to teachers and educators an innovative methodology aiming at enhancing students’ capacity to integrate skills, attitudes and behaviors that will help them deal effectively and ethically with daily challenges and to form positive identities.The objective is to provide tools and training opportunities for professionals and, by so doing, create educational opportunities that effectively support students’ mental health and wellbeing.
The project aims at harnessing the vast educational potential of storytelling and biographical work to tailor it to the emerging needs in the formal education sector and provide a powerful and effective methodology to teachers and educational professionals.
The project objectives are to:
-reinforce the response of the formal education sector to current challenges and priorities;
-develop training opportunities and innovative outputs to be disseminated across the formal education sector, to guarantee improved capacity and know-how of the teachers and educators;
-create an innovative curriculum granting teachers and educators specific competences and methods to identify and support students’ identity formation and to address problematic behaviors and strong emotional responses;
-create an innovative and inclusive educational approach promoting wellbeing and mental health of pre-adolescents and adolescent, with specific focus on students with fewer opportunities;
-promote an educational approach to foster mental health through empathy, self-discovery and expression, creativity and innovation in pre-adolescents/adolescents and to support them in better understanding themselves and finding commonality with others;
-promote a healthy framework at the emotional level in the classroom and educational community, creating a healthier and more effective learning environment.
The main expected result is the creation of an innovative and specifically tailored educational methodology based on storytelling and biographical work to be used by teachers and educators in the formal setting, to work with students between 11 and 16 y/o, aiming at fostering their mental health and wellbeing to prevent self-destructive behaviours and early school leaving.
For that purpose, the project will create 3 concrete Intellectual Outputs:
IO1-THE POWER OF STORYTELLING – framework – a research on storytelling methodologies, their application in the educational setting and best practices in promotion of mental and social wellbeing of students, followed by creation of an advocacy document, aiming at promoting such methodologies in the formal setting.
IO2-YOUR STORY-MANUAL – a Manual with practices and exercises based on storytelling and biographical work, tailored to the target group of pupils and students, promoting positive self-perception and mental wellbeing.
IO3-YOUR STORY-Pedagogical Curriculum – an educational model tailored to 2 target groups of students at the age 11-13 and 14-16, providing teachers and educators with a well structured path to be implemented in a class.
A series of activities is foreseen to facilitate the achievement of set of objectives:
– 4 TPMs to facilitate the cooperation and bridge the work of different outputs
– 1 Joint Staff Training to transfer the knowledge developed in the project to the professionals in the formal education setting
– 2 rounds of MEs to disseminate the project results
– recording of “Impact Stories” video with the testimonies of teachers and students participating in the activities, to promote the impact of the developed methodology

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 167270 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNGLINGASMIDJUR STIGUR OG TROD & Country: IS

Project Partners

• Institut za raziskovanje in usposabljanje v vzgoji in izobrazevanju – IVIZ
• RED EUROPEA LOS JOVENES IMPORTAN AHORA
• The Surefoot Effect, CIC