UNDERSTANDING CHANGE Erasmus Project

Project Title

UNDERSTANDING CHANGE

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; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Migrants’ issues

Project Summary

The project U-CHANGE uses existing School Education networks that focus on awareness raising to conduct an in-depth research on criteria of what shapes the discourse, attitudes and behaviors of students towards the acknowledgement of social inclusion.
With the support of a Research Institute, the project will assess the data of 3000 students from 9 different European countries (BE, ES, HR, HU, IE, IT, MT, NL and PT) participating in awareness raising, that will allow for multivariant statistics analysis to better understand the relationships between variables and their relevance for identity factors that can influence and outline the better performance of students towards critical thinking competences as a key competence, and promote students engagement as responsible citizens in line with the UN Global Education Goal SDG 04.

Based on the mentioned analysis, a Report will be published as a Study-Guide, presenting a tangible innovative Methodology and amply disseminated among Education stakeholders, schools and civil society organisations through direct involvement of existing Education networks and about 400 schools; through involvement of about 510 Educators and Teachers as multipliers, and by raising awareness through a social media campaign in the wider public, reaching out to about 20 to 35.000 citizens (students, parents, policy makers ) in 4 European countries (Belgium, Spain, Italy, and Hungary) and Europe wide.

To this purpose, U-CHANGE has formed as a partnership, lead by JRS-Europe, with 7 European partners from Belgium (Collège St. Michel and CEBECO), Spain (University Comillas, Institute for Studies on Migration, FND Entreculturas, FND Alboan), Italy (Popoli Insieme) and Hungary (JRS Hungary).

SInce the project aims at empowering Teachers to explore and develop abilities on how to foster critical thinking competences among students in classroom, a 2nd innovative tangible tool is Training/Audiovisual Tutorials that will be co-created by the project partners with the support of the Research institute. The module will describe on background of the analysis and research findings, the relevant steps, goals and content, as well as an innovative applicable methodology for the classroom.

6 local on-site Events for Educators will be organised by the partners to provide capacity building to about 680 Teachers in the 4 priority countries on which strategies have a greater impact among students to develop critical thinking skills and enhance civic participation, in particular to promote intercultural exchange, diversity and social inclusion.
The training materials, including video tutorials, will be publicly and lastingly available in 6 different languages (EN, ES, IT, FR, NL and HU) online in JRS Europe project subsection as well as in partners websites, and on major EU Education platforms for free use by any interested Educator. JRS expects to reach out and engage with a total of about 20.000 and 35.000 educators and citizens through social media and education platforms.

The project U-CHANGE will further contribute with its published Study-Guide to bring new perspectives to Education curriculum revision, providing recommendations based on the surveys empirical evidence, with innovative approaches on how to foster students´ critical thinking competences and give leverage to their civic engagement. JRS and partners will foster dialogue among educators and policy makers who are engaged in Education curriculum revision, by organizing 4 national multiplier Events in the priority countries with a minimum of 250 stakeholders participating, to further disseminate the results of the research among teachers, education administrators as well as education decision makers at national and European level.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 217760 Eur

Project Coordinator

JESUIT REFUGEE SERVICE EUROPE & Country: BE

Project Partners

• Associazione Popoli Insieme ODV
• FUNDACION ENTRECULTURAS FE Y ALEGRIA
• Fundacion ALBOAN
• UNIVERSIDAD PONTIFICIA COMILLAS
• Centre Scolaire Saint-Michel
• Centraal Beleid van de Colleges VZW
• JEZUS TARSASAGA MAGYARORSZAGI RENDTARTOMANYA