Address: Via Diego d’Amico 1 Bagheria

Country: Italy

 School website

Project: Children’s Voices for a new human Space - CVS

Working language during the project:

• English
• Italian at local level
   

Themes of the Council of Europe project “FREE to SPEAK, SAFE to LEARN - Democratic Schools for All” covered:

• Making children’s and students’ voices heard
• Improving well-being at school
   

Competences from the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (CDC) addressed and where / how they were integrated:

• Making children’s and students’ voices heard
• Improving well-being at school
   

Target group age range:

• 5 - 11

Level of education:

• Primary education

Short description 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.

The CVS 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 CVS project builds upon a larger project of the CoE, “Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture” (RFCDC), which has developed a new reference framework of the democratic and intercultural competences that citizens require to participate effectively in democratic culture and intercultural dialogue. Democratic and intercultural competences are not acquired automatically but instead need to be learned and practised, 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.

In order to achieve the project objectives, a variety of activities will be 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’ democratic and intercultural competence;
• the development/implementation/testing of the CVS Curriculum for children, aimed at fostering pupils’ democratic and intercultural competence;
• the development/implementation/testing of the CVS Supervision App for teachers, aimed at allowing the online methodological supervision of teachers’ activities;
• the planning/implementation of the CVS Study, aimed at evaluating the efficacy of the CVS Training Course for teachers, the CVS Curriculum for children and the adequacy of the CVS Supervision App for teachers as an IT tool for assisting teachers’ supervision;
• two short-term joint staff training events addressed at teachers: the first event will be aimed at implementing the CVS Training Course, the second event will be aimed at implementing a training programme focused on the CVS Curriculum for children and the use of the CVS Supervision App for teachers;
• a 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 multiplier events at local and transnational level, aimed at disseminating the intellectual outputs foreseen by the project.

Direct beneficiaries of the project will be about 30-35 teachers and 200-250 pupils of 5 European public primary schools (located in Bulgaria, Italy, Norway, Romania, and Spain). The project activities will directly involve: 10 Key Classes (two for each partner school) that in the first year of the project will be at the third grade; about three teachers for each Key Class, one of whom will play the role of Core Teacher; and about 20-25 pupils for each Key Class.

Indirect beneficiaries will be other teachers, students and staff members of the partner schools, pupils’ families and local communities of the towns where the schools are located, and the Council of Europe.
 

Aims/objectives

The overall aim of the CVS project is to foster the democratic and intercultural competences of both teachers and students in the primary school context, by drawing on the RFCDC.

Objective 1: To enhance teachers’ access to democratic and intercultural education practices.

Objective 2: To increase teachers’ knowledge about democratic and intercultural education.

Objective 3: To equip teachers with tools, techniques and methods to promote and assess pupils’ democratic and intercultural competences.

Objective 4: To foster the development of pupils’ democratic and intercultural competences.

Objective 5: To empower pupils offering them the opportunity to participate effectively in public life and in decision-making processes, making their voices heard.

Objective 6: To promote the involvement of pupils with a migrant or minority background.
 

Expected results/outcomes

The impact of the CVS project refers to the sustainable long-term change achieved in relation to the project objectives for the different kind of project targets groups and stakeholders.

1. For the project direct participants and organizations are

• Teachers involved in the project activities (30-35)
• Pupils involved in the project activities (200/250)
• Organizations that are partners of the project (10)

2. Indirect participants and organizations are:

• pupils’ parents
• other teachers and pupils of schools indirectly involved by project activities and outputs (5450)
• local communities
• the Council of Europe
• other stakeholders

1. As for DIRECT participants and organizations the CVS project aims to produce the following impact

Impact on participants

Teachers

At the end of the project the directly involved teachers will be:

• aware of the more recent approaches in the field of DI education;
• equipped with DI skills;
• equipped with renewed social inclusion skills;
• able to use renewed pedagogical methods and practices for promoting DI competences in their daily work;
• able to employ appropriate techniques for the assessment of pupils’ DI competences;
• equipped with new digital competences;
• able to show a strengthened profile of their profession (including higher quality teaching, leadership skills, openness to teaching exchanges and new ideas);
• able to work according to a multidisciplinary and a European collaborative perspective;

Pupils

At the end of the project the directly involved pupils will be able:

• to display DI competences;
• to effectively participate in their school decision-making processes;
• to be more autonomous, responsible and self-confident;
• to be understanding, tolerant and respectful for other people;
• to consider the cultural diversity as a resource in their daily life;
• to be equipped with new social inclusion skills;
• to be aware about their talents and abilities;
• to be equipped with knowledge and skills that will help them to become active and responsible decision-makers for their countries;

2. Indirect participants and organizations are:

Schools

The impact will be:

• the adoption of a new training course for teachers regarding DI education, tested at the European level;
• the adoption of a new curriculum for children aimed at promoting DI competences, tested at the European level;
• the endorsement of innovative and digital practices in the field of DI education;
• the enlargement of their European collaborative perspectives;
• the support for an open classroom climate;
• the improvement of the quality of teaching-learning processes;
• the alignment of the educational programmes with European-level guidelines;
• the improvement of social inclusion practices among the school community members.

Universities

The impact will be:

• the adoption of a reference framework in the field of DI education
• the use of this reference framework for teaching and research purposes;
• the improvement of the quality of academic teaching in the field of DI education;
• the strengthening of the collaboration with the lower-level educational organisations (schools);
• the enlargement of their European collaborative perspectives.

Impact on indirect target groups

Pupils’ parents

The impact will be:

• a higher awareness about the importance of developing DI competences in order to live peacefully together with others in culturally diverse democratic societies;
• a higher positive attitude towards the cultural differences among the nations participating in the partnership and, generally, among other European countries;
• a more active participation in DI actions and decision-making within the schools.

Other pupils, teachers and staff members of the partner schools

The impact will be:

• higher perceptions of positive school climate;
• greater opportunities to participate in DI actions and decision-making within the school.

Local communities

The impact will be:

• a higher awareness about the importance of developing DI competences in order to live peacefully together with others;
• a greater awareness of the need to make children active agents in decision-making processes.

The Council of Europe

The outcomes and findings of the project will be fed back to the CDC expert group at the Council of Europe, who will be able to use the findings to refine their recommendations on curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.
 

Other stakeholders (other schools, educators, social operators, researcher and other staff from organisations active in the educational field, local and regional authorities, training institutions, research and pedagogical centres, national and European policy makers)
 

Changes

• an increased access of teachers to DI education practices;
• an increased knowledge of teachers about DI education;
• tools, techniques and methods for teachers aimed at promoting and assessing pupils’ DI competences;
• an increased level of pupils’ DI competences;
• an enhancement in pupils’ awareness about the importance of participating in public life and decision-making processes.
   

Challenges you faced

Time-frame of the project:

Three years September 2018/August 2021
 

Council of Europe materials on citizenship and human rights education used while preparing or implementing your practice:

• Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture
• Living Democracy-manuals for teachers
• All Different – All Equal
• Compasito