OTHERNESS AT SCHOOL: SECOND PROJECT’S MEETING
Category : News
The project OTHERNESS (ERASMUS+ Key Activity 2: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices – Strategic Partnerships for school education) aims to educate school students to show tolerance, to express and understand different viewpoints, to negotiate and to feel empathy, in few words to respect “Otherness”.
The last 17th and 18th of February, the project’s partners met in Thessaloniki – Greece, to have a look on the results reached so far and to plan the next project’s phase. In particular, the partners had the occasion to have a review on the researches carried out at national level, to investigate how the school system of the different European countries involved in the project, address the issue of diversity and if and how this topic is embedded in school books and training materials for teachers. Along with this, partners carried out an opinion poll with a total of around 700 students in 4 countries, surveying their attitude to “otherness”. These results will be part of project’s Output 1 which will be translated in national languages and be available to download in the next weeks.
The research has been useful as a first step to the next project phase: based on this need analysis and on the data collected, a training manual will be elaborated, as a tool to be used by teachers to educate students to accept, respect and understand the richness of “otherness”. The manual will contain non-formal activities and a digital tool with online resources and e-contents which will be piloted in the next school year in 12 schools of Italy, Greece, Bulgaria and Portugal.
During the meeting, partners agreed on the structure and methodology to be follow in the elaboration of this second Output, establishing a working plan and deadline for the next months. Partners, together with 9 teachers per country will meet next October in Palermo to receive a training on the educational program to be implemented in their schools.