One of the major challenges facing education today is sociocultural and religious diversity in schools, both of pupils and teachers. Addressing differences in norms, values, and beliefs among alunnɜ, teachers, parents, or others can lead to controversy and polarization in schools.
DD@S, which promotes dialogue to combat intolerance and discrimination in schools by stimulating inclusive education in Europe, has been running for two and a half years cutting a lot of milestones.
The DD@S platform supports high school teachers to deal with controversial topics in the classroom, deepening sensitive issues related to cultural, ethnic, religious, social and gender differences, and learning how to deal with them in the classroom in an open and democratic manner.
The project was developed over several phases that involved many teachers from Italy, Belgium, Greece and Cyprus, who were instrumental in the development and testing of our platform. In particular:
- Approximately 400 teachers answered a questionnaire and 40 of them participated in focus groups to understand which current topics create conflicts in the classroom, on which they find it difficult to express themselves or facilitate an open and democratic dialogue;
- Almost 40 teachers in 2022 and more than 80 in 2023 participated in international training events, in Greece and Belgium, to give their input first, and feedbacks later, supporting partners in the development of the platform.
The last event, in particular, took place on 7 and 8 May in Brussels: we were hosted by the Erasmushogeschool, the project leader, and had the opportunity to discuss the final results of the project, reviewing the results of the initial research, presenting the final version of the platform and testing some of the proposed activities, fostering intercultural dialogue and an exchange of opinions and perspectives among teachers from the 4 partner countries.
As many as 25 teachers from I.S. Einaudi Pareto had the opportunity to participate in this wonderful international experience, having tested the platform themselves and now playing the role of project ambassadors to other schools and other teachers.
If you teach, work for an association dealing with educational issues, conflict prevention and the promotion of dialogue, or simply want to deepen topics related to the project themes and learn new techniques of democratic dialogue, visit https://ddasproject.eu/ and sign up for the e-learning platform. It is totally free, you can log in when you want and go through the various modules at your own pace, and you will receive a certificate of participation at the end.
For more information or for other similar initiatives write to antonella.alessi@danilodolci.org
DD@S – Democratic Dialogue at School is funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, Cooperation partnership in school education.
Partners
- Coordinator: Erasmushogeschool Brussel, Belgium
- Centro per lo Sviluppo Creativo Danilo Dolci, Italy
- Istituto D’Istruzione Superiore Einaudi Pareto, Italy
- Centre for Advancement of research and development in educational technology LTD (CARDET), Cyprus
- University of Nicosia (UNIC), Cyprus
- SYMPLEXIS, Greece
- Interorthodox Centre of the Church of Greece, Greece
- GO! technisch atheneum Zavelenberg Sint-Agatha-Berchem, Belgium
For more information visit our website https://ddasproject.eu/, follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn or contact Antonella Alessi: antonella.alessi@danilodolci.org.