The French National Agency for Education and Training has approved for funding the Mainstreaming Peace education project in schools, aiming at promoting the acquisition of social, civic and intercultural skills and competences in school education.
Peace and respect to diversity are core values of the European Union and fundamental to the development of the individual and to ensuring social cohesion and societal welfare. In the context of a rapidly changing world and increasingly diverse societies, specific cultural skills and competences become more and more important for young adults to participate successfully and effectively in increasingly pluralistic and complex environments. Globalization and technology have brought many challenges to our societies, marked by their potential to deepen inequalities and thus lead to increase in social tension.
Schools find themselves in the frontline of these challenges, as more and more classrooms are composed of students with increasingly diverse social and cultural backgrounds. The majority of researchers agree that creating a culture of peace in schools requires a holistic, multidisciplinary and multi-level approach, involving the entire school, all the learning environments and stakeholders. The project’s main focus is on implementing a “whole school” approach ( Navarro-Castro &Nario-Galace, 2010) to fostering the development of the necessary social, civic and intercultural competences through:
- proposing an innovative and efficient methodology to assist schools in their effort in mainstreaming peace education through peace-responsive school policies and practices;
- integrating peace education and respect for diversity through the curriculum and through teaching and learning activities;
- developping interactive and intuitive digital learning tools for schools that promote the acquisition of positive skills, values and attitudes in pupils;
- develop the capacity of teachers in promoting peace and respect for cultural diversity among students.
The tools and approaches that will be developed and used during the project will provide school leaders and teachers with a coherent but multifaceted methodology of raising awareness on important issues, and promote values, attitudes and skills conductive to peace and respect for cultural diversity.
The project is funded by the Erasmus + programme, Action KA2 ‘Strategic partnerships for innovation in the field of school education’. The proposal has been developed by Association Redefine team and is part of our consistent effort to support local and European partners in the implementation of innovative practices. The consortium is lead by the Cultural Route of the Council of Europe – Via Charlemagne, France and includes partners from Portugal,Austria,Turkey,Germany and Italy.
