In our quickly changing and globalizing world, often focusing on individual assertiveness, we forget about the importance of functional communities and tolerant environments where one can feel safe and supported. One of the most important socializing medium we participate in (after the given family context) is the school community, the classroom. Other important environments for the age group of 6-18 years olds are the communities they participate in through their free time, hobbies, and extracurricular activities. Educators, teachers and youth workers leading classes and groups experience the phenomena of bullying among the students. The long-term effects of bullying are numerous, and can include hyper-sensitivity, anxiety, and depression. Recent statistics suggest that the majority of students will experience bullying at some point in their academic careers. In the early 21st century, increased attention has been given to the importance of teachers, group leaders, educators and parents understanding and recognizing the signs of bullying (among both bullies and victims), and being equipped with strategies and tools to address school bullying and deal with it as a community, in or out of the classroom. Drama and theater in education has demonstrated (DICE research, 2009) that it can effectively improve Lisbon Key competences. We, in accordance with all the partner organizations believe that it can also deal with aggressiveness, power inequality and victimization. We would like to evaluate these beliefs through a research study and based on that, refine our methodology in a collaborative process, in which we explore what elements could be implemented most successfully in order to decrease bullying in a variety of communities. The Drama and Theatre in Education methodology is still a very small and quite unknown discipline. Most of the theatre practitioners and teachers, even art-pedagogists have never met with the methodology before. The methodology itself comes from the UK, also there have been ongoing some initiatives around Europe and some other countries worldwide to work with it, although it lacks a general scope. It has many still-unexplored possibilities and tools, which could be offered to test and implement into everyday practice by anybody dealing with youth communities. We need to measure our impact through a continuous research, which accompanies the testing and the implementation phases.We would like to distribute the results of the strategic partnership and also the methodology itself for a wider global understanding towards the intellectual outputs. We are developing an online application for mobile and PC, which functions as a structured database of drama based lesson plans, trainings, dynamics and exercises. Anybody will have access to the app; teachers, youth workers, educators can search for different aspects of bullying, they are facing with, and apply the found drafts and plans to their age groups and situations. We are developing a second intellectual output, a manual about how to implement, what stages you need to consider, how you should start, and how you can sustain drama based activities in or out of the classroom. The third intellectual output is the research itself.Impact: - Our organizations and the innovation of the methodology- Youth workers, teachers and educators dealing with community building- Youngsters and studentsPartners:Nyitott Kör Egyesület Hungary – NGO – coordinatingTheatrEtc – Cyprus – NGOSigma Art – Romania – NGOCedeum – Serbia – NGOAims:We aim: A) to prove the efficacy of drama-based tools and to decrease bullying in order to nurture functional communities, B) to compare and facilitate drama and theatre in education practices between the participating countries, particularly focusing on bullying, C) to share and exchange working techniques on such topic, exploring the wide range of possibilities, D) to disseminate theatrical practices in non-formal educational methodologies for wider use, E) to widen the area of public TIE works with, F) to provide a tool kit and a manual for youth leaders, trainers, teachers and educators, G) to start an open dialogue between drama professionals and people still interested in art-pedagogy methods.
Context: The twenty-month long project was designed to raise awereness about bullying and the importance of prevention and intervention through applied drama and theatre tools. The research and the application + manual as organic parts of the R.U.In? showed that bullying and cyberbullying seem to be burning issues in young people’s communities, and their facilitators are very grateful when they meet non-formal learning tools to try to deal with the topic. Teachers, facilitators and different professionals showed interest toward the digital innovation of the project. Simulation and role play seem to be innovative tools regarding the issue. The application of theatre and drama proved to be effective to reveal hidden cases in the communities, to raise awareness of the phenomena and to empower young people and their facilitators to seek for solution methods, and start addressing the issue as a problem that needs further intervention. The strategic partnership showed that the local support and possibilities are determining in terms of the success of an educational theatre project. The reception of our programmes were also different from the education field, in some countries it was easy to access school communities, in others it became the most challenging part. By the many opportunities to meet each other and exchange good practices, we could enrichen our working methods and approaches to bullying, which made the project colorful and inspiring. There were compromises we needed to make due to the mentioned local characteristics, which made our research methods to become diverse and of different depth. The digital innovation (Android App) we designed was and exciting element in the project. Objectives: A) to prove the of drama based tools and to decrease bullying in order to create functional communities, B) to compare and improve drama and theatre in education practices between the participating countries, particularly focusing on bullying, B) to share and exchange working techniques on such topic, exploring the wide range of possibilities, C) to distribute the theatre in non-formal education methodology for a wider use of it, D) to widen the area of public TIE works with, E) to provide a digital tool together with a manual that reflects on bullying topic and can help facilitators in activity design, F) to start an open dialogue between professionals and people yet still interested in art-pedagogy methods. Participating organisations: Nyitott Kör Egyesület Hungary – NGO – coordinating TheatrEtc – Cyprus – NGO Sigma Art – Romania – NGO Cedeum – Serbia – NGO Undertaken main activities: Exchange of good practices on transnational project meetings and via the project timeline online. Drama based activities preventing and intervening bullying in school communities undertaken throughout the whole project by all organizations. Training course providing the opportunity for the staff and collaborators of the 4 organisations to reflect on their approaches toward drama and theatre in education and bullying and initiation to design new activities focusing on cyberbullying. Impact assessment research of drama methods, development of android APP to simulate bullying, editing manual for the APP. Multiplying the outputs and result on events. Results and impact: 35 drama based activities (20 of bullying, 15 of cyberbullying) measured with mixed methods, analyzed by researchers by each partner organization and the coordinator. One new drama based activity focusing on cyberbullying by each partner and the coordinator. Research publication of each organization, English report of the studies. Design of an android APP to model social media and simulate cyberbullying and group dynamics, together with a manual to use the application. Blog about the projects activities and about the topic of bullying: ruinproject.eu Many institutions and professionals involved on the multiplier events to discuss bullying issue and get to know about the methodology and brainstorm about inclusive youth communities Longer term benefits: Many schools and student/youth communities (at least 35 from each partners local context) and their teachers became more aware of the bullying issue and are more likely to stop bullying situations or to step out from passive roles and recognize victim blaming behavior, and through this will become more sensitive and tolerant citizens. In many schools the teachers communities needed to face the existing issue of bullying and cyberbullying. Drama and Theatre in Education as a methodology becomes more spread and recognized in the partner countries, and because of the availability of the Research report in 5 languages, including English, the method and its impact becomes more visible and more adaptable for other communities. Professionals, youth workers, educators and facilitators that were directly reached in the frames of the project or read the research are more likely to include digital tools in their everyday pr