In the context of the global refugee crisis, violent extremism, Islamophobia, and debates about integration, there is growing interest within the European Union in developing pedagogical strategies to support teachers and students in engaging in difficult ethical conversations about identity, beliefs, democratic values, tolerance, diversity, belonging and violence in order to establish a firm foundation for inclusive and tolerant schools. Research shows that it is important that children and young people be given opportunities to discuss and critically examine such issues in safe contexts with trusted facilitators in order to foster critical thinking skills and the capacity for ethical imagination (Atran, 2015, Davies, 2008). This is most effective when questions, concerns, and issues are generated by the students themselves. The end-target audience will be 10-18 years old children.The aim of this project, The Enquiring Classroom (TEC), is to develop and trial techniques for teachers to facilitate difficult ethical discussions. It will: 1) use the tools of philosophical enquiry to support students' capabilities in engaging in reflection and debate; 2). promote peer knowledge transfer and exchange of pedagogical content, strategies and practice to support students' lived encounters with philosophical and religious thought, and; 3). develop a skill-set for teachers that supports careful and sensitive facilitation of complex issues. The timeliness of this undertaking should be seen in light of rapid changes in global conflict, movements of refugees, and violence in Europe and its borders. Transnational knowledge exchange and transfer is essential in developing effective techniques and pedagogical strategies to navigate topics of contention in classrooms whilst securing children's voice and participation. TEC will run training schools in order to produce a curriculum, toolkit and manual that will support communities of enquiry in classrooms. This innovative model will mobilise: 1. evidence-informed practice in philosophy for/with children; 2. interpretative approaches to education about religions and beliefs, and ethics; and 3. arts-based methodologies. This will: 1. provide transferable skills that can be adapted across the educational spectrum, 2. enhance teachers' abilities to facilitate and support enquiry, 3. model strategies for students to engage in discussion and analysis of complex issues, concepts, beliefs and values, ensuring the participation, voice, and inclusion of all students. TEC's primary target participants will be teachers at primary and secondary level. Through training schools and dissemination events it will reach out to 380 participants directly. The collateral benefits of the project will be experienced by over 3000 children and young people in schools of participating countries, and through wider activities and dissemination by an international network of teachers and students. The training manual will provide a comprehensive toolkit for teachers and this will be supported through peer networks, and exchange of knowledge, practice and experience through the website and social media. The TEC consortium aims to reach a variety of educational settings that face these complex classroom realities. This will be accomplished by leveraging the extensive teacher networks that the three partners maintain, given their involvement in teacher training activities, initial teacher education, school placement, and research in the field of education.In addition, the TEC consortium will pay particular attention to online community building, using the Open Discovery Space TEC community as a vehicle for reach and engagement. Given the popularity and strong community ties that characterise the ODS community, the TEC consortium expects to greatly influence the way teachers approach issues of identity, conflict, trust-building and ethical imagination and enquiry, by offering a unique blend of content and classroom activities addressing the aforementioned areas. Participants in the various ME and online communities will be given the opportunity to act as agents of change in their own educational settings Furthermore, there will also be an emphasis on enhancing teachers’ digital skills by offering activities and guidance on content creation and learning scenario design in the field of ERB and ethics and philosophy with children.Given the unique nature of this project that addresses the most pressing issues in the European and global context, we anticipate increased interest on behalf of local community groups, youth organisations, international initiatives, NGOs, etc. Our aim is to utilise our website, the ODS TEC online community and a number of social media platforms to reach the wider educational community and the relevant stakeholders, and open up innovative pedagogical strategies to address questions of ethics, inclusion, democratic education, conflict, tolerance and diversity.
Context/Background: The Enquiring Classroom (TEC) was developed in order to progress inclusive and pluralistic pedagogical approaches to addressing pressing contemporary questions in relation to democracy, values, identity, integration, religions, beliefs and (forced) migration in educational settings. Whilst a number of approaches address individual issues like citizenship or racism or religion, the TEC project aimed to create pluralistic pedagogies to support teachers in facilitating engagement with a wide range of contemporary questions, supported by a clear philosophy of education. These approaches were designed be incorporated either into existing curricula through a permeated approach or discrete thematic pedagogical interventions. Four key issues drove this in 2016: 1. Forced migration and education of children who were refugees and asylum seekers; 2. Shifts towards more securitised approaches to education that risked shutting down spaces for discussion; 3. The need for educational spaces to invite reflection and dialogue about values, religions and beliefs in the European context; 4. The demand amongst educators for facilitation skills and capacity building in particular in relation to engaging with difficult or challenging topics in schools. The choice of Greece, Ireland, and Sweden was informed by divergent responses and experiences to the refugee crisis, to the question of migration, and to the role of religion in society. Objectives: The primary objective was to build capacity with educators by creating genuinely inclusive pedagogical strategies and training in facilitation to foster a wide range of educational experiences and foreground the voice of young people. This innovative, comprehensive, and pluralistic approach to enquiry based learning aimed to support facilitation of meaningful, open, responsible, and respectful discussion and debate about complex ethical, social, political and religious issues in classrooms. Its novelty stems from creative integration of best practice in philosophy for/with children, living and lived values exercises, experiential and sensory learning, dialogical and interpretative approaches to education about religions, beliefs and ethics, and creative arts-based methodologies, including encounters with contemporary art practice. As the project progressed it became clear that experiencing the methodologies also offered important frameworks for reflection and dialogue amongst educators, activists and youth workers. This involved deepening capacity to engage with and explore questions by fostering skills of active listening, dialogue and (ethical) imagination, ensuring that any 'difficult conversations' that arose in classrooms would be supported by a firm foundation in epistemic skills and virtues associated with communities of enquiry. Key to achieving these objectives was the articulation of a conceptual framework and rationale for this approach to education. Number and profile of participating organisations: Developing these exercises in collaboration with teachers and policymakers was an essential part of this process and was built into the logic of the project design. In each country, we worked with primary and secondary schools, with NGOs and with national policymakers. We have detailed these in our reports (see TEC on-line poster presentation, information leaflet and website) as the number and diversity of those involved were significant and exceeded expectations. Description of undertaken main activities: TEC design was scaffolded in order to build towards the construction of the The Enquiring Classroom Handbook.The first stage of the project involved articulating a thorough conceptual framework, informed by and responsive to existing literature, research and pedagogical practices that could provide the parameters for the project (IO1). This was refined over the course of the project as it became clear that the pedagogical dimensions of the project and the conceptual underpinnings were reciprocally informed. The project involved the delivery of 8 training school modules in Ireland, Greece, and Sweden and 2 summer schools in Athens, Greece in which creative pedagogies were generated, tested and evaluated by key stakeholders (IO2). The project was also disseminated through workshops, conference presentations and trainings. This culminated in the presentation of the TEC Handbook (IO3) at the final dissemination event at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. Results and impact attained: The production of The Enquiring Classroom Handbook (IO3) was the primary substantive output of the project. This is accompanied by the Conceptual Framework (IO1) that explains the rationale and vision for the project. There has been significant international interest in the Handbook and Framework from a range of stakeholders from teachers to policymakers to youth workers, as well as academics.