Our project is based on a palpable reality among the youngest and with an inevitable presence in schools: bullying and, most recently, cyber bullying. As an educational institution, we have the obligation to provide students with their well-being and ensure respect for their lives, their dignity and their physical and moral integrity in the field of school life. The objective of the project is to know and understand the problem and to be able to attack it from different perspectives, but especially from prevention as a priority, giving the students the necessary weapons to know the problem and thus be able to eradicate it with guarantees of success. The activities proposed to achieve objectives and based mainly on the culture of knowledge and respect, use art as a tool of creation and as a cultural resource to express and express. These activities address the different artistic fields: musical, visual, audiovisual, literary ... to be able to expressive guarantees as producers (students) and comprehensive as recipients (society). The dissemination of the project and artistic creations will ensure that the message reaches the entire educational community by raising awareness of the problem and thus achieving part of the proposed objective. If we add to this the added value of work as a European strategic partnership, all the work done acquires a greater dimension. Although the results we expect from the implementation of the project are not easily tangible and only medium- or long-term value, the pretension to achieve greater awareness and involvement as a prevention tool against bullying and cyber bullying is the fruit that we expect As a first step to achieve a school life based on respect for ourselves and others.
"Art and ICT against bullying and cyberbullying" (A & ABC) is a project of Strategic Partnerships of cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices carried out during 24 months from 2017 to 2019. Its most important horizontal priority has been the social inclusion to which the achievement of high quality skills and competences is added as well as the development of innovative practices in the digital age. The theoretical principle on which the project has been based considers that educational institutions must guarantee the biopsychosocial well-being of the students. This principle is contradictory with the verification of the reality of bullying, and with its new version, cyberbullying, as one of the most serious problems affecting schools. It is necessary, therefore, the creation and maintenance of an institutional culture of respect for personal dignity and diversity in all its expressions. The coordinating institution of the project, based on previous experiences, confirmed how art, given its potential in the creation of a sense of community, constitutes itself as the best possible tool for the consolidation of such a culture. In addition, during the gestation of the project, it was considered that such a sense of community and respect should be projected to a European dimension given the geopolitical trends that are causing a crisis of European identity. With this background, four secondary schools in Spain, Italy, Greece and Latvia, committed to social inclusion and the culture of respect, came together to shape and develop the project. These commitments have been established as a fundamental strategic line in their respective educational projects. A & ABC has adopted a situational approach, in which many agents are usually involved, and advocates a paradigm shift in the treatment of bullying, from a punitive model to a proactive model. With all this, the project has pursued as an objective to know and understand the bullying and cyberbullying problem and to be able to attack it from different perspectives. In this way, the activities carried out have made it possible to achieve the proposed objectives fundamentally related to the culture of knowledge and respect. Such activities belong to different artistic fields: musical, visual, audiovisual, literary and photographic. The students have made a short film, an illustrated text, a video clip and a photo. Through such artistic expressions students have expressed their vision of the problem of bullying and cyberbullying and have shared their work with the entire school community, thus allowing the problem to be placed in the center of attention. Each one of the artistic manifestations has been shared by the project partners during the four learning activities meeting carried out in the respective countries and disseminated through the multiple channels that the project has used. Such dissemination has been part of the key objectives of the project given its theme. For the preparation of all the artistic productions, previous workshops were organized with expert professionals in each of the disciplines. These workshops guaranteed the quality of the productions produced by the students. In addition, during each of the mobilities with students, work sessions and reflection on the theme of the project were organized as well as cultural activities that fostered mutual knowledge, a necessary condition of the proactive approach. The participants were students selected from their participation in the workshops and the realization of artistic productions between 14 and 19 years of the four partner educational centers. Such productions have been a first tangible result with a quantitative scope. To this result has been added a register of cases of harassment and the creation of a permanent observatory of the school emotional climate. This will be articulated through the Tutorial Action Plan of the centers. There has been a direct impact for the learning of social, civic, intercultural competences, sense of initiative and critical thinking. The project has allowed all participants knowledge, appreciation and enjoyment of diversity, both individual and cultural. A more horizontal treatment of the problem of bullying has taken effect in which all the public involved act interconnected. As a result of this treatment, a new methodological approach has been introduced in schools that avoids hierarchical decision-making regarding bullying. In the medium and long term the collaboration and permanent exchange with our partners of educational experiences is guaranteed. In addition, the experience and results obtained will be used in the planning of training plans for all educational sectors.