”Student influence in school” is a project about all students’ participation in decision making processes in our schools, regardless of gender, gender identity, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, age or disability, leading to a higher self-esteem and in the long run a more active citizenship and strengthen democracy where human rights are strongly regarded. Directly involved in this project will be 26 teachers and other staff members and approximately 210 students from Sweden, Bulgaria, Spain and Italy. The four schools are comprehensive schools with students in the age of 6-18. Objectives 1. Create/develop functioning student councils. 2. Create arenas for students in the schools, where they can express suggestions, ideas, have discussions, keep protocols from the student councils to make them transparent for everybody etc. 3. Increase the number of all students to be involved in the schools’ decision making processes regardless of gender, gender identity, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, age or disability. 4. Equip teachers with methods on how to involve and include all students in decision making processes We will have 5 project meetings and 4 training events during a period of 2 years. This project is both student and teacher oriented. Students We will develop/improve student councils and arenas, both physical and digital, for expressing opinions (Student Corner), in order to create an open atmosphere for student involvement. Along with developing arenas for participation, we will train students in expressing themselves in order to raise their confidence, so everyone can be included, respected and learn critical thinking. In a various number of activities our students will practice this and as a result get more engaged in the work for equal rights and a broadened respect for and representation of diverse opinions. During exchanges the student will be engaged in team building game based activities, role plays, where they will undertake the roles of principal and teachers; treasure hunt; interviewing authorities; meeting with persons from associations working with equal treatment; write articles (to put in the Students Corner, publish on school website, ICT platforms, local newspaper), and more. Locally every school will start/continue working with regular class and school councils. We will have workshops to practice debate skills and work with equal treatment. Students will keep in touch with other students in the partner countries via ICT platforms. Teachers will on regular basis publish questions or contentions for the students to discuss. There, they also can ask questions about the other schools, publish photos etc. Teachers The teachers’ tasks in the project will be: 1. to follow the progress of student work in each school and share the experiences by Skype, Facebook, eTwinning platforms, Google-drive 2. to exchange ideas, methods, best practices, experiences with each other in order to try out/improve them. 3. to help each other with potential obstacles 4. to let other teachers in school try out activities, through meetings and workshops. At the end of our project all the activities done both during the project meetings and in between will be documented and put together in our final product - an eMethod book or movie. This will be spread to other schools in our cities and published on the schools’ websites. We expect our students to increase their understanding of and respect for democratic values, be more responsible for their learning and improve their social, linguistic, cultural, digital and cooperation competences. We also expect them to gain confidence and increased interest for Europe. Concerning the staff and management, we expect the project to improve their knowledge and teaching skills, capacity of communicating in foreign languages, to get an international cooperation experience, which leads to professional growth; furthermore to get possibility to reflect upon different ways of approaching the project tasks; and finally, to get to know other school systems and teaching methods. The participating schools will develop international networks and multinational dimension of education, increase experience in managing international projects, raise the schools’ prestige and develop as a learning organization. Once the project is finished, medium and long-term activities will be carried out ensuring visibility, accessibility (issues, partners’ websites etc.) and use (information, direct or distance support to users etc.). The follow up of results will be made with own means. The involvement of policy makers will guarantee sustainability. The products will be adaptable to other languages.
Not necessary.