Creative Conflict Management in European Schools Peaceful atmosphere is one of most important factors to create a school where pupils want to study. Learning results are also better in the schools where pupils feel safe and accepted. In our project we want to explore different ways to prevent and solve conflict situations that are one of the reasons why pupils drop out from school or skip lessons. All the schools attending this project have similar problems. This was the main reason that brought our project partners together. We decided to concentrate our theme on conflict management with various methods. We all agreed that helping pupils to feel better themselves and other pupils and also good school spirits help students to learn more. There are several methods to reduce conflicts at schools. Every school chose one method that they study in their own school. During visits each school will represent their method to other partners. This way every school in our project will learn five new methods to reduce and prevent conflicts. This is very good, because the pupils need different methods to learn how to act in conflict situations and how to avoid them. One method is not suitable for all as we all know from learning also. There are six participants in our project sharing quite similar challenges. From Finland Pohjois-Hervanta school is multicultural school of nearly 600 pupils who are from very different backgrounds. Over 40 % of pupils have immigrant background and part of the Finnish background pupils come from low socio-economic families. Egri Balassi Balint Primary School from Hungary is a school of 300 pupils and 21% of the pupils are socially-culturally disadvantaged, and 16% have some special educational needs or they are pupils with behavioural and learning disabilities. IES Son Ferrer school from Mallorca, Spain has 535 students with ages between 12 and 18 years old and the school also offers Vocational Training for students 16 or older. IES Son Ferrer is a pioneer school in Equality in Education. Slovenian school Milan Šuštaršič is a 9-year school for 6 to 15 years with 518 pupils. The number of children with special needs, who require additional help and supervision has been growing recent years. Therefore there are special staff to help pupils in school. In our project we have two different Italian schools: Instituto Omnicomprensivo di Alanno and Instituto di Istruzione Superiore ‘Alessandro Volta’. These two schools are doing co-operation in method. Instituto Omnicomprensivo di Alanno is a school of nearly 700 students. School is in a disadvantaged area and for this reason school has specific projects for their students. There are also students with special needs and students from other nationalities. Another Italian school Instituto di Istruzione Superiore ‘Alessandro Volta’ is situated in an area affected by a process of urban redevelopment and there is a problem of high percentage of school dropouts. There are four activities during our project. The first visit is only for teachers in Mallorca in October 2018. In the first activity we start the project by introducing our schools and planning together the online surveys (for example stress, conflicts, self-knowledge) that are given to pupils attending the project in the beginning of project. The second activity is in the spring term 2019 in Hungary. During this visit Finland and Hungary are representing their methods of conflict management to other schools. Participating pupils (4 from each school) are also testing both methods by doing exercises planned in each school. The third activity is in Slovenia during the autumn term 2019. In this visit Slovenia and Mallorca are representing their methods of conflict management to visiting teachers and pupils from Finland, Hungary and Italy. On the third day of visit pupils are together testing the exercises planned for these methods. The last activity is during the spring term 2020 in Italy. Two Italian schools are hosting the visit and representing their method. During this visit we are also finishing the project by planning surveys that test how well pupils in project schools have benefitted from these different methods of conflict management. For the project we open a website where the different methods and exercises are represented for pupils and teachers in participating schools. Participants are encouraged to comment this website and add ideas and their experiences. After our two-year-project there will be several experts in all the participating schools in conflict management who are able to teach others how to use these methods and exercises. From the online surveys performed in each school in the beginning and in the end of this project we get information how well these methods have worked. Our project will help all parners to raise good spirits in school and lower the number of dropouts. We hope that these developed methods will offer help for other schools in our countries too.
Peaceful atmosphere is one of most important factors to create a school where pupils want to study. Learning results are also better in the schools where pupils feel safe and accepted. In our project, we wanted to explore different ways to prevent and solve conflict situations that are reasons why pupils drop out from school or skip lessons. All the schools attending this project had similar problems. This was the main reason that brought our project partners together. We decided to concentrate on conflict management with various methods. We all agreed that helping pupils to feel better about themselves and other pupils. Good school spirits also help students to learn more. There were five methods to reduce conflicts at schools. Every school chose one method to study in their own school. During mobilities, each school presented their method to other partners. This way every school in our project learnt five new methods to reduce and prevent conflicts. This was very good, because pupils need different methods to learn how to act in conflict situations and how to avoid them, since one method is not suitable for all. There were six participants in our project sharing quite similar challenges. From Finland Pohjois-Hervanta school is a multicultural school of nearly 600 pupils who are from very different backgrounds. Over 40% of pupils have immigrant background and part of the Finnish background pupils come from low socio-economic families. Egri Balassi Balint Primary School from Hungary is a school of 300 pupils and 21% of the pupils are socially-culturally disadvantaged, and 16% have some special educational needs or they are pupils with behavioural and learning disabilities. IES Son Ferrer school from Mallorca, Spain has 535 students with ages between 12 and 18 years old and the school also offers Vocational Training for students 16 or older. IES Son Ferrer is a pioneer school in equality in education. Slovenian school Milan Šuštaršič is a 9-year school for 6 to 15 years with 518 pupils. The number of children with special needs, who require additional help and supervision has been growing recent years. Therefore, there are special staff to help pupils in school. In our project, there were two Italian schools: Instituto Omnicomprensivo di Alanno and Instituto di Istruzione Superiore ‘Alessandro Volta’. These two schools were collaborating with planning the method. Instituto Omnicomprensivo di Alanno is a school of nearly 700 students. School is in a disadvantaged area and for this reason, school has specific projects for their students. There are also students with special needs and students from other nationalities. Another Italian school Instituto di Istruzione Superiore ‘Alessandro Volta’ is situated in an area affected by a process of urban redevelopment and there is a problem of high percentage of school dropouts. There were three mobilities during our project. The fourth planned mobility to Italy was cancelled due to Covid-19 and was held online. The first visit was for teachers in Mallorca in October 2018. In the first mobility, we started the project by introducing our schools and planning together the online surveys that were given to pupils attending the project in the beginning of the project. The second mobility was in the spring term 2019 in Hungary. During this visit, Finland and Hungary presented their methods (Finland: physical education, Hungary: digital storytelling) of conflict management to other schools. Participating pupils were also testing both methods by doing exercises planned in each school. The third mobility took place in Slovenia during the autumn term 2019. In this mobility, Slovenia and Mallorca presented their methods (Slovenia: social stories, Spain: equality in education) of conflict management to visiting teachers and pupils. The pupils tested the methods by doing exercises. The last mobility was held online in the spring term 2021. In the meeting, the partners shared experienced on testing the Italian method (art activities). During the meeting, we also finished the project. After our project, there are several experts in conflict management in all the participating schools, who are able to teach others how to use conflict management methods and exercises. From surveys performed in each school, we got information on how well these methods have worked. Our project helped all partners to raise good spirits in schools and lower the number of dropouts. Even though Covid-19 delayed our project and changed our project plan significantly, we were able to meet most of our goals. During the project, participating teachers and pupils gained long-term networks and friendships in several European countries.