PRACTICE is rooted in current EU policy development and national realities and responds to 2 needs: (i) innovation in Continuing Professional Development (CPD); (ii) CPD that links policy to practice in preventing radicalism in the classroom. CPD programmes have been recognised as not “always sufficiently relevant to (teachers’) individual needs and challenges they face” (2009/C 302/04):“38% of teachers expressed a moderate to high need to be trained in 'Teaching in a multicultural or multilingual setting', only around 13 % had this topic covered by their CPD” (Teaching Profession in Europe 2015; NESET II Report 2016). Moreover the Paris Dec 2015 & RAN 2016 state that teachers need to be empowered in teaching social, civic and cultural competences and critical thinking to their students. This is seen as key action against radicalisation of young people. Council Recommendation proposal on common values, inclusive education and European dimension of teaching (2018) advocates “the right to quality & inclusive education”. In addition, format of current CPD opportunities do not fit in with teaching obligations and therefore a “diversity of formats (including school-based, collaborative CPD or digital courses” (Eurydice & CRELL, 2015) need to be introduced. Objectives: -To develop an innovative and collaborative EU wide CPD programme on radicalism prevention within school education; -To empower teachers through capacity-building activities aimed to equip them with better tools to address diversity in the classroom and to understand and prevent radicalisation processes in educational settings; -To enhance the development of critical thinking skills and strengthen citizenship and the common values of freedom, tolerance and non–discrimination through education in secondary schools; -To foster the inclusion of students from all ethnic, faith and social backgrounds creating a safe space to become active and responsible citizens and open-minded members of society. PRACTICE will involve 2200 participants with direct target groups being secondary school teachers and support staff, secondary school pupils and school leaders / managers & indirect target. Key words that represent PRACTICE’s methodology are active participation, quality, evidence based and cooperative development. The project will begin with creation of a Comparative Research Report (IO1) formed of both desk research and primary research with participants. This will then inform the development of the PRACTICE Radicalisation Prevention Programme (IO2) and Guidelines for Teachers (IO3) which will be the CPD tools that will support teachers’ skills development. The development will be followed by a piloting and evaluation phase in order to ensure high quality outputs, then a further development phase to which the results of the pilot will contribute. The results of the testing and evaluation of IO 2&3 with IO1 will be gathered to create a PRACTICE Policy Recommendations Paper (IO4). The project will impact upon both policy & practice. Target groups, indirect beneficiaries and stakeholders will be reached through local events and international conference and project activities. Results at an individual level for teachers will include strengthened subject knowledge in teaching critical thinking & radicalisation & the themes of diversity, citizenship & anti-discrimination; acquired ability to approach complex situations in classroom; strengthened ability to foster inclusion of all students; increased job satisfaction due to more dialogue & collaboration with peers. Students will have a deeper understanding of EU values, become greater critical thinkers and acquire a more positive approach to diversity. Schools will: become more attractive to teachers thanks to innovative CPD; strengthen teaching profiles by addressing mismatches between specific needs of schools & teachers & CPD teachers, by introducing a diversity of formats (including school-based, collaborative CPD or digital courses); be able to respond to pupil needs by enabling development of relevant competences, skills & pedagogical processes; have positive school environment thanks to teacher job satisfaction; safer, welcoming & inclusive school environment; increased collaboration with other educational institutions & bodies across Europe therefore enriching international dimension; stronger resource efficiency thanks to external & internal collaboration; strengthened engagement with local organisations /community to increase collaboration, prevent radicalisation & promote diversity. In the long-term, PRACTICE will innovate CPD at a European level by providing a flexible template that meets teachers’ needs and that can be adapted to different contexts and topics. In addition, the gap between educational policy and classroom practice will be closed. A relevant and high quality training for teachers in the field of radicalisation prevention will endeavor to safeguard young people throughout Europe
PRACTICE project has been implemented in 6 EU countries (Italy, Germany, Austria, Greece, Denmark and UK) over a period of 38 months, from September 2018 to October 2021. The project was rooted in current EU policy development and national realities responding to 2 main needs: 1. To innovate the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) offer, meeting the actual needs of the teachers; 2. to link CPD offer and policy to practice in preventing radicalism from the schools, through critical thinking promotion. CPD programmes have been recognised as not “always sufficiently relevant to (teachers’) individual needs and challenges they face” (2009/C 302/04). Moreover, the Paris Declaration 2015 & RAN 2016 state that teachers need to be empowered in teaching social, civic and cultural competences and critical thinking. This is seen as key action against radicalisation of young people. To respond to these needs, PRACTICE aimed: -To develop an innovative and collaborative EU wide CPD programme on radicalism prevention within school education; -To empower teachers through capacity-building activities aimed to equip them with better tools to address diversity in the classroom and to understand and prevent radicalisation processes in educational settings; -To enhance the development of critical thinking skills and strengthen citizenship and the common values of freedom, tolerance and non–discrimination through education in secondary schools; -To foster the inclusion of students from all ethnic, faith and social backgrounds creating a safe space to become active and responsible citizens and open-minded members of society. PRACTICE has thus developed an innovative Radicalisation Prevention Programme in a form of OER, based on the specific needs and recommendations collected from teachers, school leaders and stakeholders in the 5 partners countries; has involved and trained 120 secondary school teachers and 339 students from 40 schools as direct beneficiaries, for critical thinking development in prevention of radicalisation, proving them with knowledge, methods, approaches and practical activities for approaching the reality in a more critical and conscious way, dealing with controversial issues in a safe way, practicing open-mindedness, appreciation of diversity and pluralism, open communication and democratic dialogue. Despite all the difficulties met due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which prevented partners to actually reach the foreseen number of students, PRACTICE has managed to improve the competences and knowledge of a great number of teachers and educators around Europe, more than planned, innovating the CPD offer with a programme built and tailor-made on the indications of teachers and stakeholders at National level. The project has also demonstrated great exploitation potential, thanks to the adaptability and flexibility of the developed results towards different contexts and target groups: PRACTICE has reached, beside the direct target groups, voluntary and third sector organizations, cultural institutions, parents, educators working with migrants and refugees, academics, universities students, RAN representatives. The project has begun with the development of a Comparative Research Report (IO1) based on desk and primary research with 108 participants. This work has informed the development of the PRACTICE Radicalisation Prevention Programme (RPP) (IO2) and Guidelines for Teachers (IO3) representing the CPD tools that have supported and will support teachers’ skills development. The RPP has been piloted through training seminars with teachers and workshops in classroom. The results of the testing and evaluation of IO 2&3 together with IO1, through collection of feedbacks from interviews with participants and further stakeholders and policy makers in Europe has finally allow to develop a PRACTICE Policy Recommendations Paper (IO4), which contains suggestions and guidelines for improve the educational offer in Europe, meeting the needs of teachers and students and promoting the role of the school in the effort of radicalisation prevention. Long terms beneficiaries will be teachers and educators in all Europe and beyond, who can access the RPP freely; students trained by them and the whole community that will benefit from a future generation of young people who will more actively and consciously participate in society, who will be more resilient to radicalisation processes and more open to diversity and pluralism, promoting the European values. PRACTICE has - Increased CPD offer and educational profile for the participating schools and teachers; - Increased knowledge & competences of participating teachers about the topics of radicalization, critical thinking, addressing controversial issues in classroom; - Decreased radicalisation and discrimination in Europe in a long-term perspective. - Increased awareness of EU learning opportunities for teachers and funding opportunities for CSOs.