Schools joining up for Communities of Peace! Context and Background Learning and teaching in peace - a scenario that even after more than 70 years of peacekeeping in the EU does not always correspond to everyday life. The clash of people of different cultures and religions and the possibility of rapid, digital dissemination of hate speeches and fake news influences social coexistence. In schools, too, conflicts and - physical as well as digital - violence shape everyday life and complicate lessons. At the same time, they offer space to demonstrate constructive and democratic possibilities for dealing with conflict situations and to test solutions in a protected school environment. Against this background, "SchoolCoPe" aims to support both teachers and students by peace education to acquire basic skills to participate as peacemakers in a digitalised European society and to join in shaping it. Contributors and Participants Teachers from various European countries are involved in the achievement of the objectives; at the same time, however, the involvement of students is indispensable for the development of good teaching material as they - as consumers of lessons - are able to ensure that it is attractive and tailored to their needs; as "digital natives" they bring in the knowledge for the development of multimedia, innovative content. A total of six schools from the Republic of Ireland, Great Britain, Germany, Poland and Hungary with their teachers and students will participate in the project. To secure a high quality of the project contents, experts in peace education, religious education and didactics as well as in (digital) net-work will be involved, too: The Berghof Foundation/ Peace Education and Global Learning, the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculty of Behavioural and Human Movement Sciences and Faculty of Religion and Theology and the EKD Church Office/ GPENreformation are joining "SchoolCoPe". Methodology and Learning Activities Selection and setting of the project activities are based on a competency model: information expertise, capacity for action and self-efficacy are promoted with regard to peace education and digital participation. Each of these competency levels is particularly focused during one project phase and treated in digital cooperation and personal exchange. Consequently, in addition to three digital work phases, three learning activities take place. The events for teachers (two representatives per school) and students (five representatives each) run parallel to each other and at the same location. Results and Impact All learning phases work on the development of two products - the "EduMaP" (Education Makes Peace!) and the handbook "Experiencing European Peace and Conflicts with Students! The "EduMaP" is an European online map. Using QR codes and links it brings together individual "Actionbounds", self-contained digital scavenger hunts. It enables an interactive journey to various peace and conflict areas through 360-degree recordings, videos, audios and mini-games. The handbook supports teachers in promoting peace education, in using digital tools and in applying the "EduMaP" in teaching. The "EduMaP" can also be expanded after project completion to include individual "action bounds", for example digital location explorations. Impact and Dissemination In concrete terms "SchoolCoPe" wants teachers to take on a role as models and multipliers of peace and to become peacemakers together with their students. The increased use of digital tools and apps by teachers to tailor teaching to needs and innovation as well as the opportunities of students for digital participation in European society will be pursued. For this purpose the "EduMaP" and the handbook will be disseminated through (political) education actors, teachers' education and training managers, international and national education organisations, school authorities and school networks in order to reach a large number of schools and teachers. The focus is on multiplication events, systematic and sustainable public relations work and personal contact.
In the course of the project, teachers learned to deal with innovative methods of (digital) design of peace education lessons. Students were accompanied in getting to know new possibilities of (digital) participation in a globalised society. The aim was to promote the identification of the participants of both groups as peacemakers and their commitment as multipliers for a peaceful coexistence in Europe and the world. In order to pursue this objective beyond the duration of the project, the "EduMaP" and an accompanying handbook were to be developed, which would also enable teachers and young people who were not involved in the project to experience (digital) peace education as a teaching content. In this way, "SchoolCoPe" aimed to contribute to innovative peace education teaching materials and to support the quality and dissemination of peace education in schools.
"Learning and teaching in peace - a scenario that even after more than 70 years of peacekeeping in the EU does not always correspond to everyday life. The clash of people of different cultures and religions and the possibility of rapid, digital dissemination of hate speeches and fake news influences social coexistence. In schools, too, conflicts and - physical as well as digital - violence shape everyday life and complicate lessons. At the same time, they offer space to demonstrate constructive and democratic possibilities for dealing with conflict situations and to test solutions in a protected school environment." These words were used in 2019 to describe the need for and the aspiration to "SchoolCoPe". It was not foreseeable that this would name the core topics of two major crises of the following years - the Covid 19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war. The demand for and urgency of digitalisation and good peace education in schools increased dramatically during the project; the changes in the needs and interests of those involved were flexibly reflected in the course of the project.