The six partners of our project are located in different geographical environments, varying from a more rural area to small town as well as medium sized and large cities; with different economical, historical, political and social backgrounds, with different world-views, thus offering a very important opportunity of a lively exchange between all participants; but in all our countries we have students come from social and economical neglected families and backgrounds. Facing prejudice or failure, lacking confidence in themselves, they often use bullying, violence, aggressive behaviour against peers especially girls, as tools to assert themselves. Moreover, they do not view schools as an alternative future and a way to be better integrated in the labour market and in society. So, our project "WOMEN INDIPENDENCE NETWORK" focuses on the one hand on INCLUSIVE EDUCATION with particular attention to GENDER EQUALITY due to the repeated episodes of violence against adolescents and the continuous use of a sexist lexicon among peers even within the school. On the other hand, we intend to focus on the OPEN EDUCATION AND INNOVATIVE PRACTICES IN A DIGITAL ERA in order to promote the participation of students in the training processes through the comparison with peers from other countries, thus improving the foreign language skills, youth potential skills and innovation on the labour market. In the first year of the project students aged 14-17 will explore personal identity and cultural diversity transnationally, learning and connecting their own cultural identity and heritage with those of others in different times and places, thus developing tolerance towards other people and cultures. At this point they will create in international teams a first common product representing the partnership, keeping in touch by using the eTwinning platform and other socials. In the second year of the project students will focus on the professional requirements needed nowadays in Europe through interviews, workshops, and practical trainings. Learning, teaching and training activities can promote independence and autonomy competences as well as the development of the communicative skills. On the other hand, in relation to the prevention of prejudices against different cultures, we think that living abroad at host families will allow our students to adapt themselves to other points of views and costumes. The results wil be kept in a portfolio. The heart of this year will be, in particular, the promotion of STEM disciplines among girls and ENCOURAGING NETWORKING among them, the practical trainings in the own country and in the partner countries, fostering tolerance, promoting cross-cultural knowledge and providing students with the necessary competences to improve their entrepreneurial skills; by visiting young enterprises they will also learn that self-initiative and creativity are important keys to success. At the end of the project students will rethink their views and the requirements which young people face nowadays based on newly gained knowledge. They will realise a video/radio report about successful youth enterprises to be shown/sent through the main channels of the local communities. All the students will be encouraged to take a key role in the organization and dissemination activities of the project using ETWINNING PLATFORM, in the same ways as the communication between staff and students of all the partner schools. Within the schools themselves we will progress towards creating a European perspective within the curriculum. Staff members will be able to exchange best practices in implementing occupational guidance/training in the curricula. The whole project will furthermore raise awareness of our partner schools and the European Union in our local communities. The main result will be an improvement in students’ motivation and well-being in their education for their working situation and private lives as strong part of their self-esteem. Through the project's activities we want to educate students about respect for the person, combat physical and verbal violence against women, because we are convinced that school has a fundamental role in this educational process. We want to create a virtual NETWORK between students, the local and international communities and enterprices, to promote equal opportunities for girls and boys. We want to decrease dropout rates of students and help them to realize that they can build their future through hope, optimism, cooperation and creativity and to provide them with the basic and transversal skills necessary to face the issues of the new globalized society. One of the main results of this project will be an improved quality and equality education through deepening the COOPERATION within the partner countries in order to promote long-learning activities even after the end of the project itself.
Context In European countries, young people have different economic, historical, political and social backgrounds, with different visions of the world, which offer an important opportunity for exchange and comparison between them; at the same time in all countries we also have students from deprived families and social and economic backgrounds, and in the face of prejudice or failure, lacking self-confidence, they often use bullying, violence, aggressive behavior towards peers, especially girls, as tools for affirming oneself. Furthermore, they do not see school as an alternative future opportunity and a way to better integrate into the labor market and into society. This project has undergone changes due to Covid and the withdrawal of two partners. In fact, when the project was approved, the Portuguese school changed the head teacher and decided to withdraw from the project because it was too demanding; upon the arrival of Covid, the Spanish partner decided not to carry on the project to avoid the risk of contagion. Therefore our team has remodeled the project by moving (but not modifying them) the objectives of the two missing mobilities on mobility in Italy, the coordinating country. In fact, the mobility in Italy initially envisaged by the project was only initial and without students; the changes described above required the redistribution of the objectives of the Portuguese and Spanish partners and of student mobility; for this purpose, two mobilities have been planned in Italy (beginning and end of the project) always providing for the presence of students. Objectives and methodology The "WOMEN INDEPENDENCE NETWORK" project focused on: - INCLUSIVE EDUCATION with particular attention to SUSTAINABILITY and GENDER EQUALITY for the repeated episodes of violence against adolescents and the continuous use of a sexist vocabulary among peers even within the school. - OPEN EDUCATION AND INNOVATIVE PRACTICES IN A DIGITAL AGE in order to promote student participation in training processes by comparing them with peers from other countries, thus improving language skills, the skills of youth potential and innovation in the labor market . IN THE FIRST YEAR of the project, students aged 14-17 explored personal identity and cultural diversity on a transnational level, learning and connecting their own cultural identity and heritage with those of others in different times and places , thus developing tolerance towards other people and cultures. The students created a first common product representing the partnership in international teams, keeping in touch using the eTwinning platform and other social networks. IN THE SECOND YEAR of the project, students focused on the professional requirements needed today in Europe through interviews, workshops and practical training courses. Learning, teaching and training activities can promote independence and autonomy skills as well as the development of communication skills. On the prevention of prejudices towards different cultures, the students, in meetings abroad, although they could not be hosted in families due to the risk of Covid, carried out activities focused on sharing, collaboration and comparison. WIN promoted STEM disciplines among girls by ENCOURAGING THE NETWORKING between them and providing all students with the necessary skills to improve their entrepreneurial skills; visiting young companies they also learned that personal initiative and creativity are important keys to success. Results and impact At the end of the project the students have rethought their opinions and behaviors that they must put in place on the basis of the new knowledge acquired. They have produced podcasts, articles, research on successful youth experiences, posted on the official social sites of the schools. An important result achieved by the project was the research entitled “Young people between sustainable behaviors and gender stereotypes”, coordinated by the Italian school, which saw the participation of 1092 students from all partner schools who answered a semi-structured questionnaire. An ebook has been created with the results of the research. All students were encouraged to take on a key role in all organization and dissemination activities of the project, especially using the ETWINNING PLATFORM. The main result was the improvement of students' motivation to study and self-esteem, who created a virtual NETWORK between students, communities and local businesses, favoring the promotion of equal opportunities between girls and boys.