Nowadays, the EU education systems are facing challenges which, while not new, in recent years have intensified and become more widespread. The challenges are mainly due to misunderstanding and miscommunication between the main actors in the educational systems. On one hand there are fundamental changes undergoing in the educational systems, including new Educational Laws, on the other hand these changes bring new requirements imposed to educators, parents and students. And it is not a surprise that all this causes confusion and rumour. In order to tackle the challenges it is time to accommodate within educational institutions educational mediators who will be the communication bridge between all the stakeholders in education. New, adapted soft skills and inclusive methodologies are needed and new ways of building bridges with families and communities have to be developed. At EU level mediation as a way of problem solving is determined only in D2008/52/EO, but it concerns general mediation. Educational mediation is not mentioned at all that is why each country regulates the process on its own. In Romania the school mediator collaborates with stakeholders but he is employed at request and subordinates to the pre-university education units or educational assistance centers. Since 2018 Greek government officially announced Educational Coordinators and among their tasks is the crisis management and conflict resolution in schools. Educational mediation emerged in Portugal in the 1990s as a result of the access to programs where mediation was valued in the school context. In Bulgaria the educational mediators are under the authority of the headmaster of the institution where they have been appointed and teachers are required to use their services if there are children at-risk in their classes. In some regions of Spain there are cultural mediators only to help children that come from other regions or from abroad to adapt more quickly to their new setting. Therefore, the overall goal of the project is to consolidate in a multilingual framework legal requirements, knowledge and skills, qualities and personal traits of educational mediators and elaborate training programmes for mediation and peer mediation, as well as collecting working practices in educational mediation. To reach this goal, the following specific objectives have been established: - To consolidate and tailor the legislative requirements for educational mediators in partner countries on the basis of the needs and context study and to complement them with other successful initiatives to upscale their educational settings - To increase the professional knowledge and skills of educators through capacity building training on educational mediation - To enhance the social inclusion and active participation of students in the educational process through peer mediation - To consolidate experience and working practices in educational mediation - To develop the ability for complex problem solving and critical thinking (the two top soft skills in 2020) of educational stakeholders for improved communication - To raise awareness on the educational problems and break down communication barriers through tolerance and proper communication - To equip educators with contemporary tools and practices for to support students in complex problem solving To achieve the project objectives the partnership will accomplish the following activities: - Creation of screening tool of legislation framework and services provided connected to educational mediation in EU countries with focus on partner countries. - Elaboration of integrated training programme for educational mediation ProEM - Elaboration of training programme for peer mediation Peer ProEM - International training of educational practitioners in educational mediation - Multiplier events for testing, feedback and dissemination of the project’s IOs. Target groups: direct target – educators; indirect target – educational stakeholders. The innovation in this strategic partnership lies in the empowerment of educators with variety of content on educational mediation with two training programs for mediators and for peer-mediators which will offer to schools and students alternatives of the traditional practices for problem solving and help schools to become safer places. The project is also innovative in the sense that it presents as an intellectual output a screening tool of legislation framework and services that comprises legislative background on educational mediation in all EU27. The gained knowledge on EU legislation framework in the sphere of educational mediation will strengthen the collaboration among all actors within schools, as well as with families and other external stakeholders. All the project results and the whole impact will be focused on encouraging the establishment of sustainable links between all stakeholders active in education and trainings by promoting collaborative approaches to learning process.
The EduMed project objectives aimed to raise awareness about educational problems and break down the communication barriers through an innovative competency-based approach of educational mediation with the goal of active participation of all actors in the educational systems. The implementation of the project strengthened the mutual understanding and increased the professional knowledge and skills of educators and equipped them with new innovative methods and techniques for effective conflict resolution contributing to a safer and friendlier school environment. The overall objectives of the EduMed project were to consolidate a framework with requirements, knowledge, and skills of educational mediators and elaborate training programs for educational mediation and peer mediation. The direct target group was educators, educational practitioners, and pedagogical staff and, the indirect target included educational stakeholders involved in the decision-making process in education. Through EduMed's project implementation a positive impact was observed due to the increased knowledge and gained new skills for complex problem solving, critical thinking, and effective communication of educators and educational stakeholders.
At present, the EU education systems are facing challenges that recently have intensified and become more widespread. The challenges are mainly due to misunderstanding and miscommunication between the main actors in the educational systems. On one hand, there are fundamental changes undergoing in the educational systems, including new educational laws, on the other hand, these changes bring new requirements imposed on educators, parents, and students. As a result of this, different conflicts emerged between the involved actors in the educational process. In order to tackle the challenges, the EduMed project developed an integrated approach - educational mediation that supported educational institutions with trained educational mediators who are the communication bridge between all the stakeholders in education. The goal of the EduMed project was to support educators and increase their transversal soft skills with the implementation of innovative inclusive methodologies for building strong bridges between educators, educational stakeholders, families, students, and communities by applying the methodology of educational mediation.