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EDUCATIONAL INCLUSION IN DIVERSITY, FACING SCHOOL LEAVING: Innovative methodologies to support ethnic minority students and stop hate speech in Europe.

2020-1-ES01-KA201-0822352020Strategic Partnerships for school educationfinalizedGood practice
Countries: ES|IT|PT|FR|SI · Grant: €134,288
Romas and/or other minoritiesInclusion - equityEarly School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project summary

We have had to experience one of the most difficult moments that the European society will face due to the COVID19 pandemic. UN officials point out that the incidence of hate speech on the population has exponentially worsened and warn that "allowing the fabric of our societies to tear is perhaps a more serious disorder than the pandemic itself". In addition, this is putting European education systems to the test, confinement has increased the educational gap of the most vulnerable students, such as roma students. The Spanish Minister of Education recently revealed that between 10% and 12% of students do not participate in online learning, and more free time confined at home favors a higher level of virtual activity where students are being invaded by hate speech; the online activity of Spanish minors has increased by 180% and in Italy by 220%. Hate speech is multiplying, aggravating an already bad situation. The Resolution of the European Parliament on the need to reinforce the Framework of the Union of National Strategies for the Inclusion of roma persons for the period after 2020, points out that there has been a deterioration in school segregation, that anti-romanism and its manifestations -like hate crimes and hate speech, both online and offline- remain a source of great concern, noting that "intersectional discrimination must be addressed and strategies need a strong gender dimension and a child-centered approach". For all these reasons, improving the inclusion and educational results of these groups involves, among other measures, to end the bullying to which they are subject that usually leads to school skipping, discouragement, and lastly school leaving. This harassment is often not perceived by teachers who have not received specific training to fight it and effectively promote the inclusion of roma students from a global and gender perspective, taking into account the reality of this group. In order to achieve this, an Intersectoral Strategic Partnership with entities expert in each of the areas of the project (formed by educational entities, entities expert in the fight against hate speech, and especially by associations of roma women who is one of the main target groups) propose the project EDUCATIONAL INCLUSION IN DIVERSITY, to generate an effective strategy for the educational inclusion of roma students in secondary education, and to end the bullying they are subject to. To this end, a series of innovative results will be created, to provide teachers of secondary schools with the tools necessary to identify hate speech and bullying in their classrooms, to work with their students, and generate inclusion processes among them through collaborative work. All of them will be digital resources compatible with classroom work and distance education. The project will have two high-quality Intellectual Outputs: O1 - E-LEARNING COURSE TO TRAIN TEACHERS IN THE INCLUSION OF ROMA STUDENTS IN THE CLASSROOM, to train these students to achieve an inclusive classroom where they can overcome their barriers and achieve educational success, and learn specific strategies to get hate speech out of their classrooms. O2 - OERs: KITS AGAINST DISCRIMINATION; a first-aid kit with the most appropriate educational resources to deal with radicalization and the appearance of violent or segregating attitudes in social networks through a programming that autonomously reacts to student comments. These two results will be complemented by THE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT FOR THE DETECTION OF BULLYING AND HATE SPEECH IN THE CLASSROOM, which will allow to detect bullying, hate speech, and the shapes they take through subtle and anonymous surveys by the students via smartphone and/or PC, and will also lead them to the educational contents of the O2, which help prevent these attitudes with the methodologies proposed in O1. For two years, partner and collaborating entities will hold 4 Transnational Meetings, national activities, virtual meetings, dissemination activities and Multiplier Events to achieve a great and sustainable impact on secondary classrooms with roma students from across Europe, effectively enabling them to achieve educational success and inclusion in equity, and banishing the hate speeches that undermine EU values from high school classrooms.

Objectives

The harassment derived from the hate speech suffered by the most vulnerable groups of students usually leads to school absenteeism, discouragement, and lastly school leaving. That is why improving the inclusion and educational success of these groups involves fighting against the hate speech and discrimination that exist in classrooms, eliminating the prejudices and stereotypes on which they are based. In addition, teachers are often not able to detect these types of discrimination, since they have not received specific training to fight it while effectively promoting inclusion in students with obstacles, from a global and gender perspective. The project “EDUCATIONAL INCLUSION INTO DIVERSITY” has been carried out to generate an effective educational inclusion strategy for roma students and other students with other obstacles in secondary education, to stop the harassment to stop the harassment they are subjected to. To achieve this, a series of innovative results have been created, which provide teachers with the necessary tools to detect hate speech and harassment in their classroom, work effectively with their students, and generate inclusion processes.

Background

The European society is facing difficult times, marked by the aftermath of the COVID19 pandemic and the economic crisis. M.Moratinos, high representative for the UN Alliance of Civilizations, declared in March 2020 that the incidence of hate speech had worsened exponentially and warned that "allowing it to tear the fabric of our societies is perhaps one of the disorders more severe than the pandemic itself". This dual health and economic crisis has put European education systems to the test, as confinements increased the educational gap for students with obstacles. The Spanish Minister of Education Isabel Celaá revealed in 2020 that 10 to 12% of students do not participate in online learning. Adding to this is the fact that being in confinement favors higher levels of virtual activity, where hate speech is very present (according to the 2020 Qustodio study on online habits of minors, their online activity had increased by 180%. Hate speech is multiplying, aggravating an already bad situation. For all these reasons, in order to improve the inclusion and educational results of those most vulnerable groups, it is essential to put an end to the harassment which they are subjected to.

Project partners (8)