European societies are ethnically, culturally and religiously diverse. This growing diversity, especially with respect to culture, ethnicity and religion, poses both opportunities and challenges to European institutions and European societies. Recent studies show increasing intolerance and social exclusion both in schools and communities (EU Project Accept pluralism, 2010-2013). Particularly, in the secondary schools, behaviors of social rejection are of high occurrence and have an enormous impact on the further life of the students. Adolescents spend most of their time at school and establishing positive peer relations forms a key aspect of integration. The rejection of youngsters by their peers may impede their further integration in the society, leading to often far beyond than educational consequences such as gender issues, bullying, hate speech, perception of inequality and even violent behavior. Hence, integrating migrant children and succeeding in host country education systems is a key part of the wider socio-economic integration of migrant populations. Therefore, to increase inclusiveness and social well-being of migrant students it is crucial to implement tailored practical approaches at grassroots level and to boost skills of students, their parents and educators to reverse and reduce the risk on this long-recognised exclusion of migrants. FAIR SCHOOL is one of the initiatives to contribute in tackling this complex issue through developing and implementing inclusive and communication-fostering schemes for the establishment of fair, tolerant and inclusive environment in school based on integration of effective pedagogical techniques: restorative justice combined with proactive context-based and social and emotional learning approaches. It will increase empathy, tolerance and social & communication skills amongst pupils, relevant for the inclusion and mutual understanding between people coming from different socio-cultural backgrounds. The FAIR SCHOOL consortium objectives are: -To develop strategies in the form of collaborative co-curriculum activities based on restorative practices, narrative and social & emotional learning approaches that can be implemented in classroom and school circles -To increase skills of school educators on inclusive methodologies and pedagogical approaches for fostering pupils’ integration and mutual understanding -To enhance the capacity of schools in addressing social inclusion through implementing FAIR SCHOOL schemes in local schools in 4 EU countries -To increase the consciousness and knowledge of parents and carers of students on their role on the children behaviour in the context of tolerance and open-mindedness toward diversity -To raise awareness on the problem of social cohesion in multicultural schools and to promote cultural diversity at schools The most relevant of the FAIR SCHOOL results are the following: • The consortium managed to establish a collaboration network between schools from different countries of Europe, with considerable cultural differences. In this context, an essential result was the consensus to jointly build an educational methodology in Europe that is applicable in different countries. • The consortium developed an innovative 'Fair School methodology' based on social emotional learning, narratives and restorative practices, to be applied in secondary schools in the European Union. The consortium developed a document with the complete methodology and a shorter, more practical manual for teachers and support teams. This methodology includes a co-curricular proposal that consists of the conceptual framework, activities to implement in classrooms and recommendations to develop an implementation strategy in secondary schools in the European Union. Both documents are freely accessible on the project website (http://www.fair-school.org/). The relevance of the Fair School methodology is supported by the experience, dialogue and collaboration that existed during the project between the four schools and the other partners that made up the consortium. • The consortium developed a free online training modules for teams of secondary school teachers and their teams on the Fair School methodology and tips for its application. The online training allowed 105 teachers to acquire pedagogical skills based on restorative practices, social-emotional learning, improving multicultural communication techniques and reflecting on their teaching role. • Schools have a greater capacity to address multicultural classrooms and situations, promoting social inclusion among students and families. The development in values of empathy and respect, communication skills and self-knowledge were validated. Students developed a greater sense of belonging to the school community, strengthening social relationships and the concept of community. It was possible to create and raise awareness among teachers, students and families about the improvements in methodological strategies and their usefulness to address issues such as social inclusion, tolerance and respect. In addition, an international meeting was held in Portugal (LTTA), to apply the Fair School methodology and learn about the feedback from the teachers from the consortium schools. A total of 25 teachers from the school partners participated in person during five work days in Portugal. • The consortium created four Serious Games with the active participation of the four school partners to work on the values of tolerance, respect, self-care and inclusion in the classroom and in the school in general, based on agile, didactic and reflective dynamics. The Serious Games were created by teams of teachers from the four schools of the consortium and are the following: My perspective (Poland), Know my culture (Portugal), Globetrotters (Spain) and The message of the trees (Türkiye). Each Serious Game includes a document with the explanation of the objectives, activities, instructions to the participants and the final evaluation. The use of this tool allowed students to learn social skills and develop empathy through play, collaboration and dialogue. Adapting to the realities and context of the establishments, giving space for reflection, but above all motivating and being an attractive pedagogical tool to empower secondary students and promote social inclusion in schools. A total of 126 students have participated in the SG validation: 73 in Spain, 25 in Poland, 20 in Portugal and 8 in Türkiye. • The consortium improved the capacities of secondary schools through participation of their teams of teachers and students in several project activities (methodology validation, serious games validation, LTTA, on-line training, pilot) so that they have new pedagogical and institutional resources. In addition, the partners managed to increase awareness in the consortium's secondary schools about the problems of discrimination and inclusion due to issues of religion, origin, race and language, improving the conditions of coexistence for 21st century education. • The partners managed to apply the Fair School methodology and the Serious Games in the piloting activities in four schools of the consortium, in two quarterly cycles with excellent results and a spectacular reception from the students and teachers. A total of 442 people participated: 168 in Spain, 105 in Portugal, 96 in Türkiye and 73 in Poland. The target groups were: students (396), teachers (18) and parents (28). • The project improved the general awareness of school communities (families, students, teachers, administrators) about the importance of social cohesion and multiculturalism. The consortium implemented 6 multiplier events y in 6 different countries with a total of 158 participants. In addition, the partners carried out communication and dissemination activities at the local and regional level to disseminate the Fair School methodology with different actors. All project materials can be downloaded free of charge. Link: http://www.fair-school.org/results/
The project sought to address the problem of social cohesion in schools, addressing multicultural characteristics, promoting diversity and tolerance. The Fair School project aimed to contribute to and promote tolerant and inclusive environments in the 4 local secondary schools belonging to the Consortium and piloting experiences to try to have an impact in other European schools. Effective pedagogical techniques were implemented focusing on the development of collaborative co-curricular strategies based on restorative practices, social-emotional learning and storytelling. One of the objectives was to increase social and communication skills among students in order to enhance mutual understanding and inclusion among people from different socio-cultural backgrounds, based on respect and reflection. The workshops and training courses aimed at increasing the skills of teachers and educational agents of the schools with inclusive pedagogical methodologies, in order to enhance the role and capacity of schools to deal with issues and problems of social inclusion. Also, spaces were created to raise awareness among parents, as agents for the students’ education based on respect and diversity.
As European societies today present contexts of great ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, the idea of the project was to address challenges related to migratory inclusion due to the need to generate opportunities for personal and community growth and development. Recent studies show an increase in intolerance and exclusion, particularly in secondary schools. The rise of such social rejection, isolation and prejudice have a great impact on students' future lives. This can lead to negative consequences beyond the educational sphere; such as gender issues, bullying, hate speech, perceived inequality and even violent behaviour. Against this background, it is important to integrate migrant children into the education systems of the host country, enhancing their consolidation within the society. To improve the inclusion and social well-being of students, families and the educational environment, it is necessary to implement personalised practical approaches, strengthening social skills of students, parents and educators to prevent and avoid problems of exclusion, favouring social well-being.