"Context of the projectThe EdUCATe project was born from the observation that, most of the time in Europe, conflict situations are not sufficiently taken into account at school and that some of these situations can lead to violence that has negative effects on school climates. To address these unavoidable conflict situations, the EdUCATe project aims to disseminate knowledge, know-how and tools on nonviolent conflict transformation through the training of teachers and educators. The partners also noted the absence and the lack of a European network for sharing good practices in this area. Objectives of the projectThus, the EdUCATe project had three major objectives: - the exchange of good practices in the field of teacher training in nonviolent conflict transformation (NVCT) with a view to drafting a European curriculum for such training;- the exchange of advocacy experiences with governments on this subject;- and the establishment of a European network of actors for advocacy and the exchange of good practices in this field.This project was therefore built around these three axes (curriculum, advocacy and network) which were each coordinated by two project partners.Number and profile of participating organizationsThis 36-month project, running from September 2015 to August 2018, brought together six partners, three associations, two universities and one foundation: the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), the University of Barcelona (Spain), the Centro Psicopedagogico per la Pace e la gestione dei conflitti (Italy), the Centre for Peace, Non-Violence and Human Rights in Osijek (Croatia), the Evens Foundation (Belgium) and the Coordination for Non-Violence and Peace Education (France), which coordinated it.Description of the main activities implementedFirst, five of the six partners conducted research activities to identify and describe the situation of teacher training in nonviolent conflict transformation in their countries (Evens Foundation was not involved in this part of the project). Among other things, they identified and analysed 3 good practices per country. Based on this research and their training experience, the partners have drafted an innovative European teacher training programme (curriculum) on nonviolent conflict transformation. This four-module curriculum was tested by the partners during a learning activity, which was a pilot training organized from 11 to 15 July 2017 in France. It brought together a total of 25 participants, i.e. 15 trainees (teachers) selected by the EdUCATe partners and 10 trainers and staff persons. It made it possible to evaluate and validate this curriulum while allowing it to be improved on certain points. At the same time, the partners conducted research on the advocacy actions that had been carried out at European level and in each country on this theme of teacher training and together they defined the common principles of their advocacy and action plans for each country based on the results of their research. Finally, throughout the project, the partners reflected on the creation of a European network on this teacher training on NVCT. The research conducted, in conjunction with previous research, made it possible to identify the various actors in this field in Europe (networks, national associations, universities) and to confirm the absence and the lack of such a European network. Gradually, the partners defined the outlines that this network could take (vision, mission, objectives, structures). The partners organised a European Multiplier Event, entitled ""Growing the Movement"", in Brussels, on 24 May 2018, in the morning at the Bozar Museum and in the afternoon at the European Parliament. This day was an opportunity to share with other European associations the various results of the project, to discuss in a dynamic way the construction of the European network, whose idea was well received, and to exchange on our advocacy practices with women and men politicians and education officials.Results and impacts achievedBased on their research, the partners drafted several documents. First of all, a of the current situation in terms of training teachers in nonviolent conflict transformation and another on advocacy in Europe for such education. Based on these results, they drafted the three intellectual productions foreseen in the project: a European curriculum in four modules, a European Position Paper on advocacy and an analytical dossier on the creation of a European network for the training of teachers and educators in nonviolent conflict transformation."

"There is a growing interest in mindfulness as a way of living with increasing scientific evidence of its value for optimal health and well-being. Since several years mindfulness is also being increasingly integrated into education. The evidence shows that as benefits educators and learners demonstrate increased resilience and ability to better cope with stress, difficult moments and relations. Educationalists agree on the fact that relationship needs to be nurtured long before the moment of crisis, both from the educators' side (teachers, parents, social workers) and the children side. The project partners either had experience in mindfulness or in parents training and education and both were supportive to each other for the benefit of the project learning, process and results.The project aimed at exchanging practices in the field of parenting, parents' education and mindfulness for children and schools, at learning from each partner’s experiences and practices as well as from what was available in their national contexts, at exploring the contact points for laying the foundation and verifying the feasibility for the development of a mindfulness course for parents based on the different approaches of the partners involved; at bringing mindful parenting to the attention of a wider audience and to get recognised as significant stakeholders in the field. The project's core activities were local parents' workshops where the educators and parents together practiced mindfulness and together reflected on the impact on themselves as educators and persons. The impact is presented in a form of stories collected by the partners from some of the parents and educators that did attend the local workshops. The stories confirm the project hypothesis that the practice of mindfulness within the family context shows a number of benefits: calmer and more relaxed parents, better emotional regulation and enhanced relationships between the parents and the children.The workshops were the way to network at local level, to reach out to parents, to implement into the local contexts the learning from the training activities undertaken in Austria (The Way of Council and Jon Kabat-Zinn); Mindful Self Compassion and .b in the UK; WakeUpSchool Project at the Plum Village in France as well as the famous method ""Arguing Well"" developed by CPP.Tha partners' reflections and conclusions are collected in the Guidelines for Developing a Mindful Parenting Curriculum.The Guidelines, the stories and much more are available for free through the project website http://www.mindfulness-in-parenting.eu that will continue to exist.The project was able to directly reach out to 1.030 parents and educators, with 87 local workshops and 149 hours of collective practice with the parents, those impact is featured in 30 stories in the 4 languages.A series of dissemination activities undertaken - through events, social media and personal contacts - were providing partners with the possibility to network and connect with stakeholders in the filed of education and Mindfulness across Europe and also to be recognised as key stakeholder in the field, by being invited to several events and be listed as providers of mindful parenting.The local workshops are still taking place in the 4 countries and small thematic format are under development based on the parents and educators requests. The partners are currently harvesting the results of the intensive work done and defining new partnership and cooperations for events and for even more strengthening the relevance of Mindfulness in education. The results of the project are well embedded into the partners core activities thus reinforcing the systemic impact obtained."

"The ETHOS proposal has been aimed at promoting and improving new approaches and tools to manage and exploiting – as resources for change - interpersonal, social and organisational conflicts in business environment in order to support quality and innovation in vocational education by fostering the integration of learning with working life, promoting more conducive learning environments at the workplace and work-placed training as a basis for development of vocational skills relevant to the labour market needs.In fact, the project was relateed to specific needs of enterprises – and in particular SMEs - which experienced a hard time because of the economic situation: the acquisition of skills for dealing with organisational conflicts by entrepreneurs and managers could be a means of repositioning and/or getting through the crisis for enterprises, as suggested by various European documents. For this reason, it has been necessary to set up analytical and training tools, methodologies, approaches which could promote and encourage the introduction of specific soft skills within corporate training plans. This can contribute to create in enterprises an environment and a climate favorable to development and innovation.The ETHOS project intended to contribute to the development of actions and strategies aimed at:- elaborating approaches, methodologies and tools for improving quality and innovation in vocational education;- elaborating approaches, methodologies and tools for fostering the integration of learning with working life, promoting more learning conducive environments at the workplace, work-placed training as a basis for the development of vocational skills relevant to the labour market needs;- developing soft skills related to conflicts exploitation among entrepreneurs and managers to improve new innovation-driven role models and management approaches;- creating within enterprises an environment and a climate which lead to social cohesion, development and innovation;- contributing to facilitate processes of repositioning and/or overcoming the crisis for enterprises;- promoting networking between enterprises and VET providers.The partnership of the project has been composed of 8 different representatives of key actors in the fields of social cohesion and vocational education: organisations which deal with vocational learning, adult learning and advisory activities for enterprises; public institutions which play an active role in the definition of policies and keeps strong relations with institutional bodies and social partner organisations; organisations which work for the development of soft skills aimed at enhancing social cohesion.The majority of the ETHOS partners have been involved and worked together in a previous LLP GRUNDTVIG project in the field of adult education, CONTEST - COmmunity experimeNts Through the Exploitation of Social Conflicts.The project realised three key actions:CONFLICTS MAPPING IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT - setting up and testing of a mapping system of cultural, social and organisational conflicts in business environment in the reference areas of the project, in order to define the role models and the contextual factors leading the conflicts. The mapping has been realised thorugh a documental and a field analysis in all project countries a transnational report about the setting up and the testing of the mapping system will be realised. TRAINING FOR CONFLICT EXPLOITATION IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT - realisation and experimentation, through the realisation of 6 national pilot training programmes, of a new specific curriculum which defines competences and skills necessary for SMEs' entrepreneurs and managers to identify, develop and enhance workers' competences and skills for dealing with conflicts in workplace and change them in a resource for improvement and growth with reference to business enviroment. Each programme lasted 36 hours and has been articulated in a study plan including specific didactic modules. The pilot training programmes involved each average 15 participants.ETHOS BUSINESS LABS - planning and implementation in each country participating in the project of specific workshops for SMEs' workers aimed at facilitating the expression, the management and the exploitation of conflict in their own business environment, by learning how to ""argue well"". In each country 3 business labs has been realised and involved average 40 participants.The ETHOS project allowed the acquisition by SMEs workers of skills and competences to facilitate the expression, the management and the exploitation of conflicts in workplace, through different methodological approaches; contributed in setting up a European network between enterprises and VET/training providers to promote and develop new approaches and tools to manage conflicts in workplace; encouraged the introduction of soft skills in corporate training plans through a consultation process among project key stakeholders."

"<< Background >>The aim of the project is to open a transnational discussion on the theme of quarrels and conflicts between peers, with reference to boys, girls, teenagers from 2 to 18 years, in the context of their life experience at school.What happens when a quarrel occurs between students? How is it perceived by teachers? How do they intervene and to what extent is their intervention the result of a school strategy? Is there a pedagogical method or approach shared by teachers? Who decide and what level of sharing has the choice (class, school)? What are the results and impact? Is there an educational strategy on quarreling students?We know that schools rarely devote work to this issue: teachers react in individual and even emotional ways to children's quarrels. Generally, they do not think that quarreling is normal and important in the life of people of all ages and a few of them knows that there is the practical, as well as theoretical, possibility of learning from quarrels and learning to quarrel better.The partners belong to this rare area that has made childhood quarrel an object of study and work, developing precise methods and educational tools to allow students to learn also through quarrels, to develop relational skills and prevent the conflictual incompetence that characterizes the violent behavior.The project leader, CPP - Psycho-pedagogical Center for Peace and Conflict Management, is an Institute specialized in learning processes in situations of conflict. It deals with research, pedagogical consultancy and adult training. It is managed by pedagogist Daniele Novara, author of numerous books that have helped teachers and parents to discover the dimension of conflict and quarrel as moments of human relations clearly distinct from violence. With quarrels you can learn at all ages. In particular, for the age group from 2 to 10 years, he has developed a precise method called “Arguing well”, experimented in some Italian schools with the results documented in the 2013 book https://www.erickson.it/it/litigare-con-metodo , translated into German https://www.aol-verlag.de/10404-gut-streiten-will-gelernt-sein.html . The CPP carries out training for teachers nationwide, however the method is still too rare in Italian schools, despite the very positive experiences of those who use it, among others the project partner Fondazione Intro, who uses it in the Montessori school “Il Sassolino” since 2011.Therefore, the context is a generalized absence of a shared pedagogical strategy of reference for teachers, which allows them to know how to intervene in the event of quarrels between peers at school, with what methods and with what tools. At the same time, there are consolidated and positive experiences that certify that the methods exist, the ordinary experience of a childhood quarrel can be transformed from an unexpected moment of disturbance into an opportunity to learn skills. It is about maintaining the centrality of the subjectivity of boys, girls, teenagers, accompanying them to develop the skills at the base of a functioning democratic life: knowing how to express themselves, to listen, to put themselves in others' shoes, to identify common problems and interests and to find effective ways to be better together, whether there is a shared agreement, or if there is no ""solution"" to the conflict. Soft skills can be developed by giving everyone, children and teenagers the opportunity to argue better, in a school context well equipped for those purposes.There is a need to make these experiences more accessible and to understand how to make methods more transferable, what obstacles still prevent the spread of these methods. E.g Peer mediation has decades of experience but it is not very common in schools.Above all, there is a need to network at a European level the schools that want overcome certain useless and ineffective aspects of school life that by inertia remain in practices when it happens that students start arguing.<< Objectives >>1.Start a wide transnational discussion on quarrels between peers in European schools and on the absence or presence of pedagogical methods to transform quarrels into learning opportunities. 2.Networking four pilot schools from four EU countries to test different methods, share experiences and elaborate results that will be available free of charge for anyone and able to make evident and documented the existence and effectiveness of pedagogical methods, suitable for the management of the class in the event of quarrels and disputes between peers in the entire age group from 2 to 18 years. 3.Networking all the partners to build together a common activity plan that leads to shared results, aimed at making the tested methods more transferable. 4.Include new and diverse stakeholders in the discussion on these issues, including policy makers and parents.5.Improve the quality of teachers training about conflict transformation, the adult’s reaction when children quarrel and the pedagogical methods connected to this issue. The key is to give the floor to learners, to organize experiences to build a safe environment at school and learn soft skills of quarreling between peers without being judged. Highlighting the role of teachers as ""film director"" at school (in Montessori’s meaning), without leaving entirely on their shoulders the weight of the change of pedagogical perspective on quarrels.6.Develop methodological guidelines and a Toolkit for teachers to make methods more transferable. It is important to understand and remove cultural and organizational obstacles that make it difficult for trained teachers to introduce new pedagogical methods on disputes in the whole school, not only some classes.7.Increase the quality of the educational offer at school, helping adults to prevent the dynamics of exclusion and violent behavior at school and in communities. Learning to quarrel may improve social skills of students through learning with conflicts and quarrels throughout the age range from 2 to 18 years.8.To help improve student autonomy, decreasing their dependence on adults, too often asked to intervene in their quarrels as judges. So to improve self-esteem and empowerment that come from knowing about their ability to deal constructively with the quarrels among peers, as well as improving the well being of the same teachers.9.To help improve the intercultural awareness. The project aims to create a permanent network that will guarantee the future sustainability of the project results and will allow to enhance multiple experiences and to build new joint initiatives thanks to a climate of mutual trust and the working method.The new teaching methods may become accessible not only for schools, but for the whole field of education, with the possibility that policy makers learn the existence of this approach, deciding how to support it and make it their own local, national and European.<< Implementation >>The project activities will be developed through moments of comparison and modeling, transnational training meetings in person and online, experimentation of the methods used by the partners in new contexts (pilot schools), development of new tools and multiplier events. Part of the activities will be dedicated to the elaboration and validation of the results achieved by collaborative work between partners and experimentation in schools.The schedule will be punctuated by monthly online meetings and 6 transnational face-to-face meetings, followed by actions that will involve a greater number of people.The kickoff of the project will take place in Italy, at the headquarters of the lead partner in Piacenza and Milan.The transnational meetings will then visit all the countries involved, starting with Malta, where the partner Relationships are Forever Foundation has developed educational methods linked to the original Friendship Cards tool, also used in the Maltese pilot school. Therefore, it will be possible to involve local stakeholders in the presentation of the other methods used by the partners. This multiplier event will allow to expand the investigation and documentation on the methods used in schools.The second year of work will open with the Learning week in Croatia, which is the central moment of the shared work, designed together in the first year and carried out in time to be able to start new activities in the schools involved and to launch further investigations in the different countries to describe how fights between children or students in schools are dealt with by adults.Then the work will be concentrated on the activities in the schools and on the production of results, which will be presented in the 3 Multiplier Events in Romania, France and finally Italy. Therefore, starting from the interviews and videos on how adults can intervene in case of quarrels between peers at school, we will move on to results that include teacher training, which is a key element. From this basis, the activities will make it possible to address the issue at the level of the entire school system, which includes school leaders and policy makers, in order to address the issue as a whole and introduce sustainable innovations.<< Results >>The results of the activities carried out over the three years summarize some aspects of the activities carried out in the pilot schools and of the transnational collaboration implemented in transnational meetings. The expected results are:1.Create documentation on existing methods, making clear how they work, their characteristics, their results. The point of view of students, teachers, even families is a central part of the documentation. This documentation enhances both the activities carried out together in the three-year collaboration of the project, and the consolidated experiences of the partners and pilot schools.2.Summarize what knowledge and skills teachers need to implement these methods in their classrooms and in the relationship between them and with the students. Enhance the activities carried out during the learning week, scheduled for the second year of the project.3.Focus on the development potential of schools around these methods, broadening the study beyond the theme of relations between peers and the interventions of teachers in the event of quarrels and disputes between peers. We need to focus on the functioning of the system: how can school administrators and teachers themselves move to improve the transferability of pedagogical methods on quarrels? What obstacles make these experiences so effective but also so rare?4.Involve policy makers in this work, first by giving them information on this issue and on the potential that would exist if the school system became capable of using innovations by improving teacher training, pre-service and in-service, and the sharing of tools and methods of proven effectiveness.Some partners will be responsible and coordinators of the work for the realization of each result, which will use contributions from all partners:1. CPP (Italy):A methodological framework of psycho-pedagogical methods for quarrels between peers from 2 to 18 years (An audiovisual product to make visible experiences and to clarify pedagogical assumptions that allow children, girls, preteens and adolescents to fight better2. Osnovna škola Ivana Gorana Kovačića Vrbovsko (Croatia)Coordination of the Learning week, planned in Croatia, to be carried out with the contribution of all partners, trying to involve local stakeholders.3. Udruge Centar za mir, nenasilje i ljudska orava - Osijek (Croatia)Toolkit for Teachers Training (A very operational manual for teachers, allows them to put into practice concrete actions in the classroom to encourage the learning of conflictual competence.)4. FREREF (France)Guidelines for a Whole School Approach to Pupils Quarrelling5. IIHL (Italy)Policy RecommendationsThese results will be published on the project website and will remain available later on the EIP Lab website"