"<< 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"