Lessons learned by partners and registered through the questionnaire are being collected here.
If you wish to add your own lesson, please edit the table below the arrow(s) corresponding to your pilot and fill in the fields required, or fulfil the following password-protected form
| PILOT NAME | Date | Type of lesson | Subject | Lesson | Situation | Recommendations & comments | Barriers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Empowering young translators (1/4) | 2023/ 06/22 | Implementation | Lenght of the activity and methodology used | The repilot of Empowering Young Translation lasted from October to May. While these months were necessary to develop awareness of the concept of child language brokering in children, the duration was probably too long and challenging. As a lesson learned we can say that it would have been better to alternate the repilot workshop more with other activities, so that it would have been less repetitive for the children. Also, from the feedback we received, we should have had more iTheatre sessions and fewer sessions of the preparatory activities. During the preparatory activities, the workshop structure consisted of “circle time + drawing/activities,” but even this structure was too repetitive and it was difficult for the children to talk before doing the activity which makes them better understand the concept they want to explore. We saw that it works better to have them first have an experience (game/drawing/activity) and then have circle time where they reflect aloud on the experience they had and gather opinions). | – Increase the length of iTheatre sessions and reduce the sessions where we have drawings and circle time. – Have children do an activity – which can be a game, an experience, a drawing, related to the concept we want to develop – and then talk about it out loud in circle time and not vice versa (with elementary school children). – Have small groups of children working with iTheatre (3 or 4 children per group). | ||
| 1. Empowering young translators (2/4) | 2023/ 06/22 | Communication | Communication between experts-local stakeholders-researchers | In general, communication was smooth and successful. However, there are some small changes that could have made it even more effective, in particular: – the workshops were held 3 times a week and the three UNIBO researchers each went once a week. Having at least 1 researcher who had followed all three groups by going all three times a week would perhaps have allowed for better internal communication at the level of organization and communication. – Increase contact and communication between the local stakeholder and the i-Theatre expert. | -There was a misunderstanding about the use of materials between the iTheatre expert and the local stakeholders (the children from the Welcome Centre had already prepared drawings to use as a starting point for creating the animated stories with the iTheatre; while the iTheatre expert made the children redo the drawings). – Sometimes some information was lost due to the lack of one person to act as a spokesperson between all the stakeholders. | Have a spokesperson in charge of communicating with all parties and keeping communication organized and successful. | Emotional barriers in: Implementation |
| 1. Empowering young translators (3/4) | 2023/ 06/22 | Communication | Participants’ consent forms too complex | Project consent forms should be more streamlined and simple. | It was difficult for the educators of the Welcome Centre to obtain all the required signatures for the consent form and all the information on both parents of the children. The educators advised us to streamline the forms by requiring the information of only one parent giving consent for both and to reduce the length of the forms. | -shorter consent forms -consent forms signed by only one parent who also gives consent for the partner without having to have both parents sign the forms. | Emotional barriers in: Implementation |
| 1. Empowering young translators (4/4) | 2023/ 06/22 | Implementation | Successful methodology | The creation of animated stories through the iTheatre and the use of narrated vignettes recounting experiences of child language brokering proved to be two methodologies appreciated by the children and therefore successful. | The children created animated stories using the iTheatre in which they recounted their experiences as translators or related to their multilingualism. The children told their own experiences as young translators after listening to narratives that told the story of other child brokers. They thus empathised with certain aspects and hearing other experiences allowed them to tell more about their own experiences as brokers and make connections. | We recommend the use of storytelling and narrated vignettes to explore the practice of child language brokering in primary school children. | |
| 2. The Adventures of the Little Prince in the World (13/13) | 2023/ 11/08 | Evaluation | Inviting participants’ families into the ‘research space’ as part of evaluation and celebration processes | Engaging parents in evaluation and celebration activities can support students’ sense of accomplishment as well as support dialogue and relationship building between the school community, students and their families. | As part of our repilot action, one of our school partners hosted a celebration event inviting students’ carers and family members. The event showcased and celebrated the students’ wonderful work and allowed the parents to hear from their children what they had been engaged in as part of the project. We held evaluation activities and captured the parents’ remarks and appreciation of the school’s work and the ways in which it supports its student community and offers diverse creative activities. | Organising end-of-project events that celebrate students’ work can offer opportunities for their families to come along and witness their learning journeys. Moreover, such events can enhance communication and relationship building between the parents and their children, as well as between the parents and the school. Inviting parents into the school space can be quite a complex process as not all parents feel as comfortable; therefore, it is important to find ways to nurture their sense of belonging as that will also impact and transform their understanding and engagement with their child’s educational experience and school life. | Emotional barriers in: Communication, Engagement Social barriers in: Engagement Cultural barriers in: Engagement |
| 2. The Adventures of the Little Prince in the World (12/13) | 2023/ 11/08 | Evaluation | Evaluation as a process instead of one-off activities | Struggles to capture evidence as ongoing reflections versus one-off activities at the end of the project (e.g. final exit interviews) | We launched our repiloting project with ideas and suggestions for ongoing evaluation activities to be completed by co-creation leads and facilitators (I.e. weekly audio reflection messages, diary entries, reflection notes etc). Having regular reflection moments would help us capture the dynamic nature of co-creation/PAR approaches and understand the ‘journey’ of the repiloting pilot action, while ensuring that teachers had the opportunity to provide feedback. Time is a rare and precious resource for educators and as such as initial plans had to be adjusted. Our evaluation activities involving teaching staff and students occurred on a more temporal and one-off basis due to the school’s busy programme and structured teaching schedule. | Completing regular reflection and evaluation activities can be quite challenging given the schools’ busy schedules and strong focus on learning and prioritising key school and curriculum demands. As such it is important to be open and honest with involved school partners and collectively decide a realistic and manageable evaluation framework with some key agreed points e.g. number of evaluation activities and key dates. | Cultural barriers in: Evaluation Education barriers in: Implementation, Evaluation |
| 2. The Adventures of the Little Prince in the World (11/13) | 2023/ 11/08 | Implementation | Working with new and potentially non-familiar resources and art forms | Arts-forms, such as books, are context-situated resources. The degree of familiarity with the resource is a key consideration regarding how they become incorporated in co-creation activities. | In the UK, children are not necessarily as familiar or invested in the story of the Little Prince as in Cyprus. It was therefore important to ensure that the teachers who would lead the co-creation process were adequately informed. While preparing for our repilot action we invested a lot of time researching and curating a list of resources for teachers and children to support their introduction into the world and adventures of The Little Prince novel. During our discussions with teaching staff leading the implementation we also introduced the idea of using alternative texts that they felt might be relevant. We also felt it would have been exciting for the children and young people themselves to recommend a book that they thought was important and relevant to them. | Replication processes involve a degree of decision making regarding which types of materials are appropriate and accessible in a given context. Where possible, offering participants the freedom to pick their preferred art-form or key resources (I.e. books, poems, films, painting etc) can enhance their sense of ownership over the project and support a deeper investment given their familiarity and existing interest in their recommended art-form/key resource. | Cultural barriers in: Activity co-creation, Engagement Education barriers in: Engagement |
| 2. The Adventures of the Little Prince in the World (10/13) | 2023/ 11/08 | Activity Co-Creation | Investing in existing skillsets and fuelling co-creation synergies between teachers | Finding the right ‘person’ to develop and lead activities | During our repiloting action, we found that teachers who felt they had license and freedom over the scope and nature of the activities (I.e. arts-based methods such as drawing or dance, were more ‘adventurous’ and creative with the development of new activities. In doing so, they drew from and contributed their own skillsets, passions and experiences and as a result were able to take ownership of the process. | To support specific approaches such arts-based research processes it is important and ethical to bring in practitioners/facilitators with the right skillsets and approach to completing such work. Their commitment and expertise will ensure that participants are meaningfully engaged in the repilot activities and that they feel supported and inspired throughout the process. | Education barriers in: Activity co-creation, Implementation |
| 2. The Adventures of the Little Prince in the World (9/13) | 2023/ 11/08 | Communication | Issues of communication between school staff involved in the planning and implementation of the activities. | Direct and clear communication during implementation is a key factor for nurturing a sense of ownership for all involved facilitators and a key component of co-creation processes. | In one of the schools we engaged, there was a significant delay in the initial scheduling of the implementation due to a key staff member’s serious illness and recruitment challenges for additional subject leaders. Responding to the new circumstances and working around the school’s capacity we managed to resume the re-piloting process and connect with a new teacher who was assigned the project and agreed to lead the two in-classroom sessions. From our conversations with the teacher, we gathered that she had ‘inherited’ the project with little formal introduction or support. This led to a lack of clarity regarding the project’s overall focus and key learning aims. | Co-creation requires time and ongoing collaboration to meaningfully engage in dialogue and co-production. This is especially important when teachers are implementing activities developed by someone else. For instance, it is the responsibility of the person developing the activities and learning objectives to clearly communicate them to the facilitators and to allow time for questions, brainstorming and adaptations so the person delivering the activities feels prepared and can develop a sense a sense of ownership over the project. | Emotional barriers in: Communication, Activity co-creation |
| 2. The Adventures of the Little Prince in the World (8/13) | 2023/ 11/08 | Implementation | Working in schools and managing wider sociocultural impacts | Collaborating with schools that are in a precarious situation where they might be struggling with lack of resources and staffing can have a knock off effect on co-creation and implementation processes. | During our repiloting implementation phase we experienced the impact of deep divisions, structural barriers and institutional inequalities across our different school partners. Such divisions were prevalent and may hinder creative or innovative ways of delivering teaching. Schools in deprived areas of the country can find it difficult to recruit highly skilled and/or more experienced teachers. As a result, staffing delays and lack of specific skill sets may delay the implementation process, creating an ‘access problem’ in relation to entering the ‘research field’ and developing reflexive co-collaborative relationships. | We felt it was important to allow the school to take the lead in terms of rescheduling the implementation programme as it was our way of prioritising the needs of the school and creating space for them to regroup before resuming our co-collaborative relationship. We found it necessary to stay in touch with the school via email – without adding to existing pressure, as a way of maintaining some sense of direction and guidance while also indirectly offering them the option to opt out, if they felt so given their circumstances. | Emotional barriers in: Communication Education barriers in: Communication, Implementation |
| 2. The Adventures of the Little Prince in the World (7/13) | 2023/ 11/08 | Implementation: Engagement of students | Working in a classroom environment and adopting inclusive strategies to engage students from both migrant and non-migrant backgrounds | When working with highly multicultural schools that host a range of ethnic, cultural, religious, and linguistic backgrounds, it is important to co-create an activity programme that responds and celebrates such a diverse school community. Doing so supports meaningful engagement and participation of all students and offers opportunities to learn from others’ experience and nurture feelings of care and compassion towards each other. | As part of our repilot action we collaborated with three highly multicultural schools, each welcoming a diverse community of students from both migrant and non-migrant backgrounds. The activities were aimed at investing in the power of storytelling to support the articulation and re-imagining of experiences of change, migration, and transition. We co-created a range of activities that focus on storytelling and creative approaches to elicit responses towards migration and support opportunities to consider such events and experiences while placing oneself in ‘somebody else’s shoes’. | When working with a big group of students (across class, year group or school), it is important to develop an activity programme that involves all the students – those with and without direct experiences of migration or mobility. Offering opportunities to engage with fictionalized versions of such experiences can support meaningful engagement for all involved students. This is especially important for students with lived experience of migration or forced displacement, as such an approach can create a ‘safe’ storytelling space to talk about similar experiences without feeling forced to disclose personal information or having to ‘re-live’ traumatic experiences. Equally, for those students who do not have migratory experiences, learning about such issues through storytelling can allow them to ‘put themselves in someone else’s shoes’. | Social barriers in: Engagement Cultural barriers in: Engagement Education barriers in: Communication, Implementation |
| 2. The Adventures of the Little Prince in the World (6/13) | 2023/ 11/08 | Implementation: Working with school partners | Working with multiple school partners and investing in ongoing and new partnerships | Throughout the implementation process, we realised the importance of working with a range of school partners and a mixture of new and established relationships. Both types of relationships can support unique replication experiences while allowing project teams to effectively manage implementation-associated risks, replication outcomes, and co-creation relationships. | Situation: During our repiloting phase we worked with two new school partners (specific to WP5) and a former key school partner who had been involved in our ‘Empowering Young Translators’ pilot action (WP4). Our original plan involved working with two Oxfordshire-based schools: a primary school (children aged 5-7 years old) and a secondary school (children aged 11-13 years old). Due to some unforeseen situations (I.e. a serious health condition of a staff member playing a key role in the implementation process), we had to pause our implementation phase and offer some space and time to the school to re-organise the sessions and fill in vacant teaching roles. Due to the prolonged uncertainty as a result of lack of regular communication from the school and no clear updates regarding next steps and availability to proceed with the planned activities, we contacted our former secondary school partner from WP4 and invited them to join the repilot action. Given our existing relationship we were able to explain our time-sensitive request and were able to collaborate and co-design a one-off session with a small group of students. | Working with multiple school partners and different types of relationships offers a range of possibilities and potential challenges. For instance, working with new schools allowed us to expand our local network and create new connections with teaching staff. Moreover, it allowed us to replicate and evaluate the repilot action across a range of learning settings and supported different collaborations and synergies with involved stakeholders (schools teachers, students and families). Working with schools that the team is familiar with and has worked with before offers a sense of security in terms of managing less risk in delivery and being familiar with the way the school and teaching staff work and become engaged in the implementation of the activities. | Emotional barriers in: Communication Social barriers in: Engagement Education barriers in: Communication, Activity co-creation Language barriers in: Engagement Economic barriers in: Engagement |
| 2. The Adventures of the Little Prince in the World (5/13) | 2023/ 05/19 | Activity co-creation | Researchers giving up power and control in the process | The intricacies of co-creation posed further challenges for us as researchers, too. Apart from being an exercise of ongoing reflexibility and adaptability, co-creation faced us with the challenges involved in giving up power and control in the research process. | For example, there were instances where the focus of the activities indicated by the teachers did not necessarily match the priorities of our enquiries as researchers. | Allowing the teachers to take the lead was an exercise of putting the needs of the schools first and identifying creative ways of fitting research inquiries to work within given sets of priorities. We found it necessary to keep returning to the focus of migration with the teachers, as part of our brainstorming conversations around possible activities. | Cultural barriers in: Activity co-creation, Engagement, Mentoring |
| 2. The Adventures of the Little Prince in the World (4/13) | 2023/ 05/19 | Activity co-creation | Teachers’ changing feelings about the unstructured and open nature of co-creation | Despite their experience of working with migrant pupils and confidence in steering the co-creation process, teachers, at times, also indicated signs of uneasiness regarding the unstructured and open nature of the process. | Primary school: Teachers did not develop their initial, original ideas, but instead they opted for adapting the Handbook by Cyprus Secondary school: They developed an original programme of activities inspired by the Little Prince project but adapted to their own curriculum (Anthology booklet, poetry and creative writing activities) | We reflected on this, as a feature inherent to PAR and co-creation, which may prove to be an unfamiliar and at times counter-intuitive process. For the primary school, it was clear that they valued the Handbook produced by Cyprus and found the mentoring meeting helpful. | Cultural barriers in: Activity co-creation, Engagement, Mentoring |
| 2. The Adventures of the Little Prince in the World (3/13) | 2023/ 05/19 | Engagement | Challenges of doing PAR with schools | There are well-documented challenges in recruiting schools, especially after the Covid pandemic, and even more so, when the research topic is not strictly related to attainment. Working with participatory methods added additional complications and barriers to these already challenging conditions. | We captured schools being particularly busy and overwhelmed in dealing with the curriculum demands and responding to the multiple needs of children. This leaves limited time and capacity for schools to engage with research projects. | At several instances, the research team reflected on the fact that PAR requires the active and ongoing initiative and involvement of teachers, students (or even parents and local communities), which adds to their existing pressures. | Political barriers in: Engagement |
| 2. The Adventures of the Little Prince in the World (2/13) | 2023/ 05/19 | Implementation | Schools are extremely busy and teachers overworked | Throughout the co-creation and implementation process, we realized how busy the teachers are, as their diaries were fully booked we observed that they worked well beyond the school hours. For example, they had upcoming parents’ meetings, school trips, dance and other kind of competitions and themed school days, among others. | The school we worked with was particularly busy as they were exceptional in working with outside groups and participating in many different projects, which often run in parallel. | The team had to adjust to the ways the school and teachers are working, which involved short yet very focused and productive communication/meeting etc. Also due to their busy schedules the teachers were predominantly focused on action and the implementation of pilot activities in their classrooms and had limited time for communicating with the team the particulars of the activities or provide extensive accounts on their reflections. Our initial expectations for more frequent and detailed communication were adjusted to the teachers schedules and working style. | Social barriers in: Engagement, Implementation Political barriers in: Engagement, Implementation |
| 2. The Adventures of the Little Prince in the World (1/13) | 2023/ 05/19 | Implementation | Formal versus informal communication with teachers | The importance of informality in co-creation processes: Formal communication may prove daunting for teachers and put them off, while informal conversations and links work well towards building relations of trust, which were much appreciated by the teachers and offered a more welcoming feel to the meeting resonating with a friendly encounter. | Our role as researchers was to support the teachers in brainstorming activities, offering ideas and suggestions yet allowing them to lead the process. In this sense, our role was to initiate and encourage co-creation, and be responsive by accommodating teachers’ ideas and suggestions, while also ensuring that the focus on the main/wider themes and objectives of the project is maintained. | We ensured that informality and friendly language communication was reflected on our emails and face to face communication. Also, small things can make a difference towards this direction, such as bringing snacks or biscuits to our meetings, ‘Little conversations’ (fast paced & to-the-point) helping us develop relationships and keep momentum both in terms of implementation planning and relationship building. | Emotional barriers in: Communication, Engagement Social barriers in: Communication, Engagement Cultural barriers in: Communication, Engagement |
| 3. Teacher training and family involvement in pluralistic approaches to language education (1/3) | 2023/ 04/12 | Engagement | Teachers’ complex and often rigid perceptions of pupils’ plurilingual practices | The lesson described herein is complex and includes negative and positive aspects. On the negative side, we identify an evident contradiction between the principles and practices of the school regarding family languages at school hours, and the plurilingual proposals being implemented as part of the repilot. We understand that coping with linguistic diversity can be complicated and teachers might not be used to it, or expect students to master the local, vehicular language at expense of their plurilingual practices. Still, we hope that, through the positive process and outcomes of the repilot action, teachers and students will be able to see the advantages of promoting plurilingual practices and of including family languages in their daily dynamics in a more integrated way. | This log refers to an extended and complex situation we have noticed along the process of co-creating the pilot action with the school staff. On one hand, teachers were very eager and enthusiastic about the pilot and the idea of including plurilingualism in the school dynamics. On the other hand, and at the same time, they expressed their clear rejection to letting pupils use their home languages during school hours, arguing that this practice created ‘guettos’ and was ‘impolite’. In the initial steps of the project, we could observe that children expressed similar beliefs and restrained from using their home languages at school, oftentimes also in the pilot activities. | Our recommendations would include approaching teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding plurilingualism with respect and comprehension, while at the same time discussing their fears and expectations and opening spaces for change. | Emotional barriers in: Engagement Social barriers in: Communication Cultural barriers in: Communication Education barriers in: Communication, Activity co-creation, Engagement, Implementation, Evaluation Language barriers in: Communication, Engagement, Implementation, Evaluation |
| 3. Teacher training and family involvement in pluralistic approaches to language education (2/3) | 2023/ 04/12 | Communication | Mother tongue day celebration: activities around a Chinese-Italian bilingual tale adapted to the catalan context (use of videos on unknown languages) | Important things to be highlighted: – The activity opened spaces to visibilize other languages that are not part of the children repertoires and to discuss differences and similarities between languages and varieties; – When watching the video in Chinese, students were curious and commented on the intonation, images, gestures, facial expressions of the reader as cues to understand what the tale was about; -At the same time, though, the inclusion of languages that are not part of the children’s repertoires, like Chinese, through the use of videos, created confusion and did not facilitate face to face interaction and body language support, not engaging the children as was expected. – Nevertheless, many children were fully able to understand the content when listened in Italian and with support from images and gestures, especially the older ones (5 years old) who were able to fully translate the story to Catalan. – Teachers were surprised by the pupils’ ability to inter-comprehend related languages. -Students were also very interested in discovering new words and sound of the new languages. | The lesson relates to an activity prepared for the Mother Tongue day, consisting of a bilingual tale in Chinese and Italian, that was translated into catalan. Before reading the catalan version, pupils watched a video in Chinese and in Italian recorded by native speakers and commented on what they could or could not understand of each language. Afterwards, they played with manipulative games (flashcards of the story, printed images to be painted or decorated, etc.) | -The inclusion of different languages that are not part of the children’s repertoires should be supported also by gestures, images and multimodal resources. Ideally, bringing in a native speaker that can enhance face-to-face interaction and other communicative cues would be much more hepful than using videos. –Manipulative activities are more engaging with young children. | Emotional barriers in: Implementation Cultural barriers in: Communication, Engagement, Implementation Language barriers in: Communication, Activity co-creation, Engagement, Implementation |
| 3. Teacher training and family involvement in pluralistic approaches to language education (3/3) | 2023/ 04/12 | Communication | Mother tongue day celebration: activities around a Chinese-Italian bilingual tale adapted to the Catalan context (use of videos on unknown languages) | Important things to be highlighted: – The activity opened spaces to visibilize other languages that are not part of the children repertoires and to discuss differences and similarities between languages and varieties; – When watching the video in Chinese, students were curious and commented on the intonation, images, gestures, facial expressions of the reader as cues to understand what the tale was about; -At the same time, though, the inclusion of languages that are not part of the children’s repertoires, like Chinese, through the use of videos, created confusion and did not facilitate face-to-face interaction and body language support, not engaging the children as was expected. – Nevertheless, many children were fully able to understand the content when listened in Italian and with support from images and gestures, especially the older ones (5 years old) who were able to fully translate the story to Catalan. – Teachers were surprised by the pupils’ ability to inter-comprehend related languages. -Students were also very interested in discovering new words and sound of the new languages. | The lesson relates to an activity prepared for Mother Tongue Day, consisting of a bilingual tale in Chinese and Italian, that was translated into Catalan. Before reading the Catalan version, pupils watched a video in Chinese and in Italian recorded by native speakers and commented on what they could or could not understand of each language. Afterwards, they played with manipulative games (flashcards of the story, printed images to be painted or decorated, etc.) | -The inclusion of different languages that are not part of the children’s repertoires should be supported also by gestures, images and multimodal resources. Ideally, bringing in a native speaker that can enhance face-to-face interaction and other communicative cues would be much more helpful than using videos. –Manipulative activities are more engaging with young children. | Emotional barriers in: Implementation Cultural barriers in: Communication, Engagement, Implementation Language barriers in: Communication, Activity co-creation, Engagement, Implementation |
| 4. Mentorship for a better integration (1/4) | 2024/ 02/01 | Engagement | organizing an event by tutors | Most of the roles belonged to the “townspeople,” and despite translating the meaning of this word, foreign children and parents couldn’t imagine what these people looked like. At that point, Polish children and parents decided to prepare a slideshow with photos showing how Poles used to dress. One of the Ukrainian moms is a seamstress and prepared most of the elements and accessories for the costumes. Collaboration was established at every level, starting from tutoring ambassadors to the teachers to the students and parents. Organizing such an event required a lot of flexibility and effort from ambassadors because gathering almost the entire school, which is quite large, is usually almost impossible. However, they succeeded, and additionally, invited parents and children from outside the school. | Teacher and intercultural assistant came up with the idea of connecting foreign and Polish children. A preparatory class (grades 1-2-3) collaborated with a Polish 3rd-grade class. The children chose the play titled “Wawel Dragon” to be shown on stage. Foreign children were familiarized by the Polish ones with the Krakow legend of the Wawel Dragon to understand the content and meaning. The children were assigned roles. Over the course of several weeks, they learned the script and had joint rehearsals. Polish children helped the foreign ones learn vocabulary, song melodies, and the pronunciation of difficult words (a tutor from our project came up with the idea to record and send an audio recording to foreign children). With the assistance of teachers, the children jointly prepared the stage design (collaboration and co-creation elements). | Emotional barriers in: Communication, Networking, Engagement Social barriers in: Communication, Engagement Cultural barriers in: Communication, Engagement Education barriers in: Communication Language barriers in: Communication | |
| 4. Mentorship for a better integration (2/4) | 2024/ 02/01 | Mentoring | empowerment of person engaged in tutoring | The student council elections were held on June 5th in one of the schools that took part in the Mentorship for Better integration project. One of our tutoring group participants, Milena, a Ukrainian with longer migration experience, decided to run for the office. This choice was driven by the desire to forge closer connections, establish positive relationships, and receive support from another project participant and the current school chairperson, Klaudia. Milena garnered substantial support in the school-wide vote, securing the 2nd position. She now holds the distinction of being the first student of foreign origin to join the School Council. | Decision to run in the council elections was a result of the experiences gained during the tutoring activities where Milena proved her managerial and leadership skills organizing several events, including Days of the Bees, The Day of the Embroidery and culinary workshops. | Emotional barriers in: Communication, Networking, Activity co-creation, Mentoring Social barriers in: Communication, Engagement Cultural barriers in: Communication, Networking, Mentoring Language barriers in: Communication | |
| 4. Mentorship for a better integration (3/4) | 2024/ 02/01 | Scalability | transforming experiences into the best practice | At the end of the school year in one of the schools that took part in the pilot action a school council elections were taking place. In the candidates’ proposals, ambassadors noticed that they really liked the ideas from the project. For example candidates suggested to have “active breaks” at least twice a month, more flash mobs, and other thematic events as daily activities in the school agenda. | The aim of the “active break” initiative is to provide an opportunity to spend the break actively, lift spirits, and integrate. During the breaks, children danced, played various games, did relation-building gymnastics exercises, and engaged in activities involving elements of drama (walking at different paces and in different ways). The children really enjoyed such breaks, and the co-creation process behind it. On the other occasion the “Active Break” event took place with classes 4-8 on the school field. The goal of the event was to go outside and create an integrating energizer, allowing everyone to move around, shout, and play. Children played an integrating game that develops self-confidence, helps people get to know each other, and build teamwork. Those who didn’t participate had the opportunity to use the school gym. It was the first experience of this kind for the children, and they really enjoyed it. | Organize school brake activities frequently letting children to develop and lead them. | Emotional barriers in: Communication, Networking, Activity co-creation, Engagement, Mentoring Social barriers in: Activity co-creation Cultural barriers in: Communication, Networking, Activity co-creation, Engagement, Mentoring Education barriers in: Communication, Implementation |
| 4. Mentorship for a better integration (4/4) | 2024/ 02/01 | Implementation | Organization of the whole school event – the School Picnic | We broke down the divisions between teachers and parents. For several years, we had a very conflict-ridden situation between the Parent Association (RR) and the Teachers Council (RP); parents were completely unwilling to get involved, and there were constant attacks and criticisms for every extra school activity. Last year (finally, with a change in leadership that prioritizes cooperation), we broke the ice by inviting the Parents’ Association to help with the opening of the Student Cooperative and the school shop. Teachers, having some fears related to previous years of collaboration with parents (expecting them to point out all the shortcomings and create problems, thinking that instead of focusing on the curriculum before grading, teachers just playing around), were immediately negative about such a family picnic. Some even wanted to cancel everything. However, it turned out for ambassadors and the school as whole that they have many wonderful, engaged parents whom they can fully rely on (They did not even know most of them, as ambassadors did not teach those classes). Parents also realized that together, the community can accomplish really significant and enjoyable things. Moreover, everyone witnessed the effects of the action of school Intercultural Assistants. | Each class drew one of the countries (Ukraine, Germany, Turkey, USA, Spain, Mexico, Italy, China, France, Greece). Parents of these classes (one from classes I-III and the other from IV-VII, with the eighth-grade classes being guests due to the prom scheduled for the same evening) prepared snacks related to their assigned country. The amount of food at the stalls exceeded expectations. Students from classes I-III created country flags for decoration in A3 format, while older students made thematic posters (foreign language borrowed words, interesting facts, what we owe to each country, etc.). The most interesting posters were awarded. Parents also contributed with several decorations (huge cardboard cactus, incense, streamers, flowers, etc.). All picnic participants came in costumes representing different countries. There were even entire classes dressed in sombreros or flamenco costumes. The entire event was accompanied by musical arrangements (a playlist of international songs) and an emcee encouraging participation. In addition to enjoying food and organizing their time, children could also take advantage of: – Face painting station (supported by art students from the Academy of Fine Arts), – Braiding station, – Sports activities (jump ropes, balls, group games, etc.), – Group dancing led by a dance instructor. – For the older classes, there were exhibition volleyball matches between parents and teachers, and coaches against the best volleyball class in the school. – Parents took care of food preparation and organizing activities, while teachers, cultural assistants, and other school staff provided ongoing supervision throughout the picnic area. The entire event was coordinated by three teachers, two cultural assistants, and the Chairperson of the Parents’ Council. Various necessary items (face painting supplies, hair accessories, prizes, etc.) were funded by parents and the Student Cooperative, which, as a Polish touch, provided each student with a traditional bagel (obwarzanek). | This picnic served as a bit of an experiment since a significant part of the organization relied on parental involvement. Teachers were initially somewhat skeptical about this event, and some were even convinced that parents would fall short. Fortunately, the entire picnic turned out to be a resounding success. Parents not only exceeded expectations in terms of food but also came up with creative ideas for activities. They even brought tents and umbrellas for the stalls. The children had a fantastic time, and it was heartwarming to see smiles on everyone’s faces. Class divisions completely disappeared, and everyone, including parents, teachers, and intercultural assistants, thoroughly enjoyed the day. For the first time, we involved the School Nurse in the festivities, and she was thrilled to be considered an integral part of the school. The maintenance staff contributed by helping prepare the area and setting up tents from the early morning. Hardly any class returned to the building after their shift; everyone wanted more and more. Now, this integrative picnic is set to become a permanent fixture in the school calendar. Parents were pleased with the multicultural theme as it made it easy for them to prepare both food and costumes. In the future, they plan to designate one of the days free from academic activities for this event and combine it with a school creativity festival. While this year they couldn’t cancel all classes, everyone had a good time throughout the day, even in the classrooms. The school’s social media reflects the excitement and positive feedback surrounding this event. During the picnic, parents and grandparents of school’s international students also attended (Americans, Belarusians, Ukrainians, a Nepali, a Spaniard and more). Posters showcasing different countries were a great opportunity to explore multiculturalism. Some stalls had thematic quizzes and language learning activities to receive food. Its impossible to list all the attractions, but some can get a highlight for some interesting ideas from parents: – Italy brought a portable pizza oven, and every child could make their mini pizza and bake it on the spot. – India applied henna to children’s hands. – Greece had a memory game with “strange” and unexpected Polish-Greek phrases. – China taught children how to use chopsticks. It was a massive integration and a wonderful time for all. | Emotional barriers in: Communication, Networking, Activity co-creation, Engagement, Implementation Social barriers in: Communication, Networking, Implementation Cultural barriers in: Communication, Networking, Activity co-creation, Engagement, Implementation Language barriers in: Communication, Networking, Engagement, Implementation Economic barriers in: Networking, Activity co-creation, Engagement Legal barriers in: Communication |
| 6. My ideal school; the school I would like (1/9) | 2022/ 03/10 | Communication | Pedagogical Institute communication cluster | We learned that it’s important to secure the collaboration of an institution that leads by example and showcases great contributions towards the integration of children with migrant backgrounds to Cyprus educational system | Receiving again the support from Cyprus Pedagogical Institute for the second pilot phase | Start contacting key stakeholders from the very beginning of a project | Emotional barriers in: Activity co-creation, Engagement, Mentoring, Implementation Social barriers in: Networking, Activity co-creation, Engagement, Mentoring, Implementation Cultural barriers in: Networking, Engagement, Implementation Education barriers in: Communication, Evaluation Language barriers in: Engagement, Mentoring, Implementation, Evaluation Political barriers in: Communication, Networking, Engagement, Mentoring, Implementation, Evaluation Economic barriers in: Implementation Legal barriers in: Implementation, Evaluation |
| 6. My ideal school; the school I would like (2/9) | 2023/ 01/28 | Activity co-creation | Cluster of activities – Teachers’ workshops | According to the feedback received from the first workshops, we took out some activities to give more time to the teachers to express themselves and describe the challenges they face. Some teachers seemed hesitant as they considered the activities suitable for young children and not teenagers, but they liked the project methodologies so they promised to give it a try. The teachers would also appreciate discussing with other teachers from other countries about the integration of children with migrant background in their educational systems. We acknowledged once again that PAR is a process that takes time, and they will need to rethink their engagement in the repiloting process if they feel that this is something challenging to undertake. | Lessons learned after the completion of 11 preparatory workshops with teachers x 5 hours each = 55 hours | Open up a space for educators to articulate and convey their emotions and perspectives, accompanied by the oversight of a seasoned facilitator, as a precautionary measure against potential divergence from the central themes of the co-creation workshops. | Emotional barriers in: Activity co-creation Social barriers in: Activity co-creation Education barriers in: Activity co-creation Political barriers in: Activity co-creation |
| 6. My ideal school; the school I would like (3/9) | 2023/ 05/29 | Implementation | Development and Implementation of “The Wall of Kindness” activity (research team and Primary School of Pallouriotissa A’) | As the teachers expressed to us, through this action both pupils and teachers learned to negotiate and discuss ideas and accept brainstorming as a successful method to include as many voices as possible. They learned to work collaboratively for a common goal and improve their interpersonal and creative skills. They improved their language skills but also their communication skills as they had to inform not only their peers, but also the whole community in which they live, as well as the mayor of Nicosia. They also learned the importance of being inclusive (their idea of preparing an informative triptych in 4 languages: Greek, English, Russian, Arabic). As a result, pupils and teachers began to understand better their own role and value in the community and felt the joy of offering to the community. | Implementation of one of the repilot activities which involved a multi-stakeholder engagement from school to the community | Include as many voices as possible – those voices represent different levels of power and hierarchy and are all important in order to have impactful initiatives. | Social barriers in: Engagement, Mentoring, Implementation Cultural barriers in: Engagement, Mentoring, Implementation Language barriers in: Engagement, Mentoring, Implementation, Evaluation Economic barriers in: Implementation Legal barriers in: Evaluation |
| 6. My ideal school; the school I would like (4/9) | 2023/ 04/28 | Implementation | Development and Implementation of “Always happy to get together” activity (research team and Pallouriotissa Lyceum (upper secondary school)) | The idea of the students and the teachers to use the World Café methodology for deeper discussions between them and their peers facilitated the amplification of their voices. It created a safe and inclusive space for them to share their experiences, challenges, and aspirations. This process helped to ensure that their perspectives are heard, valued, and integrated into the decision-making process (of the class; of the school) regarding their integration. Moreover, this activity promoted trust-building and community-building among students, teachers, researchers, and other stakeholders. Through open dialogue and active listening, students developed relationships, fostered understanding, and cultivated a sense of belonging. This sense of community is vital for creating supportive environments that facilitate successful inclusion. This activity enabled a holistic understanding of the needs and experiences of students who attend transitional classes. By engaging in multiple hands-on activities, fun activities, recreational activities, and conversations and rotating through different tables, participants gained diverse perspectives on various aspects of integration, including language acquisition, cultural exchange, social support, and academic challenges. This comprehensive understanding informed the development of more comprehensive and targeted support systems for the future. Through this activity, valuable insights and recommendations emerged that made both teachers and researchers understand the importance of the agency that those students have. The conversations between the students (who pragmatically have different power dynamics between them) facilitated the identification of key issues, challenges, and opportunities, which we aspire to lead to actionable steps for improving the integration of migrant children/teenagers. | This activity was designed with students who attend the “transitional” class of the school. A transitional class addresses the needs of minors who arrive to Cyprus at an older age and face more difficulties to integrate in the school system due to language barriers. In this class, students focus on core lessons, such as Greek language and Maths. After a year in a transitional class, students are expected to participate in the regular school classes. The teacher who participated in the Nicosia workshop on the 28th of January 2023, presented the Italian handbook of activities to her colleagues who primarily teach and work with migrant students. With the support from the Synthesis team members, teachers did 2 brainstorming sessions during which they selected activities that would fit into the needs of the students who attend the transitional class. The teachers co-decided that one of the easiest and fun activities to replicate was the activity A School to Eat. They presented the activity to the students, and they were all thrilled and excited and suggested changes that actually scaled the activity up. In other words, teachers and students co-designed activities that brought together students who attend the transitional class with students who attend the regular school classes/ curriculum. | Depending of the available time that teachers have, adjust your activities accordingly and make them more fun and less complicated. In our case this activity worked really well although at a first glance it seems a little simplistic. | Emotional barriers in: Engagement, Mentoring, Implementation Social barriers in: Engagement, Mentoring, Implementation Cultural barriers in: Engagement, Implementation Education barriers in: Mentoring, Implementation, Evaluation Language barriers in: Engagement, Mentoring, Implementation, Evaluation Economic barriers in: Engagement /, Mentoring /, Implementation /, Evaluation |
| 6. My ideal school; the school I would like (5/9) | 2023/ 05/25 | Adaptability | Development and Implementation of “An Intercultural Library at the school” activity (research team and Primary School of Tremithousas in Paphos) | When parents, and especially parents with a migrant background, participate in classroom activities and co-create knowledge, several positive outcomes can occur for all parties involved. It was evident that migrant parents bring with them unique cultural perspectives, traditions, and experiences that can enrich the overall learning environment. Their participation led to more diverse discussions, fostering cultural awareness and appreciation among all students. Moreover, when migrant parents actively engage in classroom activities, it can enhance communication between the school and the parents, especially if there are language barriers. This increased dialogue allowed teachers to better understand the students’ backgrounds and home environments, leading to more effective support and tailored learning strategies. Parents’ involvement in the activity helped create a more inclusive classroom setting where diverse voices are heard and represented. This representation has positively impacted children from similar backgrounds, as they see their cultures being acknowledged and valued in the educational context. It was also interesting the fact that by actively participating in classroom activities and co-creating knowledge, parents felt more empowered and connected to their children’s education. On the same note, children felt motivated to share their cultural backgrounds with their peers such that their self-esteem and sense of belonging in the classroom was boosted. It’s essential for schools and educators to create a welcoming and inclusive environment that encourages and values the involvement of all parents, including migrant parents. Engaging in cultural sensitivity training, providing language support, and recognizing the diverse contributions of all families can help facilitate meaningful and productive partnerships between schools and migrant parents. By working together, educators, students, and parents can create a more holistic and enriched educational experience for everyone involved. | Active involvement of parents in the activity – that led to its scalability. Participants actively engaged in the design of the action process. The synergies between parents and children created a learning environment that was highly valuable and for this reason the headteacher suggested that this activity could be replicated in every class in the next academic year. | Active involvement of parents in the educational process is fundamental. PAR and co-creation as guiding principles of all participatory reading sessions, resulted in enriched perspectives as parents brought diverse viewpoints and real-life experiences to the learning environment. | Emotional barriers in: Engagement Social barriers in: Mentoring, Implementation Cultural barriers in: Activity co-creation, Engagement, Implementation Education barriers in: Engagement, Mentoring, Implementation, Evaluation Language barriers in: Engagement, Mentoring, Implementation Political barriers in: Implementation |
| 6. My ideal school; the school I would like (6/9) | 2023/ 04/25 | Adaptability | Development and Implementation of “The school I dream of” activity (research team and Pre-Primary School of Chloraka-Agiou Nikolaou) | The process of creating a digital book offered a treasure trove of valuable lessons and profound insights for all involved. Through collaboration and teamwork, participants discovered the power of combining their unique voices, ideas, and talents to craft a compelling narrative. They learned that every contribution matters, fostering an atmosphere of inclusivity and respect where creativity flourishes. Feedback became a powerful tool for growth, as participants welcomed constructive criticism and embraced continuous improvement through multiple iterations. The experience reinforced the significance of effective communication, both in conveying ideas and actively listening to others, fostering a cohesive and harmonious creative process. Ultimately, participants emerged with a profound sense of pride and accomplishment, cherishing the joy of self-expression and storytelling, while recognizing that the completion of the digital book marked not an end but the beginning of its journey, inspiring others and leaving a lasting impact on their creative endeavours. The process encouraged a growth mindset, nurturing a willingness to embrace change and flexibility in adapting to evolving ideas. Moreover, participants learned the importance of empathy and understanding, as they explored diverse perspectives and emotions expressed by their peers. Beyond the digital book itself, the experience fostered a profound sense of ownership and responsibility, empowering participants to take charge of their creative endeavours and embark on future projects with renewed confidence. The lessons learned from this collaborative journey extend far beyond the boundaries of the digital book, shaping the way participants approach challenges, express themselves, and make a lasting impact on the world around them. | The children participated in a process where they had to think and write (with the support from their teacher) a small paragraph about themselves and the school they dream of; draw a scene from their daily life and from the school they consider ideal; record their voices; take photos from their drawings; and upload those on the digital book they created together. | Actively involve children in the whole process of creating the digital book | Social barriers in: Implementation Cultural barriers in: Implementation Language barriers in: Implementation |
| 6. My ideal school; the school I would like (7/9) | 2023/ 05/31 | Adaptability | Development and Implementation of “The ideal school, through the eyes of the children” activity (research team and Prodromos Primary School (KB)) | Considering pupils’ opinions is crucial when contemplating changes in education systems. First and foremost, students are the primary stakeholders of the educational system, and their experiences directly impact the effectiveness of any reforms. By actively seeking and valuing their input, policymakers and educators can gain valuable insights into the real challenges faced by students, the aspects of the system that are working well, and the areas in need of improvement. This participatory approach ensures that proposed changes address the genuine needs of the students, promoting a more relevant and student-centred education. The digital book created by this team (and all of the activities developed in this repiloting phase for that matter) intend to highlight this fact. Furthermore, involving pupils in the decision-making process fosters a sense of ownership and responsibility for their education. When students’ opinions are taken into account, they feel heard and respected, leading to increased engagement and motivation to actively participate in their learning journey. As they become more invested in the educational process, they are likely to exhibit greater enthusiasm for learning, improve the relationships they have among them, and show a positive attitude towards school. Moreover, considering students’ perspectives also empowers them to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, as they learn to analyze issues, articulate their viewpoints, and propose potential solutions. This collaborative approach to shaping the education system ultimately paves the way for a more inclusive, innovative, and effective learning environment that benefits both students and society as a whole. | 18 children of the 5th grade of Prodromos Primary School (KB), decided together with their teacher that the best idea to find their ideal school would be to get to know schools from all around the world. So, as part of their geography lessons, they “travelled” through photos and videos to schools all over the world. This inevitably led to comparisons between the schools presented and their own school, and subsequently the children expressed thoughts and ideas about what they would like their ideal school to be like. The children reported extensively on the feelings that were evoked by the material they saw from the other schools and then recorded their own thoughts on how they dreamed of their ideal school. In order to record all these thoughts, the children and their teacher created an e-book (as they were inspired by the original activity from the Italian team), which will be accessible to anyone who is interested, once the handbook with the actions that took place in Cyprus is completed with the support of SYNTHESIS researchers. When the documentation was finished, the children drew their portraits which they then photographed and uploaded in the e-book. | effective policymaking should be based on comparative approaches and peer-to-peer reviewing | Social barriers in: Mentoring, Implementation Cultural barriers in: Mentoring, Implementation Education barriers in: Mentoring, Implementation Language barriers in: Mentoring, Implementation Economic barriers in: Mentoring, Implementation |
| 6. My ideal school; the school I would like (8/9) | 2023/ 06/15 | Adaptability | Development and Implementation of “Stories for self-improvement” activity (research team and Prodromos Primary School (KB)) | The selected stories explored themes of self-acceptance, resilience, and self-belief, which are essential components of building self-confidence in children. Through engaging narratives, children learned that it is okay to make mistakes, that setbacks are a part of life, and that persistence and determination can lead to eventual success. These messages instilled in children the belief that they are capable of facing life’s ups and downs with courage and conviction, thereby bolstering their self-confidence in their abilities and decision-making. In addition to learning from characters’ experiences, children also gained a sense of empathy by stepping into the shoes of various storybook characters. As they navigated the emotional journeys of the fictional characters presented, they developed a better understanding of human emotions and behaviours. This empathetic understanding helped them relate to and connect with their peers creating thus a sense of community in the classroom. By realizing that emotions are universal and that others face similar challenges, children felt more at ease expressing themselves and interacting with their peers, contributing to their overall self-confidence. Furthermore, when children engaged with the selected stories, whether through reading or listening, it encouraged them to use their imagination and creativity. They even developed the desire to create their own stories and they shared their thoughts and ideas with others. This creative outlet fostered a sense of autonomy and accomplishment, leading to increased self-confidence in their abilities as storytellers and communicators. By exploring their creativity through stories, children developed a strong sense of self-expression and realized the power of their voice, which ultimately contributes to their overall self-confidence and self-esteem. | The activity entitled “Stories for self-improvement” was a benchmark for teachers and students of the 4th grade of Prodromos Primary School (KB). The activity was triggered by teachers’ observations that the children in their class needed to develop a positive attitude and respect for themselves. They noticed that often children had negative thoughts which prevented them from overcoming their learning difficulties and enjoying happy moments at school together with their classmates. Taking inspiration from the book club that teachers and children conducted in Forli, Italy, 42 students and 7 teachers chose to read together three books about self-improvement and growth mentality. The books selected were “Stardust” written by Jeanne Willis; “Yeti – the power of (saying) yet” written by Marina Yiotis; and “Mr. Happy and Miss Grimm” written by Antonie Schneider. For each book, a series of fun activities for the children were organised, such as drama and artistic expression. The children thoroughly enjoyed the activities as they engaged in active readings together with many teachers and many children, developing their skills in active listening, cooperation, and respect for diversity. For example, after the collective reading of “Yeti – the power of (saying) yet”, children and teachers created a large storyboard which included the story’s most important messages and then exhibited that on the one of the school’s main boards. They also used some human figures to describe the feelings they felt when reading and listening to the story of each book. They also improved their language skills as the storybooks selected allowed for new words and new vocabularies to emerge. The children were enthusiastic about the workshops which included movement, dance, music, drawing and painting and through all of these they developed their confidence and self-esteem. Simultaneously, through this activity the teachers learned how beautiful it is to work with fellow colleagues and co-teach, but also the immense need and necessity of giving children space and time to express their feelings. After all, as they concluded, “this activity allowed the children to feel important!” | It is important to discuss all emerging life lessons that are masked behind seemingly irrelevant children’s stories, and relate those to children’s experiences | Social barriers in: Mentoring, Implementation Cultural barriers in: Implementation Language barriers in: Implementation Political barriers in: Implementation |
| 6. My ideal school; the school I would like (9/9) | 2023/ 06/20 | Adaptability | Development and Implementation of “The Classroom of Love” activity (research team and Pre-Primary School of Klirou) | As it was highlighted during the focus groups we had with teachers and pupils, the phrase “we had the right to play” is the cornerstone for an ideal school and an ideal classroom. The activities suggested by the children involved this element of play such that when combined with learning can become very fruitful for education and community building. Play was not merely a recreational activity; it was a means through which children learned, explored, and interacted with the world around them. It allowed them to develop essential life skills, such as problem-solving, creativity, and emotional regulation. Furthermore, play promoted resilience, reduced stress, and improved mental health, especially crucial for children facing the uncertainties of migration. Migrant children often experience various adversities, such as language barriers, cultural differences, and unfamiliar surroundings which can isolate them from their peers, leading to feelings of exclusion and loneliness. However, all children could fully participate in play, regardless of their cultural and linguistic background, as they received great support from their peers, because play encourages collaboration and teamwork (in other words, development of a community). By engaging in co-creation activities, teachers and pupils created an environment that celebrated diversity and embraced the unique experiences and perspectives of all children. Creating inclusive play spaces, teachers and pupils promoted a sense of belonging and provided opportunities for cross-cultural interactions, promoting empathy and understanding among all children involved. | Following the teachers’ workshop held in February by the SYNTHESIS team, the teacher went back to her school and together with the headteacher, held a brainstorming session about the ideal classroom. So, the kids were asked to think of activities that would make them very happy to go to school every day and that would make their classroom ideal. The pupils suggested many ideas, such as visits of parents in the classroom; more drawing hours; to play musical chairs, to play newspaper-fight or leaf-fight (similar to pillow fight); to have their parents preparing and delivering a lesson in their classroom; to read storybooks outdoors; to visit other schools; to go to the theatre; to prepare smoothies and fruit salad; to visit a friend’s garden; etc. | In the beginning of the year create a space where children can share their expectations. It’s important to transform those into actionable plans in order to cultivate a sense of ownership and accomplishment to each child. | Social barriers in: Implementation Cultural barriers in: Implementation Education barriers in: Implementation Language barriers in: Implementation Political barriers in: Implementation Economic barriers in: Implementation |
| 7. Together we Learn Our Worlds (1/2) | 2023/ 12/04 | Implementation | Involving artistic and multimodal forms of expression | Allowing children to use diverse forms of expression -including visual arts, music, dance, drama and so on- can enhance and broaden pupils’ opportunities for self-expression, identity affirmation and creativity. Furthermore, incorporating a wider range of communicative modes than those traditionally considered as valid in educational settings can contribute to fight inequalities among students with different abilities and skills -for example, among children whose family languages do or do not match with the school language(s) of instruction. Thus, opening new, multimodal paths of expression and communication that do not only or primarily rely on pupils’ linguistic proficiency can promote inclusion, break with linguistic and other barriers, transform pupils’ usual roles and nurture new ways of participation. | In this repilot, we faced the challenge of encouraging children from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds to reflect about the diversity that surrounds them. Beyond an initial stage of observing this diversity in their school and neighbourhood’s landscapes, we wanted to encourage them to use their voice and creativity to communicate a message using their own words, while also becoming active agents in the creation and transformation of these landscapes. After much thought and co-creation with all the participants, they came up with the idea of conveying this message through an artistic creation with the help of an urban artist. Guided by her, children decided what message to convey and how, depending on the type of artistic expression that they wanted to experience with. During the creative process, we could observe how children who were not actively engaged in previous activities found ways to participate, to express their thoughts and talent, and even to become key actors in the creative process and artistic outcome. We could also observe how arts-based methods helped some children to embrace their hybrid cultural identities and to express complex experiences and feelings that do not always emerge through other channels. | This experience highlights the importance of opening spaces for pupils’ self-expression through embodied and arts-based learning approaches, as a means for giving them voice and for promoting inclusive education. In this sense, we would recommend offering them opportunities to choose between diverse modes of communication, broadening the educational scope and including artistic manifestations as legitimate learning processes and practices. For example, teachers can include spaces for drawing or painting as an alternative to writing for those children who are not yet fluent in the school language, or encourage the use of role-plays, games, singing, dancing and other ways of embodied expression that might broaden everyone’s chances for participation. We would also recommend working with local artists so that pupils can get to know and explore fist-hand diverse forms of expression, creation and communication. Our experience has shown us that artistic collaborative productions are not only engaging and enjoyable for children, but also highly significative in terms of embracing their multiple linguistic and cultural identities in a positive way, and for communicating their concerns to the broader community. | Emotional barriers in: Communication, Activity co-creation, Implementation Social barriers in: Activity co-creation Cultural barriers in: Networking, Mentoring, Implementation Education barriers in: Activity co-creation |
| 7. Together we Learn Our Worlds (2/2) | 2023/ 12/04 | Implementation | Plan the activities to be carried out with flexibility so that there is no frustration if they are not all completed. | During the activities conducted in the CROMA program, we needed to reshape the content, modalities and timing on a daily basis. These changes were due to the needs of the children and facilitators participating in the sessions, their interests, attention spans and co-creation; one of the pillars of the project. We learnt that to be more effective and respond to the needs of the participants and to engage them more, it is important to work according to the principles of co-creation. This methodology allows activities to be constructed together with children and facilitators (including teachers or educators). Moreover, working methods and contents can be negotiated and adapted to participants interests and needs. This methodology also gives the opportunity to reshape day by day an educational path thanks to a bottom-up approach, which is more engaging. We know that educators, facilitators and teachers often plan and prepare in advance the activities to be conducted in the classroom or during educational courses such as workshops. This is due to a need to follow didactic or educational programs. Failure to implement such programmes can lead to frustration, feelings of loss and anxiety. However, research has proven that students learn earlier and better if they are personally involved. | In this repilot, we faced the challenge of encouraging children from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds to reflect about the diversity that surrounds them. Beyond an initial stage of observing this diversity in their school and neighbourhood’s landscapes, we wanted to encourage them to use their voice and creativity to communicate a message using their own words, while also becoming active agents in the creation and transformation of these landscapes. After much thought and co-creation with all the participants, they came up with the idea of conveying this message through an artistic creation with the help of an urban artist. Guided by her, children decided what message to convey and how, depending on the type of artistic expression that they wanted to experience with. During the creative process, we could observe how children who were not actively engaged in previous activities found ways to participate, to express their thoughts and talent, and even to become key actors in the creative process and artistic outcome. We could also observe how arts-based methods helped some children to embrace their hybrid cultural identities and to express complex experiences and feelings that do not always emerge through other channels. | – allow pupils to lead and eventually transform the activities according to their needs and interests; – when planning your activities, try to provide different options and spaces for pupils’ decision-making; – don’t get stressed in the face of unexpected changes, as this is part of co-creation. | Emotional barriers in: Networking, Activity co-creation, Implementation Education barriers in: Engagement |
| 8. Self-Expression through Poetry (1/4) | 2023/ 06/05 | Implementation | The needs of adult professionals at school | Adult professionals at school need moments to express their creativity and emotions | During the implementation of the activities, we asked students to write and draw in groups or alone, expressing their ideas and emotions in any way they deemed fit. Surprisingly, two teachers who were in the classroom started participating in the activity: they took a piece of paper and started writing and drawing, expressing their emotions and ideas and proudly showing us what they had done. The teachers seemed eager to find an opportunity of free expression within the incumbencies of everyday routine. | Since also adults need at times some time and space to give way to their creativity, researchers should provide them with opportunities to participate in the activities. Clearly, researchers should not be too insistent; rather, they should simply offer opportunities to teachers and other professionals, who might accept or decline them. | Emotional barriers in: Communication, Implementation Cultural barriers in: Communication, Implementation |
| 8. Self-Expression through Poetry (2/4) | 2023/ 06/05 | Activity co-creation | Dealing with institutional constraints in the process of co-creation | The school ‘culture’ and institutional constraints might be at odds with the researchers’ perspective or with the pillars of the project | At the beginning of the pilot action activities, we told students that they would not be evaluated for their products. Notably, some students told us that with an official evaluation of their texts they would not feel entirely free to write what they wanted. However, during the implementation of the activities, a teacher told us that she needed to evaluate students’ performances. This teacher had ‘offered’ five hours to the NEW ABC projects, and due to institutional constraints, she needed to evaluate what they had done. Thus, we had to find a compromise with the teacher. We asked her to evaluate all students with positive or very positive marks, since there cannot be ‘mistakes’ within this kind of activity. She agreed, and in this way we managed to find a solution that was acceptable for every stakeholders involved. Students had a good mark on their school record, the teacher fulfilled her institutional duties, and we created the conditions for students’ free self-expression. | It is not easy to respect and take into account teachers’ needs in relation to school institutional constraints. Researchers must be flexible and creative in order to find a suitable compromise that respects the ideas and needs of all stakeholders involved. | Cultural barriers in: Activity co-creation, Implementation Education barriers in: Activity co-creation, Implementation |
| 8. Self-Expression through Poetry (3/4) | 2023/ 06/05 | Implementation | Social pressure on teachers | Our presence in the classroom might result in a higher social pressure on teachers | During the implementation of the activities, a professional writer came to various classrooms to talk about his work and about the importance of writing in ‘one’s own language’. The writer underlined that students should use the language that they use in their everyday life, and not the ‘institutional’ language of the school. He stressed that this everyday language could also entail ways of writing that would be deemed as ‘mistakes’ from the institution. At this point, a student started attacking the teacher (who was in the classroom at that moment) on the basis of the expert’s approach to writing. He repeatedly asked the teacher why she would correct their language, using the words of the expert (and of the NEW ABC academics) to undermine the teacher’s professional competence. The teacher seemed uncomfortable, but she explained that students need to master both registers: a formal, academic register and a more informal register. In that, she was backed by the expert. | We should be aware of the risks of our presence in the field. Broadly, we should mitigate as much as possible the ‘threat’ to teachers’ professional competence that we might represent (willing or not). This is especially relevant in schools, since we are generally perceived in a epistemically authoritative position in comparison to teachers. | Emotional barriers in: Implementation Education barriers in: Implementation |
| 8. Self-Expression through Poetry (4/4) | 2023/ 06/05 | Implementation | Involving external experts in the activities | External experts from various fields and professional areas might be very interesting to students | For the re-piloting of the SEP activities, we invited three ‘experts’ as a source of inspiration for the students: a professional writer, an illustrator and a radio speaker. These experts told students about their professions and provided various tips and recommendations for the activities, managing to involve all students: the students participated eagerly, asked several questions and seemed very interested in their lives and professional fields. Broadly, we had the impression that students were attracted by their stories and ideas, as they provided a time-out for everyday activities and were alternative to their institutional routines and to the school environment. | Involving external experts (i.e., experts from professional fields which are distant from the school or the educational world) might favor students’ active participation. Even though these experts are no educational professionals, they might have a great impact on students’ learning and social trajectories. | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (1/23) | 2023/06 /05 | Adaptability | Differences in policies and reception system across countries | The legal and political systems across countries may vary. The same institution such as a temporary reception center, may have different purposes in different countries and different groups of clients. Also meaning of certain key concepts such as ‘undocumented migrant’ may differ | The aim of the pilot 9 was to examine experiences of international migrations and immobilities of refugee background young adults in temporary reception centers context. The repiloting activities in Finland needed some adjustments as the purpose of such centers in Finland is different and it was not possible to recruit participants for our pilot action project via these centers. In Italy a person may stay in these centers for longer time without having appropriate documentation while as in Finland temporary centers are meant for recently arrived persons and only for short stays during handling of paperwork. As soon as the paperwork is done (which usually takes about 1-2 weeks) a person gets an official status of asylum seeker. In practice this means that stay in Finland is legally regulated, and a person can move to other forms of accommodation, including private housing or reception centres. | Awareness and/or familiarization with existing systems is of crucial importance in the beginning phase of implementation of activities in another socio-cultural and legal context. Flexibility and adjustments in the phase of recruitment of the participants of the pilot actions is recommended. | Emotional barriers in: Networking, Engagement, Implementation Social barriers in: Cultural barriers in: Implementation Language barriers in: Communication, Activity co-creation, Engagement, Implementation, Evaluation Political barriers in: Implementation Legal barriers in: Implementation |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (2/23) | 2023/06 /05 | Networking | Working simultaneously with different stakeholders – balancing between competing interests | When collaborating or discussing possible collaboration with different stakeholders the awareness of stakeholders’ competing interests (e.g., funding, clients) should be considered. | We discussed potential collaboration with different stakeholders, namely NGOs supporting migrants and refugees in the Central Finland Region. Eventually, we decided to organize two workshops: first for clients of Aurinkopaja organization, which supports Ukrainian young adults) and the second for clients of all three collaborating organizations (Aurinkopaja, Multicultural Center Gloria and Better Together Association). As much as involving various stakeholders is highly recommended, it may also lead to some tensions between the stakeholders. Participation in the EU project was seen as an asset for the organizations and an opportunity for gaining some resources to develop their own activities. Planning activities involving all three collaborating organizations sometimes led to discussions of the two stakeholders spending their own time and personal resources for development of the Aurinkopaja activities. | Equal treatment of all collaborators is crucial. It is good to be aware of potential tensions between stakeholders. Being clear about what collaboration involves and how it could enhance other stakeholders not taking part in the pilot’s first stage is recommended. | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (3/23) | 2023/06 /05 | Networking | Networking with various stakeholders | Organizing co-creation workshops involves a lot of networking and time spent on getting to know already existing activities and stakeholders (e.g., other projects) operating in the fie | We have implemented our re-pilot action in the forms of a co-creation workshops in collaboration with various organizations supporting migrants. As we needed to be prepared for offering various sorts of artistic activities before we knew exactly what kinds of projects the youth would like to realize, we invested a lot of our time in networking with a wide range of artists. The networking also involved participation in activities offered by collaborating organizations. These were helpful in getting to know potential collaborators and their activities, and to collect a pool of artists for the sake of future projects. | Networking with various stakeholders (e.g., NGOs in the field of (forced) migration or artists) is a crucial step in the co-creation process and enough time should be allocated to this. The networking (regular meetings, keeping up to date) is of key importance throughout the whole co-creation process, and especially important (and time consuming) in the beginning of the process. Enough time should be then allocated to this type of activities. | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (4/23) | 2023/06 /05 | Activity co-creation | Negotiation of understanding of co-creation | Co-creation as a concept and practice may be unfamiliar to most of the collaborators (organizations, artists) as well as participants themselves. There are different ways of implementing co-creation, and therefore they need to be discussed with all members of the project. It can be assumed that introducing the concepts and negotiating their implementation before and during the project enhances mutual understanding (as concerns these concepts). | We noticed on several occasions that philosophy behind co-creation maybe difficult to understand. Some couches and representatives in the NGOs expected from us to present them clear plans (e.g., a ready-made program) even before recruiting young participants. The idea that we let participants to decide what will be done and how may have felt abstract to some stakeholders. This also pushed us researchers to constant rethink, explain and negotiate the meanings of co-creation and how it can be implemented. We also responded to the stakeholders’ comments/wishes by trying to be as concrete as possible, for example, by presenting tentative timetable and describing the nature of the sessions (planning, creative activities). Also suggesting a broader/working topic to the planned workshop seemed to help with the implementation. | Instead of following a certain definition/way of implementing of co-creation, it is advisable to engage in negotiation of the concept together with all involved participants. Introduction of co-creation through presentation of previous collaborative arts-based projects and their outcomes proves to be a good practice and of help in building mutual understanding of co-creation. The given examples from previous projects served as sparkles for development of participants’ own ideas and creative projects. Our worries that presented ideas were too suggestive and leading were unwarranted. | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (5/23) | 2023/06 /05 | Activity co-creation | Implementation of co-creation – how to do it, who’s voice should be heard? | Implementation of co-creation involves listening to various stakeholders’ voices (young adult participants of the workshop, but also coaches) which requires a lot of sensitivity, flexibility and balancing to incorporate all these voices. | The implementation of the co-creation workshop involved collaboration with coaches of Aurinkopaja, artists and young people who had fled from Ukraine. We listened carefully to the voices of all these stakeholders. However, meetings with all the stakeholders simultaneously were not always possible. Therefore, we planned and tried out certain ideas with Aurinkopaja and discussed them further with representatives of the other two NGOs. We also tried out different ways of involving the young people. Some ideas/activities we discussed/negotiated with the whole group, while as sometimes we discussed at first with a few participants and then with the whole group. The negotiation of ideas/activities had both formal and informal character (spontaneous conversations). We also functioned as bridge builders between the young participants and the artists so that the artists would have an initial understanding of the participants preferences before every session in the workshop. | There is a need for flexibility and adjustments during the process of putting co-creation into practice. It is worth to try out different practices enabling listening to stakeholders’ voices. Planning and negotiation of concepts and activities may be realized different ways (through formal and informal conversations, group planning activities, pictures etc.). | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (6/23) | 2023/06 /05 | Activity co-creation | Planning phase and learning/experiencing co-creation by doing | Co-creation may be a quite an abstract concept for many. Even the most thorough introduction will not necessarily supplement learning by doing. | We spent quite a lot of time in introducing the project and the idea of co-creation. However, this became concrete in the phase of implementation when mapping the participants’ preferences, planning together the sessions and discussing/negotiating what and how participants want to accomplish them. We were positively surprised that participants can take lead on planning activities and make the best out of co-creative possibilities. We created the final outline of the workshop based on participants’ preferences and interests and the creative projects that they would like to realize. | Basically, it would be the best to go quite soon to the discussion on that what kind of creative projects the participants would like to realize and how would they like to realize’ them. More space could be given for the outline and schedule of the workshop. For example, our participants also required some free space in-between activities during one session. | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (7/23) | 2023/06 /05 | Implementation | Equality and ethics in doing collaborative research | The questions of equality and ethics may appear at different stages of conducting collaborative research. These include translanguaging practices throughout the process and making sure that participants are not obliged to take part in the research. The questions of equality were also prominent concerning equal treatment of collaborators in the implementation process. | We discussed the question of equality and ethics on different occasions among us researchers as well as together with our collaborators. The discussions and reflections concerned equal involvement of (activities offered to) all three collaborating NGOss. Also, we reflected language practices during the workshop and communication channels so that everybody receives the same information and has a chance to communicate in a language they are more fluent. Our first workshop was implemented during a 6-weeks coaching period of Aurinkopaja. The next workshop will consist of new participants from all three collaborating organizations. These activities were discussed and agreed with representatives of all three organisations, and they will be implemented in other premises than premises of the collaborating organisations. We continue a photography project with six participants from the first workshops. Meetings related to these part of the workshop 1 take place in the premises of university and outside Aurinkopaja workshop days. | Reflection on equality should be present and discussed in different stages of implementation of co-creation activities. Negotiation of language practices and ensuring that everybody receives information needed in their familiar language are key issues. These involve careful planning of sessions, preparation of materials in different languages and agreeing on interpretation and translation practices. Spoken contributions should be interpreted in languages understandable to participants, coaches and artists. Also written materials need to be multilingual (and preferably multimodal for purposes of different communication channels). Also familiarizing participants with different translation tools maybe a good idea. This also allows participants to take more active role and responsibility for receiving and passing information. | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (8/23) | 2023/06 /05 | Engagement | Implementation of co-creation in multilingual context | Implementation of co-creation in multilingual contexts involves extra sensitivity and planning. Using different languages in the workshop and translations into different languages maybe tiring and can reduce the concentration of the participants. This is also tiring for coaches, artists and researchers themselves. Lack of common language(s) and participants’ varying language proficiency levels may easily lead to inequalities and/or uncertainties whether everyone has received the same information and has been heard properly. | Incorporation of all stakeholders’ voices was challenged by multilingual context and lack of common language(s). The multilingual context required from us extra planning and careful listening to a variety of voices and enhancing understanding between different stakeholders. This involved providing of timely translations by external person(s) or participants themselves and preparing material in different languages. We learned step by step what works the best for this specific group. The question of equality (equal access to information) and upkeeping engagement of the participants was prominent in this setting. Though we paid attention that everybody receives necessary translations, we were sometimes unsure if everything was translated to all participants and concerned about the quality of translations. Also, we noticed that involving a commissioned translator may sometimes passivate participants. Engaging those participants with good knowledge of English into translating to others turned out to be a good practice. We also noticed that using many languages and simultaneous translations were tiring for some participants but were useful for others. We responded to this challenge by promoting flexible translanguaging practices and arranging extra or longer pauses if needed. | In case of working in multilingual contexts, a proper amount of time should be allocated for planning activities. If only possible it is good to engage participants into translating to each other. However, it needs to be ensured that the key information on the project and research and what participation involves is provided in the language(s) understandable for participants and possibly by engaging a professional translator or a person with good understanding of the research process. It should be recognized that interacting and learning in a multilingual context has own specifics and it can be demanding for participants as well as for coaches. Adjustments and flexible approach to both translanguaging practices and timetable maybe therefore needed in this context. | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (9/23) | 2023/06 /05 | Engagement | Doing research related to the workshop activities | It may be difficult to understand what research in this type of collaborative project is. For many young people this was the first time to take part in research in general. Even though a request to act as a co-researcher may sound exciting and appealing, it also may raise concerns. In addition, research process is complex and requires careful planning of what kinds of research material will be collected within each activity. | Basically, all our participants were for the first time in their life approached by researchers requested to participate in the research. Some were surprised that we ask them for permission, as from their experience nobody asks for such a permission in the context that they are familiar with. After some additional conversations, it turned out that some understood differently what participation in interview involves and associated the interview with giving an interview for TV and were rather not willing to participate in something like this. Moreover, as our pilot may involve digital narrative interviews, this may be even more confusing. For some it was also difficult to understand what being a co-researcher means concretely. Our translator made a good job explaining the idea behind the research acting at the same as a cultural mediator during the info session, and we researchers continued explaining these matters during the whole research process. As it is typical in any ethnographic or co-produced collaborative research, the participants occasionally asked about the purpose of audio recording certain activities. This gave for both them and us researchers a chance to negotiate, if audio recording was necessary and if the young people wanted to take part in research in that situation. Implementation of the workshop sessions was accompanied with in-depth discussions and sharing experiences. However, we were not always prepared to spontaneously record these discussions. When only possible we made field notes after the sessions. It is also important to keep in mind that we researchers were heavily involved in the creative sessions. In current arts-based research, embodied experiences and creative outputs are seen as research data: everything is not in spoken or written text, what matters, is the co-existence and epistemic interest in other participants’ views, thoughts and actions. | It is important to give information on what involvement in the research involves by providing some concrete examples. Also explaining a difference between interviews for different purposes may be needed. Providing a general information to the whole group and creating possibility to discuss these matters in smaller groups or individually seems to work well. Planning of the workshop sessions should be accompanied by planning research activities at the same time. However, not everything can be foreseen in co-creative and collaborative project. It is good to be prepared for participants being reserved as what concerns participation in the research and respect their shifting opinions about it. A proper amount of time should be allowed for building the rapport, familiarizing oneself with the field/context and participants. | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (10/23) | 2023/06 /05 | Implementation | Negotiation of concepts/key words | There maybe difference understandings of the meaning of concepts depending on language, participants’ and stakeholders’ backgrounds and their lived experiences. | We decided to use a few key words, such as learning and change, which would picture our workshop. During the activities in the workshop sessions, it became clear that these words can be understood (and used) differently depending on the context, language or participants’ backgrounds and experiences. | Negotiation of the key words used is necessary. Participants may have quite a different understanding of those than researchers. Some concepts/key words may have different meaning/feeling depending on language. Even if some key words are initially not understood (or something does not work as expected), such notices are important for improving pilot activities. This notice motivated us to rethink key words used. Rather than pointing to learning and change we talked about past-present-future dimension in participants’ lives. | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (11/23) | 2023/06 /05 | Implementation | Dealing with anxieties during co-creation process by creating a safe space | Implementation of co-creation in education and research (projects) is accompanied by anxieties and uncertainties. Realization of such feelings requires a lot of resilience and adjustments especially in the beginning phases when it is still unclear for everyone what the project is exactly about, what we are aiming for and how we will realize it. | We entered the field without exact plans what we will be doing in the workshop – as it is the case in co-creative collaborative projects. We had in mind an approximate number of sessions and a few key words for the workshop as well as the principles of the project: co-creation, co-caring and multimodality. Especially in the beginning, this resulted in a lot of anxieties, as we did not know what kinds of projects we will realize during the workshop and if we will be able to find on such a short notice appropriate artists to convene the session(s)s. The situation got improved when we had a program, and it became clearer what we will be doing and who will be in the sessions. Development of routines and repetitive practices (same structure for the sessions, music list created by participants for each session) as well as not planning too many activities (avoiding rush) was of help in creating of safe space for both participants and coaches. Also, previous experience of being a researcher in similar kinds of projects and gained knowledge of potential pitfalls gave us more certainty in implementing the pilot. | Anxieties and uncertainties can’t be avoided in such type of projects. This belongs to the co-creation process and needs to be accepted. Investing time and effort in creating of safe space gives good prospects for co-creation process/project being successful. It is also important to share insights with researchers, who have previously conducted arts-based collaborative research. | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (12/23) | 2023/06 /05 | Implementation | Unexpected turns – dealing with range of/contradictory emotions | Activities and discussions during sessions may raise a range of feelings and memories among both participants and coaches and discussions may evolve in unexpected directions. The use of multimodal and arts-based means creates a possibility to make visible otherwise unspoken experiences and feelings. On the other hand, we learnt that organizing arts-based workshops and doing research related to it may involve unexpected turns. | The aim of the pilot actions repiloted by our team was to explore participants’ experiences of international migrations and (im)mobilities. Especially in forced/war migration context these topics may raise a lot of contradictory emotions and memories among migrants and natives alike. This was also visible in some of the sessions and participants’ and coaches’ reflections. Sometimes discussions evolved the direction that may have easily led to some tensions (going too deep into participants’ personal experiences). In addition, some activities, for example related to planning, turned out to be controversial as for some participants it felt impossible to make any plans or even think about their future in their current situation. The particularity of the young participants’ life situation was also evident in their changing levels of engagement in workshop activities. For some participants, life situation changed so fast or dramatically (changing flats, some family members leaving Finland), that it led to drop out from the workshop sessions or lack of concentration. We had previous experience of working with both minors and young adults, who have gone through similar life situations. This enhanced our understanding and adjusting. | Conducting multimodal and arts-based workshops and research requires considering possibility of such unexpected turns and accepting it as something unavoidable. Also, the particularity of participants and their difficult and uncertain life situation should be considered. Not everybody will be able to participate with full engagement. Flexible planning of sessions, being ready to plans being constantly adjusted is highly important in this context. More demanding and/or important activities should be placed in the beginning of sessions. | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (13/23) | 2023/06 /05 | Implementation | Doing collaborative research: specifics and responsibilities | Doing collaborative work and research is rewarding. It requires a lot of involvement from all parties, but it is also demanding and creates some obligations/responsibilities towards participants and stakeholders involved. Involving participants in such extensive activities, which are fully voluntarily for them, can be challenging. | We explored together with the participants their experiences of international migrations and (im)mobilities through multimodal and arts-based methods. This meant in practice a lot of and long-term involvement on the side of all parties and usually was related to/supported by creating of good rapport. In our case we took the time needed to get to know our stakeholders and potential participants of the pilot action activities. Moreover, arts-based collaborative research invites for long-term partnerships. Our workshop took place in a short-term, 6-week program, and some activities were unfinished due to time concerns. Therefore, we decided to continue with 6 key participants and finalize their photo/video outputs with an artist, who had personally experienced forced migration and the participants had formed a trusting relationship. | It is recommended to take into account that doing collaborative research may involve a slow process of establishing of good rapport. Trust is constantly under negotiation, and it needs to be gained to build long-term partnerships | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (14/23) | 2023/06 /05 | Implementation | Crossing own professional boarders | Co-creation activities involving different collaborators such as artists may sometimes lead to crossing own professional boarders. Finding a balance between agreeing on that what is expected from the artists and respecting artistic freedom is a delicate matter. | Some artists may besides their artistic work also occupy with art-therapy or are just interested in therapeutic work. It came as a surprise to us that one artist saw their role as a therapist, which create confusion among coaches as well as participants themselves. Each session was proceeded with discussion with the artist about forthcoming session, their ideas for the session and materials needed, but this didn’t guarantee that everything will go according to the plan. The team of researchers and coaches decided to interrupt collaboration for the sake of protecting our young participants, who felt intimidated. We had a thorough discussion with the artist, and all parties could go through the event and our actions. Also, we were able to be more explicit about being a professional and working with participants, who may have traumatic experiences. Multi-professional collaboration means that all parties will stick to their profession. We also had a thorough feedback session about the whole workshop and the young participants discussed their feelings and how the workshop handled it. This conversation was extremely important to make sure that Aurinkopaja and NEW ABC workshop would be seen as safe spaces also in the future. | When engaging various collaborators in co-creation activities it is recommended to also discuss the role that a person is supposed to act in and what that involves – and what it doesn’t involve. We recognized that sharing minutes of workshop sessions with all the coaches involved in the session is a good practice. This gives possibility to discuss planned activities and avoid surprises (at least to some extent). Continuous discussions and reflections on various collaborators’ roles in implementation of pilot action activities is advisable. At the same time, artist freedom should be accepted, if it does not create harm to participants. | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (15/23) | 2024/ 01/29 | Engagement | Active listening and giving voice to and recognition of participants’ perspectives and wishes in video production process | Active listening and giving space (time) for negotiation of the final product of a co-creation process (e.g. during co-production of the video/documentary) is of importance for the project and co-creation process being successful. | It took a lot of time and many montage sessions before participants started openly expressing their wishes and concerns regarding the final version of the documentary. | Allocate enough time for montage of the video/document and negotiation of its final version. | Emotional barriers in: Engagement Social barriers in: Engagement Cultural barriers in: Engagement Language barriers in: Engagement |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (16/23) | 2024/ 01/29 | Engagement | Negotiation of new types of identities and showing oneself in a new light | Engaging in co-creative, arts-based and multimodal projects allows participants negotiation of their identities, to present themselves in new, better light, and the way they want to be presented. The process of co-creating video was more important than the product. | Participants expressed concerns about how they were presented in the first version of the documentary. They did not like the war scenes in the film, and it was important for them not to be victimized. Instead, the participants wanted to stress that their lives went on; they wanted to travel and explore Finland, learn new things, and build their lives. | Be open to participants’ ideas about the final product of the co-creation process. The content of it will not necessarily be this that you have imagined. Working on co-production may boost many interesting discussions and reflections, allowing participants to express otherwise unexpressed experiences, discuss otherwise undiscussed topics, and negotiate new types of identities that do not go hand in hand with existing discourses on refugees and refugeehood. | Emotional barriers in: Engagement Social barriers in: Engagement Cultural barriers in: Engagement Education barriers in: Engagement Language barriers in: Engagement |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (17/23) | 2024/ 01/29 | Implementation | Participants’ privacy and anonymity | Matters related to privacy and anonymity of participants should be continuously negotiated (checked in different points of time), especially when participants can be identified. | We have returned to the matter of participants being identified (and if they want to be identified) during the phase of co-producing the documentary. We discussed these matters again when the documentary was ready and the participants new what the final shape of the documentary would be. | Discuss with the participants matters related to privacy and anonymity at different points in the duration of the project. Update informed consent if necessary. Explicit how the documentary will be analyzed and used for research purposes. This is crucial, especially when participants can be identified. | Emotional barriers in: Engagement Social barriers in: Engagement Cultural barriers in: Engagement Education barriers in: Engagement Language barriers in: Engagement |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (18/23) | 2024/ 01/29 | Communication | Dissemination of artistic outcomes produced collaboratively | It is important to agree with participants and all involved in video co-production how this artistic outcome will be used and shared. | After the final product of the video project was ready, we discussed it with participants and agreed on rules for sharing the documentary. | Even when agreeing already at the beginning of the activities on the rules of disseminating the artistic outcomes of the activities, it is good to discuss it again once the artistic outcome/s are ready. | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (19/23) | 2024/ 01/29 | Evaluation | Feedback on video project | Informal (continuous) feedback may be a good option for long-lasting collaborative projects. | We regularly asked participants involved in a video project about their experiences and impressions from this part of the activity. In addition, after the first version of the video was ready, we met the participants in the cafeteria and discussed how we succeeded. | Receiving feedback on the activities is important. However, its form can be adjusted according to the group and type of activity. For long-lasting projects, informal methods of receiving feedback may be more suitable. | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (20/23) | 2024/ 01/29 | Engagement | Certificate of participation | Getting a certificate of participation in NEW ABC activities was important to our participants. | Certificates of participation were provided to six participants taking part in the video project. We suggested a total of 5ECTS for participation in activities. | Providing participants with certificates of participation in activities is a good idea. For us, facilitators, it was a way of showing appreciation for devoting a considerable amount of free time to our activities. Participants saw it as beneficial when applied to places of study or work. | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (21/23) | 2024/ 01/29 | Adaptability | Maintain participants’ motivation to continue with montage of the documentary/video | It is easy to gather a lot of footage. However, the montage can be toilsome and long. Working towards upkeeping participants’ motivation is crucial. | Participants’ motivation to continue with the video project varied, which was also visible in their attendance in planning and montage sessions. We needed to invest a lot of energy to maintain participants’ motivation. | Refreshments and a friendly company work well as a way to motivate participants. In addition, the possibility of getting a certificate of participation may work as a motivator for continuing activities that require a lot of work and long-lasting engagement on the side of participants. | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (22/23) | 2024/ 01/29 | Implementation | Organizing an exhibition out of the workshop’s artistic outcomes | Organizing a final event (also when in question is a shorter workshop) is a good way of closing the workshop. Preparing an exhibition requires planning and organization. | The idea of a photo exhibition was developed during the workshop. Participants wished for photos that they did/edited during the workshop to be printed for them. During the discussion, the idea of creating an exhibition out of the printed photos and an opening event for participants’ families and friends appeared. Participants seemed to be excited about the idea of the exhibition and the opening event. We followed the participants’ wishes and printed their photos (which they could take home after the exhibition). | Start organizing exhibitions and events in advance and include collaborators in the planning process. Book well in advance a place for possible exhibitions and events. It should be noted that printing photos also takes some time. Encourage participants to send photos/artistic outcomes to you in advance. Check where the exhibition will be and plan what you will need to set up the exhibition (boards, pins, ruler). Planning how the exhibition will be set up and how the space will be used is important, but at the same time, flexible. If printing any text, posters for the exhibition ensure that the size of the font is large enough and visible from a few meters. Do not put too much text in posters. Ask participants if they would like their names to be mentioned or visible and if they wanted to name their photos (or other artistic outputs). | |
| 9. International migrations & (im)mobilities: offline/online practices, identities, agency and voice of youth within temporary reception centres (23/23) | 2024/ 01/29 | Engagement | Building trust and rapport, and getting feedback during short-term workshops | Building a trust and good rapport as well as gathering feedback is also important during shorter workshops. | We tried the best part of the activities from the 1st edition of the NEW ABC workshop, with a more diverse group of participants in the form of a two-day workshop. The planning of the activities involved collaboration with three institutional stakeholders supporting refugee background young adults in the City of Jyväskylä. We started the workshop with welcoming coffee and chatting with participants about their moods and expectations. We finished the workshop with wrap-up coffee, which was also a good opportunity to ask participants how we met their expectations and discuss their future wishes (future courses and the exhibition). | Invest and allocate sufficient time to build trust and good rapport in shorter workshops. Welcome and wrap-up coffee work well for these reasons. |