Pilot: My ideal school; the school I would like

It is important to implement this pilot because…

the school domain is one of the key agencies of socialization and represents both a challenging and ideal arena for the children’s integration, as well as their families’ and communities’, into mainstream society. Yet, children with an immigrant or deprived background often have to face many challenges created by educational inequalities, lack of social and emotional wellbeing, inability to use their native/family languages, lack of mutual knowledge and understanding. Children’s voices and opinions are seldom heard and heeded, yet they are the ones who experience first-hand the strengths and weaknesses of educational policies and the impact they have on their future and their lives. The activities of this pilot action will help them and their families voice their needs and ensure that they are heard by the other stakeholders in education: teachers, local, regional and national policymakers.

This pilot action will take place in kindergarten, primary and middle schools with a culturally diverse pupil population ranging from 3 to 14 years of age.

First testing of the pilot in

Italy

Second testing of the pilot in

Cyprus

The aim of this pilot action is…
to help children/families/communities find their voice and bring their real needs in education to other stakeholders as well as policymakers at the local, regional and national levels. The activities of this pilot will be co-created by taking a multi-pronged approach based on the whole-child/school, bottom-up, and participatory action research theories. This approach will help integrate the learning dimension with the cultural, social, and emotional sphere thus contributing to promote and enhance inclusion.

Allowing children, families, teachers and communities, especially those with an immigrant background, to express their voice to overcome barriers in education increases their agency and allows them to make their real needs in education visible to decision- and policy-makers.

The co-created activities will focus on the real needs of children with and without an immigrant background in education. They will also contribute to disseminate the objectives of the project and outcomes of the pilot action to a wider audience by:

• creating videos and animations using different tools and software such as the i-Theatre, Lego bricks, shadow theatre, PowerPoint, Genially, etc.
• using good and established practices that the schools have already developed successfully
• collecting written and graphic narratives