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Education policies and practices to foster tolerance, respect for diversity and civic responsibility in children and Young people in the EU
Abstract
Growing ethnic and religious diversity1 in Europe poses both opportunities and challenges to Europe- an policy-makers and societies as a whole. It is expected that this diversity will continue to increase. At the same time, recent studies show that intolerance and social exclusion are increasing, with some mi- grant groups feeling alienated. This is leading to incidences of social tensions and unrest. Education has a key role to play in preparing societies for dealing with these phenomena. It also plays a vital role in the political socialisation of European citizens from cradle to grave.
This independent report reviews the most relevant European and international research on these is- sues in order to summarise existing knowledge and to distil policy lessons based on evidence. It ad- dresses questions that include:
What main opportunities and challenges do European education systems face in terms of educating for tolerance, respect for diversity and active citizenship? For each of these, what policy insights can we draw from existing European and international re- search and evidence?
Which specific education policies and practices appear to work best and under which specific cir- cumstances?
... Whilst there appears to be peace and diversity approaches developed across Europe much of the evidence of their effectiveness is anecdotal with systematic assessment of their impacts largely absent (van Driel et al., 2016). Nevertheless, in qualitative feedback from young people engaged in multicultural awareness approaches within the youth justice system in the UK, positive experiences of meeting new people were reported. ...
This report aims to provide a briefing on the extent and impacts of violent extremism in the UK, our current understanding of risk and protective factors, and emerging practice for prevention. The report applies public health principles in considering a life course perspective for individual vulnerability and the impact of issues such as childhood adversity, social isolation and acculturative stress, whilst at the same time using the prevention paradox to understand the need to work on a universal footprint and build resilient and cohesive communities that are free from the appeals of violence.
... School enrolment and admission policies must guarantee equal access to good quality education irrespective of the gender, socio-economic, religious, or ethnic background of students. This requires the establishment of monitoring mechanisms and appropriate school management (van Driel, Darmody and Kerzil, 2016). The Commission Recommendation 2013 emphasizes that spatial disparities in the availability, quality and outcomes of education need to be recognised and addressed, and desegregation policies need to foster comprehensive schooling. ...
International evidence indicates that school systems need to change in order to tackle early school leaving and improve social inclusion in education and society. Policy-makers and school actors require practical tools to assist them in this process, made all the more urgent by the EU2020 headline target to reduce early school leaving. This report develops such practical tools; it is designed to inform strategic policy and practice by offering an innovative framework of structural indicators for early school leaving prevention and inclusion in school. It draws upon key European Council and Commission policy documents on early school leaving prevention, and also on the Paris Declaration 2015 on promoting common values of freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination through education, which includes a focus on social marginalization.
Participation in society can be promoted through science education. This study considers an example of how a lower secondary school teacher integrated participation in society into physics studies and how students (n = 20) perceived the participation exercise. In the learning process, students exchanged knowledge and tools with others and produced knowledge for the community in the form of a citizen’s initiative leading to an action by the municipality: the painting of a pedestrian crossing. The students were keen to exercise participation and produce information through inquiries for their citizen initiative. After the intervention, most of the students expressed their willingness to participate in society and act as active citizens, they perceived that they have the means and opportunities, as well as the possibility to find support to participate and influence. Students were willing to participate particularly in their local communities. Students perceived that they learned and gained competences while participating. Students acknowledged knowledge as a base of the decision, which may promote perceived value of physics and associated careers. Students also highlighted collaboration and shared experiences, which may create engagement and participation concerning the scientific issues to which they relate. Similar participation exercises are possible in other contexts and countries. Further studies should focus on different participation exercises to gain more knowledge about young people’s experiences on participation.
Supporting interethnic and interracial friendships in schools among children and adolescents is an important part of a progressive educational agenda informed in equity, social justice frameworks, and critical multicultural education that leads to a reduction in racial prejudice. Positive intergroup contact is a necessary condition in prejudice reduction and the development of positive racial attitudes among ethnically and racially diverse groups of children and adolescents. School counseling initiatives focused on promoting interethnic and interracial friendships can have significant individual and systemic consequences such as: improving social, emotional, and cultural competence among youth; prejudice reduction; and the creation of equitable educational spaces informed in multicultural and social justice worldviews.
The article by this title is unavailable and is supplanted by the uploaded one, Becoming Interculturally Competent....
This article describes a study that explores the identities that principals
assume as they engage in dialogue in diverse school contexts. In particular,
it focuses on the various dimensions of one identity—that of mediator—and illustrates
how this identity shapes the way in which administrators converse with others
and how it affects efforts toward inclusion. Administrators in this study assumed
either active or symbolic mediator identities in their quest to communicate
with their respective school communities. They also devised strategies to deal
with contradictions between their expressed inclusive values and their actual
communication practices.
The effectiveness of bilingual programs for promoting academic achievement of language-minority in the United States has been examined in six meta-analyses. The present meta-analytic study investigates this topic for the first time in the European context. Thorough literature searches uncovered 101 European studies, with only seven meeting the inclusion criteria. Two studies were excluded from further analyses. Results from the random-effects model of the five remaining studies indicate a small positive effect (g = 0.23; 95% CI [0.10, 0.36]) for bilingual over submersion programs on reading of language-minority children. Thus, this meta-analysis supports bilingual education—that is, including the home language of language-minority children—in school instruction. However, the generalizability of the results is limited by the small number of studies on this topic. More published studies on bilingual education in Europe are needed as well as closer attention to the size of the effects.
In the midst of discussions about improving education, teacher education, equity, and diversity, little has been done to make pedagogy a central area of investigation. This article attempts to challenge notions about the intersection of culture and teaching that rely solely on microanalytic or macroanalytic perspectives. Rather, the article attempts to build on the work done in both of these areas and proposes a culturally relevant theory of education. By raising questions about the location of the researcher in pedagogical research, the article attempts to explicate the theoretical framework of the author in the nexus of collaborative and reflexive research. The pedagogical practices of eight exemplary teachers of African-American students serve as the investigative "site." Their practices and reflections on those practices provide a way to define and recognize culturally relevant pedagogy.