Action Area II

School policies and practices promoting those principles are not that common. Often schools with socio-economically, ethnically and culturally diverse student bodies, including refugee children, minorities and children of other vulnerable groups, struggle to handle diversity in all its forms. 3 in 10 teachers in OECD countries find it difficult to cope with the challenges of teaching a multicultural class.

EWC aims to promote the integration of inclusive and democratic practice and policies through a whole school approach into three areas of school life:

• teaching and learning
• school culture and
• co-operation with the local community.

We empower schools to plan and carry out actions based on their needs, working on positive relations among staff-students and improving home-school cooperation.

We reach teachers, school leaders, parents, students and their communities through our collaboration with teacher training institutions, universities and civil society organizations in formal and non-formal education.

Projects promoting inclusive and democratic learning environments

Schools for All

In 150 schools with refugee pupils across Greece, school directors and teachers are trained to create safe and inclusive schools and classrooms where refugees are welcomed into a learning environment which aims to provide quality education to all.

Democratic School Development

EWC supports reforms in secondary education and strengthens national dialogue and social cohesion between different regions of Ukraine. The activities are based on the whole school approach and focus on strengthening democratic culture and fostering development of democratic competences at school.

Promoting Inclusive Schools

Starting in 2020, this is a 3-year capacity-building project to build national capacity in citizenship and inclusive education in view of increasing the quality of education.

Impact stories

Building a Training Programme for Democratic Education in Romania

The Teacher Training Centre Bucharest established a training programme for teachers called Democratic Education in Romanian Schools, following their participation in the EWC training programme Building Democratic School Culture

Estonian school promotes active citizenship in local community

Recognizing the school’s importance for community development, the Keeni school in Estonia saw a need to get the students and village more involved in cooperation and decision-making.

Selected resources

Tool for Democratic School Development

This EWC publication gives an introduction on how the whole school approach can help schools develop democratic competences.

Living Democracy

Living Democracy is a unique educational resource promoting democracy and human rights in school. It combines ready-made lesson plans with ideas for action in the classroom

Democratic Governance of Schools

This manual is a practical tool that is designed to bridge the gap between theory and practice in EDC.