News Archive

The head trainers of the program “Schools for All – Inclusion of Refugee Children in Greek Schools”, Geli Aroni, Angelos Vallianatos, Marios Koukounaras-Liagkis and Iro Potamousi, participate for two days as lecturers in the educational 5-day seminars of the Institute of Educational Policy.

On Wednesday March 17, the project coordinator of “Schools For All”, Dora Katsamori, parcipated as a panelist in the international webinar “The role of education in promoting learning to live together among migrant, refugee and host communities in Europe”.

During the school year 2019-2020, 18 Gymnasiums of Northern and Southern Greece participated in our program, in which ‘Reception Classes’ operate. The aim of the program is for up to 150 Secondary Schools with ‘Reception Classes’ to participate by the end of the 2021-2022 school year.

Last year the Council of Europe and EWC launched Signposts – The teacher training module. This year the work to promote the use of the module in teacher trainings is a priority. Several initiatives are underway, starting with EWC’s own project portfolio’s participants.

Developed for and by teachers, the Schools for Democracy toolbox has become a success: “I am especially pleased to see the practical experience of colleagues who skilfully find ways to develop civic competences of students both in the classroom and in extracurricular activities”, says Svitlana Bratoshevska, deputy head and physics teacher in the Mykolaiv Secondary School №29

A powerful, meaningful, and inspiring discussion: “Refugee Education and Inclusion in Schools and Local Communities: What Are the Possibilities for the Future?

EWC contributes to the design and implementation of the competence-based curriculum in the field of citizenship education in Lithuania

Nine new University courses focusing on inclusive and democratic learning environments were successfully implemented and tested within the project in the Western Balkans last year.

The European Wergeland Center, in partnership with the Romanian Social Development Fund (RSDF), will offer trainings on promoting democratic and inclusive school cultures for Romanian teachers from schools with high dropout rates, usually located in marginalized, poor communities.

18 “Schools For All” have completed their actions plans and here is a snapshot of what they achieved!

More than 12.000 people have registered for EWC’s first Massive Open Online Course “Starting towards a successful school” since it opened in Ukraine January 20.

Museums and other cultural institutions increasingly look upon their visitors as participants rather than passive spectators. This increases their potential as arenas to foster democratic competences. One such institution is EWC´s partner the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

The topic of the first Thorvald Stoltenberg seminar at Utøya in 2019 was intercultural dialogue, bringing together youth leaders from 28 countries across Europe. Participant Eirini Pragia shares what she took away from the training, and how she uses it in her everyday life.

At the University of Skopje in North Macedonia, teacher students could participate in the new course “Democracy through visual art Education” in the spring of 2020. We had a talk with the professor who developed the module and one of the students that participated.

The EWC strategy plan highlights the importance for sustainable democracies to build institutions underpinned by a culture of democracy where citizens are enabled through key competences – values, attitudes, skills and knowledge –to participate in their societies. In this thematic newsletter we focus on these democratic competences and how they can be developed in young people.

Ukraine recently approved a new competence based curriculum for basic secondary education. “The main change is that students will be offered the possibility to influence more the way things are being taught and that the teachers will have a chance to accommodate the students’ requests, says Roman Shyyan, deputy director of the Reform support team in Ukraine

Students at Ivan Trush Gymnasium in Brody, Ukraine, were tired of being passive participants of school events organized by the teachers, having no real impact on school life. To change things they launched their own version of TED-Talks: Almam Talks.

What a year it has been! And what a response we have seen from educators all around the world!

2020 has been a particularly challenging year. The webinar “Lessons Learned: Schools Responding to Challenges of 2020” was an opportunity to hear the voices of those dealing with everyday challenges at schools, giving them space to share experiences and solutions.

“We have just successfully completed a one-month long marathon of 8 thematic trainings online”, exclaims Olena Shynarovska, Programme Coordinator for EWC’s Schools for Democracy in Ukraine. 32 trainers conducted 96 training sessions over a total of 144 hours involving 115 school teams with a total of 220 participants.

As of this academic year teacher students at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Nis will develop communication skills using, among others the Council of Europe Reference Framework of Competences for a Democratic Culture.

Lesia Yurchyshyn lives and teaches by the moto: “Don’t be afraid! Just act! But assume responsibility for your actions…”.

How do we create meaningful and inclusive meeting places when we cannot meet? What are useful tools and methods for discussing controversial issues online? Is it possible to find a common ground when we barely meet each other physically? These were some of the questions that participants at the Thorvald Stoltenberg Seminar 2020 explored together.

The launch event is co-organised by the European Wergeland Centre (Oslo) and the Council of Europe (Strasbourg).