- Information and objectives
SMOOTH intends to introduce the emergent paradigm of the ‘commons’ as an alternative value and action system in education for children and young people. The project critically draws out the implications of the commons for refiguring education and for social change in general, on a footing of equality, sharing, participation, togetherness, caring and freedom. We want to study if ‘educational commons’ can operate as a catalyst for reversing inequalities through various methods such as pedagogical documentation, pedagogy of active listening, ethnography and discourse analysis.
In particular, it proposes an innovative action research program with and by children to:
1. Reverse inequalities faced by children from vulnerable social groups;
2. Strengthen inter-cultural and inter-generational dialogue an social integration;
3. Develop vital social and personal skills for the children and adults;
4. Create smooth spaces of democratic citizenship and experimentation with news ways of thinking and doing based on equality, collaboration, collective creativity, sharing and caring;
Build and foster community through differences.
- Work packages
Objectives:
a. Reviewing theoretical and empirical starting points of the research.
b. Clarifying and confirming key objectives of the overall project.
c. Casting a foundation and building a framework for a different understanding of educational realities. Supplying the next working packages with the theoretical materials for constructing and researching the educational commons.
Deliverables:
1.1 Review document on project-related conceptual and theoretical literature.
1.2 Theoretical and empirical overview document.
1.3 Establishment report describing revised and agreed research objectives and definitions.
1.4 Working paper on characteristics and types of inequalities.
1.5 Working paper on convergences and divergences of educational commons from conventional education and alter pedagogies in addressing inequalities and enhancing social inclusion.
Objectives:
d. To map the views, opinions and perceptions of involved adults’ (i.e. teachers, educators from ASPs and parents) with regards to education, educational commons and inequalities.
e. To explore in detail how active actors (i.e. involved teachers and educators from ASPs) discursively construct their experience and understand the educational commons.
f. To explore how involved adults’ (i.e. teachers, educators from ASPs and parents) understanding of the educational commons evolves as a result of their experience.
g. To identify involved adults’ views on the potential of educational commons to reverse inequalities and to enable social inclusion.
Deliverables:
2.1 Report on teachers’ and educators’ views on formal and non-formal education (essentially, educational commons) in enhancing social inclusion and reversing inequalities.
2.2 Report on parents’ views on formal and non-formal education (essentially, educational commons) in enhancing social inclusion and reversing inequalities.
2.3 Report on teachers’ and educators’ discursive constructions of the experience of the educational commons.
Objectives:
h. Το create learning material on the educational commons’ values and practices, work in projects, pedagogical documentation and pedagogy of listening.
i. To support training on the educational commons’ values and practices, work in projects, pedagogical documentation and pedagogy of listening.
j. To design case studies following the idea of educational commons.
Deliverables:
3.1 Training manual for educational commons, pedagogical documentation, pedagogy of listening, peer governance and conflict resolution.
3.2 Online open courses on educational commons, pedagogical documentation and active listening, peer governance and conflict resolution.
3.3 Case studies on educational commons manual.
Objectives:
k. To establish a strong collaboration link among educational institutions and organizations.
l. To support collaboration among researchers, educators and practitioners at national and international level.
m. To implement a variety of case studies designed according to the educational commons’ logics
n. To co-develop convivial tools, technologies and infrastructures, which enable the children, pupils and students, to discover and develop their own priorities and improve active inclusion.
o. To create smooth spaces of democratic citizenship, peer governance and experimentation with new ways of thinking and doing education.
p. To build and foster community through differences; strengthen inter-cultural and inter-generational dialog and social integration.
q. To empower children’s and youth’s agency and participation in public life – child and young as a commoner, active user and co-creator of educational commons – culture, values and knowledge.
r. To advance a culture of co-responsibility and care for co-citizens, the city, education and the environment.
s. To open preschools, schools and after school programs (ASPs) in community and making children and youth visible.
t. To create affective spaces to share commons with mathematics and art.
u. To familiarize children and youth with open technologies, open design and ‘Open Educational Resources’.
Deliverables:
4.1 Report on the collaboration among the partners and the educational institutions and organizations (third parties)
4.2 Virtual reflection meeting room.
4.3 Guide of the best practiced workshops.
4.4 Guide about the convivial tools and open technologies as infrastructures developed with and by children, pupils and students.
Objectives:
v. Are there similar patterns in the diverse educational commons of the project?
w. Can education be effectively organized on the basis of commons’ patterns?
x. What are the effects of applying commons’ logic to addressing inequalities and achieving social inclusion of children and young people from vulnerable social groups?
y. Can commons-based peer education contribute to further development of commons-based peer production?
z. How do children and youth themselves collectively experience and construct the commons in educational settings?
aa. How the co-development of convivial tools, open technologies and infrastructures enables the children, pupils and students, to discover and develop their own priorities and improves active inclusion?
bb. Are there gender differences in how children and youth engage in an educational commons?
cc. Are there gender patterns in the diverse educational commons of the study?
dd. How do educational commons’ members (children, young people and adults) experience peer governance?
ee. How do they manage and resolve conflicts within the community they belong?
Deliverables:
5.1 Report on the pedagogical documentation and investigation of all the case studies of the project.
5.2 Report on Peer to Peer Interviews.
5.3 12 articles (1 for each partner) will be published in international scientific journals.
5.4 A co-authored article (by all partners) with the overall results of all case studies will be published in an international high impact scientific journal.
Objectives:
ff. Assess children’s views, perceptions and understanding of the educational commons.
gg. To assess the degree of whether children exhibit commons-related (prosocial) values, attitudes and behaviors.
hh. To identify possible determinants of the commons-related (prosocial) attitudes and values that children exhibit.
Deliverables:
6.1 Report on children’s views, perceptions and understanding of the educational commons.
6.2 Report on the results of the experimental games and the assessment of the commons-related attitudes children exhibit.
6.3 Report on the determinants of the commons-related attitudes that students exhibit.
Objectives:
ii. how official E.U. and national policy discourses engage with education, inequality and active social inclusion of youth and children from vulnerable social settings;
jj. what kind of dominant beliefs and ideas about children and youth’s social, environmental and political activity, and their entitlement to participate in public life, they include;
kk. which subject positions these interpretations create and allow for children and young people, and the broader underlining structures conditioning European education’s social positions today;
ll. how the local, national and EU policy makers perceive the role of education and the commons in reversing inequalities.
mm. Identifying convergences and divergences among the policy makers’ discourse, the official EU discourse about the role of education in social inclusion and the lived realities of the educational commons.
nn. Identifying convergences and divergences between the lived realities of the educational commons and the official notions about inclusive, sustainable and resilient communities.
oo. Defining challenges and issues for future research.
pp. Sharing ideas and making policy recommendations.
Deliverables:
7.1 Working paper about the representation of the role of education in tackling and reversing inequalities in the E.U. and national official policy.
7.2 Working paper about the policy makers’ discourse about the commons and role of education in social inclusion.
7.3 A guide of policy recommendations for reversing inequalities and enabling active inclusion through the educational commons.
7.4 Report with proposals for future research.
7.5 Final report reviewing all reports, working papers and publications of the project.
Objectives:
qq. Implement a general dissemination strategy for coordinating and management of various dissemination activities.
rr. Awareness of the academic community for research results and project’s findings.
ss. Development of specific dissemination strategy to promote outputs, through specific tools that will be context-based and target-based.
tt. Approaching stakeholders and the general public using targeted communication channels.
uu. Engage experts, decision-makers and exponents of the civil society in providing feedback regarding scenarios, case studies and criteria.
Deliverables:
8.1 Dissemination and exploitation plan.
8.2 Report on Dissemination Activities.
8.3 Project’s website and social media presence.
8.4 First edition of Policy Brief
8.5 Second edition of Policy Brief
8.6 Final edition of Policy Brief
8.7 First year minutes from conferences, seminars and workshops participation.
8.8 Second year minutes from conferences, seminars and workshops participation.
8.9 Third year minutes from conferences, seminars and workshops participation.
8.10 Electronic Newsletter First Edition.
8.11 Electronic Newsletter Second Edition.
8.12 Electronic Newsletter Third Edition.
8.13 First year’s Publications.
8.14 Second year’s Publications.
8.15 Third year’s Publications.
8.16 Efficiency Assessment report.
Objectives:
vv. To provide effective project management through sound planning, creating a clear organizational framework and all necessary support mechanisms to enable an efficient project workflow in the SMOOTH project and to ensure that all contractual commitments can be met on time.
ww. To provide optimal orientation to all partners through a quick set-up of effective management & communication structures, guidance and support.
xx. To establish transparency for consortium partners and the EC, through proper project documentation.
Deliverables:
9.1 Project Plan and Risk Management Strategy (Individual roles and responsibilities in project management and delivery, meetings schedule, Intranet).
9.2 1st Project meeting report.
9.3 2nd Project meeting report.
9.4 3rd Project meeting report.
9.5 4th Project meeting report.
9.6 5th Project meeting report.
9.7 6th Project meeting report.
9.8 Short progress report.
9.9 Data Management Plan.
9.10 Data Management Plan update.
9.11 Final Data Management Plan.
Objectives:
yy. To ensure compliance with the ‘ethics requirements’ set out in this work package.
Deliverables:
10.1 H – Requirement No. 3.
10.2 H – Requirement No. 7.
10.3 POPD – Requirement No. 8.
10.4 POPD – Requirement No. 11.
10.5 GEN – Requirement No. 12.
10.6 GEN – Requirement No. 13.
10.7 GEN – Requirement No. 14.
OUR TEAM
