Conference Agenda

In this presentation we will discuss two international Erasmus+ projects: COSI -Co-created Education through Social Inclusion and CISI - Curriculum Innovation for Social Inclusion considering transformative research challenges and social justice. Core elements of the projects are research components implemented and conducted in collaborative international teams of researchers and practitioners. The project partnerships involved educational institutions and universities from a total of nine EU and non-EU countries: the Czech Republic, Denmark, Georgia, Germany, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain.

The similarities between the two projects relate to the assumptions: inclusion of young people from disadvantaged groups and methodology based on a participatory approach and co-creation process in humanizing research process.

As recognised, working in partnerships in so many cultural contexts and diverse institutions highlights the differences in approaches not only in the research context, but also in terms of purpose and methodology. This implies attempts to bring together communities of practitioners and researchers to set up an adequate research framework, worked out despite the differences in perception or goals, as a compromise.

Another aspect to address is the challenge of participatory research with and about young people in different contexts with its methodological assumptions and ethical dilemmas which is a key topic for any reflective researcher. Therefore, the presentation addresses selected problems, challenges and dilemmas that arise in research about and with young people at risk, insofar as it is conducted by adults (with different experiences) residing in diverse contexts of various European countries.

The authors identify some reasons for these problems and ask to what extent and in which way ethical principles, and research approaches can be of help in dealing with and overcoming these challenges. They also point to the variety of approaches to research with vulnerable groups, such as young people at risk.

The general purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes of teachers working in eTwinning schools towards professional cooperation and their perceptions of the contributions of EU projects to schools on various variables and to determine the relationships between them.
Research questions:
1-A) What are the attitudes of teachers working in eTwinning schools towards professional cooperation among teachers?
1-B) Do the attitudes of teachers working in eTwinning schools towards professional cooperation differ significantly according to the variables of gender, age, school type, education level, and number of eTwinning projects involved?
2-A) What are the teachers' perceptions working in eTwinning schools regarding the contributions of EU Projects to schools?
2-B) Do the perceptions of teachers working in eTwinning schools regarding the contributions of EU Projects to schools differ significantly according to gender, age, school type, education level, and number of eTwinning projects involved?
3-Is there a significant relationship between the perceptions of teachers working in eTwinning schools regarding the contributions of EU Projects to schools and their attitudes towards professional cooperation?
Theoretical framework:
With the developing technology, virtual sharing and applications are frequently encountered in teaching, as in many areas. Due to the increase in knowledge every day, teachers are expected to cope with their educational problems by keeping up with changes, owning their field knowledge, following technological developments, and acting pedagogically competently (Köşk & Berkant, 2022). A community of practice has been defined as a group of people who share their interests in a problem, a set of problems or a topic and interact continuously to increase their knowledge and specialize in this field (Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2002). While the main focus of practice communities is the acquisition of knowledge, they draw attention to the communal and social aspects of learning rather than individual and personal learning (Denscombe, 2008). Learning communities, which are especially preferred for professional development, are frequently used in teacher communities.
In virtual communities of practice (vCOPs), members come together in a virtual environment and work interactively, enabling group members to discuss their ideas easily and to think collaboratively in a group-owned environment (McLoughlin et al., 2018). International platforms have been created where teachers can develop their teaching practices in collaborative environments with their colleagues. One of them, eTwinning, launched in 2005 by the European Schoolnet, is a secure platform that encourages collaboration through technology, encouraging educators to share ideas, connect with colleagues and develop joint projects promoting digital literacy (Camilleri, 2016). The platform created for schools in Europe is one of the virtual practice communities since teachers and students in their schools in European countries come together to increase their knowledge in parallel with the curriculum and to use this knowledge in practice. eTwinning is an institutionalized collaborative learning environment as well as an social network where partners that make up the education community collaborate remotely, synchronously or asynchronously, using the internet to carry out projects (Papadakis, 2016). Karakaşlar Gezgin and Gökbaş Çabuk (2021) defined cooperation between partners as the key element that reflects the spirit of eTwinning projects. They require both intra-institutional, inter-institutional, and inter-country collaborations. In general, it ensures the dissemination of projects in schools and the development of teachers' cooperation skills. For this reason, since being an eTwinning school by meeting the eTwinning quality label criteria is under the responsibility of the teachers working at the school, it has been seen that the studies on the attitudes of teachers towards professional cooperation and their perceptions of the contributions of EU projects to schools are quite limited in the literature reviews that can be accessed.

There is a rich European tradition of universities and research institutions and schools working together both for initial teacher education and as sites of pedagogic research. Different kinds of partnerships between HEIs and schools have evolved across Europe in response to local priorities (Burghes 2011). These partnerships have expanded and enriched professional development for teachers, at the same time as ensuring that research undertaken in HEIs is responding to issues of importance in the classroom (Passy et al, 2018). Our current Erasmus+ project UPPScale - University Practice Partnerships: sustaining collaboration across learning environments - is in its third year investigating partnerships between HEIs and schools, early years settings and community groups.

It builds on previous collaborations of UK partners with schools/HEIs in Spain and Denmark on previous Erasmus+ projects that have had strong elements of continuing professional development and co-researching co-design (ENTELS, Robo21C, PhenoloGIT); it also builds on longstanding collaboration for professional development between UK HEIs and University Practice Schools in Czech Republic and Hungary (Burghes 2011). As co-ordinators we have found this aspect of the project – working with partners we’ve worked with before – an essential aspect of the success of the project, especially as the first year of the project took place entirely online because of COVID restrictions on travel. It would have been much more difficult to establish good working relationships had we not been able to build on existing partnerships.

We have documented different models of partnership working between HEIs and schools in five countries (Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Belgium and Spain) with different traditions of HEI-School collaboration. We are now researching how such partnerships work in practice and the different structures and processes that support successful collaboration. In particular we are interested in how power relations between different actors are managed.

Our project team comprises ten partners from HEI and school/early years settings, one in each category from each of the five countries. Project partners were chosen because of both their expertise in particular areas and interest in receiving support to develop in other areas. Drawing on the notion of a ‘third space’ (Moje et al., 2004), the project seeks to create non-hierarchical spaces for collaborative transnational working. Each partner has taken the lead on one intellectual output, although our original plans have changed as we discovered more about our own and others' expertise. As well as sharing examples of how HEI-School partnerships work within our own countries, the project takes one step further to find ways that schools and universities in different countries collaborate on research into specific pedagogic projects of mutual interest (Cain, 2017).

To address the question of what supports collaborative partnerships, we have produced: a review of types of HEI-school partnership working within each project country, which has led to the development of four principles of collaborative partnership working; case studies of teacher trajectories linking recruitment, retention and promotion to HEI-School collaboration; a compendium of examples of research projects generated through HEIs and schools working together as co-researchers. Topics explored by partners include Place-Based Learning, Guidelines for Residential Visits and Playful learning in digital literacy

We are now working on an eBook to share research projects and introduce models of collaborative working to schools and HEIs.

Introduction Multiculturalism, linguistic and cultural diversity, integration of migrants in the host countries, inter-culturalism, inclusion and assimilation have been the predominant themes of intellectual, social and educational discourse for the past decades in Europe. Education systems have largely been reactive towards the challenges that emerged due to increasing linguistic and cultural diversity in schools therefore, the steps taken do not measure up to the actual needs. Intercultural community-based evaluation and planning is a multidimensional concept that encompasses inter-culturalism, inter-agency collaboration or community networking for planning, implementing and evaluating endeavours that promote intercultural understanding in schools. This presentation will explore the origins, implementation, possibilities and challenges of adopting and adapting an Intercultural Community Evaluation and Planning (ICCEP) approach to educational provision within Europe and beyond. European Dimension The presentation draws on European Union-funded ICCEP project that examined the scope for community-based collaborations’ planning, implementation and evaluation by mapping out the policies and practices that support or hinder ICCEP in five European countries, Austria, Ireland, Norway, Spain and Turkey. The presentation also aims to explore the existing practices of Educational networks in these countries. Background and argument The consistent influx of migrants and refugees in Europe and further afield has made the host societies multi-ethnic, multicultural and multilingual. This has led to the emergence of a policy discourse that has been driven by concepts such as multiculturalism, linguistic and cultural diversity, integration of migrants in the host countries, inter-culturalism, inclusion and assimilation (REF). This policy discourse has existed in parallel with a reality that has seen the nature of society change in many if not all European countries. Indeed, in the project countries represented here, there has been a dramatic social diversification with, for example, 12% of the overall population of school-going children (<15 years) in Ireland, 8.2% in Austria, 7.7% in Norway and 4.6% in Spain coming from a migration background (Eurydice, 2019). With this diversification have risen new social complexities which are posing significant challenges for both policymakers and leaders at all levels (Vertovec, 2007). On area that has been particularly impacted is education. Arguably, education is the foundation for successful participation in society and one of the most powerful tools for building more inclusive societies (European Commission, 2020, p.8). The reality is, however, that school environments have never been as diverse as they are now with an increasing proportion of students whose first language is different from the language of instruction. Many of the outcomes associated with this have been negative. At a broad level, scholars such as De Paola & Brunello, (2016) suggest that the potential of migrant children is not understood, is undervalued and not supported and developed. In practice this means, for example, that the percentage of early school leavers is significantly higher among migration background students in most European countries than native students (Eurydice, 2019). Indeed, at a macro level the OECD (2018) suggests that second-generation migrant students are systematically disadvantaged as against their native peers across EU countries. This presentation argues that at the heart of the educational challenge involves the development quality assurance and educational governance processes that support equity and inclusion in networked school communities of heterogenous backgrounds. This is not an argument for ‘migrant integration’ as if it was the migrants that had to do something right to successfully integrate, rather aiming to conceptualise the processes as the transformation of the whole local community with the goal of equity and inclusion of all members. This reconceptualization lies at the heart of ICCEP.