Inclusion+ Tackling the challenges of Erasmus+ mobility inclusion and diversity at higher education level

Inclusion+ aims at fostering inclusivity and diversity in Erasmus+ mobility at the higher education level by tackling the
barriers faced by students with fewer opportunities, namely students with caring responsibilities and students with
disabilities, to participate in international mobility. By establishing cooperation between HEIs and host cities Inclusion+ will enhance both host institutional and cities’ inclusivity.

Interacting with diversity and supporting mobility students

This project seeks to create a support network for mobile students at FPCEUP in which 'local' students support international students, to strenghten their integration and ensure socio-emotional support.

Observatório Desporto, Educação e Comunidades [Observatory of Sport, Education and Communities]

The Observatory of Sport, Education and Communities (ODEC) is a knowledge network that articulates contributions from different social and human sciences, and is a space for experimentation and development of ideas and projects related to sport in society, as well as the systematization, production and dissemination of scientific knowledge developed in this field.

European Network on International Student Mobility: Connecting Research and Practice

Third-country students in Portugal: challenges of integration in a (post)pandemic era

Play4Life: Jovens Atletas como Ativistas no Desporto. [Play4life: Young athletes as sports activists]

Onda Social [Social Wave: intervention in school failure and absenteeism through surftherapy]

The problem of exposure to violence damages the psychological and emotional development of children, making them susceptible to: emotional distress, stress, anxiety, depression and isolation. Through an integrated model of therapy and surfing, the aim is to increase the emotional competencies of the participants, contributing to their well-being and personal development.

Internationalisation of Higher Education in a 'catch-up' country: tensions between Portugal's colonial past and the EU agenda for a European Higher Education Area

Study: Educational toolkits for fighting gender stereotypes, based on the example of the transport sector

Project description:
The objective of this project is to support the European Commission’s Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) in developing educational toolkits for primary and secondary school pupils, which will assist in fighting gender stereotypes that impact the gender imbalance of the transport sector. The toolkits, which will be available in all 24 EU official languages, will help teachers organise age-appropriate discussions in class to effectively address gender stereotypes and help children and youth understand that occupations are not reserved for either women or men. Such an intervention is both needed and timely, given the persistent gender segregation in both education and the labour market and the changing landscape of skills and competences needed in transport.

The specific tasks of this assignment involve:

- Desk research, surveys and interviews with educational and transport stakeholders that aim to identify existing educational toolkits and freely available online material addressing gender stereotypes in general and in the transportation sector in particular;
- Desk research, surveys and interviews with educational and transport stakeholders that aim to gather information on current and future occupations in transport;
- Designing the main messages and pedagogical approach for the two toolkits and proposing their draft structure;
- Drafting the two toolkits and gathering feedback from educational and transport stakeholders;
- Testing the two draft toolkits in schools;
- Finalisation and translation of the toolkits, and drawing up a dissemination plan.

Pilot study on educational innovation around nature-based solutions

Nature-based solutions are interventions that make use of nature itself to protect, sustainably manage and restore ecosystems and societal inequities in an effective and adaptable manner. What makes the case for NBS interesting and different from the previous ecosystem-based approach is the additional focus on social outcome indicators. An initiative to mainstream the best NBS innovations in European curricula is one way to make sure that students and teachers learn about the challenges the continent faces, e.g. loss of biodiversity and rising sea-water, and to boost interest in solutions to these challenges. Thus, the objective of this project is to make sure that the evidence collected on the usefulness of NBS in this regard is brought into the curricula and teaching practices across Europe.

The PILOT Study on Educational Innovation around Nature-Based Solutions – Phase 1 is a DG RTD project coordinated by PPMI Group in collaboration with European School net. This project is the first in PPMI for the new commission and, overall, one of the first to integrate NBS in education. Whereas PPMI Group will be responsible for the creation of a repository of learning scenarios on NBS, another contractor will be responsible for dissemination and evaluation of the project.

PPMI has reviewed an extensive amount of NBS initiatives in order to select the most effective solutions with educational potential. The main outputs for the year 2020 will be a repository of NBS resources, translation of learning materials created by teachers, post-implementation stories and a final study report.

European Policy Network on the education of children and young people with a migrant background (SIRIUS)

SIRIUS is a membership-based organisation that promotes the social inclusion of children and young people with migrant background by fostering their effective access to the universal right to education. SIRIUS encourages inclusive policymaking so that governments, authorities, schools and communities take action to promote and implement policies and measures aimed at reinforcing equity and social justice in education, improving educational opportunities, promoting social inclusion and fighting against discrimination.

We particularly strive for:

- The universal right to education for all without discrimination;
- Increased high quality public education services for learners with a migrant background;
- Better school integration and school transitions for learners with a migrant background;
- The reduction of segregation and early school leaving;
- The development of curricula that are respectful as regards to cultural, linguistic and religious diversity.

Our overall objective is to feed the best evidence and practice into the major education policy debates by mobilising mainstream migration and education activities and building the capacity of migrant and grassroots education initiatives. Our specific objectives are:

- To analyse and co-create knowledge on the main challenges and policy approaches for inclusive education for children and young people with a migrant background, with special attention to refugees, unaccompanied minors and other vulnerable learners;
- To identify, share and promote good policy practice and stimulate innovation and mainstreaming in policy development, experimentation and implementation;
- To disseminate results more widely and in more policy-friendly formats such as recommendations, guidance and tools.

NESET - Network of Experts working on the Social Dimension of Education and Training

NESET is an international advisory network of experts working on the social dimension of education and training. The social dimension of education refers to the potential of education and training systems to reduce poverty and enhance equity and social inclusion, laying foundations for the development of more prosperous and more cohesive European societies. It was set up to contribute to the improvement of European-level policy development and cooperation in education and training in order to support and supplement the efforts of the Member States to improve and modernise their education systems.

The network consists of almost 60 experts covering complementary areas of expertise in education and training representing 28 EU Member States, Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Iceland, Kosovo[1], Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, and the US. NESET provides reliable, independent and rigorous scientific support, country-specific expertise, and advice to the European Commission in relation to the equity and social aspects of all types and levels of education and training. The Network also acts as a knowledge broker, bridging the gap between EU policy coordination and the academic world. Through its activities it aims to provide feedback from research to policy. The main tasks of the network are:

- quality advice to the European Commission (advisory function);
- research reviews for policy-makers (knowledge brokerage);
- mapping of experts working on the social aspects of education and training.
- NESET is one of the 7 official knowledge providers of the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, along with EENEE, JRC, Eurydice, OECD, IEA and Eurostat.

This website is the main channel for dissemination of the Network‘s outputs. It is aimed at experts, policy-makers, researchers and other stakeholders working on the social dimension of education and training worldwide.

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education and Culture initiated the continuation of the network as the successor to NESSE (2007-2010), NESET (2011-2014) and NESET II (2015-2018). The Network’s scientific coordinator is Dragana Avramov. Counting with an experienced team of project managers and researchers capable of ensuring the highest standards of quality, PPMI is responsible for the administration, dynamization and expansion of the NESET network.

motivatEyoUth – Preventing the Early School Leaving phenomenon in the EU through practical and innovative solutions

The overall goal of motivatEyoUth is to support professionals working with young people (14-24), and build their capacity through competence oriented learning in preventing and reducing Early Leaving from Education and Training as well as inspiring youth to continue on viable progression pathways.

To achieve this goal, the specific objectives of the project are to:

- create an identification, prevention and intervention programme for ESL through innovative tools and activities;
- provide opportunities for continuous education to professionals directly involved with youth through open education and innovative practices;
- educate and support professionals to recognise, prevent and deal with ESL;
- build high-quality training materials and methodologies for professionals;
- motivate youth with innovative methodologies that better respond to the diverse needs of young learners today and encourage the development of their skills and pre-dispositions;
- reduce ESL levels on a local, national and European level;
- build a bridge between youth and work field concerning ESL;
- create innovative ways of communication between the target groups and relevant professionals.

The main target groups of the project are young people between 14 -18 years old, youth between 18-24, classified as Early Leavers from Education and Training & experts, such as teachers, educators, youth workers, trainers, social workers, healthcare professionals, coaches, social workers, etc. It is estimated that more than 3000 youth and experts will be involved, directly and indirectly, within the project activities.

Four main Intellectual Outputs will be designed and developed:

O1: Experts Programme Toolkit by the University of Porto;
O2: Online game “Journey to your Future” by COMCY;
O3: ICT Tool for Competence Assessment by OIC POLAND;
O4: Online educational platform by Open Europe.

Overall, the project will seek to address the risks of early school leaving and to build innovational material to support youth.

EduTransfer - Learning from Diverse Educational Settings: Transferability of Promising Practices in the 2020 Horizon

This participatory research analyses the possibilities of transference between educational institutions, of promising educational practices that take as basis problem based learning, as a cooperative learning methodology. Therefore it involves mainstream schools and out of school educational institutions, the alternative learning arenas.

The starting point of the project is the concern about the need to find more concerted forms of action in education, which involve the different actors in promoting a sense of belonging and commitment to education by young people and teachers, promoting greater success in contributing to the reduction of the social and individual problem of early school leaving and early leaving from education and training; dimensions on which the project's relevance rests.

Also relevant is the creation of spaces within the educational institutions, where young people have the opportunity to exert their citizenship and crucial competences, by participating in the identification, decision making and action to improve their life contexts. The innovative dimension of the project emerges from the strong articulation between researchers, teachers and young people, in the construction of participatory practices for solving real problems, identified by the young people themselves, and that result in community involvement, allowing a detailed analysis by the research team with the contribution of the participants.

The research standing point is based on a sociological perspective that argues for the need to go beyond the identification of problems and to collaborate in the construction of measures that contribute to their resolution. In a coherent articulation with the theoretical principles of a sensitive research that engages in the processes it observes and analyses, ethnography is the main method of collecting and analysing data, complemented by focus group discussion, which stands on the participants’ voices. The use of these complementary methods will allow the matching of the voices of the researchers, more sustained on ethnographic observation, and the voices of the actors, who are heard and taken into account in the research.

Reducing Early School Leaving in the EU (RESL.eu).

RESL.eu aims to provide insights into the mechanisms and processes influencing a pupil's decision to leave school/training early; as well as into the decision of ESLers to enroll in alternative learning arenas unrelated to a regular school - but wherein specific creative or innovative methods of knowledge and skill transfer are used. Additionally, RESL.eu focuses on the vulnerable group of youngsters that left education or training early and are identified as NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training). RESL.eu also aims to identify and analyze the intervention and compensation measures that succeeded in transferring knowledge and in keeping pupils in education/training, although they showed high (theoretical) risk of ESL.

Internationalisation: Paths, Analyses and Proposals for the Portuguese Higher Education Scenery