Spyros Kokkotas

On the 1^st February 2022 partners of the Erasmus+ project SOLIS met at Loughborough University, UK. The SOLIS project is creating an e-learning platform with modules to promote wellbeing, inclusion and diversity in schools, as well as a mobile resource to support teachers.

Central to the SOLIS project is the creation of a library of 80+ digital stories, enabling the SOLIS partners to co-design, adapt and test the Digital Storytelling methodology with educators in a classroom setting. These Digital Storytelling skills were acquired during online learning activities in 2021, involving teachers from all partner countries. Digital stories are being created by students in the UK, Norway, Turkey, Malta, Italy, Lithuania, Spain and Greece under the guidance of trained partners. Digital Storytelling is a key methodology within the inclusive education approaches presented by the SOLIS project, working as a method of reflection, expression, understanding and development for the students involved, giving them awareness about the themes raised of inclusion and wellbeing. The Digital Storytelling methodology also enhances their self-confidence and provides additional digital skills.

When the SOLIS partners came together at Loughborough University, the first session of ‘micro learning modules’ were recorded with expert partners, providing focused, micro insight into inclusion, conflict, digital media, bullying and respect. This video content will be available throughout the learning outputs of the SOLIS project, such as the e-learning platform and mobile resource. An example of a question that is addressed in the platform is ‘What is conflict that cannot be resolved?’ An interesting concept that was viewed as both normal and part of healthy diversity, with a core idea that conflict is not necessarily harmful and cannot be completely eliminated, as long as core individual values and respect are not diminished, and compromise and tolerance is sought.

The project is formed by the following partners:

Loughborough University (UK) – Coordinator

E Consultants (Norway)

Afyonkarahisar Provincial National Education Directorate (Turkey)

AcrossLimits (Malta)

People Help the People (Italy)

European Social Entrepreneurship and Innovative Studies Institute (Lithuania)

European Learning Centre (Spain)

Research Paths (Greece)

Contacts:

Facebook: erasmussolisproject

Website: https://solis-project.eu

The SOLIS project, funded with the support of the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, is investigating the core challenges within cultural diversity and discrimination within 12-16 year old school pupils. The project is a collaboration between Loughborough University (UK), E-Consultants (Norway), People Help The People (Italy), AcrossLimits (Malta), European Social Entrepreneurship Institute (Lithuania), Afyonkarahisar Provincial National Education Directorate (Turkey), Research Paths (Greece), European Learning Centre (Spain). It aims to develop an e-learning platform for students and web training portal for teachers to provide interactive and collaborative activities such as digital storytelling, promoting peer learning and sharing for the increased wellbeing of students.

Extensive research has been carried out in the participant countries. The full report can be read on our website www.solis-project.eu. The research identifies various challenges in creating an inclusive school environment. The role of students is of paramount importance as they are the ones that have to embrace inclusion as an attitude towards their peers. Teachers should be able to embrace the inclusive ethos as a guiding principle in their teaching practice. Many teachers are lacking proper training to do so. Therefore, the need for the training of teachers is an imperative for the inclusive process, something the SOLIS project aims to provide support for with innovative learning practises that take a more holistic approach.

All eight countries have embraced inclusive education as a goal in their educational systems. The trend can be traced back into a series of international conventions and treaties that have been incorporated into national legislations. From the research conducted on a national level by the SOLIS partners in Norway, UK, Lithuania, Malta, Italy, Spain, Greece and Turkey, we have identified that inclusion as a concept should be as broad as possible: It should include all learners, regardless of identity, background or ability. Another outcome of the research identified that in some European countries integration and even more so incorporation into a dominant cultural paradigm is not inclusion. Inclusion recognizes and embraces diversity and difference as a resource and not as a problem. In this sense the inclusive school is responsive to the diverse needs of individual learners and accepts the different cultural practices as they exist in multicultural societies as they are expressed in the school context. Inclusive education increases the opportunities for peer interaction and the formation of close friendships between learners with and without disabilities, with disability being one of the main factors of exclusion.

Inclusion embraces diversity. All project participants identified the groups that are more vulnerable and therefore face a greater risk of exclusion. Vulnerable groups were identified on the basis of poverty, gender, ethnic origin (especially people with immigrant or refugee status), religion, sexual orientation or identity and disability.

Diverse strategies exist across participant countries. A case study from the UK reveals that a school has ‘well-being Wednesdays’ every week, with topics that pupils do together in groups. “When we discuss personal topics, the kids are very open and just accept it. They seem interested and don’t seem to find it odd or embarrassing to talk about things.”

In Turkey, sports education is being used as an inclusive method for strengthening social cohesion for temporary and internationally protected individuals.

And in Italy, the ‘InterAction – Increase skills to combat early school leaving’ project is taking place in some neighbourhoods of the city of Palermo, aimed at combating early school leaving and dispersion through the involvement of the educating community.

The SOLIS project is developing tools that use digital storytelling as one of its core strategies. Digital storytelling is a form of media through which people can describe a situation or experience. Through it, the thoughts, emotions and experiences of the storyteller can be expressed in an authentic way. Digital storytelling can play a significant role in raising awareness and preventing students’ exclusion, when utilized within the school setting.

On the 14^th September 2021 Erasmus+ project SELAM held its closing International Conference in Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. The SOLIS project (Developing wellbeing and social inclusion: achieving success through understanding of cultural diversity) held a 30-minute discussion panel with partners from UK, Norway and Greece appearing via video call to introduce this new project to over 100 teachers and education professionals. SOLIS is funded by the Erasmus+ KA2 Program (Strategic partnerships for school education) and started with a digital kick-off meeting in December 2020.

The SOLIS project was presented through the discussion panel at the International Conference in Turkey. The project aims to create a sense of belonging in students – a right to be included – no matter their background or ability by exploring the nexus of wellbeing, inclusion and diversity. The innovative use of Digital Storytelling will be a key tool in reaching these objectives, highlighted by Loughborough University, a leading educator in this field. Ongoing SOLIS research was also presented by Research Paths – looking into Inclusive Education Approaches and tools currently used in UK, Norway, Lithuania, Spain, Greece, Italy, Turkey and Malta. The report of this research will be available on the SOLIS project website and will help inform the creation of digital tools to support teachers and increase the wellbeing and inclusion of students, no matter their background. SOLIS will also lead to the creation of a resource library of at least 80 digital stories, as a result of teacher training and local workshops with students in all project partner countries.

Digital Storytelling is central to the holistic whole-school approach of the SOLIS project, looking at training teachers on how to employ this eminent tool in a classroom setting to help students share their story and increase understanding of where students come from and what they face. By helping students reflect on who they are, their values and relationships, and listening to their peers doing the same, strongly supports their development tasks in adolescence, allowing for evolution of identity management, handling and building of new relationships and information processing – key objectives of the SOLIS project.