The National Mediation Association's May 2018 conference was about the state and practices of mediation in schools. Representatives of Partners Hungary were present not only as participants, but also as invited guests, as we have been working with mediation in various educational institutions, with school professionals and students since 2009.
A summary of the presentations from the morning of the conference.
The experience of school mediation in Italy
Carmela Cavallo, President of the Italian Section of GEMME (Groupement Européen des Magistrats pour la Médiation)
Motto: "The mediator aims to sew together the fabrics that have been torn along the school conflict."
School is the place where we learn how to communicate with others, where we can learn how to accept differences, so it is important to set a good example.
The educational principles of school and family differ, and this often leads to conflict, with families complaining a lot, e.g. of overwork, aggression.
In often changing circumstances, adults are often uncertain about setting boundaries, which is also a source of conflict.
In schools, aggression (the abuse of power and force) is felt at an earlier and earlier stage of life.
In the old days, the teacher was seen as a judge, but today that would no longer be accepted, which is why a mediator is needed.
Typical mediation is between two students or between groups of students, which may include facilitators from the class. Large groups require a lot of experience on the part of the mediator.
Mediation: how, by what methods?
At the beginning of the mediation, everyone tells their version of events, and the mediation starts.
Part of the meeting is a briefing, the rules are laid down, among which confidentiality is highlighted.
The mediator makes the parties aware that they have skills they may not have known they had because they were so preoccupied with the conflict.
It is worth focusing on topics that indicate a common position, which will help to start the conversation (e.g. music, sports.)
After mediation, the parties are usually supported with follow-up.
What is mediation good for?
Reducing early school leaving,
The number of harassment cases is falling,
It can help you to accept difference,
It boosts self-esteem (if someone is being bullied, it is easy to be a bully elsewhere),
Self-criticism is an opportunity to practice and accept the opinions of others, which can be learned here,
Anger can be controlled, it can be taken outside the mediation space,
Reducing the number of school suspensions.
Digital bullying is a big problem and teachers are not prepared for it.
The school venue for mediation: a separate room in the school.
The school mediator can also act between teachers and in family matters.
The programme referred to by the rapporteur was funded by the Commissioner for Children's Rights (if this is not available in your country, you should apply for EU funding).
The project involved 2 mediation organisations, GEMME and an organisation dealing with criminal mediation. They trained their own mediators. Schools were invited to apply to participate in the programme.
The aim was to have a mediator in each school who could be contacted in case of conflict. As a consequence, there is a mediator in the school 1 time a week, when you can turn to him/her. At the beginning, an external mediator was used, but since the training, an internal mediator has been used.
They spread the word about mediation with leaflets. The reality of having a mediator in every county, school by school, may not be feasible today.
At the end of the programme, after a year, an impact assessment is planned, after which it will be a question of who will finance the mediation: the municipality, the region or an EU grant.
In the Rome Court: a mediation window was introduced in child custody cases, 30% of clients used it and 25% of clients reached an agreement.
The education dispute system and its management, the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) framework
Presentation by András Krémer
Topic
The diversity of cases in education
How can we build a system where clients can find mediation?
How are such systems created?
Social traditions
Policy developments
Organisational cultures
In education disputes, there are conflicts of interest, fights, exclusion, mobbing, conflict between different stakeholders. It is still the case that in serious conflicts in schools, it is still not evident that the parties involved should go to a mediator.
Human rights and justice are important, and mediation could play a role in this.
Where do we start in the educational arena, what is the current situation?
Note: EMMI - Implementation of the Digital Strategy for Child Protection from 2017: there is a regulation - professionals are scarce - information is scarce for teachers and managers.
The National Crime Prevention Council has been training mediation teachers since 2014, with the aim of having a mediator in every school.
For the purposes of school alternatives question
do leaders have room for manoeuvre?
is the alternative route included in the policy?
is there a willingness to negotiate?
making it difficult to advocate (non-response, depression, crowding out of civilians)
Possible reasons for the lack of AVR
lack of knowledge
personal attitude
suggesting legislation - methods are not named
policy intentions
institutional weaknesses
lack of distraction mechanisms
Elements (gaps or requirements) for building the system
little research, case analysis
lack of documentation of cases
mapping of actors would be necessary
selecting model sites - launching pilot projects
Design
communication inside and outside the system
Institutional level
case level - find case, transfer to AVR, service
case handling - lessons learned, protocol, routine
Legal approach: place, voice, listening, impact - Lundy model
The child's participation is ensured if there is a guarantee of a safe environment:
if we know what to look for when we listen, as professionals,
we can decode what it says,
the extent to which your opinion has been taken into account in the decision-making process should be given to you as feedback (Lundy model)
ET's guidelines for practitioners strictly stipulate that it is not enough to provide a right (the technical part), but that due weight must be given to the opinion (New York Convention, within human rights there are + rights.)
It is the child's best interest and need that must be met. Age should not be the only criterion.
In court proceedings, the hearing can be direct or indirect.
Judicial guidelines on how to be heard/participate.
The judge may decide not to hear the child if it would harm him or her:
abuse
defencelessness
counter-nutrition
physical, psychological abuse
restrictions on freedom of expression.
Child-centred justice has become a principle. The court may appoint a child protection specialist, a case manager. The OBH website has interactive materials for children.
The way the child is heard is different for a judge and for mediation.
In neither case does the child decide, this should be stressed to the child, but their opinion can be listened to and their needs are important.
Confidentiality is important to give the child guarantees about how what they say is used.
In mediation, the parents' consent is required for the child to be heard.
a child over the age of 18 must be involved, below which the mediator can exercise discretion.
In mediation, after listening to the child's views, the mediator can draw the parents' attention to the child's needs, but cannot interfere with the parents' decision.
In cross-border cases, it is compulsory to hear the child in mediation, with different age limits for each country. Hague Convention on the benefits and difficulties of mediation. The child must always know that it is not his/her responsibility to decide.
On the issue of child involvement, Márta referred to the draft professional recommendation "And whose interest is it?", which she recommends reading. It is the product of an informal working group set up by the Partners Hungary Foundation. If you are interested, please contact kukityk@partnershungary.hu and we will send you the material.A 60-page technical paper is expected to be published in October 2018.
Other points concerned, comments
European Parliament Study 2014 - European Union Mediation Paradox - 2008/52/EP
György Gajduschek MTA TK JTK on legal culture transformation research.
Silent workshops for democracy - mediation in kindergartens.
www.ideachildrights.ucc.ie
Agnes Lux - best interest of the child, not best interest.
Family law 2018.1. no. How to say it so you understand it article. Informing the child about a judge's decision at the end of the trial, about the judgment, so that the child understands the judge's decision.
Informing children before and after the trial is important, and this should also be considered.
The presentation ended with a short film on child information.
In the afternoon panel discussion we talked about the experiences of mediation in schools in Hungary. Partners Hungary first trained teacher and student mediators in 2009 at the Polytechnic, and over the years we have trained around 250 school professionals (teachers, psychologists, social workers) in mediation.Since 2015, we have been running an Erasmus+ programme in 3 secondary schools in Szolnok, the details and professional materials of which are available at here you can read.
Budapest, 30 May 2018.
Kriszta Kukity
Partners Hungary Foundation
What do children need for a lighter, happier everyday life?
First and foremost, the love, care and attention you give them as parents. The school, where children spend most of their day, is mostly concerned with developing children's language, maths and logic, while we already know how much else they need to thrive: social and emotional skills, critical thinking, assertiveness, experiential learning, and LOTS OF PLAY.
What are our summer camps about?
In our five-day camp, children learn through hands-on games:
how to harness the resources of the community,
how to turn conflict into a better way of working together
what conflict management styles and tools they have at their disposal to help them find real, shared solutions, taking into account individual feelings and perspectives
Who are we waiting for?
children aged 8-12 years old, who can learn through play the most important conflict management and cooperation skills that will make their everyday life easier and their social relationships better
Who are we?
At Partners Hungary Foundation, she has been working in alternative conflict resolution for 25 years. Our trainers are practitioners in mediation, restorative practices, community planning and inclusive education.
The latest volume of Apple on the Tree, which addresses the challenges of professional development for teachers in the 21st century, has been published.
An interview with Mari Zágon, professional manager of the Step by Step programme, starting on page 72.
"Teachers who are more open, more flexible, who think for themselves, who
their professional role or practice, they are moving towards modernity."
How can the changes of the 21st century affect teachers and the role of teachers?
I believe that the challenges of our time are creating a crisis situation in the domestic teaching profession. While the socio-economic development of the 21st century is creating new expectations for teachers in education, which require a new approach, a large part of the teaching profession has received a completely different preparation and is working with traditional tools and methods in a system based on a 20th century approach. This puts teachers under great strain in interpreting their own role.
What does the new approach require of teachers?
Firstly, respect for individuality, i.e. starting from the individuality, personality and real developmental needs of children. Teachers are not equipped to shape the learning-teaching process accordingly and to respond accordingly, and the education system does not focus on individual needs. On the other hand, the new approach also requires a response to changes in the way the world is evolving, including the growth of information, the way information is accessed and processed, and the various complex challenges it faces. It would be essential to reconcile these two needs with pedagogical practice. Since the early 2000s, with the HEFOP1 and TÁMOP2 programmes and the development of competence-based education packages, there has been a move towards a modern pedagogical approach in Europe and the world. Unfortunately, there has also been some backsliding
in the last period.
In my view, it is mainly alternative schools that are moving towards education that meets current needs, and it is mainly individual and small community initiatives that are making efforts to give space to the outside world in schools. So the positive shift is mainly along personal lines: teachers who are more open, more flexible, who reflect on their own professional role and teaching practice are moving towards modernity. In other words, they are trying to move beyond the textbook and the traditional, now outdated "I am the source of knowledge" approach.
But often, even trained teachers do not receive the right quality and quantity of support, or the tools to make real change happen. The various self-organising groups on the internet and social networking sites are also making a big contribution to progress, but I feel that their spread and impact is not yet at the rate it should be at the beginning of the 21st century.
What are the challenges for schools at organisational level?
Despite the slow progress in pedagogical renewal, I see an increasing number of schools that are striving to adapt to today's needs and are taking on the challenge of the many new tasks and learning processes and changes.
On the other hand, the institutions are faced with new challenges in dealing with the tensions arising from changing expectations. Tensions can arise, for example, from the presence of teachers with modern methods in many institutions with traditional pedagogical principles, who are often marginalised because of their small numbers in the teaching staff and without the support of school management.
Tension can be caused by several different expectations of the school at the same time. Whether the institution can reconcile these different demands, and whether it has a mission, a vision, a vision of what it wants to meet most, is a crucial question for the school leadership.
In other words, the development of the school is vulnerable to the management of the institution on the one hand, and to the orientation of the whole education system on the other. In addition, there is a strong expectation from, for example, middle-class parents, who are more able to assert their own interests than disadvantaged families. We also see tensions arising between institutions, in that schools that are traditionally more prestigious or that start out on a more modern path tend to be more attractive to families who are open to the world. In many cases this leads to institutional competition for children within a locality and can soon create huge disparities between schools. Of course, smaller
or among institutions teaching and educating disadvantaged children, there are also forward-looking solutions where, due to the need, school leaders are stepping forward and are able to turn the disadvantaged situation into a positive one. This is obviously helped by the various tendering opportunities, open to all, which encourage schools to modernise in a real way, although unfortunately these have diminished.
What are the new paths that an institution can take towards development and modernity?
The search for solutions leads schools down many different paths. Some, for example, are trying to broaden their horizons, their ideas about subjects or even their broader pedagogical approach. There are many different pedagogical initiatives in the world of education, which are open to institutions or teachers to join. There are not only newly launched but also long-established pedagogical programmes and networks, such as the Step by Step programme, for which I have been able to follow the learning process as a professional leader. In addition to the positive results and progress, my overall view is that, without support, communication of this type of programme reaches very few people, and is not systemic.
and their spread and persistence become possible. Yet these initiatives can have a major impact on the modernisation of the pedagogical culture of schools, the professional development of teachers and the shaping of attitudes.
How has the Step by Step programme contributed to this? What brought it to life?
The Step-by-Step programme is a system of support for the development of an autonomous personality, independent critical thinking, self-development, moral and ethical behaviour based on democratic principles and supporting individual development. Its main principles are diversity, an attitude and tools to support multiculturalism, including individual development needs and personal development. 3 The child-centred pedagogical programme Step by Step is highlighted in an interview with Terézia Radicsné Szerencsés (former head of the Kiskőrösi EGYMI) on pages 52-62 of our volume "Apples on the tree - School leaders in equitable education". www.tka.hu > Publications > 2015; www.issuu.com/tka_konyvtar/docs/iskolavezetok-meltanyos-oktatas
The website of the Step by Step programme is available at www.lepesrollepesre.eoldal.hu.
The programme focuses on the relationship with the family, the high level of continuous training and support for teachers, the creation of a learner-friendly learning environment conducive to successful learning, and the use of modern learning management methods in line with the principles: cooperative learning, project-based learning, differentiated learning management. The programme has been developed by the Open Society Institute (OSI) in the USA, with a focus on improving the situation in Eastern Europe after the change of regime, not only in education but also in a much wider context of cultural, social and health development. In Hungary, the pre-school programme was introduced in 1994, followed by the school programme in the 1996/97 school year. In the initial period, our basic aim was to make the Step by Step programme as widely known as possible to schools and teachers. The introduction of the programme received considerable financial and professional support, which enabled us to involve a large number of nursery schools and schools (most of which have continued to operate with a similar mindset and spirit) and to train a large number of teachers. The dynamics of the development of the programme or the use of tools to promote its widespread dissemination have always depended to a large extent on the educational policies of the time, the opportunities they provided, the direction of public education and the external support system and financial resources. In the early years, until the launch of the TAMOP programmes, the programme was practically on the increase. We could reflect on how to reach more people while maintaining or improving the high professional quality in the long term. The fact that it is no longer possible to obtain funding to involve teachers in the programme makes the situation more difficult. The transfer of the Step by Step approach and the provision of methodological support are, of course, still an important objective, with 250 institutions having been involved from 1998 to 2013 and nearly 100 in the last four years.
We estimate that around 450 teachers have used the programme or one of its components (based on the number of participants in the training sessions), and in the last four years, nearly 600 teachers have participated in the various professional sessions linked to the programme.
What has been the learning process over the last two decades of the programme's participants, experts and trainers?
among?
The continuous maintenance and development of high professional standards and the professional support of teachers are among the core objectives and values of Step by Step. At the start of the programme, following the initial training, we were able to attend in-house training sessions run by the trainer team, meeting regularly two or three times a year. The induction, the joint preparation for the training and the experience of the training were all important lessons learned. We decided together on new professional directions, i.e. which of the problems in education to reflect more on and which professional areas to deepen, and our international organisation, ISSA, played a major role in this. There were always prominent, central themes, such as
such as prejudice management, different skills development programmes, parental involvement in the learning process. These training programmes were developed with the participation of 10 to 15 countries and were the result of collaborative learning. Professional progress was also facilitated by the involvement of most of the programme's trainers in the development of the HEFOP methodological programmes5 and in the delivery of the training courses. This has enabled us to apply the basic learning management methods that were originally only tangentially covered in the Step-by-Step programme. The overall goal of ISSA (International Step by Step Association) is to create an inclusive, quality education and learning environment in which all children can become active members of a knowledge-based, democratic society. See more at: www.lepesrollepesre.eu/rolunk/nemzetkozi-lepesrol-lepesre-egyesulet 5 Methodological materials developed under HEFOP 2.1.A and HEFOP 2.1.B:
Lesson differentiation: www.hiszem.hu/sites/default/files/tanorai_differencialas.pdf
Shaded pupil evaluation: www.hiszem.hu/sites/default/files/arnyalt_tanuloertekeles_hallgatoi.pdf
Activity-based pedagogies: www.hiszem.hu/sites/default/files/tevekenyseg_kozpontu_pedagogiak.pdf
These topics have been developed in much more depth and awareness through the methodological packages,
essential for modern learning. It is also a huge achievement in our learning process,
that nearly ten years of work have resulted in a quality assurance system that is available to all countries.
and guarantees the high professional quality of the programme's implementation. Another essential element is the way in which the American trainers conducted the training courses during the period of the programme's introduction in Hungary,
was still completely new or only marginally present in national practice, and in teacher training at all
was not observed. From the very beginning, experiential learning has distinguished our programme's training from traditional forms of continuing training. We have selected a very wide range of tools, we have constantly expanded them, and we have regularly shared and continue to share what we have learnt in training. In this sense, the Step-by-Step programme is a constantly evolving, renewing, mutually reinforcing and supportive system, where learning and development are continuous. The basis for the programme and its professional development are also the teachers who, during the first period of its implementation, received a very wide-ranging and in-depth professional and methodological training of around 300 hours over a period of three to four years. Over time, they became our trainers, on whom we based further training, and around whom small groups of teachers mostly gathered in their own schools. In fact, these school
the later methodological centres were established in Pécs, Kiskőrös and Miskolc.
How has the creation of the centres supported and helped the learning process, the continuous professional
renewal?
The centres were set up in 2002 with the aim of providing in-service training that would include direct classroom experience, as these sessions reveal much more about the essence of the Step by Step programme than anything else. In other words, we advertised our trainer-led foundation courses in the methodological centres, as well as the accompanying demonstration lessons and workshops, which were given by teachers from the school in question. The centres were set up where there were teachers with the necessary professional background, similar pedagogical attitudes, open-minded and trained teachers working with the same methods, so that we were sure that the principles and the approach of the programme were being properly transmitted and communicated, and where there was cooperation and mutual support between teachers. There was a period of nearly ten years when the interruption of funding led to the termination of the formal operation of the Foundation and the Centres which provided the operational framework for the programme, but despite this, the programme continued to thrive in practice thanks to a strong professional base and knowledge sharing. In 2014, the Partners Hungary Foundation took over the coordination of the Step-by-Step programme, and a major grant has given a new impetus to the operation. We have further developed the work of the methodological centres by organising thematic mini-conferences open to all.
The Partners Hungary Foundation has been building relationships between people and communities since 1994.
through projects and training in mediation, cooperation development and education development. Although there is a very mixed picture of the depth and quality of the application of the programme by schools and teachers, I think it is very important that colleagues regularly participate in these knowledge-sharing forums. The professional
our development is also supported by our participation in international programmes such as the Creative Partnership, an ongoing OECD pilot programme for artists (e.g. performers, visual artists, architects,
multimedia professionals, painters) are creative ways to help teachers and students learn effectively. Several classes from one of our methodological centres in Pécs are involved in the measurements, while our centre in Miskolc and a school in Kaposvár also participate in the control measurements. The exciting results of the project will serve as a reference for us in the future. We are also planning to develop the mini professional networks that have been established in the vicinity of the centres into real, sustainable networks and collaborative learning groups, drawing on the experience of our participation in the Tempus Public Foundation's EFFeCT pilot programme. Although it does not involve financial support, the fact that all three of our methodological centres have become Education Office base institutions in the new education system may also contribute to sustainability.
What is the motivation for teachers or schools to join the Step by Step programme?
Sometimes, it is the achievement of institutional objectives that motivates the participation in the programme, because the school leader wants to improve and modernise the institution and support his/her colleagues to participate in workshops, open days and training. At the same time, I believe that the spread of the programme is mostly shaped by personal motivations: open-minded teachers who are aware of the changing world, the change in children's interests, attention and motivation, who know that it is very difficult to achieve results or work without tension using traditional means, since learning difficulties are often accompanied by behavioural and socialisation problems. These are the main drivers for teachers who come to us to find solutions. I find that many of my colleagues have the same approach as the programme, but are not available. The Creative Partnership methodology was developed in the UK and has since been used in several countries, currently in Lithuania, Norway, Germany and the Czech Republic. In Hungary, in the 2013/14 academic year, the programme was launched on a pilot basis in seven member institutions of the Budai Városkapu Primary School, Vocational School, Special Vocational School and Primary Art School in Pécs, in cooperation with the Faculty of Arts of the University of Pécs, T-Tudok Knowledge Management and Educational Research Centre Ltd. and the UK-based Creativity, Culture and Education organisation. For more information, see www.t-tudok.hu/?hu/kreativ-partnerseg-magyarorszag 8 See the summary of the EFFeCT international project coordinated by the Tempus Public Foundation's Knowledge Management Unit on page 43 of this volume. 9 The Education Office's base institution is an education and training institution with a recognised professional tradition at county, district or national level, with an infrastructure equipped to fulfil its tasks, with a unique and exemplary infrastructure, with a coherent, inclusive, child-centred pedagogical practice, a professional methodological and organisational culture and innovation, which is capable of sharing knowledge effectively and to a high standard in its field. The base institutions will be selected through a competitive selection process from different types of institutions.
Of course, the Step-by-Step programme does not solve all these problems, but it helps to create a harmonious coexistence and a positive atmosphere in the classroom, which is beneficial for teachers and children alike. The focus on individual interest, creativity and creativity leads to a state of emotional well-being which I believe is highly motivating and very professionally stimulating.
How can teachers bring this knowledge back to their own institutions? Is it necessary
to take over the whole programme?
Step by Step is a very open programme, where the principles are the most important and the tools are adapted to them at different levels. It is therefore conceivable that, without taking on board the full toolkit, teachers will take only a simple element of the programme back to school. For example, some basic rituals can be easily adopted and integrated into daily practice, such as the morning or end-of-day discussion group, whose positive impact is almost immediate because it loosens traditional roles and one-way communication.
As I have already mentioned, the involvement of parents is an extremely important element of the programme, unlike the subordinate-above-par relationship that is common in the Hungarian school system. The Step by Step programme sees parents not just as a client, but as an educational partner who knows the child best. We don't just invite the parent into the school to sand the table or paint the wall, but through a series of activities and collaborations we also try to bring in the parents' knowledge, skills and emotions. Linked to this, each class - being lower school - has a class ball that is taken home by a family for a weekend visit. A diary is also kept of the visit, which is incredibly educational for families: it is amazing to see how such a very simple element - reading each other's entries - can have a positive impact on the functioning of a family and how it can develop the parent. Evaluation is also an essential part of the programme. Grading is a centuries-old tradition in the Hungarian public education system today, which contradicts all the principles that the programme represents. The Step by Step programme, similar to the practice in reform pedagogy or alternative schools, seeks to place grading in its proper place in the assessment process, i.e. a final assessment where it has a function, and in addition or alongside it, a continuous, reinforcing, developmental feedback. The assessment is linked to a so-called dossier system in the programme, the adoption and use of which is also very helpful: it leads the teacher to collect the different student work instead of marking everything with a mark. So, we believe that it is not necessarily the whole programme that is needed to initiate change, but that the adoption of one element by colleagues can have a big impact on the state of the class, the children or the teacher.
Do you have feedback on what teachers get from the programme?
I think the most important thing that a teacher can get, apart from the attitude formation, is a set of tools that they don't get to this depth in teacher training or in the in-service training system. The quality assurance system mentioned earlier provides them with additional tools for professional development and reflection. Self-development based on self-reflection and the use of tools and methods related to the organisation of learning are very important. An open and flexible approach is often a solution to problems that depend mainly on external factors, such as the learning environment, which requires financial resources. It is not just a question of rearranging the desks, but also of providing the learning process with the necessary tools: from books to teaching aids, from paper to glue. In one municipality, for example, where 4-5 teachers started the programme, one class had only fixed benches. Old desks discovered by one teacher in the school storeroom were refurbished with the help of parents,
and because of the lack of chairs, each child brought one from home - now there are all kinds of chairs, the classroom is colourful. This also shows that constraint often breeds creativity and openness to the outside world, which also contributes to the
contributes to development.
What kind of cooperation will be established between the teachers participating in the programme? How
can you support this programme?
There has always been a lively and close relationship between the three large bases of the methodological centres, through the workshops, sessions and mini-conferences mentioned above, which provide an opportunity for colleagues to exchange personal experiences and initiate small collaborations. The need to exploit the potential of online community spaces has not been addressed before, neither at a theoretical nor at a practical level, but has recently become more urgent. Our participation in the pilot programme of the EFFeCT project has also provided us with a lot of inspiration in this respect. In the summer of 2016, 39 teachers from Mezőfalva, Mohács and Kiskőrös took part in the Step by Step Methodology Centre in Kiskőrös, who later participated in a pilot project of the EFFeCT project.
have become members of a collaborative learning group. In order to teach more effectively using the Step-by-Step method, they visited each other, observed and evaluated each other's work. It was not an easy learning process, but it served an important purpose to facilitate knowledge sharing and the transfer of ideas and thoughts through these online platforms, in addition to offline meetings or exchanges between school teams/workgroups. The implementation of the pilot programme has shown us the incredible impact that online collaboration - even just in the form of a Facebook group - can have between teachers who want to learn and develop.
They are now uploading a mass of different exercises and descriptions to the common platform. I think the potential for further progress in this area is huge. Of course, there is much more than pedagogical expertise that is needed to succeed, but we definitely plan to launch online professional networks in the future, both large and small. We would like to organise a support system around the programme to support the efforts and work of the methodological centres.
What would you highlight as one of the values and achievements of the programme?
I think that the most important achievement of the programme is its ambition - in theory and in practice - to synthesise the so-called child-centred pedagogical elements that are emerging across the world of education. Quality development is a great help in this respect, as it also provides guidance on how to integrate these elements, methods and tools in a way that is appropriate to the teacher's personality, situation and circumstances. The second point I would like to emphasise is that the programme does not provide the teacher with a ready-made solution, it does not say
how this and that should be done, but it also leads the teacher to evaluate his/her own situation, to formulate his/her goals and to choose the tools. Of course, change and professional development are not necessarily the result of the programme alone, as gaps and needs also force some teachers to become open and open-minded. The programme itself and the teachers working in it provide a very good model for this. The third thing I would like to highlight from the point of view of the participants in the programme is continuous self-development,
continuous professional development. We need to find all the tools that can support this, both individually and through learning together.
Discipline problems, peer abuse, ostracism.
Child aggression and peer abuse present themselves in different ways in different institutions and are a growing challenge for teachers, students, parents and professionals working in the school environment. Today, almost all schools are affected in some way. Without the right tools, tensions increase and helplessness can turn into aggression. Even decades later, those affected still carry the consequences. In the long term, it affects their well-being and quality of life.
Our national and international experience shows that the best way to tackle aggression in preschool and school is prevention. And the key to prevention is a strong community, where individual and collective responsibility is based on commonly agreed rules. Partners Hungary Foundation has been working since 2015 to address and prevent conflicts, aggressive behaviour and peer abuse in educational institutions (kindergarten, primary and secondary schools). Currently running, our secondary school programme experiences were shared with the public at our conference in March 2017.
Our common interest to repair the damage to the community
Negrea Vidia, a trainer and board member of the International Institute for Restorative Practices, shared her decades of professional experience on the positive effects of restorative approaches to school incidents.
Basically, you don't become a criminal, but you live in a relational system, and you are driven by the need to belong, so you allow yourself to function in this way because of others. This also means that if nothing is done about the community, the people involved, following an incident, then no meaningful change can be expected.
Very short, structured spaces are sufficient to create the necessary framework for connection and collaboration, and a restorative proactive circle that can be integrated into the lesson is a great help. In restorative justice, from which the school methodology is derived, all participants come together and decide together on the impact of the act committed and take responsibility for their future roles and responsibilities.
No matter how just the judge decides, the story always continues in the corridor, because it is not those who own the conflict who decide. Restorative procedures, like mediation, return the conflict to the parties involved. Very often, the heightened emotional state of those involved blocks the possibility of moving forward, so community support is needed to resolve an incident.
Generally speaking, those who become perpetrators in the school environment are unlikely to have been given the support to become cooperative. Often we ourselves, as adults and educators, become victims in school incidents, so it is very important that we can give ourselves what we need emotionally, and only then is it worth looking at who owns the conflict and who is involved.
Restorative models aim to create a supportive community and strengthen relationships so that there is space and opportunity for community members to signal if a member is about to make an unwise decision before the incident occurs. If that space and openness is created, then there is an opportunity to focus on repairing the damage and making amends in the event of a disaster.
As a mediator, educator and in many other roles, it can help us a lot if we ask the right questions. Corrective questions:
What happened? What was your part in it?
Who is affected?
How has it affected you?
What needs to be done to put things right?
How do we prevent it next time?
It is important that neither shame nor blame remain in the situation, which inhibits communication. Emotionally based statements are very helpful in this regard, i.e. being able to talk about what worries you, what gives you pleasure, how you feel about the situation.
For a good school climate, the 80% of our day should be about giving attention, regular feedback on individual choices, the impact of actions, and our emotions.
Proactive circles are about getting in the right mood, setting the groundwork for good vibes or working together, and working out the rules.
In the event of a problem, reactive circles serve to restore security, redress grievances and take joint responsibility.
A restorative conference involves those affected by an act with negative consequences in a collective discussion. It is a structured, scripted process in which individual conversations are followed by a collective discussion. Those affected can talk about how they have been affected by the act and what they should do to put things right.
Family Decision Making Conferencing is used when a child becomes vulnerable or the family needs to be supported to make the necessary changes and they themselves develop the plan to provide a solution.
For a school to work in this way, all the actors must speak the same language and have a common motivation.
The legal framework for alternative conflict resolution procedures in schools
From In our Erasmus+ programme the legal adviser of the Szolnok Service Vocational Training Centre, Dr. Orsolya Zolnai Zolnai, spoke about the integration of mediation and restorative procedures into the life of the school.
The legal background to the procedures is set out below:
Act CXC of 2011 on National Public Education (hereinafter: Nkt.)
EMMI Decree No. 20/2012 (VIII. 31.) on the operation of educational institutions and the naming of public educational institutions (hereinafter: EMMI Decree)
Its institutional background is governed by the organisational and operational rules of the public education institution and the school's house rules.
The Partnership against Aggression in Schools programme was introduced in the schools of Szolnok from 1 September 2017, following the training of teachers as mediators and restorative facilitators:
"Based on the EMMI Decree 20/2012 (VIII. 31.) on the operation of educational institutions and the naming of public educational institutions, our school also has the possibility to the disciplinary procedure conciliation procedure (mediation or a procedure using restorative methods) precede, which aims to process and evaluate the conflict, and on the basis of this, to reach an agreement between the parties to the conflict in order to remedy the grievance and prevent further similar conflicts."
According to Orsolya Zolnai, schools are on a bumpy road in disseminating alternative methods, but it helps that the Partners Hungary Foundation trainers mentor the trained mediators and restorative facilitators in the programme. There are colleagues who do not believe in the method because they are not familiar with it and lack confidence in it, so they do not steer the case towards alternative solutions, so we are currently looking for a structured way of bringing disciplinary cases in. It is a success that in one school, one of the trained teachers has managed to get on the disciplinary committee, so that she can advocate more emphatically for the importance of mediation and restorative practices. In addition, working groups have been set up in each school to report on their work during the board meetings, thus promoting new practices and encouraging colleagues to dare to ask each other for help.
According to Dr. Orsolya Zolnai, the most difficult thing is to reassess the concept of success within ourselves, which can help us overcome deadlocks. "We have cases that we are proud of and we confess that we are increasingly using mediation and restorative methods to resolve situations and conflicts."
In the afternoon session, Flóra Bacsó talked to teachers Eva Mészáros and Izabella Munkácsiné Tóth about how they can integrate alternative methods into everyday life. According to the teachers, the children welcomed the restorative circles with joy and curiosity, and by the second lesson they had already arranged the chairs themselves. In acute cases, mediation or reactive circles are solved by changing lessons, which requires flexibility and support from the leader.
This was followed by a series of classroom teacher lesson plans, which included conflict prevention, restorative and mediation methods, to give participants a first-hand taste of the experience.
Mediation in harassment and abuse cases?
Krisztina Kukity and Flóra Bacsó gave a thought-provoking presentation outlining the differences between aggression and bullying
The presentation was followed by small group discussions to gather participants' perspectives and information along the following questions.
1.Ki should be the process manager, what skills should he or she have? What to look out for before intervening in a harassment case?
The focus group came to the conclusion that it is good not to approach a situation with a specific set of tools, but with as broad a view and as many options as possible. Pair leadership helps a lot. In mediation, impartiality is a key factor, as it is not advisable to mediate in one's own school with people one knows. When working in a team, there should be room for reflection. It is important to recognise the hierarchy in relationships and to seek to balance power. Detecting and managing game situations: reality checks. In facilitative processes, we need to see where we want to and can get to with the participants (relationship repair? coexistence?).
2.Kik who should be involved in the process? What to look out for before intervening in a harassment case?
It depends on the case: how serious it is, who is involved. In addition to the specific actors involved, the facilitator/mediator, school psychologist, teacher, peer supporter, children's rights representative may be involved in the process. However, if there are many stakeholders (e.g. a whole class), it may not be possible to involve everyone and appropriate representation should be ensured by the facilitator/mediator.
3.To does the adult become aware of the abuse? How to we can make sure that reporting abuse is not perceived as a betrayal signal. What to look out for before intervening in a harassment case?
Often the affected child will tell the parent or teacher, or the unaffected child may pass it on to an adult. A warning sign to the adult may be a bruise, a tear in clothing, a change in behaviour. An idea was to have an anonymous reporting system at school: a box in the corridor or on the internet to pass on to an adult. A good atmosphere of trust is important at school and at home. It is worth creating community spaces at school where this can be a forum: this could be a presentation by a crime prevention adviser or internet safety specialist, or perhaps a class teacher lesson with experiential exercises, drama. It's also good if adults dare to raise the issue and can talk about the problems without blame.
4.What should we communicate to stakeholders that once we are aware of the Case,what will happen? What to look out for before intervening in a harassment case?
It's important to tailor your communication to your target group (directness and clarity)
Empathy
It is worth finding out about the motivations of the people involved and whether they are really volunteering to participate in the process
Non-directive support to boost adoption
Consideration should be given to whether we talk to stakeholders separately and how we communicate with the community as a whole
It is worth involving external support (mental health professional, school psychologist, teacher other than the class teacher)
When starting an intervention, a process, it is important to communicate openly about its framework.
5.How should take place the preparation? What to look out for before intervening in a harassment case?
The following points have been made, but are not exhaustive:
Who are the stakeholders?
Who should lead the intervention?
Which method of intervention should be used (facilitative interview, mediation, restorative method, other)
Identification of other competent persons who can assist with the agreement
To specify the problem: what exactly is the case in which we are planning to intervene?
As a member of the Child Protection Signposting System, is there anything about the case that the facilitator is obliged to report?
In the event of abuse, whatever the intervention, the role of volunteering is paramount
Where and when can the intervention take place?
It is important to bear in mind that each case is unique, so the above points can serve as food for thought and a guide for professionals before intervening.
Thank you for a busy day, we will continue. The professional materials of our school programme HERE to download.
Our professional recommendation, presented on 31 March 2017, developed in the framework of intersectoral cooperation, is available in our office every weekday from 9 am to 5 pm:
1072 Budapest, Rákóczi út 22, 4/24.
There are mediators who also recommend mediation with confidence in cases of domestic violence. Yet mediation is not recommended in civil cases of domestic violence. The Patent Association's paper provides several arguments to show why.
Full professional recommendation of the PATENT Association HERE read:
It is also important to stress that mandatory mediation means that clients are obliged to appear before a mediator and listen to an introduction. If the parties then decide that they do not really want to participate in the mediation, the procedure will not be started. The mediator will issue a certificate that the parties have appeared but did not wish to take advantage of the mediation. This is a good way to give the parties correct information about the mediation and to give them confidence that they will be persuaded to participate voluntarily. If this does not happen, there will be no mediation, so the principle of voluntariness is preserved. Unfortunately, the mandatory element in the law is ambiguous, and mediators sometimes follow through even with great resistance. This information may help to ensure that the mediator does indeed act lawfully and that the parties' freedom of choice is not compromised.
Our November 2017 mediation conference was organised around the theme of divorce mediation, to which we invited international mediators to share their experiences.
Presentation of the IEDRS mediation institute in Luxembourg - Christian Bos IEDRS leader, founder, mediator
Christian Bos spoke about his mediation experience in Luxembourg, France and Belgium
He started his presentation with a poetic question: How can mediation be considered a profession if the mediation practitioners do not agree professionally?
After 15 years of experience as a judge, Christian sees that the judges' judgement can never be as good as people's own judgement, which is why he decided to work as a mediator instead. He has gained most of his experience in family cases, where he has seen that it is difficult for the parties to accept that the mediator is not advocating their rights. In divorce cases, the child is often used as a weapon by the parents. It is therefore important to talk about whether to include the child in mediation when facilitating communication between parents. The IEDRS takes the position that mediation is a professional profession in its own right, and therefore adults have a place.
If the mediator gives advice in the mediation process (for example, from another field, such as law or psychology), he or she is committing professional misconduct. The mediator's job is to help the adult find a way of communicating with the child outside of mediation. The mediator must be independent, impartial and create a suitable atmosphere of trust to allow the parties to say anything freely.
For the future of mediation, it is important to have a clear, well-defined process of professional dialogue.
Since mediation is an option in both civil and criminal cases, it would be obligatory for the various professionals to inform the parties that they should try to resolve their conflict using this method. IEDRS mediators are working on a process to sensitise governments to make mediation mandatory before any legal process. They know that mediation is a voluntary process, but it is important that clients are informed.
Their long-term goal is to make mediation as widespread as possible.
Mediator experiences in non-verbal communication and transaction analysis (TA) in terms of - Christophe de Meeus - IEDRS partner, trainer, mediator
We all have conflicts that are a natural part of human relationships. However, if not handled properly, they can escalate, for example in a work environment, to the point of suicide attempts in extreme cases. They must be prevented. First, it is worth understanding how conflict works. The difficulty lies in the fact that emotions are difficult to manage. And this is what causes 80% of conflicts. And if negative emotions dominate for a long time, we cannot end the conflict. During mediation, clients need to express these feelings so that they can then be able to calm them down. For this we need communication tools. A separate discussion with the client at the start of mediation can be a good opportunity to do this. But first and foremost, it is important that the mediator is clear about his or her own feelings. Sufficient self-awareness is important to understand one's own reactions.
The IEDRS practice of working through clients' own emotions can be implemented in the separate handover. The mediator can use the questions to guide the parties towards change. What happened that brought about the change? What has changed? In the process, emotions should be captured. The story is a guide for the client, but it should not lead the mediator into excessive detail or interpretation. It is important for the mediator to help the parties to communicate forward, but not to give advice. Therefore, it is of particular importance from a TA perspective that the mediator adult self-statestay in and not communicate from the rescuing parent, so be able to control your own emotions.
According to the IEDRS, a mediator can work on all types of cases, without having to specialise in one type of case. Empathy is just as important in any interview, where the focus is on the other person and not on yourself.
As a mediator, we need to know different behaviours because they help us to understand our clients, which is why NLP, TA, non-verbal communication basics are taught at IEDRS. Our aim is not to become mediators specialists in these methods, just to understand how people work.
To see the non-verbal signs of others, we need to know our own feelings. We have to learn them on ourselves. We need to learn about ourselves at the beginning of the learning process in order to understand others well later on. We all have the capacity to recognise and understand. We pay attention not only to what the other person says, but also to the gestures they use. These signs can be learned.
Separate whether someone is an expert in non-verbal means or a mediator. The mediator should ask questions, not interpret things independently.
All signals provide us with information, but not all of them are meaningful. The use of the right hand, for example, is associated with the left hemisphere, which is the centre of logical analysis. And there are many signals that we can link to the right hemisphere, which is the centre of emotions, visualisation, creativity. If we listen with empathy, then the signs of non-verbal communication can help us. It is important for the mediator to pay attention to these signs so that he or she can guide the process well. Body language can give us clues about many emotions. Before people open their mouths, they are already communicating with their bodies. If we see a sign, for example, when someone is very quiet and puts their hand over their mouth, we can ask them if they want to say something?
We can distinguish between 1500 and 2000 non-verbal signals. As this is too many, let's progress gradually in learning. Eye and hand movements are of paramount importance. We must rely on both sight and hearing as senses to get a complete picture of the speaker.
Transactional analysis in mediation
As in the process of learning non-verbal signals, we can only apply the principles of transactional analysis (TA) to ourselves at first. According to the IEDRS school of thought, within the parent and child self-states, there are 4 parts, with negative and positive content. The parent may be caring, within which he is either giving (positive) or saving (negative), or critical, within which he is either normative (positive) or persecuting (negative). The child may be adaptive, within which he is either conforming (positive aspect; the subcategory is called the same by design) or subordinate (negative), or rebellious, within which he is either free (positive) or rebellious (negative aspect; the subcategory is called the same by design).
What we consider positive and achievable in mediation, for the sake of communication, is the adult self-state.
According to the questionnaire sent out in advance, if your adult ego level is high (above 10 points), you have the ability to inform, summarise, question, listen. The adult allows us to choose the other self-states according to the situation.
By reaching out to clients and informing them, it is possible to give from the caring parent self. For example, if the client is aggressive, we can help the client from the normative parent self, say by repeating the rules.
In the case of divorce, we cannot go back into the parents' past, because there is a line between mediation and therapy. If a couple sees that a relationship is over, a mediator can help them to understand this. If the mediator keeps his/her distance and does not judge, he/she can also help by.
We can't refer them to a psychologist, but we can make them aware that they can seek outside help.
No games - Adults at the negotiating table SolomonDorottya trainer, coach, mediator, Gordon & TA Ltd.
How can the mediator stay in the adult self-bed?
The difference between mediation vs court proceedings is also relevant for TA. Mediation invites adult-adult communication by the very placement of the equipment; the focus is on accompaniment rather than truth-telling, and the rules are more flexible. The judge, on the other hand, is present more from the critical parental self-state.
Game situations, a series of transactions with hidden motives, move towards a well-defined, predictable outcome, with the aim of achieving some kind of profit. An important tool can be the understanding attention and the confrontational self-message sent from the adult self-state.
It is a typical game situation in mediation when the process is going nowhere. One goal of this may be a gain for the game starter, in which it is acknowledged that it is not possible to move the parties towards a solution.
Typical games
"Court" - now tell us who is right!
"And in addition"
"Yes, but"
"You can see that I have tried everything" (psychological need: I should not be ordered around)
The following methods can help to stop the games:
empathic understanding
recognition
Reflection
special negotiation
"let's take this hot topic off the table now"
Our children's games in divorce - Ágnes Kőszegi - consultant, Gordon & TA Kft
During divorce, it is often symptomatic if children experience a change in academic average or behaviour. The pre-divorce and post-divorce periods are the most difficult emotionally. Play tends to come into children's lives before the divorce because they often want to keep the family together. If there is a sibling or a grandparent, the child has someone to talk things through with. Experience shows that children are reluctant to talk to parents about divorce.
Emotions determine the game people play.
Children are in a vulnerable position, with only waiting. Bringing the child's best interests into mediation issues can be important, because if parents are angry, they won't listen to each other.
In families, there may be taboos that make children afraid or unable to express what is inside them in words. Or they may rebel - or, as adaptable children, they may say what their parents want to hear. Because of this, parents can point fingers at each other when they use the child as a tool. A free child's sense of self can help the child to work out his or her emotions, for example by letting out tensions in sports or artistic activities. If the parents can communicate without anger, the child's communication can come in sooner, in his or her best interests. It is important to listen to what they are afraid of, what they feel. When parents come to mediation during divorce, the interests of parents and children should be harmonized.
While talking to parents, the effects of divorce should also be considered - from the children's point of view, but it would be good to spare children from adult mediation.
We hope that by the end of the conference, new contacts and inspirations will have been made that will bring the profession together in the future to start more dialogue.
Thanks to Dr. Zsuzsa Várkonyi Karsai, Dr. Peter Várkonyi and Dr. For Flora Bacsó.
General mediation literature
Tibor Kertész: Mediation in Practice - available at the Partners Hungary Foundation office!
Barcy, M., Szamos, E. (2002) "Mediare necesse est" Mediation in societyapplication. Animula, Budapest.
Eörsi Mátyás - Ábrahám Zita: Litigation is bad. Minerva, n.d.
Edited by Dr. M. Eörsi, Dr. Z. Ábrahám, Litigation is bad - Mediation: the gentle way of conflict resolution,Minerva Publishers
Decastello Alice, Mediation in health care HVG Orac publisher Budapest.
Kohlrieser George Hostages at the negotiating table. Conflict Resolution Masterclass, Background Publishing 2007
Judit Bártfai Dr., Gábor Molnár Dr., Ágnes Dósa Dr., Zsuzsanna Barinkai Dr., Kálmán Gulyás Dr., Mária Herczog Dr., Éva Horváth Dr., Mária Kutacs Dr., Zsuzsanna Lovas Mediation. Mediation - extended edition - HVG ORAC
Dr. Ilona Görgényi, Restitution in criminal law, mediation in criminal cases HVG Orac publisher Budapest.
Relevant books on divorce and family matters:
Dr Kardos, F. (2011) Child-centred mediation. Contact mediation.Contact 2000 Psychological Betéti Társaság, Budapest.
Together or separately. Should we stay together or separate? - Barinkai Zsuzsanna - Herczog Mária Lovas Zsuzsanna - Neményi Eszter - Rónaszéki Katalin - Complex 2002.
Bancroft, L., Silverman, J. G., Ritchie, D. (2013) Can an abuser be a good father? The impact of partner abuse on the parent-child relationship. Background, Budapest.
Psychology-related books:
Strasser, F., Randolph, P. (2005) Media. The psychological aspects of conflict resolution. Nyitott Könyvműhely Publishing House, Budapest.
Gordon, T., Burch, N. (2001) Human relations. How to build it, how to destroy it. Gordon Books, Budapest.
Communication theory:
E. A. Griffin: Introduction to communication theory. 2001/2003. L'Harmattan.
A. Reboul-J. Moeschler: The tricks of conversation. Osiris, 2000.
Bolton, R. The art of communication (excerpt), In: Communication Theory. Nemyrios L., Linguistics, Linguistics, Contextualization, Vol.
Rosenberg, M. B. (2001) Words are windows or walls. Non-violent communication. Agykontroll Kft, Budapest.
School-related books:
Lisa Delpit (2007): The children of others. Official culture and minority students. Educatio, Budapest.
Júlia Szekszárdi (2008): New ways and means - Exercises for teaching and learning conflict management. Dinasztia Publishing House, Budapest.
Aranka Mészáros (1997): The phenomenology of school social psychology. ELTE Eötvös Publishing House, Budapest
Jenő Ranschburg (2001): The impact of family financial situation on children's behavioural problems
the development of. Developmental Pedagogy. No. 6.
Éva Sallai (1996): Can the teaching profession be taught? Veszprém University Publishing House, Veszprém.
Éva Sallai (2005): Integration pedagogical situation exercises. Methods for the disadvantaged
to help students succeed in school. Educatio, Budapest.
Éva Sallai (ed., 2008): Connective experiences at school. Educatio, Budapest.
Éva Sallai (ed., 2008): Social inequalities, the non-traditional family model, parental behaviour and child development. Educatio, Budapest.
Imre Szitó (2003): Communication at school. ELTE Eötvös Publishing House, Budapest.
Tahar Ben Jelloun (2003): Racism, as I explained to my daughter. House of Ulpius
Book publisher, Budapest
Thomas L. Good - Jere E. Brophy (2008): Open the classroom I-III. Educatio, Budapest.
2József Veczkó (1990):Sociocultural harms, personality disorders in childhood and adolescence
context. In: Pedagogical and psychological foundations of child protection. Textbook publisher, Budapest.
Anna Vörös (2004) Classroom communication, teacher-student interactions. In Katalin N. Kollár
and Éva Szabó (eds.): Psychology for teachers. Osiris Publishing House, Budapest.
László Zrinszky (1993): Introduction to the theory of pedagogical communication. National Textbook Publishing House, Budapest.
Report on the Partners Hungary Foundation Mediation Centre Conference on 27 October 2015
On 27 October we held our third mediation conference this year, focusing on minors and children. This time, we wanted to know what the profession thinks about the involvement of children in mediation and what experiences mediators have had in mediating with minors. The event had a record number of participants compared to previous ones: 77.
Five presentations were given on the topic of mediation with children and young people.
Erika Pehr is a lawyer,
Zsuzsa Lovas Psychologist,
Erika Magyar,
Barbara Busai
Julia Horváth
mediators shared their valuable experiences with the participants. On request, the presenters worked on concrete cases, and we also had the opportunity to see a live case simulation led by mediators Erika Magyar and Róbert Póli Magyar, where the audience could stop the situation and decide together how and with what mediation tools to continue the process, using the tools of forum theatre. Following the presentations, a small group dialogue panel allowed for a professional exchange of views.
Read the full report of the conference here.
Presentations
Dr. Erika Katonáné Pehr, associate professor at the PTE ÁJK, specialises in law, but mediation is his passion, he has been working on the topic for a long time. He considers it important that parents can get help to find a solution that is satisfactory for the child. Direct or indirect participation in mediation can provide information to help formulate a common interest. In addition, he stressed that, although in the case of divorce, if there is joint custody, there should not be a provision for contact, he believes that it should be necessary. The court may order mediation to ensure parental rights and to establish cooperation. There are child protection and supported mediation procedures (held by a mediator employed by TEGYESZ), the court can order both.
An important change is that from 2016 the child welfare service and the family support service will work together in one organisation. The service will be expanded, e.g. family therapy will be available in the centres. At the end of her presentation, she stressed that although mediation is not a therapy, mediators need a psychological background because divorce is a trauma that children often cannot fully recover from into adulthood.
Zsuzsa Lovas, a psychologist, mediator and head of the Lege Artis Mediation and Counselling Centre, presented a school mediation case. The mediator was approached by a parent. The conflict was manifested in a lot of absenteeism on the part of the students, unauthorised lessons, or when they were in class they did not communicate with the teacher.
The mediator first went to a class teacher's lesson to have a preparatory discussion with the class, during which he asked the students what the problem was. The students, who were considered passive by the teachers, soon relaxed and said that they were indeed missing a lot, but mainly because the teachers did not appreciate their efforts, they were booked as a bad class. They willingly agreed to mediation, for which they chose five of their own representatives. The teachers were also open, and those who either considered the class to be very problematic or were on the other side of the argument that there was no problem were included in the mediation. Teachers identified distrust of students, lack of initiative, lack of means to deal with absences as themes, and lack of communication and failure on the part of students. The teachers' need was for more attention and communication, and the students' need was also for more attention, praise and for teachers to be able to raise their interest in the subject.
No agreement was reached in the case, but the fact that mediation took place is a very important step forward. In the long term, the positive effect of mediation is that we are able to face up to our conflicts and learn to communicate with our partners.
Dr Erika Magyar a mediator, a lawyer by training and experience as a probation officer. In his recent presentation, he talked about the conciliation circle method, which he uses as an alternative to mediation in criminal cases. In a conciliation circle, the participants solve their problems, the facilitator does not give advice, but the principle is that the persons involved in the case can make a major contribution to the resolution of the conflict. The facilitator will approach the participants in advance to explain how the discussion will take place, so that the participants can concentrate fully on the process during the peace circle. One tool in the process is the talking object, a symbolic object that draws attention to an important aspect of the conflict (e.g. the peace pipe for Indians, but also a Pinocchio figurine or a Prince Charming doll for children). The person with the object has the floor, so that participants do not interrupt each other or jump between topics. The reconciliation circle is characterised by a fourfold structure: opening ceremony - prioritisation and unpacking of issues - exploration of needs - closing circle.
The specific case presented by Erika Magyar was a vandalism of a playground, which the municipality was fed up with and filed a complaint. The perpetrators included both juvenile and child offenders. Minors are not punishable, but juveniles go through a very long process in criminal proceedings (court, prosecution, probation). This was tried to be avoided by the use of a conciliation circle instead of mediation, in which parents were involved. The session required a lot of preparation to ensure that the child participants were not harmed in the process. However, Erika Magyar says that their participation was very important, as she has found that the younger the child, the sooner he or she has access to his or her own experiences. The most prominent theme brought in by the perpetrators was responsibility, which is crucial because otherwise it would not have been perceived by the children, who are under the age of criminal responsibility. Their feedback was that the biggest takeaway from the meeting was that they knew how much they had disappointed their parents and how good it was that they had the opportunity to talk it out and make amends.
Barbara Busai mediator, discussed the specialities of mediation with adolescents. She said that she likes to deal with adolescence because it is a very crucial period in life (also called the second birth in psychology) and because she has heard from experienced mediators that those who mediate well with adolescents can cope with any situation. He has a lot of background information from books on family therapy and psychology (details in the full presentation), because although mediation is not therapy, this information is very helpful in situational awareness. It is a huge challenge to treat the adolescent as a partner, there is no single recipe for this, there are only individual solutions. However, it is very important how we phrase things during the sessions, to really find a way during a mediation session to the adolescent partner to make him feel like an equal. Also, it can be a challenge for the mediator to maintain impartiality. There is a very strong risk of involvement because of the easy access to one's own experiences, so very strong internal supervision and self-awareness is required. Barbara Busai mentioned an example where one mediator introduced a form of quality assurance whereby if a dialogue or agreement could not be initiated, he would provide another opportunity free of charge - thus providing self-motivation. The issue of likeability and self-acceptance is very strong in mediation with adolescents. It is also a common experience that adolescents are difficult to involve in the process. For this, the following methodological tools from the toolbox of Ferenc Kardos are recommended:
At the end of each content unit, the adolescent should summarise, so that you can see where you are in the process.
Normalization: the mediator acknowledges negative emotions and declares them "normal" and understandable, which helps to maintain focus and also conveys empathy.
If you have a separate discussion, don't send the weaker communicator out first.
It may be helpful if the mediator expresses appreciation for the efforts of the parties in the process.
Julia Horváth an organizational psychologist, mediator and former Partners Hungary Foundation intern, is participating in mediation work at the University of New Mexico for the second time. She registered for our event via Skype. By 1995, thousands of peer mediators had been trained because previous initiatives to address school aggression had not been effective.
Dialogue panel
The presentations were followed by a dialogue panel with small group discussions around the following questions:
As there is no standard professional protocol on the involvement of children in mediation in Hungary, how do we involve children in mediation - what are the conditions for involving children?
What age specificities should be taken into account and what differences should be prepared for?
How to protect children in mediation and beyond?
The results of the discussions with the facilitators have already been discussed in plenary. There was a consensus among the small groups that the child should not be involved in all cases, this is at the discretion of the facilitator. When discussing the possibilities of involvement, it is important to assess the child's state of mind, so as not to traumatise or hurt them more; whether involvement would help or hinder the process; whether to sit with the parents or separately (the latter requires the parent's consent, of course). In some countries, it is the practice either to have the child interviewed by a professional with a social or psychological qualification or to have the interview with a separate child interviewer in a physical setting appropriate to the child's age (or, in England for example, in the child's home). Participants also agreed that if the child is involved in mediation, it may be indirect (e.g. the mediator is informed of issues concerning the child through the parent). Age of involvement was considered appropriate for some participants, but it was agreed that the maturity of the child is a more important consideration than age. A key point raised was that, in order to protect the child, the process should not place the child in a decision-making situation that would place an additional burden on the child in this already very vulnerable state. The idea of child-centred mediation was also raised in several places, with the question of whether and how the mediator could represent the interests of the child and whether his or her impartiality would be compromised.
Case simulation
Experienced mediators Erika Magyar and Róbert Póli worked on a real case in which the central conflict was the relationship with the mother of a 14-year-old adolescent child. The conflict was played by Partners' staff. During the exercise, it was clear that although the situation was simulated, the conflict was real. Thanks to the tools of the forum theatre, the conference participants were able to pause the situation to decide which questions and methodological tools the mediator should continue with. Although the exercise lasted only 45 minutes, so there was no way to resolve the conflict, there was a meaningful change in the communication between the parties.
A very meaningful day, thank you to our participants! For more mediation events and news, follow us on the Partners Hungary Foundation Facebook page!
Every year, the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) organises its conference.
The prestigious institute has chosen Budapest as the venue for its European conference this year. Partners Hungary Foundation also participated in the second day of the conference.
Plenary presentations
Thursday's day John Bailey, President of the IIRP, who has introduced and facilitated the introduction of restorative practices in hundreds of struggling schools in the US. In his introduction, he stressed that working with restorative techniques is a continuous learning process, more akin to discovery. When they start working with a school, an important part of the work is to get to know the institutions and the people, in order to find together the methods that work for them. But the focus is always on community building and conflict management to repair the damage done to relationships.
For 6-12 months, they only investigate the circumstances and set up working groups in the school before they start working with the pupils. They are currently running three projects on the following topics:
how the restorative environment at school influences risk factors (school drop-out, depression, etc.)
how the restorative environment affects learning outcomes
how to create a restorative environment in Pittsburgh's 50% schools.
They work to provide schools with concrete, usable tools. He also stressed that structured discussions, conferences and circle models are only effective if they help to manage conflicts outside school.
They involve ALL school staff (teachers and staff) and PTA members who come into contact with students: they believe in building a functioning and sustainable system with the participation of all stakeholders. Experience has also shown that there needs to be some kind of compulsory "push" to really encourage change, and therefore an examination at the end of the process.
Nicola Preston works with children with special educational needs in the UK. She studied restorative practices at the IIRP. In public education today, the emphasis has shifted very much towards performance - at the expense of community. The good question would be how to engage students in learning - with the help of the community. Also, there has been a surge in the number of children with special educational needs, and diagnosis plays a very important role in parents' lives to explain why their child is not performing well. While he does not deny the validity of the diagnoses, he points out that many of the students do not have a positive attitude towards learning because of the bad experiences and humiliation they have faced. Nicola Preston stresses the importance of community attachment and a positive school climate, which increase self-esteem and reduce feelings of shame, thereby improving students' academic performance.
He cited as an example a school where he taught where the proportion of children with special educational needs was 33%, which had decreased over time to 10%. Although the risk factors in the lives of the students remained, the school environment had changed, which had led to significant improvements. Neuroscience research shows that activities that evoke positive feelings in students reduce stress and anxiety and shame about learning. For this reason, social and emotional learning becomes of paramount importance, and this requires a safe and positive environment in which it can take place.
Dr Belinda Hopkins has been working with restorative techniques for twenty years. In her lecture, she emphasizes the importance of inner recognition when we realize the importance of restorative techniques and how they help us. There is great community building power in the process of forming a common story out of different individual stories. The process must always be tailored to the participants, there is no single salvation method.
He was also not afraid to mention the difficulties. There is little funding for training, and there is often a lot of resistance from teachers, often due to fear of change. He considers it important to innovate and rewrites his course material practically every year, as he is constantly learning himself. You have to be creative and learn about other people's methods. Empathy, understanding each other and listening to each other helps a lot.
Sára Tóbiás E. an aggression management psychologist, spoke about the Mérei programme. Created in 2008, the programme, prompted by the teacher beating stories, was a response to teachers' perceptions of helplessness, powerlessness and lack of support. An action plan was drawn up under the leadership of Margit Németh, with the help of experts such as Jenő Ranschburg, Pál Bilkei and Tamás Vekerdy. The programme was implemented in 168 educational institutions, mainly children's homes and primary schools. The programme included the following elements:
Crisis line
Training and supervision for teachers
Tools developed for managing aggression: training DVDs on restorative techniques, personal help in putting together lesson plans. The materials and cases compiled in the teaching material were discussed by the teachers with the students.
Own website
Cooperation with other NGOs.
The complex institutional development programme has involved 25 institutions over two years. During this time, they trained teachers as restorative facilitators and worked with students using forum theatre techniques. They also used external facilitators, produced training DVDs, organised case conferences and supervision.
Among the difficulties, the rapporteur mentioned the teachers' resistance: it was difficult to get them to open up to the new method and it was difficult to persuade them not to try to resolve conflicts alone and without authority. Unfortunately, after two years the project came to an end, which was a short time to achieve lasting success.
However, feedback from teachers suggests that the programme has given them real tools to deal with conflicts in school, and that disciplinary meetings have been replaced by restorative conferences.
Mundrucz Anett, the head of the Green Rooster Lyceum, briefly explained the special nature of the institution to the participants. Their secondary school is attended by students who have dropped out of other schools because they have attention deficit disorder, special learning needs, very difficult circumstances and/or addiction problems. For ten years they have been working with restorative methods in student-student, student-teacher, teacher-teacher conflicts. They consider it important to treat students as equal partners and want to get to know them in order to offer them real support. A restorative approach helps students to integrate into the community and achieve better results in their studies.
Eva Fahlström works with restorative methods and psychodrama. In a Roma settlement in Pata Cluj, on the outskirts of Cluj Napoca, she is involved in community planning in the fields of education, housing, employment and health, with the help of facilitators trained by her. The ambitious objective is to overcome 700 years of mistrust between Roma and non-Roma people. A common attitude is that when they want to improve the living conditions of disadvantaged groups, they work for them rather than with them, thus undervaluing people. To illustrate this, Eva says that in Sweden alone there are more than 4,000 Romanian beggars. The Swedish government has called on the Romanian government to take action, and the Romanian government has replied that it is doing its best. However, no one asks the beggars if their children go to school, if they have health insurance or if they have tried to find work. The conversation goes over the heads of those being talked about, not with them.
Eva welcomes open conflict because it is easier to deal with disputes in the open.
The first step in the process is engagement, the second is discourse, the statement of the problem. This is followed by clarifying expectations on both sides. These three steps come up again and again as we work through the story, as we learn more and more details.
A restorative environment is in fact a space of safety and freedom of expression. It can be a source of conflict if the parties are not in the same space. One of the difficulties of project work is not to focus on the achievement of the goal, because you cannot rush ahead, it is the process that matters. And in the process, it is important to construct common stories that serve as common denominators and sustainable cooperation. The process is to break down the problem into its details until all parties are looking at the same picture. Only then can you strategise and then implement sub-goals, make mistakes and learn from them.
Workshops
During the afternoon there were more than ten short workshops to choose from. Several workshops ran in parallel during the three one-hour sessions. I ended up attending the following.
1) Nicola Preston talked about shame and stress associated with learning, which research shows slows memory and reduces learning ability. On this topic, she recommends the writings of Silvan Tomkins, John Braithwaite, Graeme George (www.tomkins.org, www.casel.org).
Positive feelings are interrupted by a feeling of shame/ humiliation, and the transition from negative feelings to positive ones is provided by surprise/ shock.
We will listen to an excerpt Daniel Reisel: The neuroscience if restorative justice TED talk on how shame and stress significantly slow down memory and learning ability, so the role of social and emotional learning is huge. When stress is reduced, performance improves significantly. Education would therefore have a big role to play in creating a positive emotional and social environment in which learners can really bring out the best in themselves.
During the informal discussion, the following valuable ideas were shared by the participants:
While diagnosing the various learning difficulties helps us to provide appropriate support to learners, it is important that these diagnoses do not become labels or stigmas, as they also generate a sense of shame.
Involving students in the curriculum can help to improve performance, as they can feel that teachers are working with them, treating them as partners.
It is important to teach good communication from an early age so that children avoid feelings of shame and incompetence. Indeed, a large number of residents in the juvenile detention centre have been found to have language or communication problems.
In a school community, it is important to have a relationship that creates an atmosphere in which positive feelings can eradicate feelings of shame.
For further reading on this topic, see Vernin C. Kelly: The Art of Intimacy.
2. Jan Ruigrok, a provocative coach from the Netherlands, came to the conference. In his workshop he tried to show that provocation can be restorative. He put together a diagram that can be used in schools to illustrate possible attitudes in the "school dance floor":
The figure shows that restorative communication is the focus of cooperation, the Thomas A. Harris causal I'm theirs or (ik=én, jij=te), which Harris developed based on Eric Berne's theory of transaction analysis. The red part is what Jan Ruigrok calls the drama triangle. The person who speaks from any of the positions in red (pursuer/threat, victim or rescuer) expects his partner to respond from these positions. The speaker says that in such cases, for example, provocation can help the speaker to move towards the green field, in which assertive, vulnerable and cautious expressions can be made. Listeners express doubts about whether the provocation of the person from whom they really expect help is well received by the parties. The speaker acknowledges that the method is a fine line and needs to be the result of a considered decision, but in his experience it has so far proved to be the right one.
The conference was very informative and inspiring, thanks to the well-prepared, experienced, professional speakers and the information provided. In addition to the experience, the participants were enriched with Ted Wachtel's book Dreaming of a New Reality, which discusses the effects and methodological tools of introducing restorative techniques in schools. The organisers have promised to make all the presentations from the conference available on their website, so it is worth following the http://www.iirp.edu/ from page.
In a professional article, the International Mediation Institute highlights the benefits of alternative dispute resolution for corporate disputes.
In 2006, the American Arbitration Association published a study of companies that consciously manage their conflicts using a so-called portfolio approach. This means that in these companies, conflicts are viewed from a broader perspective, each dispute is analysed in relation to the others, with the aim of minimising the costs, time and risk involved and preserving valuable business relationships. Companies that manage their conflicts consciously also engage in conflict prevention programmes and develop operating conditions that help prevent conflicts from arising and escalating.
Firms that make every effort to manage their conflicts consciously have a 281TTP2T higher price-to-earnings ratio than the average for public companies, and 681TTP2T higher than the least conscious firms. The results reflect the interest behind the high level of awareness to maintain good relations with all stakeholders as much as possible.
The main benefits of conscious corporate conflict management are:
Better, stronger relationships with customers, suppliers, employees. Business partners perceive the relationship with the company as excellent.
They value the importance of alternative dispute resolution, including its speed and clarity of process, and prefer this form of conflict resolution to litigation.
Lower lawyer costs and greater internal efficiency.
Better use of the resources of the corporate legal department.
In 2010, a European study was carried out on the subject, funded by the European Commission, to assess the state of alternative dispute resolution in the European Union. The study is intended to help implement the EU Mediation Directive, which has the ultimate goal of increasing the number of cross-border commercial transactions. Compared to litigation, arbitration takes less time, but still takes on average about a year. Mediation is much faster and more cost-effective.
Few people in Hungary currently use the service, but it is worth it. Contact us with confidence!
Partners Hungary Foundation's March 2015 mediation conference was about effective cooperation between heterogeneous groups.
Tibor Kertész, former trainer and mediator of Partners Hungary was our guest at our mediation workshop on 17 April 2015. He is an external mediator and former trainer of the Partners Hungary Foundation, a mentor of mediators at the Office of Justice and a lecturer at the University of Miskolc for several years.
Tibor now lives and works in Vienna as a mediator for an international company. He has shared his experience of more than 100 training sessions and more than 2500 mediation sessions on the topic of multicultural work environments in the form of an interactive presentation and a forum theatre exercise.
He presented case studies of corporate conflicts in which the intercultural line played a major role: the actors in the conflicts had different nationalities, religio-cultural, gender and age characteristics, which could not be overlooked in mediation, as they potentially entailed a conflict of values.
Tibor Kertész drew attention to the fact that when working with intercultural conflict, it is very important for the mediator to be aware of and consciously address the different backgrounds of the parties (ethnicity, wider socio-cultural context, age, gender, sexuality, education), the related prejudices and stereotypes, including the mediator's own prejudices. In Austria, for example, to address intercultural differences, specific Diversity Management training is also linked, which is compulsory for mediators. The mediator's sensitivity is key to moving the parties towards a solution to the conflict.
In this context, the issue of parties from different cultural backgrounds arriving with different values has been raised again. Can the conflict of values be mediated? There are several possible answers.
The case studies have shown that in some cases the dispute may appear to be a conflict of values, but when unravelled, it may not be the result of the different backgrounds of the parties. The mediator has to deal with the different backgrounds of the parties when they affect their approach to the conflict and its resolution.
In terms of real value conflicts, mediation can be successful if the conflict is redefined in terms of a common problem, including possible solutions. Accepting the other's point of view does not mean agreeing with it, but we can agree to disagree on certain issues, but we can still find a solution to our common issues if there is mutual respect between the parties.
It has long been a sad statistic that half of all marriages end in divorce.
From the beginning of 2014, the National Office for the Judiciary will make mediation compulsory in divorces where the issue of child custody arises.
Although divorce is basically the end of a relationship between two adults, if there are children, the former spouses will remain in contact because of child support and visitation. However, if the framework is not well set up, further conflict can be expected after the divorce, further poisoning the lives of the former spouses (and the child).
The high number of divorces does not necessarily mean that there are more unhappy marriages today than in the past, but simply that it has become more socially acceptable for spouses to admit that they want to continue living separately. However, divorce is still preceded and accompanied by a lot of anxiety, fear, questions and doubts, especially when there are children involved. Mediation as an alternative conflict management method, It has been available in Hungary since 2006, but relatively few people have taken advantage of it. From January 2014 but the National Office for the Judiciary makes mediation compulsory in divorces where a child is born of the relationship. Let's see what this change can bring...
In the new Civil Code family law book, mediation will be available in two areas: divorce and the exercise of parental authority over children. The new Civil Code will enter into force on 15 March 2014:
The SEED (Social and Emotional Education and Development: upscaling awareness and skills in ECEC practice) project, which ran from 2016 to 2019, aimed to improve the psychosocial, or emotional-social, well-being and health of pre-school children (aged 2.5 to 6), especially those growing up in difficult circumstances. To this end, we first assessed the psychosocial well-being of 5-year-old children by means of the UPSI -5 questionnaire, which was completed by the kindergarten teachers caring for them. In addition, short background interviews were conducted with the participating kindergarten teachers and heads of institutions. Building on the results, we coordinated a professional development process based on the Belgian-developed WANDA case discussion method. The aim of the professional training is to help practising pre-school teachers to become more aware of their own scope for action, i.e. to see in practice what they can do to enable children to develop sustaining relationships with their peers and the adults around them, and to express and learn to regulate their feelings. Another aim of the project was to put children's psychosocial well-being high on the agenda of local, national and European politicians.
What is psychosocial or social-emotional well-being?
The ability of a child to develop close and secure relationships with peers and adults, to express and manage emotions appropriately, and to explore and learn in the context of family, community and culture, between birth and age 5 (Center on the Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning, 2008).
The project involved organisations from 6 European countries:
Belgium mainly contributed its methodological knowledge on the WANDA case talker, while the other countries mentioned above also participated in the research and development part. The primary target group of our programme is teachers in kindergartens, through whom we want to have an impact on the socio-emotional well-being of preschool children. Finally, we were able to involve nursery school leaders who, seeing the empowering power of the WANDA method, invited us to a non-educational working day where we worked with all the professionals working with children, nursery school teachers and nursery nurses on specific professional stumbling blocks.
However, through our dissemination events, we have also reached a wider range of early development professionals (practitioners, researchers, teachers, policy makers, etc.).
About our research:
The five-country study provided insights into the socio-emotional or psychosocial well-being of five-year-olds. But what do we mean by the term? Children's developing ability in the following areas:
Building safe and close relationships with peers and adults
To live, express and regulate their emotions, in a way that is appropriate to the culture and society
Exploring your environment in a safe learning environment
Why is it important to deal with this?
There is a growing focus on this issue as we face more and more challenges:
social inequalities
family conflicts
abuse at home and in nurseries and schools
changing communities.
The aims of our research were:
Mapping the institutional context in five countries, for five-year-old children
Find out how professionals working with young children understand the concept of social-emotional well-being in practice
Getting a picture of five-year-old children's social-emotional well-being in 5 countries
Sensitising decision-makers on the importance of social-emotional well-being
However, the research instruments, the UPSI-5 questionnaire and the interviews with teachers and managers, did not attempt to make an individual diagnosis. The UPSI-5: a one-page list of 29 statements describing the behaviours and emotional reactions of five-year-old children. NOT a diagnostic tool, it describes groups and makes it comparable with other groups.
And the measures used in the research are not suitable for socio-historical analysis. Our research involved 52 kindergartens or equivalent institutions, 73% in urban settings, 195 children, 46% girls, 54% boys, 140 teachers and 44 managers (all women except Norway)
Results of the questionnaire survey:
overall, 24% of children are of concern (average of 5 countries)
There is a wide variation between countries, with Croatia at the two extremes with 7% and Hungary with 37%, but also a wide variation between institutions.
The result of the interviews:
Preschool teachers and managers are aware of the importance of social-emotional well-being, but there are factors beyond their control (too many children in a group, inadequate adult-child ratios, large differences within a group due to social inequalities).
In the second half of the project, we looked at the factors that kindergarten teachers can influence. The kindergarten teachers involved in the research will be able to participate in a group reflection process, using the WANDA case discussion methodology. Throughout the seven sessions, the following questions were addressed through concrete, real-life cases, using the power of the group:
How can the principles of social-emotional well-being be put into practice?
Where is the competence of teachers in developing children's social-emotional skills?
How can you work closely with parents and co-professionals?
How can children's social-emotional well-being be reconciled with the institutional environment and facilities?
How can we improve our relationships through respectful communication, empathy, acceptance, understanding?
How can I put inclusion into daily practice and how can I turn individual differences to the benefit of the group?
We have been working with the WANDA methodology since 2015, and feedback from participants is that the group's retention, the safe and accepting learning environment and the use of creative tools to explore the perspectives of those involved are very valuable.
During the research part of the project, we collected data on 200 children in Hungary, in about 10 institutions, using the UPSI-5 questionnaire, originally developed in the Netherlands, which was completed by kindergarten teachers. A total of 1000 children in the 5 participating countries were surveyed using this method.
During the development part of the project, the WANDA case discussion method was used to involve, train and develop 40 kindergarten teachers in Hungary and around 100 in the 5 countries.
Through dissemination, we have reached more than 200 early childhood development professionals, researchers, higher education teachers and policy makers in Hungary.
The 7-month WANDA group reflection process has given a lot to the participants, tell us in their own words:
"We talk more and more about feelings in our group and I see that the children feel more and more safe in the group."
My relationship with my parents has improved a lot, I feel much more in tune with their difficulties and I find opportunities where we can connect better."
"I am a dedicated WANDA fan. Virtually every dilemma I have, I run a mini WANDA in my head, where I consider what the actors in a situation might be feeling, thinking, what they might need, and make decisions based on that."
"The accepting atmosphere of the group helped a lot, it was very good to feel that we are not alone with our difficulties and that our efforts are seen. After all, we are always working for the children. This is something that all teachers should experience."
IMPORTANT, HOWEVER:
The guidelines that bring together professional work and early childhood organisations should enable staff to question, enrich and renew their own pedagogical practice.
It is the responsibility of policy makers and organisations to. create a conditions to enable staff to regularly meet and work together reflect on their own practice. This is vital, especially for the social-emotional well-being of children.
Through group reflection, practitioners (nursery teachers, nursery nurses, psychologists, social workers, heads of institutions) will gain a clearer understanding of their own professional role in the lives of children and families. Developing empathy skillsand are more appreciative of the views and feelings of others.
These are a change magvai, which can have a significant impact on on the social and emotional well-being of young children in early childhood care and education settings, Across Europe.
- Project/Support Programme name: SEED (Social and Emotional Education and Development: upscaling awareness and skills in ECEC practice
- Project ID at the donor: 2017-1-NL01-KA201-035191
- Collaborating partners: International Child Development Initiatives, Netherlands; Center for Education Initiatives, Latvia; Queen Maud University College, Norway; Open Academy Step by Step, Croatia;VBJK, Belgium;Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands; Partners Hungary Foundation
- Duration start/end: 01 November 2017 - 31 October 2019
- Budget amount, currency: € 296028 - of which Partners Hungary Foundation grant: € 32135
- The programme was funded by the European Union.
More information about the programme:
Bacsó Flóra
E-mail: bacsof@partnershungary.hu
Phone: +36204483737
A professional methodological knowledge is worth little without the training of a professional personality. We can only become good professionals with the help of others, by giving and receiving feedback. Nowadays, burnout and loss of motivation is one of the most recurrent risk factors.
This case-study offers a novel solution to this problem, in an easy-to-use, transferable method. The WANDA method is applied using the tools of positive psychology. We focus on development and improvement. This solution offers mediators the opportunity to explore in a structured way, in a confidential environment, the problems and stalemates that they do not yet have a solution to.
Participants are supported by their own professional community to learn new methods, develop professionally and improve their skills.
Our WANDA case conferences with practising mediators are always sold out. For us, this shows that there is a great need for professional self-reflection, especially if it can take place in a safe, confidential atmosphere.
How does the method work?
During the case discussion, participants will gain external perspectives
This helps them to understand the source of the problem so that they can find their way to their own new solutions.
We use creative tools such as Dixit cards and LEGO figures to help us change the perspective.
What results can participants expect?
They will be able to change your perspective the method and the people involved.
They learn about the intentions, feelings and motivations behind the cases: they gain deeper insightt to the situation.
In addition to the cognitive levels, the use of creative tools can also activate the deeper, intuitive structures, thus transforming the case manager's relationship to the case and his or her perspectives on the solution.
Regular case conferences can reduce the risk of burnout.
They can move away from the problem and so find their own solutions more easily with the active contribution of others.
Meanwhile creative toolswe use. These can help you to break out of your habitual thought patterns and move beyond stuckness
The result: liberated thinking together, uplifting strength, and significant personal development, progress.
The case meeting is worth 10 credits for IM registered mediators and is therefore eligible for the continuing training scheme.
The event offers the opportunity to participate in workshops where participants can get an insight into the Step by Step programme. On 21 March 2016, the Kiskőrös EGYMI - Step by Step Methodology Centre - hosted the workshop day.
At the workshop, teachers from the Kiskőrös EGYMI, using the Step by Step methodology, provided up-to-date pedagogical responses to the following challenges:
the integration of pupils with special educational needs,
addressing various learning difficulties,
the possibilities of individual treatment and differentiation,
the successful education of disadvantaged children,
increasing and maintaining motivation to learn,
difficulties with discipline and behaviour,
the practical application of modern learning organisation methods, procedures and methods,
the evaluation procedures and methods.
The professional day started with demonstration sessions in the kindergarten and with demonstration lessons in the school, both in the lower and upper grades.
This was followed by an informal discussion and lunch, then Mari Zágon, the professional leader of the Step by Step programme, held an interactive workshop, where the guests could not only observe but also actively participate in the elements of the programme. The idea behind the sessions is to organise tasks around children's interests, and learning often takes place through active action. The teacher's personalised, encouraging feedback helps children to feel motivated to try the tasks again and again, and to choose for themselves what they want to improve at.
More than seventy people took part in the event: kindergarten teachers, teachers, teachers, developmental teachers, special education teachers - from 13 municipalities and 19 institutions across the country. Forums like this are rare but all the more useful, where professionals from different levels of education can meet, build relationships and learn from each other. It was a real professional workshop!
"I've seen a lot of different programmes, but this is where I really felt that they really organise the activities around children. What's surprising is how well they can get on and work together and, importantly, that the adults enjoy it too. It was a very fulfilling day. I look forward to having the opportunity to attend LL training myself!"
(Kati, teacher)
See the lesson plans, photos from the event and get inspired INSIDE.
Your Story from Gyöngyöspata programme and Women's Circle
What was the programme about?
Our programme with the Unity in Diversity Foundation was built on two elements. Firstly, we wanted to give women in the Roma women's community the opportunity to talk about their feelings that still affect them today as a result of the involvement of the Hungarian Guard and other paramilitary organisations in the spring of 2011
On the other hand, we allowed the importation of experts who were most in demand by the women's group.
During the year-long programme, a weekly "Your Story" programme was launched to increase mothers' reading competence and to expand their relationship with their children, but indirectly, in the long term, to prepare them for learning, by expanding vocabulary and by using stories to enhance imagination and creativity.
On a more regular monthly basis - thematic programmes, experts brought topics to the group that aimed at community development. Our main goal is to revive from learned inertia, to promote constructive communication, to present successful Roma women's life stories in dialogue.
Group members followed the monthly events with varying motivation. Many of the young mothers were happy to be able to spend their free time in a new activity, in a lighter, sometimes more fun situation. The older age group was more interested in the practical side of things, not in pleasure but in talking out problems, in taking advantage of the opportunity to get a job. The on-site consultation of the labour counsellor was attended by 40 people hoping to receive up-to-date information on labour market opportunities. It was a great achievement that since then some of them (men) have already been enrolled in training courses.
How did we work?
1. we organised a MESÉD circle: a weekly storytelling circle of mothers with children aged 0-7 years, with 10-12 participants, organised by local coordinators. The Storytelling group was led by trained facilitators from the Roma community. The programme involved mothers reading storybooks once a week for 2 hours and then discussing the stories together. By the end of the 1-year programme, each family participating in the programme had a 36-volume "mini library".
2. women's discussion groups - large group facilitator-led sessions for all ages, held monthly - with the invitation of an expert. We invited successful Roma women as experts who could be role models for local girls and women through their life paths and identities.
Sponsor/Source: private donor
Private donation for own programme
Collaborating organisations: Furugh Schwitzer, Head of the programme, Unity in Diversity Foundation
Aid amount: 5.000.000 HUF
Duration: June 2012 - June 2013
What is the aim of the programme?
According to our research in three schools in Hungary, half of the students surveyed say that bullying or harassment happens at school every week or more. The ASAP was designed to reduce aggression and bullying in schools, to prevent and manage conflicts and to enable the different institutions involved in the student community to work more closely and effectively together. Our project is implemented in partnership with SOS Malta, Partners Bulgaria Foundation and Szolnok Service Vocational Training Centre, with funding from the European Union Erasmus+ programme.
Over the three years of the project (October 2015 - August 2018), we developed and tested a model programme that emphasises cooperation rather than punishment. We believe and experience that a restorative approach and strong communities help to reduce and prevent aggressive phenomena. The model programme has been developed and tested in cooperation with a total of 9 secondary schools in the participating countries (Hungary, Bulgaria, Malta), guiding the schools through the change process.
Who was our programme for?
We primarily target students and teachers in schools with our programme, and although it is a challenge to reach parents of secondary school students, we did attempt to engage them through a questionnaire - we reached hundreds of parents! Teachers in the schools have been given new methods and tools to deal effectively with the problems they face and to use them preventively. In addition, it is important that the three years of work can continue after the end of the project, so we have established links with existing local initiatives and organisations that can sustain the programme.
Results
In the first phase of the project research has been carried out in all three countries to describe the current situation of aggression and bullying in schools in each country. In the reports, we have mapped out the countries' constituencies and collected good practices currently available on dealing with aggression and bullying in schools and on alternative conflict resolution.
We have put together a model programme which is a methodology package, and incorporates existing knowledge and tools in the country concerned, complemented by selected good practices available in other partner countries and in Europe.
After that developed by situation assessment questionnaires for students, school staff and parents, in which the opinions and experiences of those concerned were recorded in relation to aggressive phenomena. Following the evaluation of the questionnaire, we worked with the school to draw up an action plan based on the good practices collected, taking into account the results of the situation assessment, the needs and potential of the school.
A implementation we have worked closely with schools to bring about a real change of approach and to move away from traditional punitive discipline towards collaborative methods.
What did this mean in terms of numbers in 2018?
23 trained teacher-mediators and 21 student-mediators to help manage conflicts in schools effectively
18 trained restorative facilitators who work for retention communities every day
a 6-day international mediation slide camp, where 24 students from 3 nations learned how to help effectively in conflict situations
5 international partner meetings and exchanges in Malta, Budapest and Bulgaria
21 working group meetings with the dedicated school professional team
33 class teacher lessons, where we could talk about the phenomena of aggression at school through playful exercises based on our own experiences
A series of class teacher lessons specifically designed for prevention, so that classes can form non-violent, supportive communities based on shared knowledge and common rules
4 conferences across the country (Budapest, Szolnok, Székesfehérvár, Budapest), with a total of 250 participants
78 class teacher lessons, where we discussed the phenomena of aggression in schools through experiential, playful exercises and restorative circle models.
He has increasingly used mediation and restorative practices to resolve difficult social situations.
RESULTS in the light of human relations:
According to teachers' feedback, the training has increased their methodological knowledge; improved their communication skills; and helped them to approach problematic cases with greater empathy, understanding and accepting a variety of different points of view.
As a result of the restorative conference, which was convened instead of disciplinary proceedings, the incident was not brought before the police, as expected, and none of the people involved had to leave the school.
The effectiveness and durability of mediations and restorative circles vary from school to school and from case to case. However, it can be said that in all the cases treated, the people concerned experienced an improvement compared to the situation before the intervention.
The good news is that our trained teachers have been invited to other schools to give a taste of their alternative conflict management methods, and have facilitated a reaction circle in an external school on a specific case.
We also do a situation assessment at the end of the project to see what has changed during the project period.
Project/Support Programme name: Against School Aggression Partnership - ASA Partnership: community based complex school program for effective prevention and treatment of aggression and bullying
Funding organisation: the European Union Erasmus+ Programme
Project identifier at the donor: 150100-KA2SE13636
Cooperating partners: Partners Bulgaria Foundation, SOS Malta, Szolnok Service Vocational Training Centre
Duration start/end: 1 October 2015-31 August 2018
Budget amount, currency: EUR 411880 - of which Partners Hungary Foundation grant: EUR 115585
We have implemented a model programme that gives teachers practical, immediately applicable tools to deal with conflict, aggression and bullying. We also help institutions create a peaceful and inclusive school climate that promotes prevention and has a positive impact on children's success at school.
According to a survey of children in grades 5-8, two-thirds of children experience violence at school, with one in ten children experiencing violence more than once a week.
Our partner in the project was Presley Ridge Hungary Foundation, an expert in aggression management.
What have we done during the programme?
We provided training and mentoring for teachers in nursery and primary schools, and involved parents in some workshops. We paid special attention to joint parent-teacher sessions as there are few forums for information exchange and networking outside the compulsory circles.
Parents: gain aggression management and conflict resolution skills and learn to connect emotionally and safely with their own children
Teachers in the institutions involved will be given new methods and tools to deal effectively with the problems they encounter and to use them preventively. Mediation, Relational Education, Crisis Intervention, Aggression Management, Persona Doll training - just some of the methodological elements used in the programme.
The teachers' hands were not let go after the training: all six participating institutions were assigned a mentor who helped them to incorporate the lessons learned into their daily work.
What results have we achieved?
We worked with 3 kindergartens and 3 schools that applied to participate in the programme:
Pestszentlőrinci Pitypang Kindergarten
Pósa Utca Kindergarten (Debrecen)
Vadvirág Day Nursery, Szivárvány Day Nursery and Baglyasi Day Nursery of Salgótarján Consolidated Kindergarten (3 institutional units)
Göcsej Kapuja Bak Primary School
Józsefvárosi Unified Methodological Institute for Special Education and Primary School
Salgótarján Primary School Dormitory
In 3 kindergartens and 3 schools, the methodological toolkit has been expanded to help develop conflict and aggression management skills and integrate them into the daily life of the institution in the long term.
Parents and teachers alike were able to participate in a series of thematic training sessions, where they learned aggression management and conflict resolution skills from professional experts.
We also train 66 school mediators who can use their expertise to support effective cooperation between school stakeholders in the long term.
44 teachers gained new knowledge in the field of crisis intervention and aggression management. They have acquired a complex prevention and treatment method that can help them to develop and modify the crisis management practices and procedures of their educational and training institutions. They gained theoretical and practical experience in teaching children and young people coping strategies that can be successfully applied.
18 pre-school teachers have learned and are using the PersonaDoll method: they learn and pass on collaborative strategies to their students to help reduce educational inequalities, manage conflicts and deal with aggressive behaviour.
A Children's Mediation Training has been developed, which aims to help teachers to deal with conflicts constructively from an early age and to pass on these models to children. Help them to express their emotions and develop their social and emotional intelligence.
We have set up an institutional support system, where mentors help heads of institutions, teachers and parents to effectively use the knowledge they have acquired during the training and to integrate it into the life of their institutions.
Our programme closed at the end of 2017. Read the CARS Innovative Final Project Studywhere teachers and heads of institutions who have participated in the training and mentoring sessions give their honest testimonies about what the programme has given them.
Other important information:
Project/Support Programme name: A New Tool for Quality Teaching:Developing Conflict and Aggression Resolution Skills of Teachers, Students and Parents "C A R S" for more Peaceful and Democratic societies
Supporting organisation: the Open Society Institute Foundation
Project ID at the donor: Grant Number OR2015-24719
Collaborating partner: Pressley Ridge Foundation http://www.pressleyridge.hu/
Duration start/end: 1 January 2016 - 31 December 2017
The REYN Romani Early Years Network Roma Early Years Network brings together professionals who work directly with Roma children or whose work focuses on Roma children (academics, non-profit organisations, etc.).
The immediate target group is experts working with children aged 0-3 years, but of course the network also includes colleagues working with older children (3-8 years) and expectant mothers. REYN is particularly keen to increase the number of Roma in the network.
The ultimate goal of REYN is to provide both Roma children and the professionals working with them with quality professional care/training. In doing so, we contribute to ensuring that Roma and/or disadvantaged children receive ever-improving quality of care and education.
What does REYN do?
Offers free training courses on topics related to early childhood of Roma: conflict management, integration, prejudice management, cooperation with Roma parents
organises free study visits for professionals working with young Roma children to exchange experiences both within the country and internationally
Share and disseminate "good practices" among professionals working with Roma children
Writes policy recommendations and makes its voice heard in forums where early childhood professionals are present, helping to raise the profile of REYN within the profession
Who does the programme help?
For teachers, trainers
For kindergarten teachers
For school psychologists
For social workers in kindergarten-school
For nursery nursery teachers
For teachers
For speech and language therapists
For community mediators working with parents
For nurses
For teaching assistants
For social workers in the Roma community
Other (e.g. children's home workers, school workers)
Results
800+ registered members
Free trainings for REYN members (Two 1-1 day free trainings and three 3 day accredited trainings with 50% co-payment)
A 1 study mapping the numbers and challenges of early childhood professionals working with Roma has been completed (http://reyn.hu/reyn-2016-tagsag-igenyfelmeres/)
Training and labour market mentoring of five Roma nannies
Today, more than half a million people in Hungary do not have one.
Our programme builds outdoor toilets through local collaboration and community planning.
The statistics only record who does not have an indoor toilet, but our experience shows that tens of thousands of families also lack outdoor toilets. According to Eurostat data, 523.5 thousand people (including more than 170 thousand children) live in Hungary in homes without their own toilet. Compared to the general population, the housing situation of the Roma is significantly worse in terms of housing quality, so this problem particularly affects them.
In 2015, we started fundraising to build 30 more outdoor toilets in Porcsalma, in addition to the 84 we had previously built. Since then, every family in the municipality has at least one outdoor toilet.
What did we do during our programme?
Of course, we know that these actions can only go a very small way to alleviate the housing problems of the poorest, but housing quality in particular is a very complex problem, and this is particularly true for families of Roma origin living in settlements or in settlement-like environments, in segregated areas. In addition to discrimination, they face a complete lack of utility infrastructure, inaccessibility to health and social services, and the fact that the abolition of housing maintenance subsidies in 2015 has made their situation even more difficult.
Together for Better Health
The lack of toilets and the resulting housing and health problems of this magnitude were not always so obvious to us. In our "Together for Better Health" project, implemented in international partnership with a Romanian, Bulgarian and Slovak partner organisation, "toilets" have become the most glaring health challenge in the municipalities participating in the programme. The aim of the international project is to promote the expansion, integration and further strengthening of mediation in health care systems, in line with the current situation in each country, through joint action to strengthen access to health care. In the Hungarian pilot project, we would like to build a bridge between the health care system and the people and communities of Roma origin living in small villages, using the methods of intercultural mediation and community planning, thus strengthening access to and use of the local health care system and promoting and practicing health-conscious lifestyles. The project also involves local health nurses, GPs, the mayor, social services staff and teachers, assisted by a locally trained Roma mediator from the local community, who is responsible for bridging the gap between the community and the institutions.
Community development
So the project is about much more than just building toilets. The action is planned by the locals in community round tables organised by the mediator. They will involve the heads of the institutions, the nurses, the family doctor and, of course, the inhabitants concerned. The local people themselves plan the purchase of the equipment, the work process and decide together on the time and place of the construction and who will do what. In other words, the local people themselves provide the wood and tools for the construction of the toilets, and the details are discussed at community round tables. Our main aim is 'empowerment', helping these people to find community solutions to help them break out of the poverty they are living in.
European Network for Nonviolence and Dialogue Program
The aim of the project is to initiate a dialogue between civil society actors on the escalating social value-based conflicts and their possible solutions.
The project aims to initiate dialogue and contribute to a constructive, non-violent resolution of these conflicts.
As a first step, a study will be carried out on the value conflicts and good practices in each country.
In its second phase, the programme will create a civil network of organisations active in this field. This network will fight to stop radicalisation through dialogue and campaigns.
You can read about the activities carried out under the programme, the countries involved and the number of participants here:
This project titled Network for Non-violence and Dialogue was co-funded by Europe for Citizens under the Strand 2: Civil Society Projects 2016 and has been implemented from 1.1.2017 to 30.06.2018. Information about the implemented activities with indicated numbers of involved countries and participants can be accessed here:
Project/Support Programme Name: European Network for Nonviolence and Dialogue
Collaborating partner: Pressley Ridge Foundation http://www.pressleyridge.hu/
Duration start/end: 01.08.2016 - 31.07.2017
Budget amount, currency: 11.170 EUR
What is the purpose of the Community Matters programme?
We are building real cooperation between teachers and parents, who can only work well together if they have common interests and good relationships.
What do we do during the project?
We organise workshops for teachers and parents to bridge gaps, misunderstandings and overcome previous negative experiences. One of our most popular trainings is the "Parents in School" training, where we prepare parents to run different activities in their child's classroom and the teacher assists as needed. Afterwards, the parents have the opportunity to give a session in their child's classroom during a lesson:
the parent can see the teacher's work,
the child enjoys the involvement of his parents and becomes proud of his parents,
and joint preparation brings the teacher and parent closer together.
Within the framework of the project, there is the possibility of mini project organised by teachers and parents using the basics of community planning. They spend a lot of time together in the planning and organising process, which helps them to get to know and accept each other even better, and to discover each other's values.
After each session, teachers write an essay about their experience. Similar essays are also written after family visits. From the essays and the experiences of the last 3 years manual on other aspects of teacher-parent cooperation. Family visits are designed into the project based on the needs of the teachers.
"I thought I was going to visit a middle-class Roma family because they always kept the children so nice and clean and the parents were very nice too. I was surprised to see a poor Roma family, and they were very clean. I was honoured to be allowed into their home, they welcomed me with great love. At the beginning they were nervous and so was I, but then we relaxed and found a lot of common ground. It was quite different to talk in this setting than in a reception, and somehow since then it has been even easier to work with both the parents and my little student. "
Our "Community Matters" project has been running for 4 years in Nyírbátor, supported by the Foundation Open Institute for the 2019-2020 academic year. Our grant is 15000 USD.
Over the years, we have enjoyed a very positive cooperation with the Hungarian-English Bilingual Primary School and Primary Art School in Nyírbátor. The openness of the school's management has greatly contributed to the success of our project.
What happened in 2020?
In March 2020, schools switched to a digital timetable due to the Crown virus. This change is not necessarily easy, even in places where everyone has their own devices at home and is familiar with using different programmes. And where families are not well versed in the world of apps and the internet, it is particularly important to join forces and support.
Together with parents and Roma mediators, we are working together to gather the most relevant information and make it available to all stakeholders. The Roma mediators, who are parents themselves, have created a Facebook group together with the teachers, where all stakeholders are invited, first to have a common platform to exchange information. There is a lot of activity in the group, with questions followed by questions. "How to upload a picture in chalk, do you know? Where do the children have to go for lunch or do they drop it off for us?"
One of the teachers prepared a comprehensive note for the evening answering all the questions, plus a description of how to upload homework to the Chalk system, so everyone knows how to use the interface.
In Nyírbátor, we continue to work with parents through the Storytelling Mothers (MesÉd) programme. A programme aims to break down the disadvantages caused by social exclusion and feelings of inferiority. We organise group meetings for Roma mothers in difficult circumstances, currently in Nyírbátor, so that they can experience the joy of reading a story and pass it on to their children. The method is the brainchild of sociologist Furugh Switzer. The programme was also conducted online during the outbreak of the coronavirus through the Zoom app, thanks to a previous programme that had built parents' trust in us and provided them with smart devices and internet access, as well as training in the use of the different apps - so they were able to engage in digital education during the outbreak, reducing drop-outs.
Local mums have made an amateur video to capture for themselves what happens in a MESED session and have given us permission to publish it. Have a look for yourself!
Child-centred education through the Step by Step programme
A Step by step (LL) kindergartens and schools are places where children learn naturally, joyfully, through experiences and experiences. Teachers organise learning and classrooms so that children learn the mindsets and skills they need for a happy life in a safe and inspiring environment. Children love going to nursery, school and learning.
What is the aim of the Step by Step programme?
Autonomy, openness, cooperation, critical thinking, creativity and interest in the world are qualities that will help us to face the challenges of the future, both at individual and societal level. We foster these in children in their everyday lives. Children work on projects, so that they can make the subjects real-life by solving a topic or problem. A Step by step groups and classes will start and end the day with a discussion group. Positive reinforcement and encouragement are the driving forces for progress, and teachers place particular emphasis on this. Assessment serves to reinforce individual development; children assess themselves and their peers.
Teachers work in partnership with parents. There are no traditional parent meetings, but there are regular discussions, parent forums and joint activities. Parents are free to visit the school and kindergarten. Parents know what is happening in the school, teachers know what is happening in the family.
There are children who are born in places, for example in slums, where there are no good schools within reach and their families cannot give them the support they need to have a good job as adults and access services that the very poor cannot. A Step by step programme in places where we create opportunities for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to participate in quality education. LL is a way for children from different backgrounds to grow up together, learning from each other, about each other and about the world. The teachers provide the background for this by ensuring that each child is given tasks appropriate to his or her abilities, age and current condition, and receives individual development.
What do we do in our Step by Step programme?
Today they operate in 29 countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Asia Step by step institutions that enable children to become useful and creative members of a democratic society through active learning. The organisations involved in disseminating the programme are International Step by Step Association (International Step by Step Association) brings them together and provides them with the opportunity to innovate, learn from each other and implement joint programmes.
In Hungary, teachers interested in the programme are taught how to put it into practice by trainers who themselves teach using this method. The new method is also introduced step by step. It is important that all teachers go at their own pace, in cooperation with children and parents. The trainers are also there to mentor teachers who want to use the method. In the country, there are schools in Miskolc, Pécs and Kiskőrös that are model institutions. This is where the trainers teach and where the future trainers can come to observe Step by step educators. Methodological centres regularly organise workshops for practising and future LL teachers, where they can learn from each other and share successes and stumbling blocks to change.
If you want to introduce it in your kindergarten or school, contact us!
What is the purpose of Tempus EFFEKT?
The project, a partnership between Finland, Latvia, the Czech Republic, the UK, Ireland, Hungary and Latvia, aims to create and test a European methodological framework that helps teachers to learn from each other and from each other's practice. It also aims to help education policymakers to think about systems that incorporate collaborative learning into vocational training.
We also aim to create, with our international partners, a European a professional and methodological framework, in which we will collect and share existing innovative practices and tools related to the theme of collaborative learning with teachers. The professional and methodological framework will provide actors at different levels of education (teachers, school leaders, parents, students, teacher trainers, policy makers, etc.) with tools and methods to implement and develop collaborative learning at school, local, regional and national (system) level.
What do we do in the project?
In the Finnish, Latvian, Czech, British, Irish, Hungarian, Latvian and Czech partnerships (ERASMUS K3), theorists and academic researchers are working on the development and evaluation of the framework, which we at Partners are practical testing we participate in.
39 teachers from Mezőfalva, Mohács and Kiskőrös participated in the training of the Kiskőrös Step by Step Methodological Centre in the summer of 2016. They are members of the collaborative learning group. They visited each other, observed and evaluated each other's work in order to be able to teach more effectively in the Using a step-by-step method.
The most important thing for them in the programme is that they are not alone in making change, in introducing change. One of the participating teachers said at the August 2017 meeting that this is how you should always start the school year, because it gives you energy and ideas for a fresh start.
What is the purpose of the E.On Power Plant Roundtable?
The round table - unique in the country - is invitation-only dialogue forum, initiated by Uniper Hungary Kft (E.ON Erőművek Kft.) in 2007, when they built a power plant in Gönyű. The company's experience has shown that it is much easier to deal with possible public opposition and misunderstandings through open communication and dialogue.
How does it work?
Initially, the forum was only planned for the duration of the investment, but it was so successful and the feedback from participants was so positive that the company decided to continue the forum. As a result, it has been a successful forum for 10 years now, where all parties have a voice, a space to speak, questions and answers.
The aim of the Round Table is to establish and maintain a long-term, regular dialogue on the Gönyű power plant between representatives of the local community and the plant operator. This is an exemplary process, where the voice of the local community counts on an important issue that affects them.
What do we do during the roundtables?
We convene and facilitate regular public forums and roundtables, where representatives of the public and the company operating the power plant can exchange information on current events and issues around the plant.
What are the results?
Local residents have regular access to information about the plant and its operation, and the plant's management can answer questions and concerns from the public, organisations and institutions. All of this leads to building and maintaining mutual trust.
The work of the Roundtable is organised and managed by Partners Hungary as an independent party, which is important because. an external, impartial facilitator with expertise in conflict resolution provides a credible framework for partner communication.
Playing for inclusion: TOY for Inclusion programme
In 2016, the play centre opened its doors in Nagydobos. Since then, it has been open two days a week, snow, frost, sun, rain and is very popular with families. No one says: "I'm just going to the pharmacy, I'll leave the baby here, I'll be right back." Everyone knows by now that the Toy Library is not a childcare centre, but a place for playing, talking and learning together.
We have since started the second project, with the support of another donor and a slightly larger consortium.
In 2019, we also opened a play centre in Csobanaka. Our goal was the same:
use play as a universal tool to support children's optimal development
to create opportunities - mostly for the needy, but for all children and families in the community to play, talk, create and as children develop, they can experience community, belonging and their own individual identities.
An important aspect was the purchasing plan for the play centre, the opening hours, the programmes - in line with local needs and development objectives - those put together by experts, who are responsible for the physical, mental and spiritual health and development of children, their learning and their institutional education: the nurse, social workers, nursery and school teachers, school social workers and paediatricians.
A great team of enthusiastic professionals has been set up in Chobanka, joined by the local parents' association and the deputy mayor, who is himself a teacher. The programme is supported by the mayor, and the play centre is located in the community centre owned by the municipality.
The game centre is a integrated service system was set up, with a direct the nursery, the school, the classroom, supported by school social work and related social and health services. This will help local children to, Roma and non-Roma people with high quality, inreceive inclusive, formal and non-formal education, which enhances the future and educational opportunities of Roma children, and has a positive impact on majority children, as the experience of diversity and difference strengthens resilience, which is the basis for success in the 21st century.
Our project is international, so we use the knowledge sharing tool between countries regularly, we meet once a year and we always learn a lot from each other.
In the Game Centre, we also organise extra activities in addition to the regular games. For example, we have run Connected Parenting classes for parents, a story therapy process and a Your Story programme.
What else have we done during the TOY project?
Training materials have been produced and training sessions implemented.
We use a comprehensive training toolkit that guides professionals and volunteers through informal and formal early childhood education and care methods, always involving local communities
We are creating play centres, which, in addition to concrete tools, also put methods at the service of the community
We train trainers on how to set up play centres and organise their activities to strengthen the social inclusion of Roma children and communities.
Trying out new community-based early childhood education and care methodologies
We share knowledge.
We are spreading the word and expanding
Meet the coordinators of the Toy Library in video!
Do you like the concept of the Game Centre and want to open one? Download our brochures with important and practical aspects:
You can also download our English-language technical material, which we compiled during the previous project ITT.
Other important information about the project:
Original title of the project/support programme : TOY to Share, Play to Care
Project sponsored by Erasmus + Programme (KA3 Social Inclusion), Open Society Foundations (OSF)
Duration, start/end of project: 31 January 2019 - 30 January 2021
Total budget: EUR 635.828,00, of which EUR 499.995,00 is the EU grant, USD 134,754.00 is the OSF contribution
Budget of Partners Hungary Foundation: 56,254.00 EUR
The organisations implementing the project:
International Child Development Initiatives - ICDI (Netherlands)
International Step-by-Step Association - ISSA (Netherlands)
Developmental
Research Center for Pedagogical Initiatives Step by Step - DRCPI SBS (Slovenia),
Open Academy Step by Step - OASS (Croatia,
Centre for Education Initiatives - CEI (Latvia),
Wide Open School - WOS (Slovakia),
Associazione 21 Luglio (Italy),
Partners Hungary Foundation (Hungary)
Centre for Early Childhood Research at the Dublin City University Institute of Education (Ireland),
Federation of Mediterranean Roma Associations - Akromfed, (Turkey)
Salvation Army (Netherlands)
And that's how it all started:
Playbook for inclusion - stage 1
Community-based education and upbringing of Roma children
In 2016, the Toy Library opened its doors in Nagydobosos. The closing event of the first phase of our project is a milestone, from here we will move on to another level of cooperation, opening another Play Centre, for which the people of Nagydobosos provide the ammunition, knowledge and experience. Our intercultural mediators, parents, professionals, the municipal administration and last but not least the children's enrichment with playful experiences, the learning of traditional activities, the dialogue between older and younger generations, have paved the way for a more inclusive and cohesive local society. Play brings us together.
What have we done during the TOY1 project?
Training materials have been produced and training sessions implemented:
We have produced a comprehensive training toolkit, which guides professionals and volunteers through informal and formal early childhood education and care methods, involving Roma and non-Roma communities.
A game library has been created, which puts methods at the service of the community, in addition to concrete tools
We trained 12 trainers in partner countries, setting up a play library and organising its activities to strengthen the social integration of Roma children and communities.
Community-based early childhood teaching and learning methodologies tried out
We shared knowledge.
We spread the word and expanded.
What are the results?
In the participating municipality of Nagydobos, the action group was formed, who are the local implementers and operators of the Toy Library: the municipality, the school, the kindergarten, the representatives of the Roma community. The leaders of the sessions were trained and the play library was set up. It is located in the kindergarten in Nagydobos, where members of the local community can participate in the joint play activities and borrow toys. The play library and the activities are coordinated by two local intercultural mediators who have been the driving force of the community since 2014.
Since the launch of the Game Libraries:
1700 children participated in play activities, 30% of them of Roma origin
77 workshops and outreach events, together with international partners
Read more about the programme in Hungarian and Romani:
The pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) ran a programme called Personal Hygiene & Sanitation Education (PHASE) from 1998-2016 to reduce the number of illnesses caused by sanitation and hygiene problems among children and their families living in poverty.
The project uses games to teach children basic hygiene methods, such as handwashing. A key element of the programme is to empower parents, through the children, to improve their living conditions.
The project has so far been launched in the developing world, but it has become clear that there is a great need for it in Europe too. This is why GSK has decided to launch PHASE in European countries where it operates the health mediation project "Together for a better health - for us, by us".
The aim of the pilot project, launched in 2012, is to introduce Roma (intercultural) mediators into the health care system in Hungary, thus helping disadvantaged - including over-represented Roma - people to access health services and to promote health-conscious lifestyles.
In the international partnership, a Roma inclusion non-profit organisation from Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary is working with GSK's local organisations to implement these projects.
What have we done during PHASE?
The Partners Hungary Foundation has undertaken to produce the necessary tools for handwashing and toilet use, which will be distributed to the institutions in the framework of another project (REYN). In the framework of this project, a storybook and a professional manual were produced, as well as a card game, which was used by kindergarten teachers and nurses to teach children about the correct use of toilets.
The programme can be perfectly linked to the work already done by existing intercultural mediators. The related programme also aims to improve access to health services for disadvantaged people, especially Roma, and to promote health-conscious lifestyles.
About similar projects HERE and HERE you can read.
Project/Support Programme name: Personal Hygiene and sanitation education
Supporting organisation: GlaxoSmithKline Ltd.
Duration start/end: october 2015 - october 2017.
Budget amount, currency: 6.000.000 HUF
Engaging Roma communities for more liveable communities
What is the aim of the ROMED programme?
A cooperation with Roma communities is a challenge for many mayors.
The vast majority of the marginalised and segregated community live in extreme poverty on the fringes of towns and villages. The situation is seen as a problem by most people on all sides, due to a lack of trust and accumulated bad experiences; there is no or conflicting relationship between the Roma community and the local administration, no real dialogue.
The Partners Hungary Foundation offers local authorities a tried and tested methodology and toolset - in more than 50 European and dozens of Hungarian municipalities, which strengthens dialogue and cooperation between communities, local institutions and the municipality. As a result reduce tensions and start working together to solve local problems. This is intercultural mediation.
What do we do during ROMED?
The methodology is based on the Council of Europe's ROMED programme, complemented by the Partners Hungary Foundation's more than 20 years of experience in the field of Roma inclusion.
An intercultural mediator is an accepted member of the local Roma community who gains skills in conflict resolution and community planning through the training of Partners.
From a Local Community Action Group (LAG) is set up with the help of an intercultural mediator. Members of the group discuss community problems and discuss them with representatives of local institutions, local decision-makers work together to develop and, depending on resources, implement possible solutions.
The programme is low-cost, easy to adapt, the results of successful cooperation can be tangible within a year, and in the long term it contributes to the development of local society, the cohesion of local communities and the strengthening of social cohesion.
What are the results?
In the municipality of Gyulaj more than 20 houses renovated in Kalaka by the local communityi Action Group. Bathrooms have been built in some homes, water has been installed in some, several households have been sanitised and a sterile room has been constructed, thanks to the community and local partnerships.
Salt room built in the kindergarten building in Nagydobos, which is used by the population of the municipality, in addition to children, to relieve and prevent respiratory diseases.
In the city of Nagyecsed, living in a segregated area the Roma community now runs and successfully maintains a civil society organisation, which strengthens the links between Roma parents and schools and offers meaningful activities for young people. Previously, 30 outdoor toilets were built. Through community collaboration, bins were purchased and regular garbage collection was arranged.
In Nyírbátor, in the framework of municipal cooperation, from own resources launched targeting Roma and people living in extreme poverty school scholarship and employment programme.
In Jászfényszaru, the local government, with the involvement of the Community Action Group, launched a housing renovation programme.
More than 100 outdoor toilets built in Porcsalma and a blood pressure and blood sugar monitoring point was set up in the community centre.
What is the aim of the programme?
The aim of the programme is to support the disadvantaged and isolated Roma population improving access to health services, and the raising health awareness in these communities.
Intercultural mediators are the voice of the local community, signalling needs and difficulties, which they help to address through community collaboration and municipal support. The objective of the pilot project, launched in 2012, is to bring intercultural mediators into the health care system in Hungary. as facilitators to carry out their work, thus improving access to health services for disadvantaged people, especially Roma, and promoting health-conscious lifestyles. The mediators are "bridge" between the care system and the community. The work of mediators is supported by local and external expertsin all cases beyond a Community Action Team also helps.
The project in Hungary is a big one, four countries as part of an international project with the support of GlaxoSmithKline Unlimited (GSK). The project works in international partnership in Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, with Roma inclusion non-profit organisations working with GSK's local organisations. The international partnership provides an excellent opportunity to learn from each other's achievements.
What do we do during the project?
In the four countries, four different projects are being implemented in response to local specificities, with the following common features improving access to health and promoting health awareness, for the trained health mediators with the participation of.
The Hungarian pilot project focuses on the dissemination of the intercultural mediation method.Between 2015 and 2017, Roma mediation as a profession defined the specificities of the profession and its training needs.
In addition, in several municipalities each year (in total over the 7-year programme cycle 20 municipalities) municipal mini-project with the involvement of the local Roma population.
With local professionals and representatives of the Roma community we reveal local health problems, and on this basis we base the municipal mini-projects, which are always professionals and community members together are implemented.
What are the results?
At the municipal level:
130 Roma mediator training (including the Health Assistants of the Primary Care Model Programme)
for 60 women contraceptives spiral insurance
Health painting of 70 family houses (Nagyecsed, Nagydobos, Gyulaj)
1 pc sterile room, a mother of a family on dialysis, with the help of the volunteer work of the Community Action Group
Several hectares of firewood collecting for needy families in cooperation between the forestry, the municipality and the Community Action Group
Construction of 70 outdoor toilets (Nagyecsed, Porcsalma)
Construction of 1 covered bus stop in cooperation with local government representatives, civil society and KACS (Pécs)
50 persons health screening
50 Health education 800 for school children
6 health day (Nagydobos, Nagyecsed, Borsodnádasd)
11 litter picking actions (Nyírbátor, Nagydobos, Nagyecsed, Pécs, Onga) with the participation of 180 community members
1 salt room (Big Drum)
Total 1500 Roma mediator interventions addressing community problems at local level between 2013 and 2019
reaching 6300 people in need health services
Mobilising the Roma community 12 times in cooperation with local health professionals (midwives, general practitioners)
200 times collaborative planning involving Roma community members, Roma mediators, local institutional representatives and decision-makers
Cockroach extermination
Washroom creation (Borsodnádasd)
School Toilet renovation (Arló)
Playground renovation (Hernádkak, Hernádnémeti)
At national level:
Cooperation with the Swiss Fund supported by the With the Model Primary Care Programme
In the community roundtable discussions, we looked at what the Roma community needed support with, based on local needs: this was helped by the intercultural mediators, the trained coordinators of the local Roma community. We managed to work together with the municipality to ensure that each household had hygienic waste collection and wheelie bins.
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