Educate Together is delighted to welcome partners University of Llubljana (Slovenia), Association Petit Philosophy (Croatia) and StePs (Italy) to begin work on its Erasmus+ funded project ‘'Learn Together to Live Together – Teachers leading Ethical Education for an inclusive society (LITTLE)’ The project is being led by Educate Together and yesterday saw the initial meeting in what will be a three-year project with far-reaching implications for the effective delivery of Ethical Education in European schools.
Said Sandra Irwin-Gowran, Education and Support Manager, Educate Together:
‘The awarding of funding from Erasmus+ will give us and our partners the space to build on and share our experiences in delivering an education that not only imparts knowledge but assists in guiding children to be engaged and active citizens and critical thinkers. We are really looking forward to the next few days of planning."
LITTLE aims to reinforce the role of education in promoting equity and inclusion and in imparting common European values, intercultural competences and active citizenship. It will find methods to reinforce the sense of EU citizenship, built upon a notion of common humanity as a basic ethical postulate for dialogue, tolerance and respect.
The project will also provide teachers/educators and students with tools and methods based on critical, value-oriented thinking that will contributes towards the exploration of identity and discrimination.
Educate Together is committed to inclusive education and providing the delivery of curricula that allow for freedom of thought and expression, social inclusion and respect for others. Educate Together is the only provider in Irish schools to provide a comprehensive Ethical Education curriculum in the place of religious education as faith formation.
Educate Together's Ethical Education curricula aim to develop learners' knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours in equality, human rights, justice and sustainability so that learners develop personally and spiritually, think critically, and are empowered to make a difference.
In July 2016, Educate Together was awarded €284,000 by Erasmus+. The grant is ring-fenced for this project and the project will be conducted by Educate Together’s Education and Support Programme. Erasmus+ is the EU's programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe.
More about our LITTLE partners:
- University of Ljubljana has extensive experience in the field of ethics and values education and has leading researchers in ethics and pedagogy working closely together in order to combine the recent development in the field of ethics, emphasising ideas of common humanity, dialogue and emphatic society.
- Association Petit Philosophy was established in 2009 with the goal of promoting critical thinking through formal and non formal education. The organisation promotes critical thinking and philosophy for children. It provides education opportunities for teachers around the topics of developing critical thinking and philosophy for children and has over the years developed a network of teachers interested in Ethical Education.
- STePS, established in 2013, operates in the Italian city of Bologna. STEPS has much experience in co-ordinating and participating in European projects. The organization works nationally and internationally to promote educational research to enable personal growth as well as inclusive and sustainable change in organizations. STEPS promotes the active participation of educational staff in European programs to overcome national boundaries and its activities are centered on pioneering innovative training resources for use in multicultural classrooms.
Pictured here at D7Educate Together National School are project partners from each of the four countries including D7ET Principal, Patricia Cerkin, Education & Support Programme Manager with Educate Together Sandra Irwin-Gowran and Fionnuala Ward, Primary Education Officer with Educate Together. D7ET very kindly allowed the partners to experience two lessons from the Learn Together programme being taught to children in senior infants and sixth class
