Safe Schools for All - Teachers Transforming Societies

European and international treaties, agreements and national laws obligate states to respect human rights and fight against inequality. Those are key values also in the national curriculum in most of the European countries and well as educational policies on European Union. However, studies show that racism, biases and hate speech are a widespread and growing problem in Europe and there is a gap between policy and practice in all partner country. Islamophobia, homophobia, misogyny, anti-Semitism and racism are all based on the dynamics of inequality and otherization, and there oppressive phenomena is becoming violence increasingly normalized across Europe. The normalization of hate speech is leading to fear of violence, increase of actual violence and mistrust towards educational institutions and its actors. As the social climate worsens, new actions are needed to tackle hate speech transnationally and sustainably. There is clear evidence that more projects are needed to support teachers and schools with more proactive methods and tools on how to tackle discrimination constructively. Teachers are still missing measures for tackling discrimination and transform schools towards safer and more equal learning spaces for all pupils and students. The project plan was based on a notion that teachers play an increasingly important role in building and maintaining peace on local level in each of the participating countries. Teachers’ role as a catalyst for change among the youth in different communities in Slovenia, Finland and Estonia is crucial. Through developing teachers’ competence of recognizing and tackling discrimination and hate speech in schools the project aimed to affect the well-being of pupils, in particular of those pupils that face discrimination and ostracism, and the school communities as a whole. The objective of this project was to collect existing best practices and develop concrete means and tools to tackle discrimination, racism, hate speech and violent behaviour in schools and transform the operational culture of schools to be more inclusive, equal, anti-racist, non-discriminatory and safer learning spaces for all.The project developed and shared concrete means such as SAFER online training course and material “Tackling Discrimination. My Learning Diary” for educators. The materials contained large range of exercises, theoretical background and examples from schools. The project lasted 3 years and had 7 partners from three different countries: Finland, Estonia and Slovenia. The partners were direct basic education providers such as schools and educational department of municipalities as well as organisations working in teacher training and school cooperation promoting equality in education. The project activities included 1) training of teachers 2) building up a mentoring framework for teachers tackling violent behaviour and hate speech and managing conflicts and promoting equality in their work in order to provide them needed support to have the skills, competences and confidence to act constructively when needed. The project did also 3) co-create a training curriculum for teachers in the topics of project; 4) develop an open on-line learning course, and 5) a learning diary to support teachers in their work. It did also 6) facilitate and support local interventions on school level and created case studies and model for sustainable and constructive participatory interventions in transforming operational culture and well-being of pupils and students. Some of the actions were affected by the global pandemia in 2020-2021, but as most of the mobility actions (trainings of teachers and trainings of mentors) took place in 2019 or first quarter of 2020 the impact was relatively small and manageable. Through the dissemination of the developed intellectual outputs and trained teachers, we believe the project reach it aim to reduce discriminatory attitudes and practices and inequality in school environment, and will enable equal and safe participation in education and school’s everyday life of pupils from marginalized and minority groups. It built a network of skilled and trained teachers who have a common understanding and methodologies for sustainable way to tackle discrimination, racism, homophobia and hate speech across the project countries and in Europe. The project did also reached it objective to enable teachers to assess strategically their role as agent of change and peace builders in their countries and supported teachers so they can work to sustain peace and support the development of inclusive communities across Europe.