Democratic Dialogue at school: an online game based training tool on Democratic Dialogue for Teachers

<< Background >>Partners in the DD@S project, Democratic Dialogue at school, share their vision, common ideas and approaches tohandle difficult situations that originate in the context of sociocultural diversity at school. Managing intercultural ideas in the classroom, was a common need. It refers to relational, emotional andcommunication difficulties, considering the relationships with pupils, between pupils and very often, with pupils’ parents.Controversial themes that tirgger conflict are homosexuality, terrorism, racism, religion, ... Because peer support in how to deal with this is important, we shared the idea to create an accessible dialogue training that fosters a sense ofbelonging between school team, teachers, pupils and parents. The DD@S project contributed in the professional development of teachers to acquire effective dialogue skills to cope with ethnic, religious and multicultural conflict situations at school. << Objectives >>This project aimed to tackle unequality by addressing children's identity, values and beliefs at school and by empowering teachers in a democratic dialogue at school. The project has set up an online and open access toolkit and e-learning with a community to exchange goodpractices. It also aimed to use democratic dialogue' as a conflict management method at school, empowering teachers to deal with intolerance and discriminating behavior. It has strengthened European secondary school teachers in dealing with multiculturalchallenges at school. Additionally, the project provides a guide for implementation and policy recommendations about the preconditions for implementing DD@S at school. DD@S aimed to directly address about 75 school teachers in each participating country within their network for further dissemination of project results.<< Implementation >>To develop the toolkit, the teacher modules and the scenarios of the gamification based online training, the project team organized surveys andinterviews with secondary school teachers in focus groups. The results were anaylised in a quantitative and qualitative analysis. In an international learning, teaching and training activity, all content for the toolkit, teacher modules and learning platform, was tested and discussed for improvement. Then, the online and a trial of the online training was organized with the participating teachers. It was then and discussed for further improvement before the final version was launched. Learning, teaching and training activities have promote the exchange of expertise and good practices for the gamification based dialogue training, the toolkit, the teacher modules and policy recommendations. These activities have trained participants in the full project deployment of DD@S at national level in each country. Finally, within the broad network of the project partners and project results were disseminated.<< Results >>The project resulted in a toolkit with good practices, teacher modules with theoretical backgroud and methods for dealing with controversial thems (political, gender, religeous and vulnerable groups), an online training platform with interactive exercises and policy recommendations. This training tool, results in dialogue competent teachers who feel confident in mutual dialogue in their professional lives, especially within a superdiverse school context. Other outcomes at individual level are an increase in awareness about the sensitivities of multicultural challenges at school. At microlevel, the project results in an effective coping strategy within the school team, for these challenges. This leads to a tolerant and inclusive school climate. On the long term, a tolerant and inclusive school climate leads to an increasement of well-being for all actors within the school.