Teacher support confronting social inequalities - TOCSIN

Project facts

Project promoter:
University Of Thessaly – Research Committee
Project Number:
GR07-0010
Target groups
Minorities,
Children
Status:
Completed
Initial project cost:
€198,323
Final project cost:
€194,148
From EEA Grants:
€ 165,026
The project is carried out in:
Greece

Description

The basic concept of the “Teacher suppOrt Confronting Social Inequalities” (TOCSIN) is to study the consequences of the escalating economic crisis upon vulnerable population in early childhood education schools. TOCSIN aims to record and analyze existing issues and difficulties that children face during their early childhood schooling experience in the context of social and income inequalities in Greece, and their teachers' practices to confront them. Specifically it aims to provide a) a descriptive account of the current difficulties that students face as presented in schools (according to school principals reports), b)a detailed presentation of the good practices though in-depth semi-structured interviews with teachers c) an electronic platform with educational material and tools as support system for teachers based on the results of the survey and the semi-structured interviews and d) an established dissemination process based on collaboration with associations, networks and experts to ensure its long-lasting effects. Its objectives aim at understanding and minimizing the impact of the upcoming social and economic disparities in Greece as a result of the current economic crisis, from a scientific / research based perspective. TOCSIN branches out into three objectives. The first and the second are mainly research objectives, and the last one results as an exploitation of the results procedure, by taking the form of an educational material. The innovation of the TOCSIN is that the good practices and the approaches that will be included in the educational material have all been tested and proved effective. They have all been tested in vivo by teachers. And if one teacher has made it, another teacher can also do so. They won’t be theoretical or academic suggestions. The policy recommendations driven by them will be strongly evidence-based.

Summary of project results

The financial crisis in Greece had a heavy impact on the socio-economic status of Greek society. The school environment therefore, becomes a valuable place for inequalities and adversities to be early detected, and interventions and practices to be developed and implemented at an early stage, fostering the resilience and wellbeing of children at risk. Given the fact that early childhood education is obligatory in Greece, it seems reasonable that these effects could be detected in the first thresholds outside family, of children’s socialization. Early detection provides experts with the best opportunities for actions to be planned and implemented in order to strengthen students against adversities, as it has been well documented in literature. The products of this project are at public disposal accompanied offered to teachers and schools who seek assistance in their difficult endeavors. The TOCSIN’s sustainability relies upon www.tocsin.uth.gr. TOCSIN project, is the first systematic attempt to record and research the problems that students confront and carry at the school context. Furthermore, since the teachers’ good practices were rarely highlighted, the project strongly supports the elevation of practices that are proved to be effective in order to facilitate and urge other teachers to apply them, too, and help as many children at risk as possible. The results of TOCSIN add valuable information to the educational community since teachers usually feel unable to help their students at risk. Therefore, TOCSIN’s results support educational faculties who confront similar challenges, as they are offered specific scenarios of other teachers’ good practices that arise from our proposed research. The aim of TOCSIN was to enhance teacher’s role in students’ lives, and, hence, strengthen the sense of community. This aim is believed to be achieved by the exploitation of the results as transformed into detailed educational scenarios of good practices available on free access to stakeholders, being open at public disposal accompanied offered to teachers and schools who seek assistance in their difficult endeavors. In addition, those good practices and the educational material today enrich the curricula of the student teachers’ studies in the Universities, further fostering TOCSIN’s sustainability.

Summary of bilateral results

The cooperation established by a study visit and an expert visit. In the study visit, three (3) Greek Partners - researchers visited the Research Center SSRI-UOI_HI, in order to participate in activities where experience was shared, from Icelandic successful good practices aiming at overcoming the adversities of the Icelandic economic crisis. On the other, the Icelandic Parther visited Greece as an expert from the SSRI-UOI-HI, in order to conduct a lecture and a workshop on the issues of social exclusion and disparities, according to experience and to TOCSIN’s results. The participation of the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) of Iceland brought added value to project from their rich experience of similar studies evaluating the consequences of a similar crisis. It is known that in 2008, Iceland experienced one of the most dramatic crashes any country had ever seen. Since then, its recovery has been impressive, which is indicative of underlying good practices to be shared and lessons to be learned The project contributed to strengthening bilateral relations, as all the researchers who were involved shared common concerns on the issue of the impact of the escalating economic crisis upon vulnerable populations, such as children and their families, in the broader school community. The researchers exchanged valuable ideas, produce and share material which enriched the project’s outputs. The travel to Iceland and to Greece (for the Icelandic Partner), contributed significantly to a sharing of valuable ideas, experiences and information which otherwise (without the project’s contribution) it would have been impossible to achieve The cooperation with the donor partner still continues. We are working currently in more joined TOCSIN’s publications, searching for opportunities in collaborating further with SSRI in social researches projects.