Case Studies

Name of the teacher

School management

Email:

Country:

Belgium

Name of the School:

Athénée Royal de Visé

School Typology:

Lower Secondary School, Upper Secondary School, Vocational School

Country:

Belgium

City:

Visé

Web site:

Background and Context:

Mainstream, technical and vocational secondary school in the town of Visé (Province of Liège). This school includes many students with an immigrant background.

Factual Description:

Experience run during the school year 2011-2012.
The school implemented a so-called “well-being unit” (“cellule bien-être”) that develops actions focussed on a sense of belonging to the school. It is a dynamics to create links between the several protagonists of the school community.
In this framework, several education staff members participate in the “EPTO” training organised by an external association. This formation aims to question stereotypes and prejudices, and to gather school protagonists against exclusion.
At the end of the training, the enthusiastic participants wanted to train other teachers as well as students to; promote the fight against prejudices and discriminations in the school.
Third and fourth year students interested in the EPTO tool were trained. They then trained others. About a hundred students from second to sixth year were trained in one year.

Main actors involved
• The person in charge of AMO “Reliance” (“Association d’Aide en Milieu Ouvert”) proposed the EPTO tool to the school and supported the initiative for over a year.
• One student who was particularly interested in the programme and activities proposed by the EPTO training. He attended the training and became a peer trainer.

Activities carried out:

Education tool
EPTO is a tool for group dynamics. The aims of the training are manifold: to raise students’ awareness about their prejudices regarding young people of different origins or neighbourhoods, and to solve a relational difficulty in a group. At the end of the training, students know themselves and each other better, which improves coexistence.

The training has two phases:
• Awareness of one’s identity “who am I?” (my family, religious and cultural journey, my relationships to others, …),
• Exercises about prejudices, discriminations (to deconstruct). Those exercises let young people think about themselves in a different way than the one used by the psychologist of the CPMS (healthcare, psychological and well-being centres attached to schools) or their reference educator. They have a new perspective on themselves and others.

Education experts
• AMO Reliance: http://amo-reliance.weebly.com/
• EPTO (Europeen Peer Training Organisation) http://epto.org/
Young Europeans who use peer education to inform other young people and encourage them to fight the many discriminations in our society. This method is based on the idea that a message delivered by one young to another is often more credible and efficient than one delivered by an authority figure.

Inforef described the EPTO programme on the “School Safety Net” portal:
http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/DB_tsource_scheda.php?art_id=83&ta=&tg=&tp=&lp=&lr=&q=

Assessment and lesson learnt:

Results achieved
• Better contacts and cohesion were observed by teachers “we felt as the year passed an improved environment between teachers, and not only those trained by EPTO. It gave us the possibility to implement new projects (theatre for upper secondary school students for example)”.
• Students paid particular attention to this project.
• The peer trainer student who fully committed to the evolution of EPTO in the school was called to solve problems related to the training. For him, the EPTO methodology pushed things forward.
• The management supported the project because it helps establish dialogue in the school, talk about differences, work on well-being in relation to the school environment.
• The education team found the tool interesting to promote the fight against prejudices and discriminations art school.

Inforef described this experience on the “School Safety Net” portal: http://schoolsafetynet.pixel-online.org/DB_texperiences_scheda.php?art_id=96&ta=&cou=Belgium&aut=&tip=&q=

Replicability
• Implementing EPTO in a school requires an external organisation to support the process and motivation on the headteacher’s and teacher’s part.
• Is it a good tool to establish dialogue in a school? This training encourages people to lay themselves bare about their cultural, religious… identity. It should not lead young people to unveil more than they want to. This training cannot be imposed by the school. It should be organised on a voluntary basis.
• Other tools are available to establish dialogue in a school (for instance those proposed by “Université de paix” http://www.universitedepaix.org/ and IRFAM http://www.irfam.org/).

Description of the Case Study in National Language: