Case Studies

Name of the teacher

Sila Simões Serra Ferreira

Email:

Country:

Portugal

Subject taught:

Community and social intervention/Sociocultural Animation

Years of experience:

32

Name of the School:

Escola Secundária de Jaime Cortesão - AECC

School Typology:

Upper Secondary School

Country:

Portugal

City:

Coimbra

Web site:

Background and Context:

The AECC is a cluster of schools created on July 4/2012. It has a higher secondary school, two schools of lower secondary school and basic school - Poeta Manuel da Silva Gaio and São Silvestre - and eighteen school buildings, dispersed by the Municipality (the most distant schools are about 30 km apart), which are mostly Basic Schools, some with kindergartens and others only with Pre-School Education. At the moment it has 1655 students with different characteristics, justified by its geographic dispersion. This cluster of schools has a considerable number of foreign students, of different nationalities and with parents who do not speak Portuguese. It has specialised support units for the education of students with multideficiency, structured units for the education of students with autism disorders, it is a reference school for the education of students with blindness and low vision as well as for bilingual education of deaf students (EREBAS).
The diversity of the offer to the diverse target audience is major and the geographic dispersion accentuated. Many parents of AECC students belong to disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds with most of them only with basic education, so many of the students meet in the school intellectual, cultural and even affective needs. The responsibility and intervention of teachers and educators in this sense are great, so the dropout rate is residual. Many students are supported by School Social Action (ASE).
The diversity is wide and the geographic dispersion accentuated, however, these factors are seen as challenges for a Group that promotes self-esteem, active citizenship, defending, respecting and promoting values such as trust, dialogue, demand, work, rigor, creativity, transparency, respect, equality, tolerance, inclusion, democratic participation, merit and responsibility. Thus, this cluster, year after year, formed autonomous citizens, inclusive and ready to face the challenges of society, contributing to the common good.

Factual Description:

This project, held for the second consecutive year in our school, aims at promoting democratic values by emphasizin the Education for Justice and Law (especially Human Rights, minority rights and non-discrimination) as a fundamental tool in a State of Law. It began on October 20, 2016, with a preparatory session, on the initiative of the Padre António Vieira Institute. It was completed on March 3, 2017.
The participation in this project, at national level, Was directly related to the initiative and interest shown by the students.
The gender/”race” issues and the concept of religion is of great interest for the majority of our students, resulting in a considerable number of practical work carried out by them in the different subjects. Hence, we can affirm that the choice, by unanimity, of this theme as to do with the life experience of our students.
The objectives were:
• Promote democratic values by reinforcing understanding of the rule of Law.
• Strengthen the value of active, informed and responsible civic participation.
• Create efficient channels of approximation that provide communication between between young citizens and the judicial system
• Raise awareness of the importance of analyzing and understanding various points of view and promoting solutions committed to Human Rights
• Allow, through an alternative formula, to introduce in the basic educational system, education for justice and human rights.
• Helping to realize how the law can promote social cohesion and bring about social change.

Although all classes had immigrant students, the discrimination problems worked in this case were not lived within them, but almost all students were aware of similar cases that occurred outside the school. It should be noted that in our school there have never been any situations between national students and immigrants, since the integration of all is of prime importance for all the school professionals.
Twenty students, both national and immigrant, were Involved from the 2nd year of basic vocational education (9th grade), the 11th and 12th years of vocational education and the 12th year of secondary education, 2 teachers, 1 psychologist, 1 judge.
This project had a great impact on the students' attitude in the classroom, as well as on the interaction among all, and also on the motivation for predisposition in addressing these issues.
Regarding teachers, the impact was mainly on the possibility of new ways of approaching problems in the classroom, surpassing, when necessary, some difficulties during the lesson and emphasizing that citizenship education for vital for the future of society, especially in the current context (migration, unemployment, ...).

Activities carried out:

This project involved many activities, all carried out by students supervised by a teacher, always taking into account the acquisition of knowledge that facilitated the interaction and integration of all in any context.

Thus, the following activities were developed:
- displacement and participation of the occurrences, sexual coercion, physical aggression and bullying, to the Police
- displacement and participation to the Police the misuse of the Facebook page and request of verification of the profile of the page in question and subsequent procedures;
- transfer to the Institute of Legal Medicine for medical examination;
- contacts with a Tutor lawyer, for guidance and preparation of procedural documents;
- travel to the Court of the County of Coimbra to prepare the simulation of the trial, under the guidance of a Judge;
- production of all procedural documents and testing of the roles to be performed;
- simulation of the judgment, with role playing, of the various characters, by all the students involved;
- reading the final sentence;
- dissemination of the project in the school and in the media (waiting publication).

People involved: a psychologist, Dr. Amália Conde, Professors Sila Ferreira and Goreti Morgado, lawyer Dr. Aníbal Moreira, Judge João Ferreira, and several agents and experts of the Police and a medical examiner. They all draw attention to the consequences of such "crimes" and requested the transmission of these knowledge to their families, colleagues and friends in order to raise awareness and prevention.
The drafting of all documents, using law, was an added value for students, leading them to reflect together with colleagues on the need to comply with living in society rules.
The teachers followed all the procedures, collaborating with the experts and other partners in the project and exploring in the classroom the chosen sub-themes.
All the parents of the participating students gave their authorisation and some expressed their great surprise at the realization of this type of projects, understanding them as very important for the education of their students.

Assessment and lesson learnt:

The objectives we set were all achieved and even surpassed in some aspects, such as the attitude of the students in Court, the commitment and interest of the success of the activity
For the students involved (Roma, immigrants and others), the learning process was many and varied, emphasizing the need to comply with rules, respect each other rights and the correct use of the Internet. Thus, everyone was very satisfied with the results achieved, their happiness is evident in the photographs taken.
We believe that this is a very good program of valorization of the Law and Human Rights, as well as understanding the role of young people in democratic societies, along with the role of the courts as organs of sovereignty.
Next year it is planned to continue this type of project, as we want to continue to promote democratic values through education for justice and the human rights of young generations.

Description of the Case Study in National Language: