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The aim of the project is to open a transnational discussion on the theme of quarrels and conflicts between peers, with reference to boys, girls, teenagers from 2 to 18 years, in the context of their life experience at school. What happens when a quarrel occurs between students? How is it perceived by teachers? How do they intervene and to what extent is their intervention the result of a school strategy? Is there a pedagogical method or approach shared by teachers? Who decide and what level of sharing has the choice (class, school)? What are the results and impact? Is there an educational strategy on quarreling students? We know that schools rarely devote work to this issue: teachers react in individual and even emotional ways to children’s quarrels. Generally, they do not think that quarreling is normal and important in the life of people of all ages and a few of them knows that there is the practical, as well as theoretical, possibility of learning from quarrels and learning to quarrel better.

The partners belong to this rare area that has made childhood quarrel an object of study and work, developing precise methods and educational tools to allow students to learn also through quarrels, to develop relational skills and prevent the conflictual incompetence that characterizes the violent behavior. The project leader, CPP – Psycho-pedagogical Center for Peace and Conflict Management, is an Institute specialized in learning processes in situations of conflict. It deals with research, pedagogical consultancy and adult training.

Therefore, the context is a generalized absence of a shared pedagogical strategy of reference
for teachers, which allows them to know how to intervene in the event of quarrels between peers at school, with what methods and with what tools. At the same time, there are consolidated and positive experiences that certify that the methods exist, the ordinary experience of a childhood quarrel can be transformed from an unexpected moment of disturbance into an opportunity to learn skills. It is about maintaining the centrality of the subjectivity of boys, girls, teenagers, accompanying them to develop the skills at the base of a functioning democratic life: knowing how to express themselves, to listen, to put themselves in others’ shoes, to identify common problems and interests and to find effective ways to be better together, whether there is a shared agreement, or if there is no “solution” to the conflict. Soft skills can be developed by giving everyone, children and teenagers the opportunity to argue better, in a school context well equipped for those purposes. There is a need to make these experiences more accessible and to understand how to make methods more transferable, what obstacles still prevent the spread of these methods. E.g Peer mediation has decades of experience but it is not very common in schools. Above all, there is a need to network at a European level the schools that want overcome certain useless and ineffective aspects of school life that by inertia remain in practices when it happens that students start arguing.

Coordinator:
Centro Psicopedagogico per la pace e la gestione dei conflitti (IT)

Partners:
Fondation des regions Europeennes pour la recherche en Education et Enformation (FR)
Istituto Internazionale di Diritto Umanitario (IT)
Fondazione Intro (IT)
Osnovna skola Ivana Gorana Kovacica Vrbovsko (HR)
Udruge Centar za mir Nenasilje i Ljudska Prava – Osijek (HR)
Innovate4Future – Centrul pentru Solutii Educationale Avansate (RO)
Colegiul National “Sfantul Sava” (RO)
Relationships are Forever Foundation (MT)
Maria Regina College Naxxar Induction Hub (MT)