Transform2gether

Transformation through Participation (II): Establishing an Expertise Network and a Competence Platform for Strengthening School Democracy and Global Education.

‘The way we continue to organise education and structure learning opportunities is not enough to enable peaceful societies, a planet worth living on and a fair distribution of wealth,’ is UNESCO’s finding on the pressing issues of our time. The ‘transform2gether’ project, led by the University of Klagenfurt in cooperation with the University Colleges of Teacher Education in Carinthia, Tyrol and Vienna, is based on this realisation and focuses on the key players in schools.

In the project, teachers, head teachers and school social workers from 8 schools from different regions in Austria are invited to take part in specially developed courses to explore the possibilities of a democratic school culture and the Sustainable Development Goals. The findings will then be tested with the pupils at the schools in participatory research workshops. The aim is for teachers to plan small projects with their pupils that strengthen participation and democracy in schools. Using low-threshold research methods, the resulting changes are then jointly documented and reflected upon.

The project team accompanies the students and school partners and explores the potentials, barriers, resistance, conflicts and solutions for a participatory and democratic school together with them. The project is not about perfect realisation, but about learning from experience, f.e. detecting and finding resistance, dealing with conflicts and also failure.

A feedback group, which includes teachers and school administrators as well as students, is repeatedly asked for feedback throughout the project. Through participatory research methods, all participants contribute to continuous learning about the possibilities and limits of a democratic, participatory and thus inclusive school that enables all participants to take part. In this way, the project aims to create a sustainable network of expertise.

The findings will also flow together in a digital expertise platform and will be made available to the public – even after the project has been completed. This way, the basic idea of the project will continue to spread beyond the project period – namely that the urgently needed changes in people’s behaviour towards each other and towards nature and the environment require work on a small scale as well as encouragement through testing and experience. By testing out what is possible and what is still difficult, it is hoped that the famous learning will unfold its value not only for school, but for life.