SMOOTH studies educational commons as an alternative approach for addressing inequalities and active social inclusion
SMOOTH is an abbreviation for “Educational Common Spaces. Passing through enclosures and reversing inequalities”, a project led by the University of Thessaly (Greece) with the participation of a variety of universities and organizations from 8 other European countries. The study, which will be conducted from 2021-2024 involves the participation of around 50 educational institutions. These institutions will undertake case studies designed to examine if and how educational commons can operate as a catalyst for addressing inequalities.
The project looks to create smooth spaces of democratic citizenship and experimentation with new ways of thinking and doing on the basis of equality, collaboration, collective creativity, sharing and caring, focusing on the collective construction of knowledge to strengthen intercultural and intergenerational dialogue and social integration.
For this purpose, cases studies will be developed through a variety of methodologies including pedagogical documentation, the pedagogy of listening, ethnography, and discourse analyses. Furthermore, the case studies will be designed to facilitate the active participation of children who will contribute through co-designing the activities, determining the topics of activities and even conducting field work and interviews.
At the same time, the project will bring teachers, facilitators and trainers to learn together and build and foster community through their diverse backgrounds; finally, the project considers a cross-cutting, cross-disciplinary analysis concerning the role of educational commons to provide policymakers new, innovative and more efficient tools for proposing new policies to better engage children and adults in developing a more secure and resilient economic, political and social model of Europe.
More information: https://smooth-ecs.eu/
