Introductory Module

This module belongs to Capacity Building Programme I

Welcome to the first edition of the BePart training!

What is the BePart project about?

BePart —Youth Led Development for Schools’ Participatory Management— is an Erasmus+ funded project that aims at developing, implementing and evaluating an innovative participatory youth approach to be implemented in schools, fostering inclusive education and youth empowerment.

The project takes place across four different countries through the collaboration of four schools —Escola Secundária de Paços de Ferreira (Portugal), Escola Virolai (Spain), 2o Gymnasio Geraka (Greece), Valmieras Pargaujas Sakumskola (Latvia)— and four technical partners —Mentortec (Portugal), Platoniq (Spain), Universidade do Porto (Portugal), and Action Synergy (Greece)—.

What is this training about?

Based on the main concepts underpinning the project (youth-led development, youth participation models, co-creation, project-based learning, and youth empowerment) this training aims to prepare teachers to better understand these key-concepts, as well as the methodology behind the project. You —teachers— will be trained on how to facilitate participation, creating processes and materials.

After the training, you will be equipped to support your students during the phase of implementation and testing of the BePart methodology, taking into account the current context of COVID-19.

What are the objectives of the training?

By the end of the training we will:

• Define what is (and what is not) a participatory process in school.
• Identify the level of participation, motivation and involvement of students in your school.
• Identify power structures in the classroom and at school, why they occur and how they influence the dynamics of daily school life.
• Understand what is facilitation (and what is not) and its potential in a participatory space.
• Recognise in which areas student participation is allowed and in which not, and analyse why.
• Reflect on what is a comfortable and safe(r) space for students and how to generate it.

Who is taking part?

The training is aimed at teachers of the BePart school partners, and is supported by all technical partners. During the online workshop, we will be (if COVID-19 allows it):

• 3 teachers from each school, 12 teachers in total;
• 2 trainers from Platoniq;
• 2 participation experts from Action Synergy;
• 1 project coordinator from Mentortec;
• 2 evaluators from the Universidade do Porto.

Are you participating in the training? Introduce yourself here and take a look at other participants' introductions.

How is the training structured?

The training consists of this introductory module + three formative modules + a final evaluation module. Every formative module is divided into two parts:

(1) Autonomous work

It will consist of some readings, some activities to carry out with your newly selected group of students (the Fellowship) and some exercise to write up. You will spend roughly 3 - 4 hours per week per teacher.

For this work, we strongly recommend you to plan in advance dedicated time with your group of students during the three weeks of course. You should foresee ideally a couple of hours per week with your Fellowship during the three weeks of the training period. Given the Covid-19 restrictions, you can of course plan these sessions to take place through online video calls if you wish to do so.

You have flexibility to develop the autonomous work and adapt it to your schedule. Autonomous work will have to be developed during the following periods:

• From 4th to 8th November 2020: autonomous work for Module 1.
• From 10th to 15th November 2020: autonomous work for Module 2.
• From 17th to 22nd November 2020: autonomous work for Module 3.

(2) Online workshops

It will be developed through the Zoom platform in the following days:

• Monday 9th November 2020 from 14h to 17h CET: Module 1 online session.
• Monday 16th November 2020 from 14h to 17h CET: Module 2 online session.
• Monday 23rd November 2020 from 14h to 17h CET: Module 3 online session.

What tools will we use?

During the training, we will use the following tools:

• BePart training platform (bepart.platoniq.net): the platform where you are currently in. It will be our offline communication tool, as well as the place where you will find all the details, readings and exercises to carry out the autonomous work.
• Zoom: where online workshops will take place.
• Miro (miro.com): during the online workshops we will use Miro canvases. We recommend you to sign up to Miro platform (it's free) to improve your experience when using it (as a registered user you will have more features during the use of the canvas).

Let's start! What are the next steps?

To take advantage of this training, we kindly ask you to complete the following steps:

• Register to the BePart training platform, if you haven't done it yet: Sign Up.
• Introduce yourself in this forum: http://bepart.platoniq.net/processes/M0/f/38/.
• Have a look at our available resources: http://bepart.platoniq.net/pages. We recommend reading the MYP Handbook before the training.

Do you have any questions, doubts, suggestions, recommendations or thoughts to share with us? We are available on elena@platoniq.net and marta@platoniq.net.