Erasmus Project School Mediation and Social Dialogue

Date 13^th December, 2021 –  16^th December, 2021

This was my first experience partecipating in an Erasmus project. At first, I had mixed feelings. I felt worried and happy, anxious, and excited. The day after my arrival in Bari we had to meet in The Convinto Nazionale ‘D. Cirillo.’ All the other participants were friends since this was the fifth time that they had met to discuss this project.

During the first day while we were doing each school’s presentations, I started to have a good relationship with others. Following the presentations, we had a group discussion which helped me to fit in more.

During the Erasmus Project we discussed the problems encountered at school. The topics which evolved were cultures, religion, politics, friendship, and relationships between a boy and girl. We also discussed how we could help our students to tackle these issues when a problem has arisen. Everyone agrees that educators need to guide their students whom they can talk to and what to do when they are struggling with a problem with a problem. Children must learn to accept others, accept different ideas, and accept criticism.

All the participants agreed that educators must then listen to their students’ concerns and worries, expressing that students need more talks on how to cope with stress and talks regarding mediation. Teachers must encourage their students to seek help with a guidance teacher, psychologists (although not all schools have such professionals available at school.) We suggested that in every school it was must to have some mediation room. This room should be well kept, decorated well, and when you enter, you feel at home, you feel welcome and secure. We were taught how only actions can improve the situations so as educators we should encourage students to seek mediation. This can help them to handle the situation better and to use their emotional intelligence skills.

We also suggested that we have a peer-learning building available to help our students share more ideas, work with different characters, and to be more creative. Offering special training to train teachers to improve their skills (especially teachers 50 +) was explored for the benefit of the students.

Encouraging our students that sports can be therapy to cope with stress and to learn the respect of specific rules (disciplinary) was another tactic discussed.

If everyone does their part, we can make a difference in everyone’s lives. As an educator, we need to train our students to handle their emotions because we live through emotions, especially as we interface with other’s emotions and actions.

We must educate our students that at some point in time we are going to encounter problems and sometimes we are going to collapse but if we believe in ourselves, we can get on with our life better and stronger by learning through experience. We need to listen more to their emotions and need to help them to find a solution through the practice of active listening. Educators must help students build trust and mutual respect for people around them whether they know them or not, as well as to be more confident and trust themselves. We must listen to our students without judgement, because as educators, we are here to make a difference in their lives

The successful weapon to this is ‘Encouraging and Praising’ which will lead our students to a successful life.

Ms Roberta Sghendo