bye, Polarity – Thinking beyond Polarity for Europe united in diversity
The project bye, Polarity aims to counteract the increasing polarisation in politics and society through school education and thus empower young people to act as ambassadors for a united Europe.
The division of our world often happens through the formation of polarities. In order to be able to break up static patterns of thinking and to master social challenges of the future, competencies such as cohesion, discourse skills, empathy and diversity as a chance for holistic solutions are needed. On the one hand, young people in particular are very impressionable with regard to polarizing tendencies, at the same time, they can equally have a positive influence on their environment. This is why bye, Polarity focuses on the secondary school level. Through innovative didactic concepts, learning materials and interactive workshop designs, teachers are provided with the appropriate tools to sensitise students to the topic, to teach them key competencies in dealing with polarities and subsequently to empower them to become ambassadors for a united Europe.
The project will develop the following results:
- THINKING ABOUT POLARITY!
We will produce a cross-national report on how to deal with the increasing polarisation in politics and society. In addition, good practice examples will be collected to show how the topic has been included in school lessons so far. - CONCEPT AGAINST POLARITY!
In order to be able to teach the complex topic of dealing with polarities in an adequate way and in a target group-specific manner in school lessons, we will develop a comprehensive didactic and methodological concept. - TEACH TO REACH!
With regard to such a complex topic, innovative teaching and learning materials are required, which include three steps. First, learning materials are developed for theoretical and fact-based teaching. In a second step, materials will be developed that are based on shared experiential learning and can be conducted in different workshop settings as well as with different group sizes. In a final step, a guide for teachers on how to use the developed learning materials will be provided. - UNITED TOGETHER AGAINST POLARITY!
Students in particular often spend a considerable amount of time on social media channels and are therefore also constantly confronted with an enormous amount of information – this is exactly where we come in. Together with the target group, we work out where polarising tendencies are spread on the internet, how they can be recognised and in what ways students can actively counteract this themselves. A workshop and a guide for pupils will be developed to enable them to act as ambassadors for a united Europe in social media.
