focus group – Open School Doors http://openschooldoors.westgate.gr Developing diverse school / parents communities through innovative partnerships Thu, 23 Apr 2020 07:30:16 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.1 http://openschooldoors.westgate.gr/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/cropped-osd_logo_draft-32x32.jpg focus group – Open School Doors http://openschooldoors.westgate.gr 32 32 Focus group in Tallinn for EPA http://openschooldoors.westgate.gr/?p=147 Fri, 13 Apr 2018 11:32:48 +0000 http://openschooldoors.westgate.gr/?p=147 On the occasion of the European Parents’ Association’s annual conference and general assembly (24/25 November 2017 in Tallinn) there was a focus group discussion feeding into Open School Doors to provide the perspective of organised parents on teacher training needs for better inclusion of parents from disadvantaged backgrounds, especially migrant parents. Participants of the focus group, parent leaders from Austria, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Norway, Serbia, Slovenia and Sweden, are all active in projects aiming at the inclusion of migrant parents in school and community as well as working with other disadvantaged groups. The goal was to include the experiences from countries that do not participate in the project to support the development of intellectual outputs that are applicable as widely as possible.

The focus group analysed  the current status of parental involvement/engagement that greatly differ from country to country, but still tried to find the common elements, listed barriers and challenges for migrant parents in that can have an effect on their engagement in their children’s school, discussed their view on teachers’ role in making parents more engaged with their children’s school and the desirable relationship between organised parents and teachers in general as it should form the basis of the involvement of those not currently engaged to avoid alienating those already active. There was a strong emphasis on utilising the relationship between school (teachers and parent leaders) and parents in general for supporting the lifelong learning of parents – both for better parenting and their own personal development. There is an agreement that parental engagement should be considered and promoted as an active educator’s role and active citizenship.

]]> Greek workshop http://openschooldoors.westgate.gr/?p=139 Tue, 27 Feb 2018 14:13:47 +0000 http://openschooldoors.westgate.gr/?p=139 On Wednesday, February 21, 2018, a workshop was held in the premises of CTI “DIOPHANTUS” in Athens, within the framework of the European project “Open School Doors”. Open School Doors is a two-year European project funded under the Erasmus + KA2 Program. The aim of the project is to help parents of migrant children and / or refugees to participate more actively in the education of their children.

Mrs Boufardea Evangelia (mpoufard@westgate.gr) from CTI “DIOPHANTUS” and Mrs Zoakou Anna (azoakou@ea.gr) and Mr. Zygouritsas Nikos (zygouritsas@ea.gr) from the Ellingermaniki Agogi were responsible for the coordination and organization of the workshop. Several educators (teachers, school managers, etc.), parents (migrant background), psychologists, sociologists and NGO executives participated in the workshop, to exchange views and experiences to identify the problems that need to be overcome and involving parents (migrants / refugees) more actively in school issues and in education of their children. The results of the workshop will be exploited by the project team to develop an appropriate training framework for teachers with immigrant / refugee pupils.

The project will provide teachers with integrated training aiming at establishing effective co-operation between teachers and parents, demanding equal parents’ participation in decision-making and school development processes taking into account migrant/refugee parents’ particular cultural and socio-educational profile.

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