Erasmus + Project n° 2016-1-FR01-KA201-023866

Be

a Volunteer,

Succeed

at School

Schola - a pedagogical approach

to value volunteering



Schola—Be a Volunteer, Succeed at School

Editors

Mojca Kovačič, Marjeta Pisk, Dan Podjed (ZRC SAZU)

Autors

Benjamin Arino, Marco Bartolucci, Federico Batini, Agnieszka Borek, Bénédicte Halba, Mojca Kovačič, Sofie Peetroons, Dan Podjed, Laura Rabiej, Fernando Rosa, Alberto Santoro, Rachel Savoie, Wouter Smets

This eBook accompanies the Schola project

This project has been carried out with the financial support of the European Commission under the ERASMUS+ programme

Erasmus + Project n° 2016-1-FR01-KA201-023866

Copy editing

K&J Translations

Design and layout

Ristanc Design

© 2018, ZRC SAZU (Slovenia), IRIV Conseil (France), Collège Blaise Pascal (France), Karel de Grote University College (Belgium), University of Perugia (Italy), Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland), ZRC Publishing House (Slovenia)

Issued and published by

Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU),

Institute of Slovenian Ethnology, Institute of Ethnomusicology, ZRC Publishing House, Novi trg 2, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Represented by

Oto Luthar, Ingrid Slavec Gradišnik, Drago Kunej

ZRC Publishing House Editor-in-chief

Aleš Pogačnik

First e-edition

Ljubljana 2018

All rights reserved. Parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form under strict conditions of quotation of sources, publisher or authors.

Kataložni zapis o publikaciji (CIP) pripravili v Narodni in univerzitetni knjižnici v Ljubljani

COBISS.SI -ID= 296328704

ISBN 978-961-05-0117-6 (pdf)

https://zalozba.zrc-sazu.si/p/1531

2

CONTENTS





Introduction


5


Schola: Getting Closer to the Spirit of Fraternity

9

Bridging Formal, Non-Formal and Informal Education

to Tackle Early School Leaving

11

Volunteering – Bridging the Generation Gap

19

Belgium: Fostering Competences in Superdiverse Settings

31

France: From a Fruitful Local Partnership to a National Recognition

41

Italy: Volunteering as an Empowerment for Life

55

Poland: Breaking the Limits of Formal Education

69

Slovenia: Balancing between “Pure” and “Impure” Volunteering

79

Perspectives: Schola - a process with a future to combat ESL in Europe

91

Bridges between intelectual outputs

94

Contributors

98

3

4

Introduction

Mojca Kovačič, Dan Podjed

In this book, we present the results of a two-year project, titled

Schola: Be a Volunteer, Succeed at School. The project was carried out

by partners in five European countries with the financial support of the

EU Erasmus+ programme. The project addressed young people and

mentors and helped them understand the importance of non-formal

and informal education, supported by volunteering, in preventing early

school leaving. In this way, the project team put special attention on

recognising the key competences that young people acquire through

their voluntary work. The initial goal of the project was to test ideas

and concepts at the local levels – to see which approaches are the

most appropriate in a certain country, socio-cultural framework and

even on a micro-level of schools and other institutions involved in the

project. Their representatives provided us with constant feedback on

the work process, which was used to (co)create the tools and methods

for our project. In this manner, the project outputs were not prepared

just for the people, but instead with the people. On the basis of the cooperation with mentors and on the foundations of transnational

cooperation of the project partners, special guidelines were created

to help both teachers in schools and educators outside schools in

discovering, recording and evaluating the competences that young

people acquire through volunteer experience. Consequently, their

experiences are evaluated and a bridge is built between formal and

non-formal education in the school system. Detailed information on

the project work steps can be found on the project website www.

schola-erasmus.eu. However, with this publication in the form of a

separate e-publication, we wanted to address a wider audience: from

young people, teachers, mentors, to policy-makers at the national or

5

European levels. With this book, we wanted to introduce new methods, which were thoroughly tested in the project, into the existing systems

of education.

The book consists of contributions from all project partners involved in

the project. Benjamin Arino, Principal of Collège Blaise Pascal, who was

also the leader of the project consortium, provides introductory words

stemming from his positive experience of the project implementation at

his school. His chapter is followed by a theoretical contribution, written

by Wouter Smets, a Belgian educational researcher, who presents key

points to understand the role of the formal school in preventing early

school leaving. These key points include, for example, a response of

teachers to the diversity in the classroom and the use of individualised

learning strategies, such as differentiated instructions and cultural-

responsive teaching. If such strategies are combined with the evaluation

of competences acquired outside the formal education system, this can

lead to a successful educational path that has a potential for creating

educational equality within the formal education system. The next

theoretical contribution, co-authored by Bénédicte Halba and Marco

Bertolucci, emphasises the importance of volunteering beyond the

generational frameworks of the Schola project. It shows that the

pedagogical approaches and methods developed by the project team

can be useful in evaluating competences of the older generation. Their

statements are supported by studies that evaluate the psychological

and cognitive dimensions of voluntary activities.

The following chapters of the book are contributions from individual

countries – Belgium, France, Italy, Poland and Slovenia. Through the

presented methods and results of the implementation of the Schola

approach, the texts provide a broader overview of the organisation of

educational and voluntary context in each country. In their contributions,

the partners also present the obstacles, advantages and chal enges they

had to face during their work. The texts also give direct feedbacks from

participants in the project – teachers, mentors or students who were

“caught in the act”, i.e. during their activities, and therefore provide an

interesting view on the situation “from the other side”, i.e. from the

side of the projects’ stakeholders and people involved in the process.

Based on the work in five countries, namely five specific locations, we

managed to create a common European educational and social strategy

that will hopefully assist people who are already working in this field,

but need additional theoretical or practical assistance in their work. The

e-book is also prepared for those who are interested in the integration

6

of alternative pedagogical approaches into the existing school systems.

The results of the Schola project demonstrate how different the school

systems are in the various partner countries in the European Union

and, above all, that the integration of new pedagogical approaches into

the existing system requires effort which brings very positive results.

At the end, the project team kindly thanks the mentors, educators,

teachers and students who facilitated the Schola project team’s efforts

in creating a successful educational tool for contemporary and future

societies within and beyond the EU.

7

8

Schola: Getting Closer

to the Spirit of Fraternity

Benjamin Arino

The Schola project worked on the ambitious assumption that school

success is linked to the mobilisation of specific competences that are

not systematically identified, acknowledged nor used in school. This

project was financed by the EU Erasmus+ programme. For two years, it

brought together a multidisciplinary team of researchers, teachers and

a head teacher located in France, Belgium, Italy, Slovenia and Poland.

The volunteer working is a form of commitment to society and it is

based on the liberty of each individual to participate in different projects

that bring social benefit to others. Volunteer working though requires

the development and the mobilization of key competences related to

informal learning. As a result, it contributes to becoming a responsible

citizen, it provides food for thought when educational and vocational

choices must be made and, finally, it also fosters artistic and cultural

education. The pupils’ commitment inside and outside of school on a

voluntary basis allows them to learn and develop new competences

that will help them to be successful in school.

How to identify these competences? How can teachers link these

competences that are mobilised through informal learning with those

mobilised through formal learning?

The tools that the European team of the Schola project developed in

two years were built to help us answer these questions. These tools

that have been developed collaboratively are meant to be used by all

kinds of instructors – social mobilizers, teachers, trainers who train

teachers … Thanks to the contributions of Italian, Belgian, Slovenian,

Polish and French teams, the reader will be able to find all the elements

9

needed to understand the specific situations of each country and to identify and acknowledge the mobilised competences.

In the long run, the students themselves will become aware of their

skills, competences and knowledge and will be able to reinvest them

into more formal learning processes. This way, with the mobilisation

of competences through extracurricular projects and, in particular,

volunteer working, we hope to fight against school dropout or, to put

it in a more positive way, to boost school perseverance which is a key

success factor.

Hence, we hope that these tools will contribute to better working

conditions for teachers and pupils, which then might result in the

development of a society based on openness to others, altruism,

diversity and equal opportunities. In the end, they could help us get

closer to the spirit of fraternity.

10

Bridging Formal, Non-Formal

and Informal Education

to Tackle Early School Leaving

Wouter Smets





INTRODUCTION


The fight against early school leaving (ESL) is a common challenge

for all professionals engaged in equitable education. In order to tailor

educational pathways to students’ needs, different approaches have

been advocated. The aim of such approaches is generally to adapt

teachers’ instructional processes in the classroom. This, however, may

not be sufficient: the rates of ESL remain high across many countries in

the European Union. Professionals outside school can be engaged to

bridge formal learning at school and non-formal learning. A validation

of competences acquired through non-formal learning could foster the

educational careers of students at risk of academic failure. This e-book

reports on the Schola project that aims to tackle ESL by bridging the

gap between formal, non-formal and informal education. Teachers

were trained to recognize and validate competences that students had

developed outside school. A particular focus was laid on competences

that students developed through voluntary action. Current section

theoretically reflects on the rationale for such an approach.

11

THE ROLE OF EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS

TO PREVENT EARLY SCHOOL LEAVING

The challenge to organize education for all becomes increasingly difficult

in urban areas across Europe. Although ESL has been a priority of the

European Commission for more than a decade now, the number of

students dropping out of school before they were appropriately trained

to access the labor market remains high. The share of early leavers

from education and training in the EU should be no more than 10%

by 2020, but the reality in many European member states is different

(Eurostat 2017). Without official certification through diplomas, these

students face many difficulties throughout their professional careers.

ESL therefore remains a matter of concern for educational policy makers

across Europe. For more than a decade, educational policy agenda is

now dominated by the ambition to provide educational equity for all, and

specifically to organize school systems in order to assure qualification of

as much students as possible. Educational systems throughout Europe

are characterized by high rates of ESL throughout many European

countries (Schleicher 2011, Schleicher 2013). A plethora of reasons

is suggested to address this problem. For a long time, psychological

factors at student level were seen as the main reasons why students

did not successfully complete their school (Marks, McMillan 2001).

The European agenda noted for instance: learning difficulties, social

factors or a lack of motivation (Commission 2011). Now educational

curricula are also increasingly viewed to contribute to ESL (McGarr

2010). Educational systems are by consequence supposed to prevent

and react to this phenomenon. Suggestions for approaches can be

situated at both micro-level (classroom strategies, teacher-student

interaction) at meso-level (school policy and local educational policy) or

at macro-level (regional and national policy). In this project, we focus on

opportunities that a micro- and meso-level approach (Bronfenbrenner

1977) may yield for tackling the problem of ESL. Suggestions are made

to adjust educational curricula to individual students’ needs in order to

tackle ESL (Schleicher 2013). Individualizing educational pathways is

seen by the European Commission as one the main targets to prevent

ESL. This is why schools are challenged to adjust their curricula.

12

INDIVIDUALISED LEARNING:

THE NEED FOR DATA-DRIVEN TEACHER DECISION-MAKING

Over the last decade, two major strategies have been proposed

that enable teachers to respond to diversity in the classroom and

by consequence to adapt the curriculum to the needs of individual

students. First, we elaborate on the idea of differentiated instruction.

Second, we detail on the idea of cultural-responsive teaching. Tomlinson

et al. (2003) attracted a lot of attention with the suggestion for teachers

to organize differentiated instruction. The idea of this approach is

that teachers tailor instruction to students’ needs based on readiness

level, interest or learning profile. For students threatened by ESL, such

an approach could work preventively, as the idea of differentiated

instruction is that formative assessment is to inform teachers on

what a student or a group of students really needs. Hence, this vital

information can be used to tailor instruction to what a student really

needs to be successful at school. This idea of the ethical compass of

teachers (Tomlinson 2010) is crucial to understand the potential of

differentiated instruction to tackle ESL. Teachers in a differentiated

classroom have high expectations of their students (Denessen, Douglas

2015, Smets 2017) and they invest in ongoing assessment of their

students’ learning (Hall 2006, Smets 2017).

Another suggestion that partially overlaps differentiated instruction is

to engage with culturally-responsive teaching (Gay 2002). Whereas the

idea of differentiated instruction is focused on adaptive instructional

design, culturally-responsive teaching is more focused on the

responsivity of the relation between students and teachers. The idea

is that teachers need to be aware of their own and their students’

cultural sensitivities. The approach is by consequence essentially

dialogic (Alexander 2015, Kumpulainen, Rajala 2017). Building on

students’ cultural sensitivities, teachers are supposed to adapt their

dialogical interactions. Teachers are supposed to see the potential

growth of their students and to adapt their approach to the needs of

diverging groups of students or individual students (Miskovic, Curcic

2016, Savage et al. 2011).

Although both approaches have attracted a lot of attention, the

challenge to provide equitable educational opportunity for all is growing

bigger ever since. A crucial determinant for teachers to be able to

practice both of these types of individualized educational approaches

is that they need to be able to relate to their students. Differentiated

instruction is grounded on an ongoing process of student assessment

13

that informs teachers’ decision-making with regard to their instructional design (Smets 2017). Cultural-responsive teaching is based on teachers’

profound knowledge of students’ individualities and a willingness to

invest in dialogical relations to learn more about students’ relevant

learning needs (Erstad et. al 2016, Severiens et al. 2014). This

characteristic that grounds both differentiated instruction and cultural-

responsive education marks a decisive risk factor of both strategies.

Without the appropriate information to ground teachers’ instructional

design or teachers’ responsive acts in classroom, the outcome of both

strategies risks to be detrimental for students. It is often stated how

students with vulnerable socio-cultural background are at risk of

stereotype threat (James 2012, Steel, Aronson 1995, Villenas, Deyhle

1999). It may be concluded that individualized educational trajectories

have a large potential to tackle the problem of ESL. However, the

practice of such pedagogy is highly ambitious. Without data-driven

information on students’ learning needs, differentiated instruction or

culturally-responsive education risks confirming stereotypes instead of

responding adequately to students’ learning needs. In the next section,

we propose to bridge non-formal education and formal education in

order to fill this information gap.

BRIDGING INFORMAL, NON-FORMAL

AND FORMAL EDUCATION

Classic educational systems are focused on formal learning. According

to Unesco “formal learning occurs as a result of experiences in an

education or training institution, with structured learning objectives,

learning time and support, leading to certification. Formal learning is

intentional from the learner’s perspective” (Jang 2015: 9). ESL involves

primarily the end of learning activities in formal schooling before a

student has been officially certified for qualification. For professionals

in education it is, however, a common misconception that formal

education is the only source of learning that could lead do certification.

For more than a decade now, educational policies are also focusing

on the role of non-formal learning and its advantages for students at

risk of academic failure.

Unesco defines it as follows: “Non-formal learning is not provided

by an education or training institution and typically does not lead to

certification. It is, however, structured (in terms of learning objectives,

learning time or learning support). Non-formal learning is intentional

14

from the learner’s perspective” (Jang 2015: 9). Non-formal or informal learning consequently does not only happen at school, but may also

occur outside the borders of classic educational institutions. It could

emerge in the context of a range of voluntary engagements or leisure

activities. Classic non-formal learning activities include training of

sports coaches and youth workers or training destined at voluntary

staff in the cultural field. Although the value of non-formal learning

has been established for many years (Eraut, 2000), the academic study

of youngsters’ non-formal learning remains relatively new. However,

educational policy makers worldwide have called for the role of lifelong

learning, also non-formal learning, to foster educational equity for all

(Jang 2015). The role of the validation of this type of learning is pivotal

to tackle the problems associated with ESL. In the EU, the validation

of non-formal or informal learning is a key element in national lifelong

learning strategies developed by member states (Union 2012). This

validation is often focused on promoting access to the labor market

of drop-out students. In addition to such a reactive policy, we argue

here for a proactive policy that aids to preventing ESL.

Bridging the gap between competences acquired and validated through

non-formal learning and individual trajectories of students (at risk)

within formal education may foster educational equity. The validation

of non-formal learning activities may well serve in proactively fostering

success at school for students at risk of ESL. By validating non-formal

learning and by bridging the gap between these non-formal learning

activities, students’ career at school may prosper. It is the aim of the

Schola project to explore the conditions for such a bridge between non-

formal learning outside of school and formal learning in school. First,

a tool to validate competences acquired through voluntary action was

developed. Second, a mentoring for teachers to apply these validated

competences in a context of classic formal education was developed.

CONCLUSION

The chal enge to develop educational pathways that are tailored to

the heterogeneity of groups of students is one of the great endeavors

for educational practice. The educational sciences are to inform such

practice in order to enable more equitable educational opportunity for

all. In particular, with regard to ESL, teachers and schools are challenged

to tailor educational pathways. The validation of competences that

students acquire outside of school could provide high-yielding

15

opportunities for all professionals inside and outside of school to practice data-informed decisions on tailoring educational pathways

to student’s individual needs. Bridging the gap between formal, non-

formal and informal education has therefore the potential to gradually

increase educational equity.

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Development. In American Psychologist 32(7): 513−31.

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Eraut, Michael. 2002. Non-Formal Learning and Tacit Knowledge in Professional

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Hall, Tracey, Nicole Strangman and Anne Meyer. 2006. Differentiated Instruction and Implications for Udl Implementation. Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum.

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Kumpulainen, Kristiina and Antti Rajala. 2017. Dialogic Teaching and Students’

Discursive Identity Negotiation in the Learning of Science. In Learning and Instruction 48, 23−31.

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Do They Leave, and What Are the Consequences? 28. 5. 2018.

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McGarr, Jennifer. 2010. Early School Leaving: An Exploration of the Factors Contributing to School Non-Completion (PhD dissertation). Dublin: Dublin Institute of Technology.

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Schleicher, Andreas, eds. 2013. Preparing Teachers and Developing School Leaders for the 21st Century. Lessons from around the World. Paris: OECD, 2013.

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18

Volunteering – Bridging

the Generation Gap

Bénédicte Halba, Marco Bartolucci





INTRODUCTION


Volunteering is no more a marginal phenomenon. According to the data

of the European Value Systems Study Group, one European out of four

was involved in volunteer activity already in 1990 (European 2015).

In 1981, a first survey included twenty-nine countries, in 1990, there

were forty countries. The main idea behind the network was to study

whether Europeans shared common values to study their impact on

the European construct. The proportion has not changed much as in

2011, there were between ninety-two and ninety-four million adults

involved in volunteering in the twenty-seven countries of the European

Union. This in turn implies that around 22% to 23% of Europeans

over fifteen years of age are engaged in volunteer work (GHK 2009).

Europeans are concerned by volunteering in all fields of social life:

sports and leisure, health, social services, culture, environment, human

rights, consumption …

The Schola project addresses youngsters aged 14 to 16 years living in

sensitive areas who might be faced with Early School Leaving (ESL). The

suggested pedagogical process – a portfolio for youngsters combined

with a mentoring for professionals working with them – may be

extended to a wider audience. This would be a challenging way to

bridge the generational gap as the elderly would take advantage of

their previous professional life (ex-post approach) and the youth would

build a professional future (ex-ante approach). The intergenerational

perspective seems appropriate in a lifelong learning approach as

volunteering is a place to acquire competences (for youngsters) and to

organize a transmission of competences (for seniors). In a psychological

and cognitive approach, numerous studies have highlighted the possible

19

gain effects for those who undertake voluntary activities, whatever the age enhancing a resilience process thanks to empowerment.

YOUTH AND SENIOR VOLUNTEERING

Youth Volunteering: Young volunteers are not the most numerous

among the population of volunteers as this is usually Europeans aged

between 35 and 55 years who are more involved. Nevertheless, more

and more youngsters are involved in the voluntary activity or at least

concerned by volunteering even if it has sometimes an image problem

among the younger generation (Gaskin 1998). Since in Europe the

average levels of education are rising, the numbers of people willing

to volunteer should also increase: it appears that higher levels of

education are correlated to higher rates of participation in voluntary

organizations. (Mestheneos 1998). More than one student out of four

integrates volunteering in his/her future (Friis Molin 2001). In 2011,

the proportion did not change much – it included even more of the

population if we include the “non -formal” volunteers – youngsters

who volunteer outside associations.

If volunteering is still elitist, it may be a fundamental step for all

young people to prepare their future social and professional lives. For

youngsters who did not continue their studies, volunteering is less

easy or suffers from a bad image. Nevertheless, it can be much more

decisive for the future: feeling useful to the community, meeting people

they would not have had the chance to meet in their family or social

lives. Volunteering needs to offer opportunities to take on stimulating

work, to develop skills, to explore different careers and to get work

experience. If instrumental motivations are not new, they appear to

be increasing rapidly among young people (Gaskin1998).

In times when studies are longer and entering the labor market is

more difficult (i.e. unemployment rates are higher in the younger

population), by becoming involved in voluntary experiments, young

people enrich their backgrounds, apart from their previous education

or background. Sometimes a voluntary involvement may be the first

step for a professional career. It may also be a way to test if a field of

activity would be relevant and re-engage them in studies or training,

especially for the so-called Not in Education, Employment, or Training

(NEET) youngsters (Halba 2014).

20

Concerning youth volunteering, the European Commission has led a

very positive action with the European voluntary service for youngsters

since 1996. New forms of ’proximity volunteering’ have been developed

in several countries: in the United Kingdom, over 3000 community

service volunteers aged 16–35 years, full-time volunteers, volunteer for

people who need their help in social, environmental or cultural projects.

In the United States, the service learning is a way to provide young

people with the opportunities and benefits of voluntarism in the specific

fields of illiteracy and environment. In France, several opportunities

have been offered to youngsters with the end of the military service

(2002) with a variety of missions suggested to youngsters aged 16–25

years who are involved in a civic volunteering (Service 2018).

Many tools and strategies have been designed in order to value this

experience, especially to express it in competences. The pioneer

European project VAEB (Assessing a Voluntary experience), which

was conducted in 7 EU countries, between 2003 and 2006, designed

a portfolio for voluntary competences. It has been the touchstone for

many other tools and strategies both in France (i.e. Passeport bénévole,

France bénévolat 2007) or other portfolios such as in the Netherlands

or Belgium. On this basis, the European Year of Volunteering stated in

2011, in a communication published by the European Commission, that

“recognition of the competences and skills gained through volunteering

as non-formal learning experiences is essential as a motivating factor

for the volunteers and one that creates bridges between volunteering

and education” (Commission 2011). Later, other pedagogical tools and

strategies have been designed updating the pioneer VAEB portfolio,

such as the training designed for youngsters aged 16–35 years under

the JuCiVol Erasmus+ project (2016–2018), which is focused on two

specific key competences: Social and civic competences (KC6) and

Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship (KC7). The bridge between

Volunteering and the competence approach has been stronger and

stronger and used as an alternative pedagogy for youngsters faced

with difficulties in school.

Senior Volunteering: Demographic change in volunteering, as in the

European societies in general, is not seen as a challenge but as a threat.

Volunteer organisations, researchers and media have tried to change

the perspective to present a more dynamic approach to volunteering

involving all ages. The intergenerational aspect has become a main

concern. A new issue about senior volunteering came up during the last

three decades with more and more seniors leaving paid employment

in good health and in a mood for being active.

21

Early retirement schemes combined with high unemployment rates

among older staff members lead to a situation where many people leave

the employment sector in their early fifties: either they get retired early

or – as woman returners or older unemployed people – they give up the

idea of returning into paid employment, as they realize the chances for

this are very poor. These people are called seniors because we do not

have any other appropriate expression for people beyond employment,

but they are definitely too young to be real y cal ed seniors. This group

looks forward to a phase of – on the average – 15 to 20 years in a

healthy condition and with a high potential for activity. Many of the

early retirees live in good economic conditions and therefore are not

very likely to look for paid work in their retirement phase.

Social protection systems in many European countries are still based

on the so-called inter-generational-treaty. There is no capital stock to

pay for the pensions of retired people built up from their contributions,

but the contributions of the younger generations are used to pay for

the seniors. Due to changes in the age structure of the population

and the rise in life expectation fewer young people have to pay for

more older ones. So more and more frequently the problems of social

security systems are addressed in terms of an ’age burden’ of society.

To prevent intergenerational conflicts and to improve the social climate

between old and young, it seems to be a good idea to show that the older

generation can still make a considerable contribution to public welfare

– by volunteering. Another reason to promote senior volunteering is

plainly the vast volume of unused resources. The proportion of early

retirees with a high degree of education and professional skill rises

from year to year as a result of the expansion of higher education that

started in the sixties. Therefore, more and more early retirees have

not only time but also the skills and knowledge that might be useful

for volunteering. Moreover, as many early retirees did not really leave

their jobs by their free will, as they were more or less forced to do so

by their employers and also by younger colleagues, they are interested

to somehow go on with what they did before, either in a very similar

way or by using these skills for targets very different from the ones

they had to follow before. The contact with younger generations is a

main reason for seniors to volunteer.

On the other hand, it can be observed that in most contexts where

all age groups are addressed or represented, seniors are marginalized:

issues related to employment and professional training tend to play a big

role, but are no longer of interest to seniors. Some seniors nevertheless

22

prefer to work in contexts, where all age groups are represented. But it can be increasingly observed that senior volunteers form initiatives of

their own and choose their procedures and working fields in relation

to the life situation and the demands they have in common.

Time is an important factor in all social services working directly

with clients – time to deal with individual cases, time for personal

communication beyond care and service provision. As time of paid

staff is scarce and expensive, older volunteers could be asked to join

in here. Older volunteers could provide professional expertise from

their former paid employment for voluntary initiatives and associations.

What could help the initiatives but is far too expensive to buy on the

market, could be provided by competent senior volunteers with very

specific professional profiles such as lawyers, controllers, computer or

public relation experts (Halba, Strümpel, Schumacher 2001).

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL AND COGNITIVE GAINS

OF VOLUNTEERING – FROM YOUNGSTERS TO THE ELDERLY

There are numerous studies that have highlighted possible gain effects

in various psychological and cognitive dimensions of those who

undertake voluntary activities. If we analyse the benefits of volunteer

experience according to various age groups, we can more or less

identify different but often interrelated dimensions, which are subject

to empowerment depending on whether the subject is in an age group

included in the adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood and finally,

the third age. Volunteering during adolescence, when aged between

12 and 18 years, has been related to lowest rates of illegal behaviours,

arrests and convictions in adulthood. A retrospective study revealed an

11% decrease of illegal behaviour, 31% fewer arrests and 39% fewer

sentences for those who had carried out volunteering activities in

comparison with others aged between 18 and 28 years who had not.

The age range 24–34 years has 28% less illegal behaviour, 53% fewer

arrested people and 36% fewer sentences (Ranapurwala et. al 2016).

A qualitative research has been carried out with four persons who

survived the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 and who were the subjects

meeting precise requirements: being the citizens of Haiti, at least 18

years old, who survived the earthquake, had been trained by the Healt

Support Team program (HST) and had been volunteers for at least six

months. The HST program was established to train local volunteers who

23

would have then been able to provide support to society. The sample of the study consists of four young people aged between 28 and 37,

three of whom were university students at the time of the earthquake.

Although it is a study with a limited and particular sample composed

of survivors, the analysis of the interviews of the volunteers highlights

that experiencing volunteering even in these circumstances is related

to an improvement in the resilience and coping. Interviews do not

measure the self-efficacy, but nevertheless, the ability to find new goals

in their life and a hope to be a co-protagonist in the change that they

can bring to the others are the concepts closely linked to self-efficacy

dimension (Carlile et. al 2014).

We can therefore begin to define the main effects in the first of the

three age groups taken into consideration. In adolescence and young

adulthood, according to literature, the subjects seem to benefit not

only in what concerns learning and competences, but also with regard

to the fundamental psychological dimensions for building their own

personalities and the ability to cope with obstacles and challenges of

life as resilience, perceived self-efficacy, coping and management of

complex problems (Batini Bartolucci, under review). By beginning early,

such benefits increase during the course of life.

For example, a study examining data supplied by 288 different

volunteering organisations tried to identify how some of the basic

skills of volunteers are influenced at an international level. The main

question was to understand how the duration of volunteering service,

the ability of volunteers and the group size influence the organisational

skills, the development of relations and the manual work. With regards

to the level of competence, the qualified volunteers, regardless of

the time involved in volunteering activities, are more effective in the

organisational ability and have a higher motivation. The unqualified

volunteers, however, have more basic skills, but these are also effective

in order to be able to perform the tasks required by the association.

The more expert volunteers are more effective in building relationships.

(Lough and Tiessen 2018).

In adulthood, the gains of the different dimensions continue and the

result is the empowerment of the overall mental and physical wellbeing.

2,990 residents in Victoria, Australia, were interviewed to analyse

the possible positive relations between volunteering and wellbeing.

Volunteers and non-volunteers were distinguished by means of a direct

question which investigated this aspect in the interview: 43.5% of the

24

sample was composed of volunteers and the remaining 56.5% of non-

volunteers. The results obtained from the analysis of the data support

the initial research assumptions. Volunteers feel better, have a better

general sense of self-efficacy, greater social connectivity and a higher

level of self-esteem in comparison with the group of non-volunteers,

and therefore the general sense of self-efficacy, social connectivity

and self-esteem can be considered as the principal mediators of the

relationship between volunteering and wellbeing (Brown et al. 2012).

By comparing the levels of mental wellbeing of adults involved in

the volunteering experiences and adults who never participated, it is

possible to identify an important difference: the first group reaches the

highest levels. Those who regularly carry out volunteering experiences

have higher levels of mental well-being, especial y after turning 40, and

it is so even during the old age (Tabassum 2016).

Volunteering for others, providing services to those in need of aid,

driven by altruism or humanitarian concerns, contributes to developing

authentic and real relationships and favours social integration. This

type of volunteering is more related to beneficial effects than the self-

oriented volunteering activities, intended as research for one’s own

benefits and improvements through relations with others. Both types

are related to significant benefits for health, but in different percentages.

More precisely, there have been improvements in mental health of

8.54% in the first case and of 6.50% in the self-oriented type. The

improvement in physical health is 9.08% in volunteering for others and

7.14% in the self-oriented type and percentages of satisfaction with

life are respectively 7.35% and 3.66% whereas in the case of social

wellbeing they are 11.11% and 5.44%. In the first case, there is also

a decrease of 4.30% in depressive symptoms. A greater participation

in volunteering activities, even in different tasks at the same time, is

beneficial for the health of the subject. The volunteering oriented

towards others is characterized by more reliable interpersonal

relationships and a more stable support network (Yeung et al. 2017).

In a Japanese research, a sample consisting of 422 women aged in

average 54.2 years, underwent a self-administered questionnaire on

satisfaction and general well-being. The analysis of the results shows

that the sample has high levels of satisfaction in life, 38.4% indicates

a high satisfaction and 23% a good satisfaction. These two subgroups

carried out a greater number of activities as volunteers in comparison

with those less satisfied (Murayama 2013). Even concerning the studies

on adults, the overall duration of volunteering seems to be a growth

factor of the empowerment.

25

In the long term, volunteers have higher cognitive, behavioural and emotional changes in comparison with the short term volunteers.

Measurements were conducted in two groups of volunteers of an

Indian organisation, involving 20 long-term volunteers and 21 short-

term volunteers. The cognitive changes (and especially the meta-

cognitive ones) refer to the improvement in setting aside their own

interests, to a greater awareness of both the influence of their own

actions on future generations and to a reduction of the prejudices and a

change in the perception of daily problems. Some volunteers indicated

their work as capable of giving meaning to their lives.

The change experienced in behaviours relate to the reduction of

aggressive tendencies, the improvement in the quality of the relations

and a reduction in the conflicts in interpersonal exchanges, an increased

personal safety in social contexts and a better awareness of rights

and duties of citizens. At the emotional level, variations regarded the

management of negative emotions, a greater tolerance in respect to

frustration, satisfaction deriving from the volunteering experiences

of work and a greater awareness of the positive emotions (Elias et al.

2016).

According to another study, those who took part in this type of activity

developed important skills, for example leadership, critical thinking,

the ability to interact with others and to tackle the problems. The

volunteering period is related to the competences developed and

also on the wellbeing individually perceived (Goodman and Tredway

2016). Finally, regarding the third age, the benefits are related to the

preservation of cognitive abilities, which in this age are liable to decline.

A review by Anderson et al. (2014), which analysed 73 studies on the

benefits of volunteering in the third age, showed a model for which

volunteering increases social, physical and cognitive activity to varying

degrees depending on the requirements of the volunteer placement.

They go on with the hypothesis that an increase in social, physical and

cognitive activity can improve functioning through a host of biological

and psychological mechanisms. This is because along with the cognitive

activity involved in volunteering, there is also physical activity involved

(volunteers on average are more physically active) and this has a direct

link in literature on reduced symptoms of depression (Blake et al. 2009)

and improved cognition and brain health (Erickson et al. 2013). In light

of these findings, they ultimately suggest that those improvements

in social, physical and cognitive functioning could actually reduce

functional impairments and the risk of dementia.

26

CONCLUSION: THE SCHOLA PROCESS AND THE LIFELONG

LEARNING APPROACH

If volunteering is based on values such as altruism (for others), freedom

(free will), not for profit (something for nothing), for the community

(general interest) in a collective way (together for a common purpose),

it may also have an impact both on an individual level and collective

level (Halba 2014).

On a psychological and cognitive level, the empowerment and

resilience in the volunteering process may have a decisive impact

for both youngsters and the elderly to give a meaning to their lives

– the youngsters who feel lost and anxious to build a future and the

elderly who have the feeling of being a social burden and all this in

a perspective of empowerment of skills, emotional intelligence and

problem solving in youngsters, while for the elderly in a perspective

of cognitive empowerment and general life wellbeing.

On a human and social level, youngsters are asked to gain experience

to acquire competences, the elderly have a great deal of experience

they can no longer use as competence on the ’paid’ labour market –

volunteering is the place where in economic terms the ‘offer’ meets

the ’demand’. The offer of unused resource (from the elderly) meets

the demand for resources and competences (from the youngsters).

Nonetheless, this is not a one-way process – seniors update their

competences and acquire new experiences thanks to youngsters. This is

in other terms a ‘win-win’ situation where there is no more competition

but shared economics.

Therefore, taking into account both the cognitive and psychological

level and human and social level, volunteering brings a very positive

added value to bridge the generation gap.

27

References

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2014. The benefits associated with volunteering among seniors: a critical review and recommendations for future research. In Psychological bulletin 140(6), 1505−1533

Batini, Federico and Marco Bartolucci. [S.a.] Volunteering as an opportunity to

acquire competences and to empower students. The example of the Schola project.

In Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (under review).

Blake, Holly, Peter Mo, Saul Malik and Stephen Thomas. 2009. How effective are

physical activity interventions for alleviating depressive symptoms in older people? A systematic review. In Clinical rehabilitation 23(10), 873−887.

Brown, M. Kevin, Russel Hoye, Matthew Nicholson. 2012. Self-esteem, self-efficacy, and social connectedness as mediators of the relationship between volunteering and well-being. Journal of Social Service Research 38(4), 468−483.

Carlile A. Jessica, Kira Mauseth, Noël E. Clark, Jennifer L. Cruz and John W. Thoburn.

2014. Local Volunteerism and Resilience Following Large-Scale Disaster: Outcomes

for Health Support Team Volunteers in Haiti. In International Journal of Disaster Risk Science 5(3), 206−213.

Elias, K. Jereesh, Paulomi Sudhir and Seema Mehrotra. 2016. Long-Term Engagement

in Formal Volunteering and Well-Being: An Exploratory Indian Study. In Behavioral Sciences 6(4): 20.

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Commission, European. 2006. Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council: Key Competences for Lifelong Learning. Strasbourg: European Commission.

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Erickson, I. Kirk, Ariel G. Gildengers and Meryl A. Butters. 2013. Physical activity and brain plasticity in late adulthood. In Dialogues in clinical neuroscience 15(1), 99−108

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Friis Molin, Lars-Henrik. 2001. The World’s Most Attractive Employers. Stockhlom: Universum.

Gaskin, Katherine. 1998. Vanishing volunteers: Are young people losing interest

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GHK. 2009. Study on Volunteering in the European Union. Brussels: European Commission, DC EAC.

Goodman, Suki, Ginny Tredway. 2016. Antecedents of perceived graduate

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Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU.

Halba, Bénédicte, Charlotte Strümpel and Jürgen Schumacher. 2001. Encouragement and facilitation of voluntary work. Frankfurt am Main: ISIS.

Halba, Bénédicte, ed. 2000. Volunteering: an opportunity for youngsters in Europe, Paris: iriv.

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ideal combination of activity satisfaction and burden among health promotion

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30

Belgium: Fostering Competences

in Superdiverse Settings

Wouter Smets, Sofie Peetroons





INTRODUCTION


For decades, Flemish cultural life has been well known for its vibrant

voluntary scene (Hustinx et al. 2015). A broad spectrum of organisations

working with volunteers was present in all aspects of cultural life. During

their teenage years, a majority of the population is engaged in sports

clubs, youth work or artistic activities. In urban settings, there is a strong

pressure on these traditional organisations from upcoming superdiverse

phenomena (Vertovec 2007). New urban cultural organisations are

often less structured or are engaged in less traditional activities such

as street-dance or ethnic cultural activities (Schuermans, Oosterlynck

2017). Many youngsters are engaged in these organisations, primarily

as participants, but also as volunteers. Volunteers are often recruited

among the participants of an organisation. Talented youngsters are

often asked to start volunteering, which lowers the threshold for

voluntary action.

Although Flemish culture has this tradition of voluntarism, the

valorisation of voluntary activities in terms of formal, informal or non-

formal educational goals is relatively new. Pioneering work has been

done by our project partner JES in order to stimulate transfer towards

the labour market of young people. After early school leaving it is

hard to reach public that is often confronted with unemployment

and with frequent job refusals. Therefore, multiple tools have been

developed to valorise young people’s talents. Much experience has

been gathered also to formalize learning in these complex learning

processes. Non-formal and formal learning in social-profit sector is

acknowledged as being an important added value towards the labour

market. Yet, the sector of formal education remains virtually untouched

31

by these recent developments. With the possible exception of part-time schooling, the link between schools and social-profit sector is virtually

non-existing. The Schola project therefore fulfils a welcoming gap in

existing educational practice.

The Schola project was carried out in cooperation with three local

partnerships: (1) JES, (2) JESPO and (3) POLS. JES is an anagram for

‘Jeugd en stad’, which can be translated as ‘youth and the city’. This

organisation describes itself as an ‘urban laboratory’ that wants to

engage in developing talents of urban youngsters. As JES is primarily

active in superdiverse cities such as Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent,

its target population is equally superdiverse. Youngsters have origins

in all possible ethnicities and are often from diverse socio-economic

backgrounds. JES has a youngster-centered approach in order to

stimulate young people taking responsibilities. They are engaged in

different fighting sports, street dance, cultural-youth work …

JESPO is a local sport organisation in Antwerp that facilitates sports

lessons in a diverse range of sports such as triathlon, gym, polo …

Youngsters between the ages of 6 and 18 years are engaged on a

weekly basis in the activities. All activities are monitored by a ‘chief-

coach’, who is assisted by a broad range of volunteers. These volunteers

are sometimes adults, but may also be former participants. The POLS

is a network of secondary schools in and around Antwerp that work

together on a regularly basis with Karel de Grote University college.

All kinds of activities are organized together in order to stimulate

learning both at the level of the teacher education faculty (KDG) and

at secondary schools.

METHOD

Over the course of the period between 2017 and 2018, a series of

collaborative testing sessions was carried out in order to test the

Schola approach. The first intellectual output of the Schola project was

first tested, after which the mentoring was tested as well. The tool

was first discussed with external experts with experience in voluntary

action, in particular with youngsters in superdiverse areas (JES and

JESPO). Subsequently, the approach of validating competences

acquired through voluntary action was bridged to schools of secondary

education. Therefore, the schools of the POLS network were asked to

assess the Schola tool (IO1).

In the second phase, the mentoring to train educators to practice the

32

Schola approach was developed. Again, the external experts were

first asked to assess a pilot version of the training program. Secondly,

educators related to the POLS-network were asked to test the training

in order to bridge the gap between formal and non-formal education.

More precisely, the teacher educators of the Flemish teacher educators

network (VELOV) were trained and asked to provide feedback. Secondly,

the coordinators of the LIEN-schools (middle school) undertook the

same procedure. Finally, feedback was collected from the sample of

professionals involved in student coaching and support at the level of

secondary education.

In order to assess the implementation of the Schola project, three

datasets were composed: (1) educators: coaches of volunteers (non-

formal education) were interviewed. (2) Educators: teachers at school

(formal education) were interviewed. (3) Students involved in voluntary

action were interviewed. Both coaches of volunteers and students were

personally interviewed. Participants were interviewed using a semi-

structured topic list in order to gain insight in their personal concerns

and feelings on the implementation of the Schola approach. Teachers

at schools were interviewed using a focus group discussion. Therefore,

the same semi-structured topic list was used to guide the discussion.

A written report of all interviews and focus group discussions was

administered. In order to validate the data-collection, themes that

were the result of data-analysis were triangulated. A thematic analysis

was conducted on the data-collection.

THE SCHOLA PROCESS IN BELGIUM

In this section, we thematically summarize the most important themes

that emerged while implementing the Schola approach in Belgium. A

common impression of the participants is the urgency of the topic of

bridging formal and informal learning in superdiverse conditions. In

addition to this, several suggestions were made in order to improve

and facilitate future implementation of the Schola approach.

33

THEME 1: A CONSENSUS OF PARTICIPANTS ON THE URGENCY

OF THE TOPIC

A consensus was established between all participants on the importance

of teachers acknowledging the competences of their students, both

in formal education and in informal or non-formal settings outside

schools. Teachers agreed on their need for information on this part and

the educators-coaches of volunteers outside school setting stressed

how much they felt privileged to be able to work on this base with

their volunteers. It is exactly this attitude that is as valuable to students

as well as coaches. Teachers mentioned their interest in what their

students learn outside school. In particular for older students (age 16–

18), the habit of chatting between students and teachers decreases and

therefore the knowledge of what happens outside schools is deficient.

An educator engaged with youngsters in a triathlon club stressed

the role that the students (aged 16–18) learn in his club. He usually

works with youngsters who organise training activities for minors

(aged 6–14). The educator stressed that students always need to

learn the value of entrepreneurship. They often lack the necessary

self-esteem (‘efficacy beliefs’) to successfully train these youngsters

in order to become successful amateur sports men. This is why this

educator works according to the following devise: “If you give them

wings, they will be able to fly”.

THEME 2: A COMMON CONCERN ON THE NEED FOR SUPPORT

With all participants, a concern was raised on the practical use of the

tool. Language as used in the tool is said to sound rather formally. In

the first place, students and coaches of voluntary action mention that

they are not acquainted with the formal language used to assess the

students’ competences. The European framework of key competences

may be a useful framework as a basis for the tool, yet some scaffolding

is needed for participants who feel uncertain from a language point of

view. Some participants suggested working with graphic signs or images

to support users. In addition to that, the use of concrete examples or

an extensive glossary would improve the application of the Schola

approach.

34

Rather than being concerned with the formal language, teachers are more concerned with the translation of the framework to the standards

they use at school. Depending on the subject, the teaching of these

standards is very specific or rather unspecified. Some of them work with

very specific learning targets, which are not always highly compatible

with the framework. Others said to feel uncertain about the translation

of the rather vague framework to even more vague official standards.

Support may also be needed here to make the tool more practical to use.

One of the teachers engaged in the project was a language teacher.

It took a while to convince him of the usefulness of the Schola

approach in his particular setting. The youngster engaged with

voluntary action was in this case engaged in a sports club (acrogym).

It took the teacher a while to bring him to see the potential of

this voluntary engagement. After some discussion, however, the

language teacher gave the student differentiated assignment. When

his classmates were about to make a standardised assignment on

literature, the student was to write a self-assessment based on his

voluntary experience.

THEME 3: A QUESTION ABOUT THE ‘OWNERSHIP’

OF THE TOOL

Several questions were asked about the person in charge of the use of

the tool. Traditionally, teachers are in charge of the learning process.

They may be seen as the ‘drivers’ of the educational process. Yet, with

regards to the use of the tool of the Schola project, this centralized

position of the teacher may be challenged. In order to valorise the

competences that students develop outside school, other “drivers”

may be distinguished as well. In the first place, there is the question

to which extent educators-coaches of the voluntary action are seen as

participants in the learning process or rather as “co-drivers”. In order to

value their experience, it may be interesting to position them towards a

more or less central position. To the extent that teachers are prepared

for such a decentralisation of the learning process, this latter idea may

be fruitful for them as it may reduce teachers’ work load.

In addition to this decentralisation of the ownership of the learning

process, the students themselves also come into the picture. Many

35

educationalists advocate the importance of students’ ‘self-regulation skills’ in the learning process (Zimmerman 1990). It therefore must be

discussed to which extent students are prepared to play a pivotal role

in this learning process. Building on this question about the ownership

of the tool, it was chosen primarily to address educational professionals

in schools (not teachers, but rather coaches that focus on student

wellbeing). They were addressed as matchmakers in order to prompt

students to engage with the Schola approach.

THEME 4: A SUGGESTION FOR THE BROADER USE

OF THE TOOL

Several teachers raised a concern on the limited focus of the Schola

project on reducing early school leaving. The contextualisation of the

tool as useful to stimulate success at school, regardless of students’

backgrounds found much more support. For certain, none of the

participants questioned the importance of the battle against early

school leaving. Yet, the battle to stimulate success at school is broader,

and thus the potential of the use of the Schola tool may be equally

broader.

One of the teachers at school was engaged in the project; however,

she raised questions on the broader usefulness of the approach.

The use of competences acquired during volunteering activities

was in her opinion too limited. She questioned whether also other

activities in addition to voluntary action could be seen as relevant

sources of competence development. Hence, they could also be

validated through the Schola intellectual outputs. An example was

given of a young girl who was very engaged with the caretaking

of her younger brothers and sisters at home. Technically, these

activities could not be seen as voluntary activities. However,

many participants agreed how important it could be to recognise

the added value of these experiences for the girl in question. By

validating these experiences and by bridging the gap to formal

learning, important steps could be taken to foster success at school

for many youngsters who are threatened by early school leaving.

36

Two potential additional possibilities of use were mentioned. First, a use for students who are not at risk of academic failure. Some participants

suggested that the students engaged in voluntary action are not often

the ones that face academic failure at school. It may therefore be

useful to widen the targeted public of the tool. Second, many students

demonstrate intensely different behaviour inside and outside of school.

That goes for voluntary engagement, but also for youth work, sports

clubs … Potentially, this engagements as participants in social life may

also be recognized and valorised by teachers and educators (non-

volunteers, non-students at risk).

A common concern mentioned by the users of the Schola approach in

Belgium was the risk of the Matthew Effect (Perc 2014) . This effect

implies that the benefit of measure would not reach the target public

but rather a privileged selection that would not need the measures.

Translated to the Schola approach, educational professionals in Belgium

feared that students at risk of academic failure (Early School Leaving)

often do not perfectly match the criteria for voluntary action. This is

why the potential beneficiaries of the approach would then not reach

its targeted public. It may therefore be rewarding to apply the Schola

approach for wider groups of students at risk in order to foster their

academic (and personal) success.

THEME 5: A CHALLENGE OF USING THE TOOL

IN A CIRCULAR PATTERN

The use of the Schola tool (IO1) has primarily been tested in a direct

way of enhancing the relationship between teachers and educators-

coaches in a one-way direction. Yet ultimately, the idea of the tool is to

stimulate a circular relationship in which educators on both sides of the

process use the tool to communicate. This goal has not been reached.

37

CONCLUSION

The Schola approach presents an important challenge to teaching and

learning in Belgium. Current curriculum is strongly focused on formal

learning. Yet, the Schola approach challenges educators to bridge

the formal and non-formal learning. By validating competences that

were acquired outside of school, educators intend to find new and

innovative ways to revalorize the potential of students and therefore

to foster success at schools of those youngsters who are at risk of

academic failure. By adopting such an approach, schools may prevent

early school leaving.

Still, important challenges still remain to foster the implementation of

the Schola approach and to disseminate its use further in the country.

A vital question is for instance, how we can motivate teachers to

engage in this approach. It was noticed that teachers’ motivation to

engage in this approach is a necessary success factor that fosters or

hampers the implementation of the approach. Moreover, it was seen

as a crucial success factor for the approach to be aligned with the

existing curriculum. The Schola tool (IO1) is conceptually based on the

European Framework of Key Competences. However, many educators

found it difficult to recognise the practical competences that their

youngsters acquired through voluntary action and to translate them to

the terminology used in the European framework. Therefore, we believe

the continued teachers’ professional development is needed in order to

further disseminate the approach developed. Thoughtful scaffolding is

needed in order to facilitate the use of the key-competences framework

in national curricula.

38

References

Hustinx, Lesley, Michael Marée, Lieselot De Keyser, Loes Verhaeghe, and Virginie

Xhauflair. 2015. In Het vrijwilligerswerk in België. Kerncijfers. Brussels: Koning boudewijnstichting.

Perc, Matjaž. 2014. The Matthew Effect in Empirical Data. In J ournal for Research on Social Interface 11(98),20140378.

Schuermans, Nick and Stijn Oosterlynck. 2017. In Solidariteit in superdiversiteit.

Leuven: Acco.

Vertovec, Steven. 2007. Super-diversity and its implications. In Ethnic and Racial Studies: 1024−1054.

Zimmerman, Barry J. 1990. Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement: An

Overview. In Educational Psychologist 25(1): 3−17.

39

40

France: From a Fruitful Local

Partnership to a National Recognition

Benjamin Arino, Bénédicte Halba,

Fernando Rosa, Rachel Savoie





INTRODUCTION


The Schola approach was tested in France respecting the requirements

set in the beginning of the testing – combining the training for the

educators and the support to youngsters aged 14 to 16 years involved

in voluntary activities. The educators involved were teachers together

with the head of the school and an assistant educator (considered as

educational and administrative staff) from the Collège Blaise Pascal

(Massy, Essonne) and professionals working with youngsters in the

framework of extracurricular activities offered by the Opera de Massy

kindly hosted the promotions in 2017 and 2018 in order to make a

link with professionals working for them.

FIRST STEP: AN EFFICIENT PARTNERSHIP

BUILT TO INVOLVE MOTIVATED YOUNGSTERS

The Schola project was the second project implemented in Massy

(Essonne) by iriv Conseil in partnership with the College Blaise Pascal.

A previous European project Comenius – the Success at school through

Volunteering (SAS)1 designed pedagogical sessions to be offered to

1 SAS – Success at school through volunteering (2012–2014) was a European project Comenius and was implemented in 6 European countries (UK leader, France, Bulgaria, Italy, Portugal and Slovenia).

The project offered youngsters living in disadvantaged areas a pedagogical approach, based on volunteering considered as an example of non-formal and informal learning, to enhance a voluntary involvement in order to increase success at school. Pedagogical sessions were offered to youngsters around topics allowing them to value learning, to build a path with school between the knowledge acquired through volunteering and the knowledge required at school. The report of the project is available in electronic version (Devecchi 2015).

41

youngsters facing difficulties at school to re-engage them at school thanks to volunteering considered as an extracurricular activity where

they could bring a positive contribution and therefore change the

negative image they may have on their abilities and competences.

This first project was tested in a short period of time – 4 sessions in

2014 thanks to the first partnership with the City Hall of Massy that

associated with a teacher of the College Blaise Pascal.

This first year was followed by two other years (2015 and 2016)

where iriv offered on a voluntary basis a monthly action to young

volunteers of the College Blaise Pascal, in 2016 with the partnership

of the Cultural Center Paul B. The same agenda was followed: a first

information session was offered in October or November in order for

the youngsters to register. Then, monthly sessions were offered, on

Wednesday afternoons, from January to May. The final session was

dedicated to a reward session where a certificate of Volunteering was

dispatched among the youngsters who have actively participated. The

main criteria to be awarded were: having attended at least 3 sessions

plus the information session. An average of 15 to 20 youngsters were

involved each year; most of them attended more than 5 sessions.

The level of education was the same: students aged 14 to 16 years,

corresponding to the last year of the first cycle of secondary school

in France (‘collège’).

This was not by chance as the last year before high school (‘lycée’)

is dedicated to an internship of 5 days, which is compulsory and

considered as a first contact with professional life. For the first time,

students could meet adults who are neither their parents, nor their

parents’ friends nor their teachers. The process to look for a voluntary

mission or to find an internship is exactly the same: searching in the

neighbourhood for relevant key actors, contacting them either face to

face or through e-mails or phone calls, asking them for a mission to be

fulfilled in a dedicated length of time – 5 days (9 a.m. 5 p.m. for the

internship). Since 2014, the action ‘Volunteering at school’ (‘Bénévolat

à l’école’) has been suggested by the Collège Blaise Pascal to students

aged 14–16 years old as an example of extra-curricular activity. It was

successful in 2015 and 2016 because of a simple strategy: every

September, an informative meeting was held at school and then an

involvement once a month (one afternoon) from October to June was

demanded from students.

Therefore, the first year of the Schola project (implemented from

September 2016 to May 2017) corresponded to the fourth promotion

42

of the action initiated in 2014 between the College Blaise Pascal and iriv Conseil. However, this time, the sessions were more numerous and

intensive. Ten sessions were suggested together with the involvement of

youngsters on the ground thanks to an event organised by the Collège

Blaise Pascal with a kindergarten, the retirement home Ibiscus and the

cultural centre Paul B. A close relationship was built on the ground

together with the Opera de Massy. It consisted of two main supports:

the Opera House kindly offered a meeting room (a pedagogical area

for the facility). In the beginning of each session a professional with

different professional background explained his/her professional path

to the students - an artist (a comedian), a technician (in electricity), a

manager (for the fund raising of the Opera House) ... The second year,

the same sample was followed but this time, the involvement in the

action on the ground for the youngsters started earlier (in January)

and was concentrated on a topic chosen together with youngsters,

the meeting of relevant professionals and the involvement of artists.

Lea, a former participant (2016–2017) who was involved in the

preparation to become a volunteer, was concretely involved in

the second year of the project. She testifies as follows: “This

project allowed me to better speak in public. After this first year

of the Schola, I was willing to do concrete things for others. I have

become a volunteer supervisor for the new promotion of students

(2017–2018)”. Her participation is really appreciated by both the

educators and the students.

Moumine, a participant during the second year (2017–2018),

provided the following testimony: “I became involved in the action

Volunteering at the College to gain competences outside the school

and also to give pleasure to people I did not know.” Moumine is

also involved in other extracurricular activities.

43

SECOND STEP: OFFERING AN APPROPRIATE

PEDAGOGICAL SUPPORT

The profiles of the educators were complementary. The first profile

corresponded to teachers or an education assistant at the Collège

Blaise Pascal as well as the head of the secondary school who was

in charge of involving/motivating/engaging his colleagues. There

were a total of 6 people but only 5 of them attended the training

sessions designed by iriv Conseil. The second profile corresponded

to professionals working for the Opera de Massy in the framework of

extracurricular activities offered in Massy and in other cities in Essonne

(Ile de France): two people in charge of educative actions, a music

teacher in charge of the classroom for young students (primary school),

a comedian, a dancer, two electricians, three managers in charge of

the programming and the fund raising. They explained the youngsters

their educative and professional path and the reasons why they were

selected for their employment and the qualification genuinely required.

Most of the time, their original diploma or qualification was not directly

linked to their present professional position. For instance, the person

in charge of the educative actions at the Opera de Massy graduated

from a school of art (in sculpture) and was qualified in flower craftwork.

The pedagogical support designed by iriv Conseil consisted of

three sessions. The first session was dedicated to the public policy

implemented to struggle against ESL (at European and national levels),

some explanation on formal learning (Bologna process), non-formal and

informal learning (Copenhagen process), how far volunteering could be

considered as an example of non-formal and informal learning with an

explanation of the portfolio process. In complement, main references

were dispatched: the CEDEFOP guidelines (Cedefop 2015), the

European reports on ESL (Commission 2013) and the Communication

on EU Policies and Volunteering (Commission 2011). The second

session was focused on the competence approach (European and

national levels), a comparative approach making a link between the

competences required for a pupil/student and for a volunteer and the

explanation of the portfolio process (from experience to competence

and to an action plan). In complement, main references were dispatched

such as the European framework “8 key competences” (Commission

2006), the French report on Early school leaving (Thelot 2004) and the

portfolio designed for the VAEB project (VAEB 2003−2006). The third

and last pedagogical session suggested a brainstorming following the

SWOT analysis process − insisting on the weak points (i.e. difficulties

in involving professionals from associations and from the City hall of

44

Massy) and the strong points (the involvement of the youngsters all year long).

The pedagogical sessions offered to educators combined theoretical

and practical information − all the theoretical issues tackled were

illustrated by examples of professional practices. It was important

to identify the main barriers faced by educators and the ways to

overcome them. It was also important to be as precise as possible on

the information provided − the competence approach may have been

explained in general terms but not applied in a practical way. This point

was particularly relevant as teachers in the last year of the first cycle

of secondary school are asked to fill a grid of competences for their

pupils/students without being sure of the competences they could

really assess. The last session was dedicated to general brainstorming

in order to identify weak points. For instance, it is not so easy for

educators to be able to provide a relevant assessment of the experience

gained outside of school thanks to a voluntary experience and therefore

to assess this experience in terms of competence. Educators have

to be better equipped to be able to identify the potential barriers

faced by youngsters when they are willing to become involved in

volunteering: sometimes they cannot find a relevant association; other

times associations are reluctant to accept youngsters because they

are not qualified enough. The planning of the sessions offered the

youngsters a reward for their involvement during their last session in

June and the yearly event of the school dedicated to all volunteers.

THIRD STEP: THE REFLEXIVE APPROACH

FOR THE GENERAL PROCESS OF THE PROJECT

The French team applied the SWOT analysis approach to this two-year

testing in Massy with the following findings.

The ‘strength’ was the portfolio designed for the project as this is

a simple and comprehensive tool which combines very theoretical

references including the glossary provided by the CEDEFOP and other

relevant references from European institutions in the lifelong learning

field together with a very concrete process (4 step approach). This

holistic portfolio could also be enriched by other existing tools and

methods already used in the field of volunteering in the 5 partners’

countries.

45

Two kinds of ‘weaknesses’ were identified. The first one was the

understanding of the educators that before being involved in voluntary

activities, youngsters had to be prepared, therefore the first sessions

were more theoretical. The second weakness was to explain to

educators the concrete benefits of volunteering in the acquisition of

competences that will be relevant/used at school.

A first “opportunity” was clearly to have been able to involve so many

students al the yearlong during 2 years. The second “opportunity” was

to have been able to combine a variety of professional profiles in school

(educators at school, teachers and assistant educator) and outside

school (professionals involved in educative action on the ground at

the Opera de Massy). Moreover, they were willing to be trained to the

competence approach and accepted to dedicate time in complement

to their teaching to extracurricular activities with their students.

The ‘threat’ is directly linked to the recognition of learning gained

outside school on the basis of volunteering. The assessment suggested

by the Schola portfolio should be officially recognised in the French

educational system (Rectorate on a regional level, Ministry for National

Education on a national level). There might be a way thanks to the

academic educative policy (Versailles 2020) which is also directly linked

to the educative plan of the College Blaise Pascal.

In the following parts of the article, the headmaster of the College

Blaise Pascal, a teacher of Physics associated with the action since

the beginning and an assistant educator testified on the impact of the

Schola process in their professional practice and in their relationship

with the students they are working with.

Marjorie Piquette, in charge of the educative actions for the Opera

de Massy and involved in many actions on the ground among

the students of various ages, testified as fol ows: “The action

Volunteering at the College has been a main source of inspiration

as I have not thought that students could be trained to support

other students. This peer to peer approach is certainly the best way

to be convincing among youngsters who may be reluctant towards

a more formal environment”.

46

Benjamin Arino is the headmaster of the college Blaise Pascal located in Massy (Essonne, France) in the Sensitive Urban Area, Massy-Opera.

It has been granted the ranking of the Priority Education Network

because of the typology of its intake – mostly economic and social

difficulties of the families of this territory. Why involve a college

(secondary school in France) in an Erasmus+ research-action project?

Taking into account the existing pedagogical actions carried out by the

teachers, the evolution of the school project integrating all educational

pathways and the context of the reform of compulsory schooling, it

seemed coherent to attempt this European adventure.

This project involved active participation of teachers and of the head

of the school, outside their time of service, in several directions:

contributing to the experimentation of tools, such as portfolio (IO1)

and guide for mentoring (IO2); participating in international meetings

in France, Belgium and Slovenia and in the two seminars in Italy and

Poland; testing the tools with the students as part of learning activities

outside the school day; last but not least, managing the demanding

project administratively and financially, a responsibility of the head of

the school.

The forms of student engagement proposed as part of the Blaise Pascal

College project can be carried out outside the school (with partners) as

well as within the school – by participating for example in democratic

bodies or in the context of projects related to solidarity, economy and

to sustainable development.

Educational projects or forms of engagement based on volunteering

enrich the educational pathways (citizen path, future path, artistic and

cultural education path), ultimately the student’s academic pathway.

The persistent difficulty lies in identifying and incorporating the skills

mobilized in this type of action and commitment. The essential added

value of the Schola project lies at this level: to enable the professionals

in charge of pupils to identify, value (even evaluate) and reinvest the

competences related to informal and non-formal learning in a pupil’s

curriculum. A pupil’s awareness of his/her skills acquired outside the

classroom is a way of reassuring, securing and improving self-esteem

(with a non-negligible impact on a young person’s health, as defined by

WHO – his/her well-being in particular), thus it is a factor of academic

success.

In many respects, Schola approach is also involved in other forms

of student engagement: at school, any form of involvement and

47

participation in the life of the college (Council of College Life, class delegate, representative students on the board of directors, mediator . .)

or voluntary activities outside the school (i.e. participation in outreach

social actions organized by the educators of the educational success

of the city of Massy).

Moreover, the heart of the project lies in the development of the

teachers’ and educators’ professional skills, with a prospect to

evaluating learning. In this sense, the tools developed can be used

to assess key competencies in the frame of French Common Core of

Skills, Knowledge and Culture (French implementation of the European

framework of 8 key competences – 8KC). The various forms of students’

engagement also make it possible to achieve a higher level of the

mastery of different key competences, such as the French language

(KC1), especially in spoken form, to develop methods and tools for

learning (KC5), to contribute to representations of the world and human

activities (KC8) ... A multitude of pedagogical projects based on student

engagement requiring the mobilization of skills related to non-formal

and informal learning can enrich both educational pathways and the

learning framework.

Finally, the originality of this project resides in attributing to the

Collège Blaise Pascal the role of a leader, which grants a multitude of

tasks, more or less complex, to the head of the school. Although the

coordination of the European teams was facilitated by the role of iriv

Conseil, a partnership of the college, as well as the administrative and

financial management of the project was very complex and demanding,

in particular because of regulations for the involvement of the staff

of the college. This aspect may have been the most original in my

professional experience, but allowed me to put the college (secondary

school) and European researchers at the heart of a research-action

project, while constantly aiming to improve students’ academic success.

Fernando Rosa, assistant educator at the Collège Blaise Pascal,

explained his personal and professional background: “Before arriving

in France, I have been living in London (England) for more than a decade,

where I have done some voluntary work involving teenagers, such

as: organizing and supervising a team of twenty volunteers, helping

a little village to rebuild a children’s park in the half size of a football

pitch. Likewise, I have also coached a football team (of teenagers) and

other little projects throughout England. Here in France, I am part of

a voluntary coaching team for children (5 to 15 years old). Education

has always been part of my educative path and life, together with the

48

will (emphasis) to learn and share with others the knowledge received every day.” He is deeply convinced by voluntary involvement: “I truly

believe that there is so much learning and experiences to be gained

outside school that they can be evaluated and valued in a résumé to

give more chances to young people to succeed in their future life.

Teenagers experience so much in their lives in different domains –

family, society, sport/leisure … but many of these competences go

unseen and unrecognized throughout their adult lives albeit they could

use them to find the right job for their future. Once at the College

Blaise Pascal, I was informed of the Schola project. Volunteering can

actually be found everywhere, in all aspects of life, and as professionals,

teachers, educators … we could really make a difference. We can work

together to help young people facing difficulties at school to prepare

them for their future social and professional lives”. He has gained a

lot from his participation in the Schola project: “It is not only made

to help youngsters for their future lives, but also to introduce and

deliver many competences and values for us (professionals, teachers,

educators …). It was also important to have the opportunity to share and

exchange experiences with col eagues from other countries. Thanks to

this project, I have learnt new definitions and values in and outside the

educational system at national and European levels that have enriched

my understanding of my professional, social and even family life. In all

European countries, volunteering is seen and tackled differently with

one main target: “Help others freely”, and it is amazing! Even more

when it is made to help young people in difficulties”.

Rachel Savoie is a teacher of Physics involved in three extracurricular

activities involving one monthly workshop for students who are willing

to be involved in a voluntary action. She explains the actions which

started in 2014 at the College Blaise Pascal: “For the past 4 years,

we have been trying to mobilize the 4th grade college students who

meet once a month to discover what a volunteer experience can bring

them. They could meet with members of associations to share their

volunteer experiences. They conducted a project within the college,

where each student was assigned a mission to be accomplished. Each

year, 10 to 20 students of the 4th year have been involved since 2014

– more girls than boys with very different profiles combining different

profiles of students – less motivated by studies, dropouts, very good

students, involved in many projects inside and outside the college. My

participation in the Schola project has been a stimulus in my day-to-day

teaching practice and in the extracurricular activities carried out for

the college. Since the beginning of my career, I have been aware of the

schools’ dropout students and ever since, I have worked only in special

49

educative areas allowing me to be more committed towards students, inside and outside the classrooms. The Schola project has been a way to

change my perspective on school dropouts. I have been working for 18

years at the college Blaise Pascal, considered as a school with a difficult

public, meaning many conflicts/clashes during my physics classes. In

the beginning, I would be carried away by these conflicts, therefore

punishing the students straight away or sometimes I would find myself

in a deadlock with these complicated students. By gaining experience

through the years and even more with the Schola project, I have learned

that these students could display a totally different behavior in another

context (in workshops for example), without the public “class”. It is

not always easy for me to keep control of the situation, especially

with students who have a very difficult behavior with impulsive and

offensive language. I have learned that it is better to try to calm down

the situation and discuss it with them. The Schola project also allowed

me to change the way people look at these students with a particular

profile, especially the parents or inhabitants of the city as the college

has a bad reputation/image because of its location. Many young people

– who are not necessarily former students of the college – show a

rather negative picture of themselves. As a result, many inhabitants

in the neighborhood think that they are students at the college and

immediately mingle with problematic youngsters, which give a bad

image of the school. Our role as teachers is to show to our partners

that even our most difficult students may be involved in a project and

have a very constructive attitude.

This is particularly the case with diverse partnerships, such as the Opera

House, the cultural center Paul B and the media center of Massy to

involve any profile of students. This is very rewarding for students facing

difficulties at school or even dropout pupils. Another very positive

and rewarding experience for our students was the link created with

the seniors’ residence Les Hibiscus, next to the college where the

elderly were invited by our students to a show organized last June with

students involved in the Schola project. On this occasion, the elderly

have changed the image they had of our students – it became much

more positive. As a result, our students within the neighborhood could

find much easier internship placements for their 4th year program as

many of them were refused previously by companies as the managers

believed they lacked liability.

The preparation offered to students by the Schola was first dedicated to

a preparation for their weekly internship (in December of January). The

work done with them helps them to learn how to introduce themselves,

50

how to ask the appropriate questions within the company and how to behave in a courteous and motivated way during the internship. This

has been of great support for the teacher in charge of these students

who must take care of all the internships (28 students) during a week.

Finally, a very positive point related to the work done together with the

students within the Schola project was their involvement afterwards.

Some of the students involved in the Schola proposed themselves to

become supervisors of the following students. Others carried out other

volunteer work, for instance in cultural events or festivals.

The Schola project also allowed me to enhance an efficient teamwork

with colleagues among the College Blaise Pascal. It is not enough

to write reports on situations of Early School Leaving but to try to

understand why some students have dropped out. Thanks to the

information shared among professionals, we could collectively find

solutions to reengage them. Another very important point: Schola

allowed me to enrich my workshops and to better involve my dropout

students. Working in small groups brings them more attention from

the adults, a closer relationship, as we can address more personal

topics such as family, extracurricular activities ... These students can

regain self-confidence through these workshops. Finally, the project

was the occasion to develop a very innovative aspect in my practice:

the assessment of skills within my topic (physics), but also within

the framework of my several projects and workshops. My greatest

satisfaction was to see the self-confidence gained among students

through the Schola project, willing to help others, to stimulate their

curiosity about things that were unfamiliar to them because is not part

of their culture.

51

CONCLUSION

The Schola project is an example of applied research in the field of

practice-oriented education, addressing educators in school and outside

school. The French contribution, written in close partnership between

the College Blaise Pascal and iriv Conseil was meant to express how

innovative the Schola project is both in its theoretical part and in its

very applied part with the feedback received from educators who are

working with leaners – students aged 14–16 years in a secondary

school located in a sensitive urban area. We intended to show to

which degree a voluntary experience might be a relevant extracurricular

activity to support students to prevent them from dropping out. The

Schola outputs should be most relevant in France as the focus has

been more and more made on activities to be implemented outside

school to enrich the skills of the students that might be relevant inside

school. The involvement in a European team has been the main added

value to be convincing both on local and national levels.

52

References

Devecchi, Cristina, ed. 2015. Volunteering as empowerment for success at school. UK: SAS Project Team. 28. 5. 2018.

http://www.iriv-publications.net/fichiers/SAS_ebook2015.pdf

Cedefop 2015. European guidelines for validating non-formal and informal learning.

Luxembourg: Publications Office. Cedefop reference series; No 104.

Commission, European. 2006. Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council: Key Competences for Lifelong Learning. Strasbourg: European Commission.

Comission, European. 2007. Key Competences for Lifelong Learning. European

Reference Framework. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

Commission, European. 2011. Communication on EU Policies and Volunteering:

Recognizing and Promoting Cross-Border Voluntary Activities in the EU. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Strasbourg: European Commission.

Comission, European. 2013. Reducing early school leaving: Key messages and policy support. Final Report of the Thematic Working Group on Early School Leaving. Brussles : DG Education and Training.

GHK. 2009. Study on Volunteering in the European Union. Brussels: European Commission, DC EAC.

Halba, Bénédicte. 2006. Gestion du bénévolat et du volontariat. Brussels: De Boeck.

Halba, Bénédicte et al., (eds.). 2007. Valoriser les acquis d’une expérience bénévole (Vaeb). Paris: iriv.

Halba, Bénédicte. 2011. Valuing Volunteering: A Major Issue for the European Year of Volunteering. In VALUE Project Proceedings. University of Liverpool: VALUE.

Kennett, David A. 1980. Developments in the Theory of Public and Private

Redistribution. American Journal of Economics and Sociology 39 (2): 183–198.

Thelot, Claude. 2004. Rapport de la commission du débat national sur l’avenir de l’école.

Paris: La Documentation française.

VAEB. 2003-2006. Weblog dedicated to the Assessment of a Voluntary experience (Vaeb).

28. 5. 2018.

http://www.iriv-vaeb.net/projet-pionnier.php

53

54

Italy: Volunteering as

an Empowerment for Life

Federico Batini, Marco Bartolucci, Alberto Santoro





INTRODUCTION


The Lab of Experimental Pedagogy has been working for years in the

field of preventing school dispersion. The group works, for this reason,

in many different levels, in an empirical experimental way. During the

last ten years, the research has been focused on how we can tackle

Early School Leaving (ESL) (Batini, et al. 2017, Bartoluccia and Batini

2016) – by implementing an active teaching of competences – how

this kind of teaching could affect learning outcomes in students, but

also in a psychological and cognitive dimension (Batini, Bartolucci and

De Carlo 2017, 2018) and how reading out loud can empower people

(Batini, Toti, Bartolucci 2015) from kindergarten through all stages of life

and even in the elderly experiencing pathological cognitive conditions

(Batini, Bartolucci 2016).

In Italy, the average rate of Early School Leaving is approximately 17.6%,

well above the Europe 2020 target of 10%. 15% of 18–24 year olds

have no other qualifications than the middle school level. Rates are

unbalanced from the north, were some regions like Veneto are below

the target already (8%), to the south, where some regions like Sicily and

Sardinia are at 24%. About 5.5 million young people between the ages

of 18 and 24 have not finished upper secondary education and are not

included in education or training. On average, the unemployment rate

of these subjects who dropped out is 40.1%, compared to global youth

unemployment in Europe which stands at 23.2%. Addressing early

school leaving is a stepping-stone towards improving young people’s

opportunities and supporting smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

55

In the framework of the Schola project, we organized the activities connected to the ‘alternate education and training’ (compulsory

internship) experience of students of upper secondary schools, acquired

through volunteering. One of the objectives of the Schola project is

modelling a tool, namely a portfolio, for educators – teachers at school

and professionals (in associations or local authorities) outside school –

in order to support them to assess the skills and competences acquired

by youngsters thanks to a volunteering. Competences can thus be

enhanced at school with to the aspect of the prevention of school

dispersion. By starting with this goal, a particular type of alternate

education and training, not focused on specific professional skills but

on the development of both transverse competences and skills and

the ability to relate to others, has been tested.

THE FIRST YEAR: THE EXPERIENCE IN PERUGIA: A DIFFERENT

MODEL OF ‘ALTERNATE EDUCATION AND TRAINING’

In close cooperation with the Liceo Pieralli of Perugia and the LaAV

Association (Reading Aloud), we implemented a model in which hours of

the alternate education and training, provided for the students of upper

secondary schools, were carried out through volunteering activities.

Prior to the volunteering experience, eight training meetings had been

held with the aim to prepare the students for the activities that they

were later participating in. During the first meeting, 18 students and

6 teachers of the Liceo Pieralli were explained the Schola project, its

goals and purposes, as well as the role and the activities of the LaAV

association. A second part of the meeting was focused mainly on the

volunteering activities in which they were later involved.

Starting from an initial reflection on the importance of volunteering

as a social and personal resource, the chair of Experimental Pedagogy,

together with the LaAV volunteers, prepared the training pathway

for the students. It was focused on the techniques of reading aloud

in public (involving phonemic apparatus, diction, expressive reading

etc.), on the approach to volunteering at paediatric departments of

hospitals and on the effects and cognitive and emotional benefits of

listening to reading aloud.

After this preparatory stage, students began their alternate training and

education experience, along with the LaAV volunteers, dealing with the

56

reading aloud for children, elderly people and peers . The preparation was considered adequate by the participants themselves: only moments

of reading aloud to their peers were deemed to be difficult because

of the embarrassment by feeling judged by them. Eventually, they

overcame difficulties and asked to organize a reading aloud ‘flash mob’

at their school, which was really successful.

At the end of the experience, an open debate allowed to get feedback

from students and stakeholders in general: teachers, LaAV volunteers,

educators and professionals. Opinions and views expressed were

gathered both during the training sessions aimed at the teachers and

at the national seminar on the Schola project as well as through an

online questionnaire. The contributions enriched the tool that were

finalized at the European level within the Schola project. The main

general conviction was that a volunteering experience can enable a

student to acquire citizenship and transverse competences that may

be valuable in the school curriculum, even more when carried out

in the framework of the alternate training and education. A positive

remark was shared about a tool allowing educators/teachers to gather

information needed to assess not only the volunteering experience

of the students, but also the acquired competences. Feedbacks from

students were fully positive, with no exceptions.

RESULTS OF THE EXPERIENCE ON RELATIONAL DIMENSION,

ON COPING AND ON THE SELF-EFFICACY PERCEPTION

OF THE STUDENTS

In addition to the abovementioned activities, the Lab of Experimental

Pedagogy of the University of Perugia put in place an experimental plan

in order to evaluate, in an empirical and objective way, the possible self-

development effects that may come from volunteering. The hypothesis

is that through this kind of experience, students may not only acquire

new skills and competences but also develop some personal dimensions

which are essential in life as well as at school, such as resilience, coping,

motivation, self-efficacy.

With the aim to verify this assumption, 18 students of the Liceo

Pieralli, who chose to carry out their alternate training and education

experience through volunteering, were administered tests before and

after the volunteering experience. Tests used in order to measure the

above mentioned dimensions were: RPQ (Laudadio et al. 2011) for

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the resilience measurement; Brief COPE (Carver 1997) for coping;

AMOS (De Beni et al. 2003) for assessing the capacity to study, the

cognitive styles, the emotional and motivational factors of the learning;

assessment Scale for needs, values and self-efficacy, in order to

analyse the perception of perceived efficacy by the participants in

relation to the work activity (even in the future), the job search and

the management of complex problems. The testing also included a

control group composed of students from other classes of the same

upper secondary school who carried out the ‘traditional’ alternate

training and education experience. Results of the experimental group

show a statistically significant increase of the scores in the following

dimensions:

• relational fluidity: the capacity to interact with others and to ask for help, to keep good relations and manage interpersonal conflicts.

• expression: being able to show feelings.

• instrumental support use: tendency to rely on the advice and the

help of others in difficult situations.

Moreover, figures show a positive (although not statistically significant)

trend in relation to:

• reintegration with loss: when people lack motivation and hope for

the future, following a trauma, and do not use potentialities and

capacities which are needed to overcome the trauma itself.

• dysfunctional reintegration: when the subject tackles the discomfort

in an inadequate way, as for example by using drugs or alcohol

or engaging in a destructive behaviour not to tackle adversities.

• emotional maturity: capacity to manage stressful situations; to

tackle hindrances; to have self-control in difficult situations and

events.

• tolerance to frustration: capacity to tolerate and manage difficulties or failures which are typical in the job search.

• relational integration: capacity to interact with new unknown

persons, by respecting their competences, as well as to ask for

advice from more experienced persons.

• relational availability: capacity to manage the relations network

within the workplace, especially in the cooperation with colleagues

and supervisor as well as with customers; it also refers to being

able to work with people who have a different character.

• commitment: capacity to organize and perform the tasks needed for

working effectively, achieving the objectives in time and learning

new methods.

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• theories of intelligence, confidence in intelligence and confidence in personality.

In short, the students who carried out their alternate training and

education experience through the above-mentioned volunteering

activity have, generally, developed their own relational and coping

capacities and improved their own self-efficacy perception in relation

to various aspects (emotional, relational, metacognitive, organisational

ones …).

THE SECOND YEAR

In the second year, a series of meetings were held as a mentoring

for educators (teachers in schools and professionals outside schools).

The aim was to support them to implement the tool created within

the Schola project as an output of the activities and research carried

out during the first year. As for dissemination, two articles were

produced and sent to one national journal and another international

one (Batini and Bartolucci 2018, Batini, Bartolucci and Santoro 2018)

The mentoring addressed to the professionals was structured according

to a mix of both theoretical and practical contents, starting with an

introduction on school dispersion and early school leaving. Educators

and teachers involved were also explained the official strategies to

prevent and counter these phenomenon and their specific potential

role, with an in-depth analysis of the different types of learning (formal,

not formal and informal). The activities were linked to the alternate

training and education experience of students from three upper

secondary schools, namely the Liceo Scientifico “Galileo Galilei” of

Perugia the Liceo Scientifico of Città della Pieve and the Liceo Pieralli

of Perugia. As compared to the previous year, a greater number of

volunteering associations were involved. Between January and April

2018, five meeting were organised, addressed to both volunteers of

the associations and the teachers of the upper secondary schools. The

meetings were also aimed at the debate on the Intellectual Output

2 of the project as well as at the gathering of feedback from the

participants, whereas the students involved have undergone a training

on volunteering before the activities of the alternate training and

education.

A testing of the psychological and cognitive dimensions of the students

as well as a testing of the self-efficacy dimensions of the educators

and a transverse testing were planned. A seminar on the data collected

and analysed was held in May 2018.

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A total of twenty-two volunteering associations joined the activities of the second year of the Schola project, belonging to a very wide range

of sectors: Health, Social Advancement, Environment, Youth, Childhood,

Civil Rights, LGBT, Migrations, Protection of Elderly People and so forth.

The following scheme presents names, sectors and specific activities

of the different participating associations:

ARCAT UMBRIA – CLUB FAMIGLIA [Perugia]

FIELD: Socio-health care

ACTIVITIES: Interventions relating to Families at risk and micro-community.

Promotion of health and wellbeing of families and communities in disadvantaged

situations. Training on socio-emotional education and peer-education. Help desk on addictions.

PANTA REI [Passignano sul Trasimeno - PG]

FIELD: Environment

ACTIVITIES: Experience centre for the Environment Education. School camps, visits, training on sustainable development, environment education, food.

CESVOL – CENTRO SERVIZI PER IL VOLONTARIATO [Perugia]

ACTIVITIES: CESVOL Perugia is an Association gathering several volunteering

association operating in a wide range of fields. It offers administrative support and specialist competences for the associations that are members of the network in

different volunteering activities.

LaAV – Letture ad Alta Voce [Perugia]

FIELD: Volunteering and Reading Aloud

ACTIVITIES: Reading Aloud sessions in hospitals, nursing home, centres for elderly people or adolescents and people with disabilities. Activities are held also in any other place where people with socio-economic or cultural disadvantages live as well as in schools, libraries and public spaces.

ORTOSOLE [Perugia]

FIELD: Environment

ACTIVITIES: “Orto Sole” deals with public green spaces, promoting the respect for the environment and developing projects for social support. The main activities

are carried out together with elderly people, children or individuals living in

disadvantaged conditions, thus enhancing social inclusion.

MpV – MOVIMENTO per la VITA [Perugia]

FIELD: Protection of the right to live; helpdesk for women in difficult pregnancies ACTIVITIES: The MpV promotes the right to life and offers its help to women

in difficult or unwanted pregnancies. The main activities are carried out with

youngsters; fundraising and sensitisation campaigns are developed for the

protection of life also as a social value.

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ADiC Umbria – Associazione per i Diritti dei Cittadini [Perugia]

FIELD: Civil Rights

ACTIVITIES: The aim of the ADiC is to contribute to the improvement of the

daily life of citizens considered as consumers, by ensuring protection of the equal opportunities, the civil rights and the environment. The Help desk offers information and assistance through operators and lawyers.

AUCC – ASSOCIAZIONE UMBRA per la LOTTA CONTRO il CANCRO [Perugia]

FIELD: Health care – Oncology

ACTIVITIES: AUCC onlus provides free socio-health care services to people

with cancer and their families. The AUCC promotes scientific research, organises

projects, volunteering, sensitization and prevention events addressed to public

authorities and citizens.

A.L.I.CE. [Città della Pieve – PG]

FIELD: Health education (Stroke)

ACTIVITIES: Association composed of people affected by stroke and their

families, doctors, neurologists, experts, physiatrists, health-care staff members and volunteers. Activities are focused on the functional recovery of the sick person as well as on the protection of his/her rights.

ATESU (ASS. TUTELA dell’ECOSISTEMA e della SALUTE UMANA) [Gubbio – PG]

FIELD: Protection of Ecosystems and Health

ACTIVITIES: ATESU Association deals with the dissemination of information and

the promotion of new technologies not damaging the ecosystems. Fields of interest: agriculture, animal husbandry, nutrition, health, waste, prevention of pollution and contaminations in schools, work environment.

OMPHALOS [Perugia]

FIELD: LGBT, Civil Rights

ACTIVITIES: OMPHALOS provides LGBT persons support and protection by

offering free services, such as HelpDesk, counselling, free HIV tests, legal support, an anti-violence centre for lesbians, a documentation centre. It promotes cultural and sport activities and sensitisation actions.

C.R.I. – CROCE ROSSA ITALIANA [Perugia]

FIELD: Emergency Treatment

ACTIVITIES: Ambulance Service; training; assistance to elderly people and people

with disabilities; prevention of diseases. C.R.I. develops several projects for

youngsters on different topics (culture and integration, prevention of addictions, humanitarian international law, digital technologies etc.).

AGESC – ASSOCIAZIONE GENITORI SCUOLE CATTOLICHE [Perugia]

FIELD: Social Life

ACTIVITIES: The AGESC promotes actions aimed at enhancing the relations

between families and schools, catholic religion and civil society. It participates in various projects in local catholic schools for both curricular and extracurricular activities (laboratory, sport activities, leisure etc.).

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ARONC – AMICI della RADIOTERAPIA ONCOLOGICA [Perugia]

FIELD: Health care – Radiotherapy

ACTIVITIES: The ARONC fosters scientific research in oncological radiotherapy.

It aims to fund the training of young doctors, physicists, nurses, technicians in the field. Volunteering activities are mainly related to the health care assistance of patients and a Help Desk open to the general public.

ADA – ASSOCIAZIONE DIRITTI ANZIANI [Perugia]

FIELD: Protection of the Rights of Elderly People

ACTIVITIES: ADA deals with daily issues that elderly people may have, such as

healthcare, family problems, houses, relationships with relatives etc. The focus is on the intergenerational relations, activities in nursing home, motor activities, cultural events involving elderly people, counselling.

COMITATO per la VITA “DANIELE CHIANELLI” [Perugia]

FIELD: Healthcare – Oncology

ACTIVITIES: Fundraising for leukaemia and cancer research and medical care of

adults and children. The Association promotes social and psychological assistance to sick people and their families through volunteering activities. It also contributes to the procurement of equipment.

UNC – UNIONE NAZIONALE CONSUMATORI [Perugia]

FIELD: Consumer Rights

ACTIVITIES: The field of activities of the UNC is the protection of consumers,

which is pursued through proposals of new laws and legal assistance, as well as

through information actions, education and guidance to citizens. UNC has an

information Help Desk and organizes training events.

A.L.I. – ASSOCIAZIONE LEGALI ITALIANI [Perugia]

FIELD: Legal Support

ACTIVITIES: Organisation, planning and management of courses, seminars and

meetings on relevant topics in several fields of Law. It is an association composed of a team of volunteer lawyers, which provides the general public with legal advice and publishes information materials on law.

PAPAVERI ROSSI soc.coop. – ARCI PERUGIA [Perugia]

FIELD: Children and Youth

ACTIVITIES: “Papaveri Rossi” aims to pursue the general interest of the community in social integration of citizens by managing socio-healthcare, educational, cultural and leisure services. The association organises activities, such as civil service addressed to disadvantaged people.

APS “GIANNI BALLERIO” [Perugia]

FIELD: Social and Cultural Advancement

ACTIVITIES: The association deals with issues relating to equal opportunities of

women and men, the right to health and the right to education for all. It manages projects focused on social needs, citizens’ rights and the rights of children,

adolescents and adults even in an international framework.

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ANGLAD [Perugia]

FIELD: Drug Dependence

ACTIVITIES: ANGLAD is a network of volunteering associations aimed at

preventing and countering drug dependence. The network is intended to provide

counselling and support to people who want to be assisted in recovering from drug dependence.

RESPECT Aps [Perugia]

FIELD: Academic Research on Education

ACTIVITIES: Research and pedagogy in collaboration with the University. One of

the main projects is called “RispettiAMOci” (addressed to primary schools and lower secondary schools), which is aimed at the enhancement of emotional intelligence of children.

ABIO [Perugia]

FIELD: Children in Hospitals

ACTIVITIES: Abio Perugia Onlus is a volunteering association aimed at the

promotion of entertainment activities intended for children in hospitals. Abio

cooperates with healthcare member staff and provides support to the families of

children.

CONCLUSION

In the project, we prepared and administered an online questionnaire.

In addition, we held debates for brainstorming and discussion among

the stakeholders/teachers involved in the project, in every testing

session we implemented debates and discussion plus a questionnaire

prepared by the research group, in the whole duration of the project.

The portfolio is considered to be a clear and accessible tool of a suitable

length for providing relevant information, which could be useful even

within the combined study-work experience. The portfolio is criticised

for lacking precise guidelines (i.e. a process) that would help teachers

to identify competences acquired by students, as well as the absence

of terminology disambiguation supporting the understanding of the

instrument itself. It is worth commenting that all educators expressed

the real need to have precise guidelines, not because the tools

implemented in the Schola project are not useful, but because of the

lack of precise guidelines in the Italian school context. In fact, in Italy,

the certification of skills, although mandatory at school and elsewhere,

still does not find a correspondence in the official ministry guidelines

(which are insufficient) and in a shared (which means standardized)

and therefore functional method. In this context, the process/method

implemented by the Schola project was welcomed in a very positive

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manner. All the subjects involved emphasized the importance and the potentiality of the project to deliver shared methods at European level

to support educators and accompany them, with structured tools and

methods, in the implementation of functional paths to support the

students inside and outside the school.

In a moment of discussion with educators and teachers, one

intervention of a teacher was particularly interesting: “There is a

profound gap, a real gap between directives (not only European

but also and above all national ones) and their implementation,”

he explained. “Some competences, those that correspond to the 4

basic competences of the Common European Framework on the

8 key competences, are effectively ‘protected’ and cured by the

scholastic system …” Specifically the competencies he was speaking

about were ‘Communicating in the mother tongue’, ‘Communicating

in foreign languages’, ‘Mathematical competence and basic skills in

science and technology’ and ‘Digital skills’. Those in effect are the

competencies that are more linked with the curriculum, whereas he

went on saying: “They remain almost on paper without concrete and

effective implementation of the competences that correspond to

the ‘transversal’ competences of the common European framework:

‘Learning to learn’, ‘social and civic competences’, ‘initiative and

entrepreneurial spirit’, ‘cultural awareness and expression’”. About

these other 4 key skills, professors complain that even if on paper

they have a program and learning objectives to be implemented,

in reality, there remains an organizational problem of the system

that does not provide for a real implementation. “For example,

while for mathematics and science and technology competences

we do something at school, … for the other 4 (transversal) teachers

do not have examples and their perception is that there’s a lack

of awareness to empower them, even if they know they have to

follow them. In the Schola’s approach, finally, explicit references

are inserted and that can serve as a practical guide …”

The students who participated in the project immediately expressed

a great interest in the context of competences, and especially on

what they did not know about the possibility of enhancing their

experiences outside the school, within the school curriculum in terms

of competences (once again, in Italy, there is a lack of information on

these issues). Often, the opportunities to volunteer are underestimated

by the students, because they are thought to be impossible to reconcile

with the curriculum and the burden of school studies. In general,

the presentation of useful tools to them and to the educators who

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support them, for the documentation of their experience and acquired skills, such as the VAEB, was welcomed. The students expressed their

enthusiasm above all in realizing that they could be actively involved

in the process, developing “a sense of responsibility, motivation and

control” of their experiences. The common thread therefore seems to

be the students’ development of a sense of effectiveness, of valorisation

of their experiences and the awareness reached on the potentialities

that the activities can provide in terms of education and life.

During a national seminar implemented at the end of the students’

experience, the comment by one of the students’ spokespersons

was particularly relevant: “Through this experience, we could finally

relate with a different environment from the school, which has

surely enriched us”. She also stated: “We think that these things

should be known by our classmates, because they allow us to

enhance our educational path and can help us to relate what we

do at school with everything we can do outside of school ... The

approach to skills which is well explained within this project is often

not presented within our school, and for us it was a nice surprise,

which allowed us to reason and be more aware of our potential as

students and citizens”.

The associations involved showed interest and enthusiasm for two

fundamental reasons. On the one hand, they have been trying to involve

more and more young students and young people in their contexts

for years, but once again the lack of information on the opportunities

that such a path can offer means that students have little interest

and motivation is therefore not stimulated. In this sense, the Schola

approach would allow a moment of stimulation and enhancement

of volunteer experiences by students and therefore facilitation for

associations in the involvement of young people. On the other hand, it

was emphasized how difficult it is for associations, although they have

tried in recent years, to communicate with schools and to return what

has been done by students in terms of experience and skills achieved.

In this sense, once again, the project has been assessed as excellent in

bridging the gap between school and external environments, judging

the tools and methods offered by the project as very functional to

promote effective communication between the two environments.

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The speaker of one of the stakeholders involved stated: “Unlike

what associations are normally limited to do, that is to certify the

mere presence of children, for example with final attestations of

participation in voluntary activities, the tool is potentially interesting

and very useful because a single tool would give the opportunity

to certify different competences among them, acquired in the

field, while we are usually used to the fact that certification of

a competence is usually made by schools/training institutions”.

He tried to explain how, from the point of view of the boys, the

tool would allow them to perform self-assessment, a qualitative

reflection on the skills actually acquired. He went on saying: “Each

association should be able to guide the young people in the use of

the tool, then in self-identification of the acquired skills. Schola’s

tool could also be really useful to get to know oneself, to refine the

capacity for self-criticism or for example to acquire self-awareness

about one’s entrepreneurial spirit.”

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References

Batini, Federico and Marco Bartolucci. 2016. Dispersione scolastica. Ascoltare i protagonisti per comprenderla e prevenirla. Milano: Franco Angeli.

Batini, Federico and Marco Bartolucci. 2016. C’era una volta un pezzo di legno, progetto student voice per scuole a zero dispersione della rete di Gubbio. Milano: Franco Angeli.

Batini, Federico, and Marco Bartolucci. 2016. “Chi legge... ragiona meglio? Abitudini di lettura e funzioni di ragionamento”. Ricerche di Pedagogia e Didattica. Journal of Theories and Research in Education 11 (3): 37−45.

Batini, Federico and Marco Bartolucci “Volunteering as an opportunity to acquire

competences and to empower students. The example of the Schola project”.

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (under review).

Batini, Federico, Marco Bartolucci, and Ermelinda De Carlo. 2017. “Fight Dispersion Through Education: The Results of the First Cycle of the NoOut Project”. Mind, Brain, and Education 11(4): 201−212.

Batini, Federico, Marco Bartolucci, and Ermelinda De Carlo. 2018. “I feel good at school! Reducing school discomfort levels through integrated interventions”. Athens journal of education XY: 1−13. 28. 5. 2018.

https://www.athensjournals.gr/education/2018-1-X-Y-Federico.pdf

Batini, Federico, Marco Bartolucci, Alberto Santoro. 2018. “Un modello di alternanza scuola lavoro”. Pedagogika.

Batini, Federico, Vanessa Corallino, Giulia Toti, and Marco Bartolucci. 2016. “NEET: A Phenomenom Yet to Be Explored”. Interchange 48 (1): 19−37.

Batini, Federico, Giulia Toti, and Marco Bartolucci. 2016. “Neuropsychological

Benefits of a Narrative Cognitive Training Program for People Living with Dementia: A Pilot Study”. Dementia & Neuropsychologia 10 (2): 127−33.

Batini, Federico, Giulia Toti, and Marco Bartolucci. 2015. Effetti di lettura. Arezzo: Thélème.

Carver, Charles S. 1997. “You Want to Measure Coping but Your Protocol’ Too Long: Consider the Brief Cope”. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine 4 (1): 92−100.

De Beni, Rossana, Claudia Zamperlin, Chiara Meneghetti, Cesare Cornoldi, Mara

Fabris, Giuliano De MinTona, and Angelica Moè. 2014. Test AMOS-Abilità e

motivazione allo studio: prove di valutazione e orientamento per la scuola secondaria di secondo grado e l’università: Nuova edizione. Trento: Edizioni Centro Studi Erickson.

Laudadio, Andrea, Francisco Javier Fiz Pérez, and Lavinia Mazzocchetti. 2011. RPQ.

Resilience Process Questionnaire. Valutazione della resilienza negli adolescenti. Trento: Edizioni Erickson.

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68

Poland: Breaking the Limits

of Formal Education

Agnieszka Borek, Laura Rabiej





INTRODUCTION


The overall scale of engagement in formal volunteering in Poland is

relatively low. In 2015, 17.1% of adult Poles declared that they had

been engaged in formal volunteering (for NGOs, public institutions,

churches or other organisations), while 16.1% participated in informal

(not organisation-driven) activity on behalf of the local community,

environment, city/village (Makowski 2011). Other studies show a higher

level of involvement. However, operational definitions are not coherent.

48% of the respondents in the survey (Hipsz, Wądołowska 2011)

declared that they became at least once involved in unpaid work for

unknown people, local community or organisation during the last 12

months. The declaration of involvement in formal volunteering peaks to

28% (Hipsz, Wądołowska 2011). The notion of the term ‘volunteering’ is

not clear to all the citizens. When directly asked about the involvement

in volunteering, the share of confirmation decreased to 11%.

Indicators of engagement in formal volunteering in previous years

were at the similar level: 19% in 2014 (Badora 2014), 18% in 2013

(Adamiak 2014). It is characteristic that mostly young (less than 25

years old) people declare engagement in volunteering. High level of

activity among secondary (junior high) schools is caused by obligatory

engagement in the voluntary project, demanded by the curriculum.

The level of involvement drops among the respondents active on the

labour market. Volunteering is the most popular among people having

BA or MA diploma, and its occurrence is slightly higher among women.

The low rate of volunteering is caused by two main factors. First of

all, there is no such tradition in Poland, because it has never been as

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strong as, for example, in Anglo-Saxon countries and it was distorted by the obligatory “social act” during the communist regime in Poland,

when volunteering was an act of loyalty to the communist authorities,

not an act of social solidarity. Secondly, no one taught students how

to help – civic education was neglected in schools for years, even after

the fall of communism in Central Europe.

INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT

The Schola project was carried out in Poland by the Faculty Management

and Social Communication, Institute of Public Affairs of Jagiellonian

University, which has been acknowledged nationally as a leading

provider of training and development in public organisations. The

Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) is responsible for that area. It runs

several study programmes in public management and social policy

studies. It has over 3,000 students. The IPA has a well-resourced

research environment built from 2006 to 2008, which seeks to both

stimulate research and to ensure quality through careful evaluation

of projects. Educational research is an area of strength, which is

developing further in scale and quality. The activities carried out in

the last decade have focused on supporting the development of the

Polish educational system by influencing the shape of pedagogical

supervision (school evaluation) as a way to improve schools and develop

educational leadership. Currently, the implemented projects focus on

the development of key competencies, both by integrating them into

the daily practice of teachers as well as by volunteering.

The entities we have invited to cooperate with the IPA within the

framework of the Schola project – mentoring for educators to value

volunteering – include associations operating throughout Poland, as

well as schools. Thanks to that, our educators have diverse experience

in working with volunteers; hence their ability to exchange various sorts

of information among them and to share good practices. Our network

includes seven institutions involved in non-formal education:

• Four Landscapes Association from Kampinos operates in several

villages adjacent to the Kampinos Forest, which is a National Park.

The organisation’s goals include sustainable development and

improvement of its residents’ quality of life. A large part of its

activities is addressed to children and youth. Within the Schola

activities, the students attended a 4-month project on volunteering

for National Parks in Poland.

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• “Street” Foundation implements an authorial program “Ambassadors of the Impossible”, whose main assumption is: “No matter who you

are, what you do, you can succeed in life.” The Foundation reaches

thousands of schoolboys and schoolgirls who want to turn away

from negative patterns transmitted within their families (such as

violence, alcoholism, unemployment, poverty). It educates future

leaders who are ready to invite and support their peers in thinking

about dreams and the way to achieve them. Reflection on dreams

is the starting point of drawing motivation and strength necessary

to bring about changes and achieve goals. In the long-term

perspective, the Foundation’s activities are intended to contribute

to change its attendees’ way of thinking about themselves.

• “Tęcza” (Rainbow) Association/Environmental Self-Help Centre

in Krakow takes care of children and adults with Down syndrome

and wants to overcome the fear of people with Down syndrome

in the local community, to increase the possibilities of their social

activation and normal treatment by people around them. The

participants enjoy a variety of therapeutic activities, whose aim is

primarily to improve their functioning in everyday life, development

of independence and interpersonal skills. The centre conducts some

activities, striving to meet the participants’ needs and possibilities.

These include classes dedicated to cooking, art and technique, IT,

sports, music, as well as interpersonal functioning. This year, the

Centre carried out the project “3x21” which involved volunteers.

• King Władysław Jagiełło, Junior High School in Niepołomice,

houses the very resilient “KWIL” (Klub Wspierania Inicjatyw

Lokalnych) – Local Initiative Support Club and conducts various

actions combined with fun and practice of important skills and

attitudes, such as responsibility, respect, tolerance and getting to

know other people and oneself. Very often, volunteers carry out

activities which take place after the classes, on weekends and

even during summer or winter holidays. The group is open to new

volunteers and to ideas on how others, oneself or the environment

can be helped.

• Jan Twardowski Junior High School in Zabierzów Bocheński

conducts an authorial project entitled School Creativity League,

which aims to shape creative attitudes. The school’s mission is to

free the students’ creative activity, and the League sets the tasks

to be solved with creativity. All tasks are carried out by class teams

with their tutors, and the assessors include representatives of

each class, school management and, in some cases, people from

outside. The tasks are directly related to the ceremonies from the

school year calendar.

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• Jan Twardowski Primary School in Kłaj implements the project

“An Ingenious Year”, during which students take part in 7 different

meetings, trying to find answers to questions (e.g. how to transmit

a secret message, how do people experience emotions, what do

we need mathematics for). They develop the creative and logical

thinking ability; they learn to put forward arguments and draw

conclusions; they also develop social competences. A group of

volunteers operates in the school.

METHOD

“The tool & process” of the Schola project is based on the circular actions

that include the reflection about the action, the impact on volunteers’

development regarding the key competencies and building an action

plan using the conclusions from the previous steps. This approach

involves combining the research with the regular work with volunteers

and the immediate use of its results for planning and modifying actions.

This is how the reflection and assessment are an integral part of the

volunteering for better and more efficient enforcement of positive

changes in bridging the gap between formal and informal education.

It is important because the student development is a dynamic process,

and the Schola’s tools and process take this dynamic into account.

The volunteers-researchers’ training addresses the need to develop

volunteers’ skills in analysing and evaluating their actions and their

results.

This circular model is based on the Action Research approach (Sagor

2008) and makes the research important for the learning process

of students who used the reflection on and assessment of their

competencies. Taking into account the main features of the Action

Research, every research conducted by volunteers should be originating

in internal needs relating to their activities and to the activities of the

task teams they are members of. The welfare of the learners should be

the main objective of the development. The approach that we suggest

involves engagement in the research activities of a wide group of those

whom they concern. It ensures the democratisation of the research

process and thereby increases the responsibilities of various people

for its conduct. Such conducted research provides an opportunity

for a dialogue between teachers, volunteers, educators on the value

of students’ development. The research itself becomes a part of the

learning process for all those who are involved in it (Sagor 2008).

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SCHOLA PROCESS IN POLAND

In this section, we thematically summarise the most important themes

that emerged while implementing the Schola approach in Poland.

In the first stage of the project operation, our team developed

several scenarios of meetings with volunteers to support educators

in implementing the Schola model into their practice. We intended

to make the proposed theoretical framework more user-friendly and

easy to use in the everyday practice. We prepared several workshop

modules usable in any configuration. Their logic is to be arranged by

the educator working with a group of volunteers, adequately to:

• the knowledge they have about the group’s needs and objectives

of the activities carried out;

• the stage in the process of the voluntary experience.

We tested all workshop scenarios. We ran the pilot of the workshops

modules that helped to validate the value and usability for the educators.

After the pilot, we implemented the conclusions and comments and

modified the modules.

The next stage was mentoring for educators, which took place in

Krakow at Jagiellonian University in the second half of 2017 and at the

beginning of 2018. 14 educators and teachers attended the mentoring

sessions. During each meeting, we discussed the Schola tools and

process. We also prepared several practical scripts and educational

modules to support educators in reflecting on and implementing

the Schola approach. We collected data by observing the tutors and

teachers during the meetings, asking the teaches questions about their

comments and perspective and interviewing the teachers and tutors.

During the mentoring sessions, the educators got to know the given

tool and after returning to their schools and organisations, they tested

it in a group of volunteers and shared the conclusions with other

participants (during the subsequent sessions). It was important that

the scenarios, as well as the tools, could be used flexibly and the

participants knew that they could modify and adapt them to their needs,

according to the knowledge they have about the group’s needs and

the objectives of the activities carried out. The educators were very

glad to have learnt about the new tool, it was found to be useful for

verifying what young people think about their competences.

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Dorota Kulesza, teacher, educator and junior high school

headmistress: “I had an opportunity to work with teachers who

were the participants of the qualifying course for future education

management staff in one of Krakow’s in-service teacher training

centres. We talked about the importance of shaping competences

that the pupils will need at further stages of development,

both in personal and professional life. In the discussion, the

participants admitted that the largest number of competences

was not strengthened until they undertook professional work. They

commented with concern on the fact that it was virtually impossible

to learn or strengthen empathy, responsibility, entrepreneurship or

problem-solving skills, while orientation to result got the highest

score and less than half of the respondents indicated teamwork.

The initiative, in turn, scored the highest result in the area of non-

formal education, which was explained by the fact that participation

in various activities required a specific competency from that

specific person.”

CONCLUSION

In the process, it has been proven that the Schola tools respond to the

needs of teachers, educators and volunteers. Educators find the Schola

tool and process very useful in working with groups of young volunteers.

They appreciate the content and the fact that students’ extracurricular

activities involve combining the reflection and assessment with the

regular work and the immediate use of its results for planning and

modifying volunteering actions. The reflection and assessment are an

integral part of the volunteering activity as it refers to activities that

develop volunteers’ skills.

The Schola process is very flexible and particular modules can be used

in any configuration. Their logic is arranged by an educator who has

adequate knowledge about the needs of the group and objectives of

the activities carried out.

The Schola process is attractive for young volunteers who are engaged

in activities as well as have fun and are aware of reaching educational

goals. It is important for the learning process of students that they use

the evaluation tool to examine most of all their work and the work of

teams they are members of.

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Natalia Szlęzak, the educator of STREET Children’s Aid Foundation:

“The meetings covered by our work with youth had a very

unconstrained character – board games, talks. At some point,

we concluded that we wanted to change these meetings into

social actions (cleaning up graves, making Christmas cards for the

residents). Moreover, it turned out that the young people were

more interested in and delighted about doing something for others;

they found such activities more attractive. It also turned out that

volunteering is not only big actions like The Great Orchestra of

Christmas Charity or The Noble Box, but also actions that each of

us can undertake.”

We were also able to see that the Schola tools support young volunteers’

development. Educators can see benefits for young volunteers, mainly

in raising their awareness of their inner motivation to volunteer, self-

confidence, the faith in one’s capacities. Volunteers also develop their

skills of self-assessment (but mainly as a result of group activities).

One of the most important benefits of using Schola tools is developing

the skills of expressing the experience regarding eight key competencies

and support young volunteers in understanding the key competencies,

naming them and recognising them in the context of particular

knowledge and skills.

The tools developed as part of the Schola project help teachers identify

these areas in the development of students’ key competences which

they fail to develop during traditional lessons at school. It helps them

appreciate extracurricular activities in which young people become

involved, not only from the perspective of developing and strengthening

of prosocial attitudes but also as support for the development of

competences which are important to eliminate the risk of school failure.

Angelika Niemiec, coordinator of 3x21 volunteering project: “An

analysis of our association’s needs has become the starting point

when deciding to expand the offer and professional cooperation

with volunteers. That was the origin of the creation of the project

3x21, aimed at overcoming social barriers in contact with people

with Down syndrome and included among others: 21 hours of

work with people with Down syndrome, workshops improving

the volunteers’ qualifications, integration meetings, two sessions

of individual summary and conclusions from the volunteers’

experience, specifying their strengths and learning processes.

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During the first integration meeting, as a coordinator, I asked the future volunteers to draw a human figure, preferably themselves.

Then, I looked through these pictures and it was clear that their

knowledge was limited, it showed who they were, what they

needed (to fulfil their role well) and what they knew. I would like

to finish the project with the same action to give them feedback

on their work and involvement in volunteering (what they gained

from the months of volunteering and what it gave them)”.

The Schola project contributed to an in-depth reflection on the role

of volunteering in the education process. In the Polish context, it is

very important, since Polish volunteering is facing many problems. The

main one is that many people do not understand what volunteering

is. Nationwide surveys (CEBOS 2011) carried out on the occasion

of the European Year of Volunteering show that many Poles identify

it, for instance, with sending charity text messages, putting money

into a charity can, helping one’s family or even free internships and

apprenticeships. In such an environment, it is important to talk about

volunteering at school, on a daily basis. For some of the young people

involved in the Schola project, the big discovery was that volunteering

is not only “a noble sacrifice for the good of others”, as one of our

participants said, but also brings numerous benefits to the volunteers

themselves.

In the Primary School in Kłaj, teachers wanted to identify students’

awareness of benefits of volunteering. Marzanna Włodek, the

teacher: “Among these students, only one person is continuously

involved in volunteering (outside the school). Her maturity was visible

at once (she is the same age as others, but she had experience), she

had a completely different perspective on volunteering and it was

easier for her to assess her actions – her stick man clearly stood

out. She wrote that she does it selflessly (she gives classes for sick

children) – it was her first association, then she does it out of care

for others, she does not get money for it, it makes her happy and

improves her relationships with others”.

The teachers involved in the project appreciated a change of their

view of volunteering at school. As they say, their earlier focus was

mainly the tasks that the young people were supposed to complete

within the framework of volunteering, as well as the organisational and

76

technical context. Currently, they pay more attention to the planning of educational goals to be achieved through a specific volunteering project

and to the reflection on how common work has developed young

people’s competences and how it benefited the people for whom the

action was carried out. They also recognise the need for more long-

term volunteering activities and placing greater emphasis in school on

the persistence and continuity of the students’ volunteering activities.

A remaining question is how to build a bridge between school and

volunteering and, at the same time, avoid treating volunteering

instrumentally, through the inclusion of volunteering in the school

certificate and, in this way, converting volunteering into another school

course or subject.

References

Adamiak, Piotr. 2014. Zaangażowanie społeczne Polek i Polaków - Wolontariat,

filantropia, 1% i wizerunek organizacji pozarządowych. Warszawa: Klon-Jawor.

Badora, Barbara. 2014. Aktywność społeczna Polaków. In Komunikat 60/2014.

Warszawa: CBOS.

Hipsz, Natalia and Katarzyna Wądołowska. 2011. Aktywność społeczna Polaków –

poziom zaangażowania i motywacje. In BS/62/2011. Warszawa: CBOS.

Makowski, Grzegorz. 2011. Młody, bogaty, wykształcony, religijny – mit polskiego wolontariusza. 2011. In BS/63/2011. Warszawa: CBOS.

Sagor, Richard. 2008. Badanie przez działanie. Warszawa: Centrum Edukacji Obywatelskiej.

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78

Slovenia: Balancing between

“Pure” and “Impure” Volunteering

Mojca Kovačič, Dan Podjed





INTRODUCTION


In Slovenia, organised volunteering is historically strongly present

and nowadays well-established and institutionally supported. Already

in the 19th century, the Catholic Church had an important role in

development of charities and humanitarian aid. In the 20th century and

especially in the time of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, i.e.

after the World War II, it was common to volunteer in the social field

with humanitarian aims, for example in the context of fire brigades or

Red Cross, as well as in local tourist, cultural and sports organisations.

After World War II, many young people also joined the national post-

war reconstruction works organised by the Yugoslav State.

In the 21st century, volunteering has become even more nationally

recognised and emphasised as an important contribution to society

and citizenship. The Law on Volunteering, which was adopted in

2011, officially legalised, formulated and positioned volunteering as

socially beneficial work of individual and voluntary organisations. The

Slovenian Philanthropy became the “umbrella organisation”, which

carries out professional training of volunteering, trains volunteers

and mentors and maintains an online portal dedicated to seekers and

providers of voluntary activities. In addition to promotion and providing

information on demand as well as offering volunteer activities, this non-

governmental organisation also offers thematic training programmes

for future volunteers.

With the implementation of the Volunteering Act (2011), the area

of volunteering in Slovenia was legally formalised for the first time.

The Act defines volunteering and emphasises its importance, defines

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the basic principles of volunteering, the conditions for performing organised volunteering, the rights and obligations of volunteers and

volunteer organisations and the role of the state, self-governing local

communities, volunteer and non-profit organisations working in the

field of volunteering, monitoring and encouraging and developing

organised volunteering.

The Schola approach was tested in a specific national context and also

in the institutional context of the Research Centre of the Slovenian

Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU), where the project was carried

out. The Research Centre has a multidisciplinary character; in addition

to the humanities, its spheres of research also cover the natural and

social sciences. ZRC SAZU’s competences include a scientific, analytical,

and synthetic multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approach, extensive

knowledge and experience connected with compiling databases,

designing thematic maps and graphic material, and preparing various

publications. However, ZRC SAZU is not an education institution; its

character is mainly research-oriented. Therefore, the project team in

Slovenia did not have so much hands-on experience with pedagogical

work and education as other partners. This also showed in meetings

with stakeholders, where we were supposed to teach the experienced

mentors and teachers. To solve this situation, we often let them guide

the process and often invited them to take the leading role during

presentations and testing of the Intellectual Outputs, designed in the

Schola project context. The approach has proven to be important for

building trust and collaboration at stakeholders’ meetings and other

project activities, since we managed to make a shift from expert mindset

to people-centred mindset for designing and co-creating solutions and

tools in the context of the project (Sanders 2008).

BRINGING TOGETHER EARLY SCHOOL LEAVING

AND VOLUNTEERING

The national Educational Research Institute defined an early school

leaver as an individual who stopped attending an educational or

training programme and did not actually finish it. In their report, they

emphasised that there were no current policies on a national level to

prevent early school leaving (ESL). It was also stated that there are no

reports on ESL and therefore no national statistics about it. There was

also no official, comprehensive strategy on a national level to struggle

against ESL in Slovenia. However, we were able to obtain a partial

80

overview of the ESL statistics by the statistics of the Employment Service of Slovenia for 2016. According to the database, there were 755

unemployed persons under 24 years with unfinished primary school,

and 2,637 people with unfinished secondary school.

The Centre of the Republic of Slovenia for Professional Training

has an important role in the field of ESL . In 2007, they published a

handbook for preventing early school leaving and later cooperated in

EU Erasmus+ project CroCoos for the implementation and evaluation of

a comprehensive early warning system and cross-sectoral approaches

to prevent ESL. The direct link between volunteering and early school

leaving was made through the Comenius project Success at School

through Volunteering (2012–2014) with the aim to offer youngsters

living in difficult areas a pedagogical support to enhance their voluntary

involvement and improve their chance to succeed at school. A direct

and more sustainable work with early school leavers is provided by

the BOB Institute, an institution which takes part in the Schola project

as a stakeholder. Through their work, they recognised that innovative

and creative approach as well as voluntary work as a form of informal

learning leads to social re-integration and development of social

entrepreneurship, as well as increases opportunities for self-realisation

among youngsters.

Among young people, volunteering has been attractive primarily

due to the activities carried out of school, but one can notice that

it has become more present in secondary schools, since the school

system recognises voluntary activities within the framework of the

so-called compulsory elective courses where students have to obtain

a certain number of hours of extracurricular activities. In this way,

formal education on the one hand supports informal and non-formal

education, but this is only quantitative and not qualitative evaluation.

The Schola approach has therefore proven to be interesting as well as

useful in promotion of qualitative assessment of volunteering among

youngsters.

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STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVED IN THE SCHOLA PROJECT

AND METHODOLOGY

In the Schola project, we invited those institutions that have a strong

connection with volunteering as well as knowledge in the field, such as

the BOB Institute and the Slovene Philanthropy, as well as secondary

schools that carry out volunteering activities in addition to formal

education and involve, evaluate and implement it in various ways in

their educational programs.

Slovenska filantropija [the Slovene Philanthropy] is the umbrella

organisation for volunteering in Slovenia and therefore the main contact

point for all the questions regarding schools or any other volunteering

subject on the national level. They organise and popularize volunteering

and keep reminding the society about the benefits of volunteering.

Zavod BOB [the BOB Institute] is an organisation that takes care of

dropouts and motivates them for getting back to school with different

(manual, art, psychological etc.) workshops and projects.

In addition to these two institutions, we also involved several

secondary schools, including Srednja zdravstvena šola Ljubljana [The

Secondary Nursing School, Ljubljana], Srednja gozdarska in lesarska šola

Postojna [Forestry and Wood Processing School, Postojna], Biotehniški

izobraževalni center Ljubljana [Biotechnical Educational Center,

Ljubljana] and Gimnazija Jožeta Plečnika [Jože Plečnik Gimnasium]. All

these schools have well-established volunteering activities. In addition,

mentors at these schools have rich voluntary experiences and are

experienced mentors for young volunteers. The institutions Zavod za

vzgojo in izobraževanje Logatec [Institute of Upbringing and Education

Logatec] and Srednja poklicna in strokovna šola Bežigrad-Ljubljana

[Secondary Vocational and Technical School Bežigrad] started with the

implementation of voluntary work among students within the Schola

project. Volunteering was a relatively new field for the school as well as

for the mentors. We wish to emphasise that these two organisations are

somewhat specific. Institute of Upbringing and Education Logatec takes

care of boys with criminal or problematic past. They keep encouraging

them to finish their education and also try to “nudge” them back to

society and proactive life. Due to the departure of one coordinator

of volunteer activities at the institution and the overwork of another

coordinator who could also not attend the meetings within the Schola,

they resigned as stakeholders in the training program (IO2). Secondary

Vocational and Technical School Bežigrad, Ljubljana has less successful

and motivated students and migrants with lack the lack of knowledge

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of the Slovenian language. Their voluntary activities were focused on tutoring among students.

METHODOLOGY

A series of meetings with mentors in schools and institutions was

conducted for the implementation of the School of Accession. The

first Intellectual Output (IO1) was implemented with volunteers in five

secondary schools and in two institutions, one of them later resigned

due to the inability to implement the set goals. Volunteering actions

were conducted with 189 students, 109 male and 80 female; 10

educators were involved. Volunteer actions were mostly conducted

in multigenerational centres, kindergartens, retirement homes and

hospitals in a form of organizing workshops and roundtables about

perceiving and accepting differences, tutoring pupils in primary schools

and secondary schools, environmental care, helping local authorities in

different actions. Mentors were providing feedbacks at our common

sessions, in a written form through questionnaires and through

personal communication. The second Intellectual Output (IO2) was

presented and tested only with mentors in a form of five sessions

that were performed at ZRC SAZU. The sessions contained power

point presentations on the topic from IO2, followed by exercises for

implementing IO2 and open debate about the topic, its shortcomings

and advantages.

THE BENEFITS AND RISKS OF THE COMPETENCE APPROACH

As it was proven during the Schola project, mentoring for volunteers

and the volunteering activities vary greatly from school to school. Some

mentors have regular weekly sessions with volunteers, but most of the

mentors try to find the time to meet with the volunteers within the

given schedules, which was pointed out as being very limiting in the

activities with the volunteers. The organisation of time and coordination

of activities with the volunteers, who have very different schedules,

was in fact proven to be the biggest issue preventing a successful

implementation of the Schola approach. As we determined, the

volunteers usually meet during class hours, before or after classes. For

example, a mentor who also works as a librarian encounters volunteers

in the library and only in one case they meet weekly at special lessons

devoted to volunteering.

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In most schools and institutions, they try to regularly record the work process and the competences acquired in the context of voluntary work;

however, they recognise the translation of the key competences defined

by the EU to everyday life situations in connection to volunteering as

too complicated. One of the schools uses the Nefiks system, which is a

Slovenian counterpart of the Youthpass system. They confirmed that the

system for recording informally acquired knowledge is useful, but it still

requires too much time and skills to enter the achievements and results

in the system. That is why they trained mentors among pupils who help

other volunteers in introducing and confirming volunteer activities (at

the above-mentioned school there are about 150 volunteers). At one

of the schools, the mentor motivates a large number of students for

volunteering every year, which they perform in a slightly different way,

with a group of students usually going to elderly homes or hospitals

where they present short cultural programmes. However, the mentor

has a negative attitude towards competence recording. Therefore, this

kind of formalised recording is not carried out. Instead, a regular oral

communication between the mentor and the volunteers takes place, in

which the volunteering experience is evaluated and reflected on with

students. The negative attitude towards the Nefiks’ activity recording

approach by an experienced mentor is definitely a contribution to the

development of the Schola approach, which is why we explain it below.

Nefiks is a Slovenian institution that assists young people and youth

organisations in recording, presenting and promoting informally

acquired knowledge and competences. They developed the

electronic portfolio (e-Nefiks) which was presented in a session with

the Schola team. So far, only one school is using Nefiks, while others

are still using an analogue system of recording the competences and

other data about volunteering activities of their pupils. The school

that uses e-Nefiks has trained young mentors to help other student

volunteers in recording of volunteer activities and competences.

The mentor emphasises that the essence of volunteering is in humanity,

solidarity, compassion, help and support. She also emphasises the

importance of developing cooperative relationships between

volunteers and the so-called “users” of volunteering; she strongly

believes that the evaluation of competences and volunteering is a

contradictory concept to volunteering. In addition, she emphasises that

the assessment of volunteering through achieved competencies turns

volunteering from the humanitarian to the market and business sectors.

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Referring to Christian Laval (2003), who claims that the school is not an enterprise, she mentions that competences advocate the neoliberal

interests of employers and that they use new forms of human resource

management. Consequently, employers look at the workforce as a

“stock” of competences and wish to rationalise and instrumentalise it

as much as possible. She emphasises that in fact volunteering should

be a result of internal motivation, connected to the needs of the “user”

or “beneficiary”. She understands the concept of competences as a

product of the European Union and emphasises that the criticisms of

the neoliberal system (Laval 2003) highlights the danger of the system

that promotes the transition of education to the market sector.

The mentor’s reflection mostly relates to the processes that are taking

place after completing formal education and entering the labour market

and not to the evaluation of competences in the prevention of the ESL.

Since we were also talking about the assessment of competences as a

means of facilitating the transition to the labour market (which was also

confirmed mostly by mentors from the vocational educational schools),

her reflection was in place. A wider debate arouses also in relation to

the national web-based Nefiks competence evaluation system, which

was more attractive for young users from a technological point of

view and was presented at one of the meetings. Furthermore, the

exploitation of the workforce was discussed as a possible side effect

of volunteering.

Such a discussion was also part of a national seminar held in May

2017. The seminar, titled Volunteering between Altruism and Egoism:

Why It Is Worth Helping, was part of the Schola project dissemination

activities. The long debate in fact started already in 2008, when we

organised a workshop at the conference of the European Association

of Social Anthropologists (EASA), which took place in Ljubljana. John

Donne’s famous meditation that “No man is an island” was a starting

point of the workshop which focused on volunteering as an essentially

human activity connecting people from different social and cultural

backgrounds. At the event, the diverse aspects of volunteering were

presented and discussed through real-life examples and cases, with

a particular focus on the variation in extent, style and context of

volunteer activities in different countries. The event and a special

issue of Traditiones journal, published in 2014, showed that voluntary

activities exist not only to unselfishly help others, but also to improve

an individual’s knowledge and reputation. Through their activities,

volunteers advance in social status and climb ladders of esteem,

broaden social networks and expand social capital. The debate at the

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workshop and in the journal, which continued in the Schola project, emphasized that voluntary activities are not based exclusively in selfless

concern for the welfare of others. Nonetheless, volunteering can be

still viewed and treated as “social glue” which binds individuals together

and which establishes and strengthens a community (Podjed 2014, 8).

Bénédicte Halba for example clearly explains in her article, published

in the special issue, that volunteers can build their own identities, at

both personal and collective levels. This is in her opinion part of the

process of European citizenship: being aware that being a member of

a society is based on a series of rights, but also brings with it a number

of responsibilities for all of its members, for many and diverse other

“citizens” (Halba 2014, 80). In short, the personal reasons are secondary

in comparison to the final result of volunteering, i.e. strengthening of

the community.

Anica Emil-Podboj, a mentor to several volunteers, told us how

she sees volunteer work and how this work is enriching her as a

mentor: “As a mentor to volunteers, I am happy to get in touch

with the ‘other side’ of students’ lives. Each generation of students

is special; in each generation, there were many volunteers who

initially wanted to be volunteers only to get compulsory hours

required by the school system, but later the voluntary work turned

into their way of life. Each student has some special talents, which

we have jointly discovered and shared among each other. With

their selfless volunteering, they give an example to the younger

generation and at the end of the school year, they also receive the

recognition of the Slovene Philanthropy. They also contribute to the

reputation of the Forestry and Wood Processing School Postojna

in the public. They give hope to those who need help and cheer

them up. Although a great deal of work and effort has to be put

into the network of volunteer activities, I am always encouraged

by the youngsters’ sincerity, cordiality, honesty and energy to do

something new, something good.”

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IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SCHOLA TOOL AMONG MENTORS

The second Intellectual Output (IO2), produced in the Schola project,

was based on the implementation of materials among mentors of

volunteering work and was very positively accepted. Meetings took

place in almost full occupation, while five students from the Forestry

and Wood Processing School Postojna, who are being trained as

mentors for students of volunteers, also joined the training. Each

presentation, translated in the Slovene language and prepared as a

MS PowerPoint presentation, was followed by a debate about the

previous knowledge and understanding of the topic and possibilities

for its further use. Mentors, for example, had never encountered the

terms ‘growth mindset’ and ‘connective communication’, while the

terms and concepts of formal, non-formal and informal learning were

more familiar to them. Each time, they emphasised the importance of

exercises that were part of the tool, such as ‘quick recipes’ that they

can use at school. In some meetings, we also included some exercises

that we found on the web and were related to the topic.

At the BOB Institute, where special programs focus on young people

who have already dropped out of school for various reasons, different

approaches to education have been used, since the existing ones were

not successful. This institute is the only stakeholder familiar with the

existing EU directives, competence approaches and other EU projects

that work in the field of education and it actually integrates them in their

work. They emphasize that combining different learning approaches,

such as the ones that Schola proposes, is the most effective.

Pupils, future mentors who came from the Postojna Forestry and Wood

Processing School, have many personal experiences with volunteering.

They emphasised that the topics presented in the framework of IO2

are useful in everyday life. They also mentioned the importance of

awareness that non-formal and informal learning are a part of lifelong

learning. The mentors mentioned the importance of evaluating

everything we did as an important source of experience and knowledge.

All mentors perceive the topics, presented in the context of IO2, as

being important for education and support of volunteer mentors. As

already mentioned, they mostly emphasised the importance of practical

exercises for understanding the concepts under consideration. Themes

and exercises will be used in formal educational classes, classroom

classes, volunteer meetings, workshops and camps where they work

as volunteers or mentors.

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CONCLUSION

The evaluation of the volunteering either in a form of evaluation of

the competences, as proposed by the Schola approach, or at least in a

form of some recognition of the effort and time that individuals invest

in the voluntary activity is of significant importance for youngsters.

The Slovene Philanthropy has formalised some of the forms of

evaluation of volunteering, thus encouraging schools, mentors and

students to participate. Thus, they award the title The Heroes of our

Time to organisations who demonstrate that their work in the field of

volunteering is satisfactorily. They also award mentors, since every year

they award the Mentor of the Year. In 2018, a participant of the Schola

project trainings was nominated for the award.

Each of participating schools has a different approach to evaluating

volunteer work, mostly through receiving a recognition award at the

end of the year. However, through meetings with volunteer mentors,

it turned out that they also need a kind of recognition of their work.

Mentors are usually already hard-pressed with school obligations and

are also mentoring as volunteers. The time left for such activities

is limited; therefore, all mentors emphasise the inadequate value of

mentoring young volunteers. Hence, one of the important ways to

promote volunteering in the school environment is to show recognition,

support and evaluation of the work of mentors. In most cases, one

mentor leads almost thirty volunteers, which means that either the

disburdening of these mentors from other work or the redistribution

of mentoring work between several mentors would enable a visible

change in this area.

Changes in the existing school structures are slow and require a lot

of effort. Presenting the Schola approach through e-books is one way

through which we might try to expand innovative thinking among

the largest number of teachers and others involved in educational

processes. The toughness of the existing approaches in education

is one of the burning topics that some people already realize and

can, with awareness, contribute to the quality of education in the

existing frameworks. The next step is to enforce changes in the existing

educational system, which will, on the basis of examples of good

practices and with the help of professional staff, come across a system

that will make education and learning closely related to everyday life.

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References

Halba, Bénédicte. 2014. Volunteering from Altruism to Otherness. Traditiones 43(3): 67–83.

Laval, Christian. 2003. L’école n’est pas une entreprise: Le néo-libéralisme à l’assaut de l’enseignement public. Paris: Éditions La Découverte.

Podjed, Dan. 2014. In Search of Lost Volunteering. Traditiones 43(3): 7–13.

Sanders, Elisabeth B.-N. 2008. Co-Creation and the New Landscapes of Design 4(1): 5–18.

Volunteering Act. 2011. Zakon o prostovoljstvu (ZProst). Uradni list Republike Slovenije

[Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia].

http://pisrs.si/Pis.web/pregledPredpisa?id=ZAKO5532

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90

Perspectives: Schola - a process

with a future to combat ESL in Europe

Bénédicte Halba, Benjamin Arino

The Schola project aimed at designing a tool and a method for

professionals – educators at school and outside school- to equip them

to identify and assess skills and competences acquired by youngsters

thanks to an extra-curricular activity. The activity selected for the

Schola was a volunteering as it has been proven to be an innovative

pedagogical approach for acquiring a non-formal and informal learning

(i.e. European Year of Volunteering, Comission 2011).

The Schola approach combined the results of two former European

projects. The first one “Assessing a Voluntary experience”, designed

the first portfolio to identify and assess a voluntary experience - it

was used in France and Italy for the national testing as a useful tool

to be used to apply the Schola process (4 step approach). As the VAEB

portfolio also exists in English, German, Polish and Hungarian, it could

contribute to the future use of the Schola process. Another European

project “Success at school through volunteering” (SAS; University of

Northampton & iriv, 2012-2014) considered a voluntary experience

as a meaningful way for youngsters facing difficulties at school or

already early school leavers to re-engage at school. The training that

was designed for youngsters for the purpose of the SAS and applied

since then in France among youngsters living in sensitive areas (SAS

in Essonne) could also usefully complete the Schola process.

A third European project the “Junior Citizen for Volunteering- JuCiVol”

has designed a pedagogical approach - a tutoring for youngsters

excluded from education, training and employment (the so-called

NEETs) and a mentoring for professionals - to combat early school

leaving. It addresses older youngsters than the Schola project - from 16

to 30 years. A bridge could be made among the JuCiVol and the Schola

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approach as it is supportive for educators working with youngsters in secondary school who have already left school. The proposed

connection to other projects is both a continuum and a main asset for

the sustainability of the Schola. If youngsters aged 14 to 16 years old

get familiar with the Schola approach based on volunteering, it will be

easier afterwards for educators to re-engage them in education, training

or employment when they are 16 to 30 years. The sooner youngsters

are faced to volunteering the better they will be convinced to volunteer

for building a professional or educative future.

The Schola approach has been an innovative process in many ways.

The French team that initiated the project in 2016 was composed of

a secondary school - the College Blaise Pascal in Massy (a sensitive

area in the south of Paris) - and a research institute more familiar with

the European perspective (iriv). They had already worked together

on the ground with youngsters involved in an action to promote

volunteering (2014-2016). After two years of common work for the

Schola, the Belgian and Italian partners initiated national projects

among youngsters living in sensitive areas (since 2018). The Karel de

Grote University has implemented actions in three schools around

Antwerp (Belgium). The University of Perugia has started supporting

students for the compulsory internship they have to implement before

they leave school.

The collaborative process implemented since the beginning of the Schola

- each of the partners bringing to the project its knowledge (either in

educational sciences, education or volunteering) - has contributed to

the achievement of the expected results - three Intellectual outputs

and even more. On the basis of this fruitful collaboration, the Schola

team from Belgium, France, Italy, Poland and Slovenia decided to go

on with the challenging topic of volunteering as an innovative way to

support youngsters and educators. This time the project should tackle

the issue of diversity - in the profiles of youngsters and educators but

also in the pedagogic strategies to be tested and implemented among

them – and volunteering as a way to bridge the gap between formal,

informal and non-formal learning.

The Schola approach is an “alternative” kind of pedagogy based on

the free will of educators and youngsters. It shouldn’t be compulsory

otherwise it would lose its main purpose, involving youngsters on a

voluntary basis to join extra-curricular activities with the support of

educators also recruited on a voluntary basis. For both youngsters

and educators, the mutual reward is to have the opportunity to work

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differently with each other’s and together with different professionals. If the involvement is voluntary, they have to respect a mutual agreement:

the educators agree to support youngsters to re-engage them at school

and youngsters agree to be active students, attending regularly the

pedagogical sessions and willing to implement an action on the ground

for others - in associations, at school or in any other relevant place.

This mutual involvement may be considered as a “social contract”

(Rousseau 1762), combining not only an educative but also citizen

perspective. The more youngsters and educators are aware of this

tacit agreement, the more chance they will have to combat early school

leaving as it is a two-way process.

College Blaise Pascal and iriv. 2014-2018. Action Bénévolat.

http://sas-essonne.blogspot.com/

Commission, European. 2011. European Year of Volunteering. Brussels.

iriv & alii. 2003-2006. Assessing a Voluntary experience for a professional future, VAEB

(Leonardo a Vinci project).

http://www.iriv-vaeb.net/projet-pionnier.php?lang=en

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1762. Du contrat social. Amsterdam: Marc-Michel Rey.

University of Burgos & iriv. 2016-2018. Junior Citizens for Volunteering – JUCIVOL

(KA3 project).

http://www3.ubu.es/jucivol/

University of Northampton & iriv. 2012-2014. Success at school through Volunteering –

SAS (Comenius project).

http://www.iriv-vaeb.net/projet.php?id=12&lang=en

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BRIDGES BETWEEN INTELECTUAL OUTPUTS

This e-book is a final publication of the Schola project. It is based upon

two previous intellectual outputs designed throughout the project:

1. A tool - “a portfolio” understood as a 4 step approach from experience

to competence - to identify and assess the informal and nonformal

learning acquired by youngsters outside school thanks to a voluntary

experience. It is available in English and translated in the 5 national

languages of the project (French, Italian, Belgian, Polish and Slovenian).

2. A mentoring to use the tool and process addressing educators -

understood in a broad sense, combining educators outside and inside

school – in order to take into account and/or assess the competences

acquired by youngsters useful at school.

Both intellectual outputs are available at:

http://www.schola-erasmus.eu/outputs

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BELGIAN

Deze e-book is de finale publicatie van het Schola project. Het is gebaseerd op

twee eerdere intellectuele outputs die ontwikkeld zijn doorheen het project.

1. Een tool - “een portfolio”, te begrijpen als een 4 fasen aanpak van ervaring

tot competentie – om informeel en non formeel leren van leerlingen buiten de

school (in vrijwilligerswerk), te identificeren en te evalueren. Het is beschikbaar in het Engels en het is vertaald in de vijf nationale talen van het project (Frans, Italiaans, Nederlands, Pools en Sloveens).

2. Een leidraad, mentoring voor leerkrachten en opvoeders – te begrijpen in de

ruime betekenis; namelijk zowel de opvoeders in als buiten de school - om de

tool te gebruiken en in te zetten met als doel competenties die jongeren hebben

bereikt en die zinvol zijn binnen school, te waarderen en/of te evalueren.

Ga naar:

http://www.schola-erasmus.eu/blog/belgium/projectvoorstelling

ITALIAN

Questo e-book è una pubblicazione finale del progetto Schola. Si basa su due

precedenti risultati intellettuali progettati nel corso del progetto:

1. Uno strumento - “un portfolio” inteso come un approccio in 4 fasi

dall’esperienza alla competenza - per identificare e valutare l’apprendimento

informale e non formale acquisito dai giovani fuori dalla scuola grazie ad

un’esperienza di volontariato. È disponibile in inglese e tradotto nelle 5 lingue nazionali del progetto (francese, italiano, belga, polacco e sloveno).

2. Un tutorato per utilizzare lo strumento e il processo rivolto agli educatori -

inteso in senso ampio, come gli educatori all’esterno e all’interno della scuola

- per tenere conto e / o valutare le competenze acquisite dai giovani che

possono essere utili a scuola.

Vai a:

http://www.schola-erasmus.eu/blog/italy/presentazione-del-progetto

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FRENCH

Ce livre numérique (e-book) est la publication finale du projet Schola. Il se

base, entre autres, sur les deux productions intellectuelles élaborées pendant

le projet:

1. Un outil – un portfolio -, pris dans le sens d’une approche méthodologique

en quatre étapes – de l’expérience à la compétence – pour identifier et évaluer

les apprentissages non formels et informels des jeunes, acquis en dehors

de l’école, grâce à une expérience bénévole. Il est disponible en Anglais et

traduit dans les cinq langues des pays partenaires (Français, Italien, Néerlandais, Polonais et Slovène).

2. Un guide pour accompagner les éducateurs à utiliser cet outil (portfolio) et,

le cas échéant, l’enrichir d’autres méthodes. Le terme « éducateurs » est pris

au sens large du terme, enseignants, éducateurs, responsables associatifs…,

afin de repérer et/ou évaluer les compétences acquises par les jeunes, et leur

valorisation/validation dans le cadre scolaire.

Pour y accéder:

http://www.schola-erasmus.eu/blog/france/presentation-du-projet

POLISH

Ten e-book jest końcową publikacją projektu Schola. Powstał w oparciu o dwie

publikacje opracowane wcześniej w ramach projektu:

1. “Portfolio” opisujące czteroetapowy model pracy z wolontariuszami: od

zdobywania doświadczenia do nabycia kompetencji. Ma na celu identyfikację

i ocenę rezultatów nieformalnego i pozaformalnego uczenia się młodzieży

uczestniczącej w wolontariacie poza szkołą. Model jest dostępny w języku

angielskim i został przetłumaczony na pięć języków narodowych partnerów

projektu (francuski, włoski, flamandzki, polski i słoweński).

2. Poradnik dla edukatorów i nauczycieli zawierający narzędzia pomocne w

pracy z młodzieżą. Zawiera podstawy teoretyczne, praktyczne wskazówki oraz

ćwiczenia ułatwiające ocenę kompetencji nabytych w trakcie wolontariatu i

uwzględnianie ich w pracy z uczniami w szkole.

http://www.schola-erasmus.eu/blog/poland/projekt-schola-podstawowe-informacje

96



SLOVENIAN

Pričujoča e-knjiga je končna publikacija projekta Schola in temelji na dveh

predhodnih intelektualnih dosežkih, ki sta nastala v okviru projekta.

1. Orodje »portfelj, razumljen kot štiristopenjski pristop od izkušnje do kompetenc« pomaga identificirati in ovrednotiti neformalno in priložnostno

učenje, ki so ga mladi izkusili v prostovoljskih izkušnjah izven šole. Orodje je

dostopno v angleškem in petih nacionalnih jezikih (francoskem, belgijskem,

italijanskem, poljskem in slovenskem jeziku).

2. Mentorstvo za uporabo orodja in procesa je namenjeno edukatorjem - tako

učiteljem kot mentorjem izven šol -, da bi ustrezno upoštevali in/ali ocenili

kompetence, ki so jih mladi pridobili in jim koristijo v šoli.

Dostop na:

http://www.schola-erasmus.eu/blog/slovenia/predstavitev-projekta

97





CONTRIBUTORS

Karel de Grote University Col ege (KdG; www.kdg.be) is a large-scale higher education institution in the northern part of Belgium. KdG is founded

in 1994 when 13 Catholic University Colleges in Antwerp merged into KdG.

It is now the biggest university college in the region with approximately 1100

staff, 13500 students, 16 bachelor’s degrees, 4 bachelor after bachelor’s, 9

postgraduates, 1 master’s degree and 1 master after master. Other educational

programmes include advanced bachelor’s, international degree programmes

as well as two English exchange programmes. KdG supports sustainable

development for students, staff and society, this in mutual interaction and

based upon an inviting learning, living and working environment. The aim is

to get the best out of everyone and to strive for excellence together. Driven

by values inspired by Christian principles and open to other ideologies, KdG

creates challenging and motivating tailor-made learning contexts for anyone

who wants to develop into a professional with personality. The college thinks

ahead and has a feeling for the dynamics of a rapidly changing global context.

They share knowledge and invest in strong collaborations with their partners.

They strongly believe that team work allows both students and staff members

to acquire competences – such as knowledge, skills, insights and attitudes –

that are essential in a working context as well as in the broader context of

our society.

Sofie Peetroons is a Master of Pedagogical Sciences and finished Postgraduate Studies in Mediation. She has been working for KdG since 2016 as a lecturer

and coach in pedagogical and educational topics. She also has experience

in people management and working with volunteers (2015-2016). She was

previously an educator in social sciences, competence- and skill-orientated

lessons, communication and interaction skills. She has engaged in cross-border

projects and she co-wrote a study guide “GIL! Goesting in Leren” for the

VZW Sint-Angela-Montfort College (2008-2015). She has also authored a

manual “Social Sciences” published by Plantyn. She was previously a lecturer

for the Catholic University of Louvain (2005-2008) in intercultural education

and pedagogical skills. She began her professional career at CIO Training

98





Center (1997-2005) as a software trainer, responsible for teaching software

programmes, writing manuals, doing long-term project work in several

companies, coaching employers and training internal communication strategies.

Wouter Smets educates teachers at the Karel de Grote University College.

Before that, he was a secondary education teacher, specialising in history. He

lectures on educational philosophy and instructional design. His research is

focused on urban education and teachers’ competences to address differences

among pupils. Driven by a concern on the large gap between educational theory

and practice, he has coordinated several research and innovations projects with

a focus on differentiated instruction. These projects share a strong focus on

participatory approaches in order to achieve joint psychological ownership of

scholars and practitioners. Recent publications include: Smets, W. (2017), High

quality differentiated instruction – a checklist for professional development on

handling differences in the general education classroom, Universal Journal of

Educational Research, 5 (11), 2074-2080. Smets, W., & Struyven, K. (2018).

Power relations in educational scientific communication—a critical analysis of

discourse on learning styles. Cogent Education, 5(1), 1429722. doi:10.1080

/2331186X.2018.1429722

The University of Perugia (www.unipg.it) founded in 1308, is one of the oldest universities in Europe. Today, research, education and consulting

activities are organised in 16 Departments, with about 23,500 students, 1,100

professors and researchers and 1,000 staff members. In recent years, the

University has undertaken a broad renewal of its programs and curricula, which

prepare students to meet the demands of the labour market and to satisfy

the needs for innovation in private and public sectors. With its wide offer of

degree programs, covering nearly all fields of study, the University combines

a long and solid tradition of excellence with a commitment to innovation and

an interdisciplinary approach. Post-graduate degrees are offered in top rated

specialisation schools and doctoral programs, as well a variety of masters

programs in the various academic disciplines. On the international level, the

University remains firmly committed to developing collaborative relationships

with EU and non EU Universities, to facilitate and improve international

advanced study opportunities for its students. Currently we have established

working agreements with 361 institutions of higher learning throughout the

European Union, and about 90 cooperation agreements with EU and extra-EU

universities. Several degree programs available at the University of Perugia

already confer double degrees or European degree.

Marco Bartolucci, post-doctoral researcher, PhD in neurosciences. His research interests include prevention and countering of school dispersion, cognitive

empowerment, reading and narrative listening processes, relations between

99

neurosciences and learning. As a clinician and researcher, he is interested in learning disabilities, school inclusion and processes of learning and cognitive

empowerment. He also deals with software for cognitive rehabilitation and

educational strategies through augmented reality devices. His publications

include Dispersione scolastica: Ascoltare i protagonisti per comprenderla e

prevenirla (edited by, with F. Batini, FrancoAngeli, 2016), Lettura e dispersione (ed. by, with I. D. M. Scierri, R. Salvato, FrancoAngeli, 2018), Batini, F., Bartolucci, M., & De Carlo, E. (2017). Fight Dispersion Through Education: The Results

of the First Cycle of the NoOut Project. Mind, Brain, and Education; F.Batini,

M.Bartolucci, A.Timpone (2018) “The effects of reading aloud in the primary

school”. In Psychology and Education Journal; F. Batini, M. Bartolucci, E. De

Carlo (2018) “I feel good at school! Reducing school discomfort levels through

integrated interventions”. In: Athens journal of education; M. Bartolucci, F.

Batini (2018) “The effects of a narrative intervention program in people living

with dementia” In: Psychology and Neuroscience.

Federico Batini, associate professor of Experimental Pedagogy at the FISSUF

Department of the University of Perugia. Among the last publications on the

topic: with S. Giusti (edited by), Imparare dalla lettura (Loescher, 2013); with

M. Bartolucci (ed. by), Dispersione scolastica. Ascoltare i protagonisti per

comprenderla e prevenirla (FrancoAngeli, 2016); C’era una volta un pezzo

di legno (FrancoAngeli, 2016); Dropout (Fuorionda, 2014 Premio Italiano di

Pedagogia) and, among others, the contribution on Rivista (with M. Bartolucci

and M. E. De Carlo): Fight Dispersion through Education: The Results of the

First Cycle of the NoOut Project, “Mind, Brain, and Education”, (nov. 2017),

Tra lettura e dispersione in Lettura e dispersione (ed. by I. D. M. Scierri, M.

Bartolucci, R. Salvato, FrancoAngeli, 2018). He coordinates the international

research network on school dispersion (IReNE) and leads the periodical Lifelong,

Lifewide Learning. He founded the volunteering movement on reading aloud

(LaAV) and devised the method of narrative guidance.

Alberto Santoro, graduated in International Political Science and specialised in European Project Management, SMEs Internationalisation and Public

Communication. After having collaborated on EU topics as a journalist with local

daily newspapers, he carried out a traineeship at the Council of the European

Union (DG F Press, Communication and Transparency). He has been working

as EU Project Manager in several institutions and associations, dealing with the

European Structural and Investment Funds. At the Enterprise Europe Network

of the European Commission, he worked as an expert on the 7th EU FP for

Research and Technological Development and the Horizon 2020 Programme.

He has gained experiences in specialised translations as well as in tourism

industry. He regularly participates as EU Affairs Communication Specialist in

the plenary meetings of the Club of Venice, network of the communication

directors and senior communication specialists from the EU Member States,

institutions and candidate countries.

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Collège Blaise Pascal (http://www.clg-pascal-massy.ac-versailles.fr/) from Essonne (project leader) has 450 students, aged 11 to 16 years. The Collège

belongs to the Priority Educative Areas (Réseau d’éducation prioritaire) which

demonstrates the same characteristics as the Urban Sensitive areas (high

poverty rate, high unemployment rate, many single parents…). It is located in

Massy, a town with around 45,000 inhabitants in the South of Paris. At the

Collège Blaise Pascal, the teacher and coordinator in charge of the network

Success at School in Essonne has played an active role in the experiment

conducted by the French partner of the SAS project (2013-2014). The SAS

continues thanks to the close relationship with iriv conseil. The project focuses on creating social cohesion and building links with families, inhabitants and

professionals working with them; these are educators, teachers in colleges,

associations from the different districts of the City, public services working in the neighbourhood. The Collge Blaise Pascal has a close relationship with the

Cultural Centre Salle Paul B and the Opéra de Massy, which offers cultural

activities addressing young audiences and tries to involve inhabitants in its

cultural programmes.

Benjamin Arino is the head of the secondary school Collège Blaise Pascal.

He holds a Master 2 (D.E.A) in Medieval History. He joined the Ministry for

National Education in 2003 as a Councillor in Education (CPE). He worked

for several secondary schools from 2003 to 2009. Since then he has worked

in schools within sensitive urban areas – Evry, Grigny, and Massy (Essonne).

He was deputy head at the secondary school Collège Pablo Neruda in Grigny.

Since 2015, he has been head of the secondary school Collège Blaise Pascal

in Massy. He has been involved in several projects defending citizenship and

republican values: secularism, fraternity, solidarity. The school is viewed as an example of a democratic organisation. Benjamin Arino was involved in the

previous action implemented by iriv to enhance volunteering among youngsters.

He is the leader and legal representative of the Schola project.

Rachel Savoie graduated in physics and began her current career in 1998 at the Collège Blaise Pascal. In 2000, she decided to teach in sensitive education

areas in order to apply pedagogy focused on projects. Each year she conducts

scientific workshops as extra-curricular activities. For the past five years, she has been in charge of the option “discovery of the professional world” among

pupils aged 14-16 years (last year of the college). She is a coordinator of the

network priority education in Massy, consisting of eight primary schools and

the Collège Blaise Pascal. Its aim is to encourage success at school among

diverse pupils. Since 2015, she has been a member of the citizen council in

Massy, most involved in associations. She has coordinated the promotion

of volunteering among students of the Collège Blaise Pascal along with the

Centre Salle Paul B.

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Fernando Rosa is a graduate in Sports Science and Coaching with a specialisation in swimming and football from the London Metropolitan University. He has

worked for public and private primary and secondary schools in London as a

sports teacher before moving to France in 2013. In France, he started to work

in a sensitive education area in a secondary school, Collège Romain Rolland in

Bagneux, as an Assistant Coordinator for a dispositive called “Classe Relais” that focuses on early school leavers. In September 2015, he joined the secondary

school Collège Blaise Pascal as a Prevention and Safety Assistant. He works

mainly with students with whom he conducts workshop on how to release

stress and, improve concentration, as well as diplomacy and self-control.

The Institute of Research and Information on Volunteering (www.iriv.

net) is a private and non-profit institute, independent of public administrators and economic interests. It aims to improve knowledge and practice through

lifelong learning principles within the non-profit sector. It focused on volunteering between 1997 and 2003, which later broadened into the field

of migration studies. In 2000, it created a profit organisation iriv Conseil in

order to carry on studies and trainings both on the national and European level.

The results of iriv’s projects are available at www.iriv-vaeb.net for volunteering

and www.iriv-migrations.net for migration issues together with a general portal

www.iriv-publications.net. Since 2004, the Institute has published an electronic review (www.benevolat.net) together with a newsletter dedicated to migration issues (www.club-iriv.net). Since 1998, it has organised or co-organised several conferences and seminars both on national and European levels (France, Austria,

Netherlands…). It has conducted two practical projects since 2012: for migrants

at the Cité des Métiers (club of iriv) and for youngsters in Essonne (together

with a secondary school, city hall and cultural institution)

Bénédicte Halba, PhD in Economics (University Paris Pantheon Sorbonne,

1996), is the founding president of the Institute for Research and Information

on Volunteering (iriv). She is responsible for its studies and training programmes.

She edits publications and websites, including iriv’s electronic review Les rives de l’iriv and iriv’s newsletter De Paris aux autres mondes. The pilot EU project

she initiated and directed in seven EU countries (2003-2006), Assessing a

Voluntary Eperience (VAEB), was awarded in Helsinki in 2006 for excellent

practice in addressing the priorities of the Copenhagen Process. The project

Success at School through Volunteering (SAS, 2012-2014), which she initiated

with the University of Northampton across six EU countries was the touchstone

for a monthly activity for youngsters implemented in Esonne since 2013. She

has lectured at various universities in Europe (France, Austria, UK…) and has

been a member of board of associations and scientific committees (France

and Switzerland) since 2007.

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Jagiellonian University (www.uj.edu.pl) has a student population of over 45,000, studying a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes

in 15 Faculties and 46 Institutes. JU is the second largest centre of higher

education in Poland. In total it offers undergraduate, master, doctoral and

postgraduate programmes in 128 disciplines. The Faculty Management and

Social Communication, Institute of Public Affairs has been acknowledged

nationally as a leading provider of training and development in public

organisations. Responsible for that area is the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA).

It runs several study programmes in public management and social policy

studies. It has over 3000 students. Within public management programmes

it offers specific programmes focused on different public organisations. The

Educational management programme offered within the IPA by the Department

of Educational Management (DEM) is one of the most recognised in Poland.

The IPA DEM works collaboratively with schools, educational authorities on

a local level and a number of government and private agencies involved in

education. The IPA has a well-resourced research environment built in 2006-

2008 which seeks to both stimulate research and to ensure quality through

the careful evaluation of projects. Educational research is an area of strength

which is developing further in scale and quality.

Agnieszka Borek, sociologist evaluator, expert and coach in the programme

for improving pedagogical supervision in Poland. Author and co-author of

many evaluations in education. Works in “Era of Evaluation” – the partnership

of Jagiellonian University in Cracow and Centre for Educational Development

in Warsaw in the project “Boosting Effectiveness of Pedagogical Supervision

System and School Quality Assessment Programme”. Her research interests

teaching and learning, teachers’ attitudes, schools’ evaluation and self-

evaluation, and teachers’ professional development. She is a certified educator.

Since 2011, she has been a director of the educational project for 23,000 Polish

teachers and principals focused on the whole school development, exploring

issues of school self-evaluation, authentic teaching and learning processes

and data based decision making. She has been a coordinator of a project on

transformation of schools’ inspection system for schools and other educational

institutions in Poland (funded within the European Social Fund).

Laura Rabiej graduated in Management of Education in Jagiellonian University.

Currently she is a PhD student at the same university. She works in the Institute for Public Affairs in the Faculty of Management and Social Communication

and in Competency Development Office at the Centre for Academic Support

of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. She is involved in the implementation

of several projects in the field of education and evaluation. She is author

and co-author of several articles. Her research interests are focused on the

quality of teaching and learning, learning organisation and schools’ evaluation.

She worked in project “Boosting Effectiveness of Pedagogical Supervision

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System and School Quality Assessment Programme” on transforming inspection

system for schools and other educational institutions in Poland (funded by the

European Social Fund). At that time, she was a member of the methodological

team which prepared procedures, methods and tools for school evaluation.

Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC

SAZU, www.zrc-sazu.si) is the leading Slovenian research centre in humanities and a cutting-edge academic institution in Central, Eastern, and South-eastern

Europe. It has a multidisciplinary character; in addition to the humanities,

its spheres of research cover the natural and social sciences. The research

network of ZRC SAZU consists of researchers working at eighteen institutes.

Researchers conduct their studies at three regional research stations, which

connect the research network across Slovenia. ZRC SAZU’s competences

include a scientific, analytical, and synthetic multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approach, extensive knowledge and experience connected with compiling

databases, designing thematic maps and graphic material, and preparing various

publications. Research teams of the ZRC SAZU consist of researchers and

technical and specialist advisers with a high level of responsibility that maintain strong and diverse contacts with the international research community. ZRC

SAZU has its own publishing house, bookstore, and audio-visual laboratory; it

houses the Geographical Museum, and boasts numerous collections. Among

its rich publishing activity, five research journals listed in the Thomson Reuters indices are especially noteworthy. ZRC SAZU offers several undergraduate and

graduate academic programmes: The Comparative Study of Ideas and Cultures,

Karst Studies, the EU Master’s Programme in Migration and Intercultural

Relations (Erasmus Mundus status), and Cultural History.

Mojca Kovačič, PhD, is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethnomusicology of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. She is a

professor of music with experience in teaching music in secondary school. Her

interest mainly cover research into folk music as well as soundscape studies in

connection to urban religious sounds and street music. She conducts out music

workshops for youngsters. She is a professional consultant for Public Fund for

Cultural Activities of the Republic of Slovenia, and the national representative

for the International Council for Traditional Music. Lately, she has been involved in coordination of three Erasmus+ projects related to volunteering among

youngsters and development of their competences. She is skilled in project

administration and organisation of scientific meetings.

Dan Podjed, PhD, is a Research Fellow at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) and an Assistant Professor for

Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Ljubljana. He is a convenor of the Applied Anthropology Network of the European Association of Social

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Anthropologists (EASA) and initiator of the international symposium Why the World Needs Anthropologists, annually organised since 2013. In 2011,

he was awarded by the Slovenian Research Agency for his publications on

nature conservation volunteering in Slovenia and received an award in 2008

for exceptional achievements from the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts.

His current research interests include volunteering and altruism, sustainable

lifestyle, human-technology interactions, and organisational cultures.

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