The BRIDGE partnership promoted a study aimed at collecting the voices of teachers, educators and staff involved in the school, training and anti-compulsory school-leaving activities carried out by the partners in their territories.
What emerges is a variegated picture that reproduces the territorial specificities and returns a series of common elements that are very important in the work of constructing a new approach in the work of teachers and educators among themselves and with pupils.
Thanks to the answers collected, it is possible to draw a general profile of the teacher figure, characterized by significant professional experience (16 years on average) and a varied training in various fields (in particular humanities, mathematics, science, linguistics) in some cases flanked by specific studies in education and training with both minors and adults. Our teachers are professionals already accustomed to collaborating with other figures active in the school context and in particular psychologists (for 66% of those interviewed), pedagogues and educators (for over 85%) and linguistic, cultural mediators (for over 57%). (Table 1)
Table 1
Improving the ability of teachers and other educational figures to collaborate with each other and with pupils therefore becomes strategic - not only to better integrate different experiences and competences - but also to positively influence the school performance of the pupils themselves.
More than 65% of the respondents (table 2)believe in fact, the ability to cooperate between different figures has a very important influence on pupils' performance, but not only.
Table 2
Widening the scope of the survey, the interviewees point out that pupils' performance is very much influenced by a climate of well-being in the classroom (for 78% of the interviewees - table 3) and by a positive relationship between pupil and teacher (over 72% - table 4).
Table 3
Table 4
To these factors, on which the project in a direct and undirected manner aspires to act, must be added wider external conditions - in particular a weak socio-economic background and the absence of an effective family and social network - which require structured and systemic policies and interventions. Even by changing the perspective of the interviewees - educators and other professional figures active in the schools of reference - this picture is in substance confirmed, in particular for the importance of the relationship between pupil and teacher (table 5).
Table 5
We also asked the educators for their personal assessment of the educational objectives identified by the school programmes and the rating scales used. More than 50% of the respondents find the objectives identified by the individual programmes comprehensible, but our sample is divided on the degree to which they agree with the rating scales adopted (50% give a mark of 5 and 6 out of 10 and 50% give a mark of 7 and 8 out of 10 - table 6).
Table 6
Respondents highlight the need to take more account of students' backgrounds and to strengthen transversal skills, soft skills and communication and collaboration skills among teachers, educators and other educational figures present. Improving communication and collaboration skills are essential to make the assessment system more comprehensible and able to take into account the peculiarities of the pupils.
Next, we asked the interviewees to focus on the pupils attending the different schools active in the territories of the partner realities. In general, the figures working in the educational sphere point out that the percentage of pupils with relational difficulties is over 50% of the pupils followed (70% for 37.5% of those interviewed), a percentage that among teachers is between 30% and 50%.
Relational difficulties are one of the many causes that contribute to increasing the risk of dropping out of school. In this respect, teachers and educators have indicated as causes that contribute to increasing the risk of dropping out of school those problems deriving from the family environment (socio-economic background, fewer opportunities, lack of motivation and support in completing studies) and in the school environment the lack of motivation to learn, irregular attendance, the absence of a good classroom climate and positive relationships with peers and teachers, working methods and a positive learning environment.
We asked which characteristics, which skills teachers and educators must have and activate - in their opinion - to prevent their pupils from dropping out of school. The starting point is communication and empathy, which are also fundamental for activating targeted and specific counselling strategies. Very important for the interviewees are therefore the personal soft skills of teachers and trainers and the ability to collaborate between the various professionals involved in the classroom environment, integrating approaches, methods and knowledge with a view to increasing students' well-being, recognising their needs and strengthening their ability to successfully complete their school career.
Overall, the data collected from the study paints a picture that - integrating the motivations that led to the design of BRIDGE - reflects the need to strengthen the capacity for collaboration and the impact that teachers and educators, together, can have in improving the well-being of students and class groups.
Through the activities and tools that the project will create, an attempt will therefore be made to promote a new conception of pupils' relational and emotional abilities, developing methodologies not only aimed at particular targets but - through working with these targets - strengthening the relationships of all, teachers, educators, pupils and families. In this way, the class group can become a place for the development of functional skills for the continuation of school, human and civic education.