COMBATING SCHOOL VIOLENCE

An ongoing activity for the Teacher Training Centre of Iasi

• Preventing the phenomena of violence in schools involves developing and implementing strategies for different categories of actors involved in school and extracurricular activities. Violent behavior in school areas, as demonstrated by studies in the field, is generated by multiple factors: individual, relational, social, cultural, school and family environment.

• Violence is the product of multiple levels of influence of the above factors on a person’s behavior. Consequently, only taking into account the complex interactions between them can offer a consistent explanation of violence and at the same time, can underpin a comprehensive prevention strategy to involve and empower representatives of different groups of actors at various levels.

• The experience of other countries in this area has revealed that the method which had the greatest success was the one that involved all educational stakeholders - teachers, pupils, parents - as well as representatives of partner institutions with responsibilities in preventing and combating violence in the schools. The strategy of the Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sport involved all the categories of educational actors in preventing violence in schools.

• The Teacher Training Centre was actively involved in achieving this objective.The Teacher Trainers of the TTC Iasi, in partnership with teachers and psychologists from CJAPP made in 2008 the study: "Violence in schools in Iasi”. This study responded to the need of knowing the size, forms of manifestation and causes of the phenomenon of violence in the schools in Iasi, in drawing up strategies for prevention and improvement of the situation.

• Starting from the different types and manifestations of violence, the research has provided a landmark in the forms in which it is diagnosed, from the deviations from the school program to moral, verbal and physical violence.This study was the basis for the strategy of the County School Inspectorate of Iasi to reduce the phenomenon of violence in the schools of the County.

• Building on the results of work done between the school years 2008-2011 in the schools of the Iasi County (teacher training activities, training for school management team, publishing of information materials, meetings with representatives of relevant institutions of the community, etc.. ), the teacher trainers of TTC developed informative and work materials addressed to the educational actors through which they can assist the interested schools in identifying, preventing and combating manifestations of violence.

• The TTC’s activity also focused on giving methodological assistance to the school’s key actors (teachers, managers) to conduct training courses for school-level actors on topics relevant to the issue of school violence to fill a deficiency in the training of teachers in this area and in the lifelong training opportunities.

• Institutional development activities for the County schools aimed at implementing the national anti-violence strategy (County Commission and committees in schools to prevent and combat violence, board of directors, committees of the coordinator teachers).

• The work of the TTC Iasi to support the implementation of the national anti-violence strategy aimed at improving the quality and diversification of training programs to include training of teachers during courses on violence in schools.

• The main activities carried out by the TTC experts were:

- Conducting diagnosis studies regarding the training needs on county and local level, on the topic of prevention and combating school violence.

- The involvement of the TTC members in virtual communities and communication practices on school violence in order to identify problems faced by teachers in implementing the measures to prevent and combat school violence and the solutions tested.

• Provide support in developing a curriculum for teacher training on preventing and combating school violence.

• In terms of training in preventing and combating violence in schools, the activities aimed at developing a network of trainers with expertise in preventing and combating school violence at different decision levels (school managers, teachers).

• The main tasks that the TTC Iasi had under this component were:

- Develop training modules and learning resources for different groups of participants.

- Organizing training sessions for school managers and teachers who were selected to act as trainers at the local and county level.

- Portfolio assessment of people which are trainers.

• In the future the TTC Iasi will work with the representatives of the central and local structures created by the “Strategy of the Ministry of Education for reducing the phenomenon of violence in schools" to develop institutional capacity for becoming viable and active structures, capable to perform their duties specified by the strategy. This regards the County Commission and School Committees to prevent and combat violence in schools.

• The results that we anticipate arising from the objectives and activities that we have proposed. The most important include:

- Developing the institutional capacity of the structures responsible with monitoring the phenomena of violence in schools and transforming them into functional structures, which would contribute effectively to a competent approach to the phenomena of violence and to the prevention and improvements.

- Acquisition of skills for addressing school violence phenomena and its prevention. We considered a number of 100 directors of schools, 150 board members from schools. Skills in preventing and reducing school violence for 300 teachers.

- Establishing of a body, a network of trainers with skills in the same area.

• GENERAL EXPECTED RESULT:

- reduction of violent episodes in schools;

- improving the forms of communication;

• PROGRAMMES FOR EXPERTS DUE TO THE REFORM PROCESS AND RECOGNIZED BY THE NATIONAL CENTRE FOR TEACHER TRAINING- class management- counseling and orientation – nonformal area- participative democracy – The Citizen’s Project

• TRAINING PROGRAMMES PROPOSED BY THE TTC IASI

- early inclusive and intercultural education - psycho- pedagogical methods for improving the

teaching skills of the teachers- internet security – the generations’ security- intercultural education in multi-ethnical

communities- conflict management- preventing and reducing school violence

• PROJECTS IN WHICH THE TTC IASI IS INVOLED

Securitatea Internetului – Securitatea Tinerei Generatii – LLP programme, Grundtvig SEIN – SEGE, GRU-09-P-LP-29-IS-TR

Eurostandards in continuous teacher training, Leonardo da Vinci, VETPRO Mobility, LLP-LdV/VETPRO/2007/RO/049

MATRA 06/RM/9/1 – Prevenirea delincvenţei juvenile în incinta şi zona adiacentă unităţilor de învăţământ preuniversitar, a project of the Ministry of Educationa in partnership with the General Police Inspectorate and sustained by the Netherlands

Face It, Grundtvig 1, LLP, 230305-CP-1-2006-1-RO-GRUNDTVIG-G11, EUROED Iasi-Romania

Vocational Education of Teachers Working With Handicapped Children - ,,Leonardo da Vinci” – LLP-LDV/PAR/2010/RO/058

Youth Educational Systems, Comenius Regio, LLP, COM-09-PP-07-IS-IT

ACŢIUNI INOVATOARE PENTRU INTEGRAREA ÎN ITALIA A ELEVILOR ROMÂNI ÎN PARCURSUL DE FORMARE SUPERIOARA ŞI CONTINUĂ - FSE, priority axe 1 POS-DRU – Project Code 3859/0/1/4124/2009, partnership with AGENZIA FORMAZIONE LAVORO VENETO – ITALIA

LA UN CLICK DE EDUCATIA MODERNA SI EFICIENTA - FSE, POS –DRU priority axe 1 DMI 1.3 , partnership with ISJ Iasi, CCD Tulcea and SIVECO S.A

TINERII IMPOTRIVA VIOLENTEI - FSE, POS –DRU, priority axe 1, partnership with MECTS and ISE

SCOALA – O NECESITATE NU DOAR UN DREPT - POS -DRU priority axe 2 DMI 2.2 partnership with ,,ASOCIATIA TINERI PENTRU VIITOR’’ and Consiliul Judetean Bacau

Establishment of the Counseling Office for teachers in the Teacher Training Centre Iasi.