The C4S project will foster inclusive science education in a European framework

by admin | juny 26, 2020 | General

The European project “Communities for Sciences – Towards promoting an inclusive approach in science education” (C4S), led by the Fundació Universitària del Bages (Manresa campus of University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia), will promote a more inclusive science education, especially among vulnerable groups such as immigrants, Roma community and people with disability. The project has two different lines of development: on the one hand, it will conduct fieldwork activities with vulnerable communities and, on the other hand, it will use the data collected in the fieldwork to do research and produce knowledge to share with the scientific community. C4S will work with children and youth up to 16 years old and their families through community living labs, taking also into account a gender intersectional perspective, to boost the participants’ interest in Science and produce academic papers on inclusive science education.

C4S will promote an institutional change to oppose the inequality in access to science education and will also create working-groups with experts in  Science and members of the vulnerable communities to promote a more inclusive science education. The project will take place in nine cities from eight European countries and their surroundings: Milan (Italy), Brussels (Belgium), Manresa and Vic (Catalonia-Spain), Wien (Austria), Budapest (Hungary), Sofia (Bulgaria), Lund (Sweden) and Berlin (Germany). Different universities, local educational institutions and non-profit organizations will work together during the three years of duration of the project that has already been approved by de European Commission within the framework of Horizon 2020 program with a total budget of 1,1M€.

C4S aims at approaching scientific phenomena and procedures to children to promote in them new enquiry processes but also takes especially into account that Science, as a social practice, can reflect, under some circumstances, current existing social practices within the societies it is inscribed, such as gender, racial or ableist stereotypes or exclusion processes or even invisibilising some social groups as scientific producers and experts. This invisibility prevents children and youth of some groups and communities from having positive role-models to follow in terms of Science vocations. The consortium in charge of the development of the project will work to overcome those practices by providing knowledge and tools to children, youth and families, Public Authorities, mass media and scientific community.  The main outputs of the project will be the creation an International Observatory on Inclusive Science Education, a style guide for science communicators and a White Book on inclusive Science education addressed to experts, policy-makers and educators.

The C4S consortium is integrated by Fundació Universitària del Bages (Manresa campus of UVic-UCC) and Vic campus of UVic-UCC (both from Catalonia-Spain), IB University of Applied Health and Social Science (Germany), Galileo Progetti (Hungary), Università Degli Studi Di Milano-Biccocca (Italy), Board of Education for Vienna, European Office (Austria), Municipality of Sesto San Giovanni – Socio-Educational Sector – Giocheria Laboratori (Italy), Erasmus Brussel University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Belgium), Wirtschaftsuniversitat Wien (Austria), Lunds Universitet (Sweden) and New Bulgarian University (Bulgary).