current projects
ALPHABETICA aims to provide effective solutions that allow children and young people at risk of poverty or social exclusion to access arts and arts-based education through co-creative participatory research actions.
January 2021- August 2024
ALPHABETICA will carry out 12 pilot actions across 8 European countries aimed at enhancing the transformative effect of active participation in community-driven artistic co-creation activities. Collectively, the research pilot actions cover a range of school settings and out-of-school community settings with children from 3 to 18, as well as young people and adults of various ages.
The project is informed by a synthesis of theories of youth participatory action research, Theory of Change, pedagogies of care, love and enchantment, pedagogies of past, present and the imagined future, and the more-than-human approach. This conceptual framework invites a reflexive and in-depth exploration of children and young people’s complex everyday realities, while offering opportunities for creative self-expression and meaning-making, participation, skills-development, and relationship-building.
ALPHABETICA will take a transformative approach by:
- Providing qualitative and quantitative data on attitudes towards and perceptions of arts by children, families, educators and policymakers
- Using participatory and caring approaches and pedagogies to provide an evidence-based assessment of the instrumental outcomes of arts-based education, their transformative impact, and their transferability to children and young people’s other life domains
- Taking and teaching a caring approach that through arts-based education will sustain a commitment to lifelong learning
- Providing evidence-based recommendations for policy action
The Polish research team is primarily responsible for Work Package 3 (WP3). The main objective of WP3 is to systematically map and analyze existing exemplary practices that ensure universal access to the arts and arts education for children and young people. Additionally, WP3 aims to develop a comprehensive training program for teachers and educators, focusing on integrating arts education into formal curricula. This research initiative seeks to identify and disseminate best practices while equipping educators with tools and strategies that foster social inclusion in arts education. By elevating these practices from local experiments to a coherent EU education policy, the research aims to contribute to the wider development of arts education.
Research and Data Collection
As part of these efforts, research teams in different countries will analyze official curricula at the preschool, primary, secondary, and university levels within their respective countries. The goal is to gather data and analyze the integration, positioning, and structure of arts education in these curricula. This research will facilitate cross-country comparisons, taking into account cultural, socio-economic, and other contextual factors.
Each partner will also organize discussion panels involving educators and stakeholders (10–50 participants) to discuss the practical implementation of arts education methods in schools. The aim is to identify and document best practices and obstacles to their implementation. We will ensure that these panels represent diverse social backgrounds, including urban, small-town, and rural communities. They will provide insights into factors limiting access to knowledge, education, and arts-related activities, as well as potential ways to overcome these barriers. These findings will serve as a foundation for the teacher training module and educational poverty indicators. The ultimate goal of this initiative is to identify gaps in education policies and practices that exclude children from accessing arts education.
Data Collection Methods
The data collection process will include:
- Survey research (over 500 responses in each country),
- Qualitative research,
- Development of an educational poverty indicator framework, which will serve as the basis for further advocacy efforts and the creation of a training model.
Innovative Teacher Training Model
The innovative teacher training model aims to integrate arts education into the general curriculum and use this approach as a tool to combat educational poverty. The training module will include the following components:
- Understanding exclusion factors,
- Strategies for integration into curricula,
- Pedagogical approaches,
- Cultural competence development,
- Professional development opportunities.
Policy Development and Advocacy
The ultimate goal of our project activities is to elevate arts education to the level of educational policy. This task will focus on transforming the results of the ALPHABETICA project into concrete policy guidelines at both the national and EU levels, with the goal of reducing educational poverty rates. The activities will include:
- Compilation of results,
- Communication with Ministries of Education,
- Proposal of policy guidelines at the EU level.
Pilot Actions: “I wear a Top Hat while I am barefoot”
As part of the project, we will also conduct innovative pilot activities. Our pilot is inspired by Tadeusz Nowak’s poem “Psalm o nożu w plecach” (Back-stabbed knife psalm) and is titled “I wear a Top Hat, while I am barefoot”.
This initiative, implemented with high school students from three different social environments, will explore how incorporating (or intensifying) exposure to the arts within formal education frameworks influences both their academic and extracurricular lives. This includes aspects such as:
- Knowledge acquisition,
- Self-esteem,
- Independent decision-making about engagement with art and culture,
- Confidence in artistic engagement,
- Attempts at artistic expression,
- Choice of academic path,
- Aspirations,
- Critical thinking, etc.
In other words, the goal of the pilot is to examine teenagers’ (ages 15–18) needs regarding their contact with art,identify barriers to access, recognize their preferences, and determine the role of art in their education and personal lives. Additionally, the pilot will evaluate the impact of art-based activities that students experienced and co-created within the pilot framework on their fundamental needs, aspirations, choices, and life trajectories.
The ALPHABETICA project began in January 2025 and will run until June 2028, implemented under the European Commission’s Horizon Europe program (European Research Executive Agency REA – Horizon Europe – HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01, grant no: 101177819.
January 2021- August 2024
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna is the leader of the international project “New ABC – Networking the Educational World: Across the Boundaries for Community Building”, implemented as part of the Horizon 2020 program. The project will begin in 2021 and will last for 44 months comprising fourteen partners from nine countries. This is the second research project of the Association implemented under this EU research and innovation program.
New ABC is a project that aims at the comprehensive development and integration of children in the local environment, with particular emphasis on various forms of education. In the project, complementary to field research, we will conduct small, pilot projects focused on integration in each of participating countries and re-test projects from other countries to check how they can be adapted to local conditions. The Polish pilot will focus on identifying, transforming and building a common identity based on regional, national and transnational history. It will enable children to cooperate with intercultural assistants on artistic projects that will help them to anchor in a new place and find their way in a new, constantly changing world.
The association will be responsible for mapping the stakeholders and creating an roadmap of activities in the project and the methodology for implementing and co-creating new educational solutions in schools. We are guided by such ideas as the whole-child approach, bottom-up approach, participatory research actions, ability to care and compassion, co-creation. We will work with an excellent and proven research team, the core of which is Urszula Majcher-Legawiec, Jagoda (Jadwiga) Romanowska, Joanna Durlik, Adam Bulandra. Jakub Kościółek as coordinator will be to supervise them, care over them and their well-being and the success of the entire project.
current projects
January 2021- August 2024
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna is the leader of the international project “New ABC – Networking the Educational World: Across the Boundaries for Community Building”, implemented as part of the Horizon 2020 program. The project will begin in 2021 and will last for 44 months comprising fourteen partners from nine countries. This is the second research project of the Association implemented under this EU research and innovation program.
New ABC is a project that aims at the comprehensive development and integration of children in the local environment, with particular emphasis on various forms of education. In the project, complementary to field research, we will conduct small, pilot projects focused on integration in each of participating countries and re-test projects from other countries to check how they can be adapted to local conditions. The Polish pilot will focus on identifying, transforming and building a common identity based on regional, national and transnational history. It will enable children to cooperate with intercultural assistants on artistic projects that will help them to anchor in a new place and find their way in a new, constantly changing world.
The association will be responsible for mapping the stakeholders and creating an roadmap of activities in the project and the methodology for implementing and co-creating new educational solutions in schools. We are guided by such ideas as the whole-child approach, bottom-up approach, participatory research actions, ability to care and compassion, co-creation. We will work with an excellent and proven research team, the core of which is Urszula Majcher-Legawiec, Jagoda (Jadwiga) Romanowska, Joanna Durlik, Adam Bulandra. Jakub Kościółek as coordinator will be to supervise them, care over them and their well-being and the success of the entire project.
January 2019 - June 2022
The overall objective of the project is to stimulate the inclusion of diverse groups of migrant children by adopting a child-centred approach to their integration at the educational and policy level. Stemming from the need to revisit the integration policies on the one hand and consistent with the specific focus of the call on the other hand, the research project aims at comprehensive examination of contemporary integration processes of migrant children in order to empower them. The project starts from the fact that European countries and their education systems encounter manifold challenges due to growing ethnic, cultural, linguistic diversity and thereby aims at: 1) Identifying existing measures for the integration of migrant children at the regional and local level through secondary data analysis; 2) Analysis of the social impacts of these integration programmes through case studies in ten countries applying qualitative and quantitative child-centred research; 3) Development of integration measures and identification of social investment particularly in educational policies and school systems that aim to empower children. The project is problem-driven and exploratory at the same time. Its exploratory part mainly concerns a child-centred approach to understanding integration challenges, migrants’ needs and their well-being. However, the findings of the open-ended exploratory research will be used in an explicitly problem-driven way – with an aim to stimulate migrant inclusion, to empower migrant children and build their skills already within the (participatory) research. This will be done through the activities of the Integration Lab and Policy Lab, where children’s voices, fieldwork and desk research findings will be translated into practices and measures for educational professionals and practitioners as well as into a child-centred migrant integration policy framework to stimulate social inclusion and successful management of cultural diversity.
The project will last until 31st of December 2021.
Project financed by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 program (grant agreement number 822664).
September 2018 - June 2021
The Association has been implementing tasks under the project “Małopolska friendly to foreigners – support of integration and adaptation of third-country nationals”. As part of the project, we are going to organize cultural and integration events, including a multicultural outdoor cinema, international children’s day, city games, workshops and sightseeing tours. We will be posting information about events planned on our website and social media fanpage.
Project co-financed from the National Program of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.
current projects
January 2021- August 2024
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna is the leader of the international project “New ABC – Networking the Educational World: Across the Boundaries for Community Building”, implemented as part of the Horizon 2020 program. The project will begin in 2021 and will last for 44 months comprising fourteen partners from nine countries. This is the second research project of the Association implemented under this EU research and innovation program.
New ABC is a project that aims at the comprehensive development and integration of children in the local environment, with particular emphasis on various forms of education. In the project, complementary to field research, we will conduct small, pilot projects focused on integration in each of participating countries and re-test projects from other countries to check how they can be adapted to local conditions. The Polish pilot will focus on identifying, transforming and building a common identity based on regional, national and transnational history. It will enable children to cooperate with intercultural assistants on artistic projects that will help them to anchor in a new place and find their way in a new, constantly changing world.
The association will be responsible for mapping the stakeholders and creating an roadmap of activities in the project and the methodology for implementing and co-creating new educational solutions in schools. We are guided by such ideas as the whole-child approach, bottom-up approach, participatory research actions, ability to care and compassion, co-creation. We will work with an excellent and proven research team, the core of which is Urszula Majcher-Legawiec, Jagoda (Jadwiga) Romanowska, Joanna Durlik, Adam Bulandra. Jakub Kościółek as coordinator will be to supervise them, care over them and their well-being and the success of the entire project.