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Philosophical Enquiry Advancing Cosmopolitan Engagement
Start date: Oct 1, 2012,

The main PEACE project objective was to develop, test, fine-tune and validate innovative learning tools, materials, and methodologies to promote the inclusion of children, the majority of whom belonging to immigrant families. The goal was to design, test, validate and disseminate a new curriculum for cosmopolitan citizenship, directed at schools which host a high number of children with an immigrant background, so that both teachers/educators and children develop an alternative teaching/learning approach inspired by a cosmopolitan ethos. The curriculum was focused on orchestrating worldviews and values considered differently by different cultures in order to lay the foundations of global citizenship from childhood.The project activities were focused on, first, creating the new curriculum in the field of Philosophy for Children, composed of 6 stories, each of which followed by discussion plans and exercises to be studied by teachers and educators to learn how to deepen the children’s discussion on philosophical issues; secondly, on designing, planning and realizing the PEACE training course in each European Partner country for the teacher/educator target group; and thirdly, on testing the new curriculum with primary and secondary school students; evaluating it through the administration of specific assessment devices; fine-tuning it after each testing cycle and finally validating it.The PEACE results were disseminated to a wider public to encourage them to reflect on and discuss the importance of fostering cosmopolitanism as education (Hansen 2011) from childhood. Recommendations to foster cosmopolitan dialogue from childhood through philosophical inquiry were proposed to local institutions in order to contribute to policy makers’ activities, and to local organisations involved in immigration and children's education in order to share the best practices developed in the project. Informing policy-makers involved in education policies about the main problems experienced by children of immigrant families in the integration process and proposing the rigorous P4C methodology as a tool to confront them is an effective way of promoting peaceful coexistence between people belonging to different cultures and religions. The Consortium represents excellence of EU research on social and educational challenges, Philosophy for Children and intercultural dialogue: three Partners are National Centres of Philosophy for Children, four people who were or are currently members of the ICPIC Executive Committee are Partners of this project, and the Coordinator has a long experience in the field of education, ethics, teacher training, and didactics according to an interdisciplinary approach, which connects philosophical inquiry and pedagogical research.
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