The Department of Educational Sciences of the University of Bologna has been committed for years to supporting the processes of social and educational inclusion in Palestine. In the context of one of the emergency projects financed by the Italian Development Cooperation Agency in particular, a group of professors and researchers of the Department has been working on the educational part contained in the "Emergency Initiative for the Protection of Refugees and Population at Risk of displacement in Area C of the West Bank and East Jerusalem ".
The action of the Alma Mater focused on giving technical assistance to the representatives of the Ministry of Education and the University, on issues of inclusive education and on psychosocial support in emergency situations. The 7-month project was supported by the GVC Onlus (Bologna) and EducAid (Rimini), aiming to strengthen the resilience capabilities of the communities involved with material, psychosocial and advocacy support actions.
Through an integrated and participatory protection approach, the intervention has helped to prevent and mitigate the negative effects deriving from the perpetration of coercive actions and violations of human rights, albeit with different levels of intensity, in the Palestinian territories, especially in Area C (in this project in Hebron and Tubas). The action of the Department of Educational Sciences has focused on schooling children, in a context where they are particularly vulnerable and exposed.
In particular, the project began to develop, with a research-training approach, an Index for Inclusion and Empowerment to be used in schools and useful to design a more effective, inclusive and emancipatory educational interventions. The Index has already been applied in a first trial, which laid the foundations for starting a broader applied research process within the country's education system in the coming months.
With this objective, the Alma Mater carried out seminar activities with the representatives of the Ministry of Education and the Palestinian University, so as to be able to share with them the methodological proposal both from a theoretical point of view and its operational-educational application. Among the other activities of the project, the group of experts of the University of Bologna also promoted a conference on "Inclusive Education as a Tool for Psycho-Social Support", during which the Index for Inclusion and Empowerment was presented to the national and international community committed to supporting social and educational inclusion processes. An appointment, which was attended, among others, by the Minister and Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Education and the University, as well as representatives of the most important international organizations (UNICEF, UNRWA, UNESCO, World Bank).
