Final conference of the project “Migrant Children and Communities in a Transforming Europe” (Ljubljana, Slovenia)

On the 2-3 June in Ljubljana, Slovenia, DYPALL Network took part in the final conference of the project “Migrant Children and Communities in a Transforming Europe” (MiCreate) where almost 80 researchers from all over Europe had a chance to share the outcomes of their research on the inclusiveness of migrant children. It was also an opportunity to close this 3-years project, summarise its outcomes and plan eventual follow-up activities.

All the outcomes of the project are available on the website of the project (micreate.eu), among others:

• European and national policy briefs and recommendations
• practical tools for teachers: handbook with good practices and digital applications for inclusive education
• reports on state of the art, reception communities, educational communities and school systems or fieldwork in schools

MiCreate project aims to stimulate the inclusion of diverse groups of migrant children by adopting a child-centred approach to migrant children integration on the educational and policy levels. It has been implemented as a Horizon 2020 project by a consortium of 15 European partners led by Znanstveno-raziskovalno središče Koper, and was based on field research in 10 countries and tens of educational facilities. The biggest innovation of the project was the CHILD-CENTRED APPROACH in all research activities.

What is a child-centred approach? It is a research methodology, that:

• Focuses on children (not on children as future adults), with the focus on their well-being and participation,
• Focus on how children experience and describe their own lives, what is important to them, how they understand integration/well-being and what is important to them in this process,
• Includes these children’s voices and perspectives in the methodology, research, policy recommendations, and learning materials of the project.