ESSIE: Centre of Excellence "European Studies of Social Innovation in Education"

Action type: Erasmus+ Program

Project acronym – ESSIE

Project duration –2023– 2025 (36 months)

Category: Jean Monnet Actions

Type of activity: Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence

Beneficiary: Ukrainian State Dragomanov University, Kyiv, Ukraine

Background

Since 2017 Ukrainian State Dragomanov University (ex-National Pedagogical Dragomanov University) implemented several Jean Monnet Program projects, which researched and disseminated the best EU social and educational strategies and practices. There were as follows: Jean Monnet Module SCEGES “Social Cohesion in Education and Governance: EU Studies” (2017-2020), Jean Monnet Project EVDISD “EU Values of Diversity and Inclusion for Sustainable Development” (2020-2021), Jean Monnet Chair SCAES “Social and Cultural Aspects of EU Studies” (2020-2023).

Objectives

Centre of Excellence "European Studies of Social Innovation in Education" (ESSIE) will initiate and supervises the initiatives of representatives of the university community in the field of EU studies in the sphere of social innovations, leadership and social responsibility, "public service". It will direct students, teachers and other stakeholders of the educational process to deeper knowledge of EU studies of social innovations in education, to carry out significant local and foreign educational, research and social projects in the focus of best EU practices of social innovations.

The ESSIE will also initiate and inform about EU best practices of social responsibility initiatives in support of the third mission of the partner universities, with aligned to the achievement of 17 SDGs. 

CoE ESSIE specific project objectives:

• to  deepen and improve  the teaching in European Studies, developing the European researches in the economic, social and cultural, political, legal and communication areas and the integration of Ukraine into the EU.

• to foster the cooperation between the project target groups and stakeholders on university-community cooperation based on European experiences and practices in the field of entrepreneurship, innovations, ecology and life sciences, wider inclusion (social inclusion, education for vulnerable groups, etc.), ecology, law and policies development, etc.;

• to increase the social responsibility of universities based on the best EU practices of social innovations and community engagement

 Planned results

This project has 3 interconnected parts: research, teaching and dissemination. The research comprises study visits (3 mobilities from UA to EU, the desk-top and field research to be accomplished with the monograph ““EU Studies of Social Innovations in Education”). The teaching component includes the set 3 trainings for the ESSIE staff and experts involved on issues of responsible global leadership, global competence, the EU Green Deal, climate change and climate neutrality, wide inclusion and community engagement in the first project year. The training component is accompanied by the workshop series (Workshop 1. “Social Innovations and Education: EU Practices” (Prof. M. Nesterova), Workshop 2. “EU Cultural Studies and Cultural Dialogue” (Prof. Tetiana Andrushchenko), Workshop 3. “EU Values: Diversity in Community Development” (Prof. Tetiana Konovalenko), Workshop  4. “Social Inclusion,  Cohesion and Community Engagement” (Prof. Daria Suprun), Workshop 5. “EU Practice of Social Responsibilities and Innovations” (Prof. Marina Dielini), Workshop 6. “Teaching the EU Green Deal” (Dr. Olena Melnyk), Workshop 7. “Social innovations in inclusive education: European Practices for Ukraine” (Dr. Anna Afusova ) and Workshop 8. The EU Social Policy: Evidence-Based Public Policy-Making Practices for Ukraine” (Dr. Oxana Holovko-Havrysheva)). Workshop 9. “Social Responsibility of Universities” (Prof. M. Nesterova) - finalizing the results of the project implementation. Also we are planning to boost the EU best knowledge exchange by a set of webinars. Webinar 1. “Wide Inclusion and Community Engagement: A New Social Challenge”  addressing all actors of inclusion and in face of which challenge it stands in order to create a sustainable and resilient society”(Prof. Diana Spulber, Prof. Guido Amoretti, Prof. Davide Parmeggiani). The webinars will be held in Oxford format with up to 3 key-speakers and followed by the Q&A session from the participants). The aim of this teaching component is through sharing experiences of the project team (NDPU ESSIE staff members and invited professors) for the UA expert community and fostering professional communication on the project topics among experts. Webinar 2. Social entrepreneurship for community and refugees” (Prof. Markus A. Launer) . Webinar 3. “EU Green Deal: Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation” with particular attention on addressing sustainability and the environmental challenges of the post-war society (Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hynek Roubík); Webinar 4. “EU Unique Brand of Responsible Global Leadership” focusing on different styles of leadership, the role of teachers/ professors as a leader and leadership and social responsibility (Prof. Diana Spulber);

In the second project year the teaching activities will be focused towards studentship aiming to develop their social-innovation related professional skills based on the learning-by-doing approach. In the second and third project year the all-Ukrainian Student Competition “From Idea to Success” and the e-learning Moodle-based course “EU Green Deal and Climate Neutrality” conducted at the SNAU as a blended course, will be organized and conducted with particular focus on the ideas of social innovations and entrepreneurship, tackling environmental challenges, which will help the Ukrainian society to recover from Russian aggression. E-learning activities will be administered by SNAU, based on their experiences of conducting MOOCs, based on such educational platforms as Google Classroom, Moodle, MS Teams etc.   EU and UA experts will provide at least one teaching activity in the sphere of their expertise. Prof. Marja Nesterova will be focused on social innovations and social responsibility in education (2 workshops), Prof. Tetiana Andrushchenko will be focused on cultural studies & cultural dialog (1 workshop), Prof. Daria Suprun and Dr. Anna Afusova will discover the wider understanding of inclusion (2 workshops), Prof. Tetiana Konovalenko will be focused on EU values; cultural diversity and community development (1 workshop), Dr. Olena Melnyk will conduct the workshop on social resistance to climate changes (1 workshop); Prof. Maryna Dielini will conduct the workshop re. social responsibility and innovations (1 workshop).

The dissemination strategy includes a set of activities aimed to promote the project outcomes to society as a main end user. This strategy will be realized beyond use of mediatic instruments,  mainly through  the component with 4 seasonal schools (No. 1 Summer School “Cultural Studies and Cultural Dialogue in the Intercultural Environment for Community Engagement” Melitopol (Ukraine);  No.2 Autumn School  “EU Green Deal: Current Challenges and Future Perspectives on the Way to Climate Neutrality” (Sumy, Ukraine), No.3 Winter School “EU policies and policy-making in social affairs, social cohesion” (Lviv, Ukraine) and No.4 Spring School  “Inclusion and  Social Responsibility and Entrepreneurship, Social Innovations for Boosting Community and Youth Engagement” (Kyiv, Ukraine)), publications and 2 conferences to present the project results for project stakeholders and wider audience of UA educational community and civic society.