iDecide - Republic of Cyprus
The project iDecide ran for a period of 3 years, from October 2017 to August 2020, in Cyprus. Coordinated by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Cyprus (MOEC), the project brought together a wide range of European partners including: the Universitatea din Pitești (UPIT) in Romania, University of Peloponnese (UOP) in Greece, the non-profit CARDET - the Centre for the Advancement of Research and Development in Educational Technology in Cyprus, the Louth Meath Education and Training Board (LMETB) in Ireland, the Municipality of Lousada in Portugal, and the company InnovADE.
Aims and objectives
One of the main objectives of the Cypriot iDecide project was to develop a innovative toolkit and accompanying training induction course to support evidence-based policy-making in reducing marginalisation between communities. The aim of the project was also to provide support to school administrators, teachers, staff, and local and regional civil servants through an environment that promotes inclusive decision-making, discussion and debate. The toolkit's methodology is based on a rich data repository, gathered over the course of the project, which highlights how decision-making at school level impacts students from underprivileged communities and offers concrete recommendations to all stakeholders in the field.
The iDecide eLearning platform makes online courses, skills resources and useful supporting material available and accessible to school staff, teachers, students, and parents, enabling them to put inclusion (and digital inclusion) at the heart of what they do. To produce the toolkit and training material, the iDecide project mapped the existing state-of-play through questionnaires, interviews and focus groups, research and data collection methods.
Why is this a good practice?
The toolkit is easily transferable in its user-friendly format of a package with various digital resources to support school staff and parents in making decisions that affect students' performance and well-being in school, and was deemed successful in engaging a variety of stakeholders in inclusive decision making that puts digital skills in the centre of educational curricula. The iDecide project also managed to strengthen cooperation and exchange of information and good practices between the involved stakeholders and between different areas in Europe.
The induction course was accessible in 2 formats: face-to-face and online and was successful in sparking a discussion on best practices in inclusion when developing and implementing school policies and procedures. It further highlighted the importance of evidence-based policymaking that is continuously adapted in order to reduce disparities in learning outcomes for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
