The symposium focuses on social, emotional and intercultural (SEI) competencies as an important tool for developing non-discriminative, inclusive learning environments and preserving children’s rights in intercultural and diverse societies. This way they can work as a shield in the era of risk. The symposium builds on the importance of SEI competencies for building inclusive societies and to prevent segregation and discriminative bullying by enhancing SEI competencies of all students (including students at risk, such as immigrant and refugee students). 

Enhanced social and emotional competencies of students result in several positive outcomes: better educational outcomes, better mental health, decreased numbers of early school leavers, improvement in prosocial behaviour, decrease of physical aggression, and positive self-image (Bierman, et al., 2008; Durlak et al., 2011; Sklad et al., 2012; Zins, et al., 2004). Teachers’ social and emotional competencies have been recognized as vital for the development of social and emotional competencies in students (Schonert-Reichl et al., 2015), for students’ behavioural and academic achievement (Valiente, et al., 2008) and also for students’ learning and development in general as well as for teachers’ own well-being (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009). These studies underline the importance of those teacher competences and the skills to adopt inclusive and student-focused methods, including conflict resolution skills to promote a positive classroom climate. At the same time, the intercultural competencies and diversity awareness of teachers cannot be assumed and must be prepared at the systemic level (Downes & Cefai, 2016). The focus on SEI competencies thus offers feasible suggestions for individual and societal developments through education. In a globalising society, these issues must be addressed in the framework of an international/intercultural collaboration effort. The symposium addresses the recognized need for policy intervention across partner EU member states to combat discrimination (especially in relation to migrants). With the migration population by definition being on the move, it is of strategic importance for EU member states to adopt common policies in fostering their inclusion. 

As an introduction to the symposium leading theme, we will present the  European policy experiment project HAND in HAND, which created and applied an innovative HAND in HAND program for SEI competencies development (two separate modules, one for students and one for school staff) as a whole school approach. The HAND in HAND programmes were evaluated using an experimental design with control groups across three EU countries. In the symposium, researchers from different EU member states will provide international research insights and discuss their research findings about developing SEI competencies as an important tool for positive change in the EU society. The symposium brings in the first findings on the effects of two modules (for students and for school staff) in the individual countries and across countries. Following the introduction, the focus of our first presentation will be on the quality of the program implementation. Then, continuing with the first part of the symposium, we will focus on the effects of the program for teachers on their SEI competencies and different aspects of the classroom climate. The second part of the symposium will focus on the effects (and implementation) of the HAND in HAND program for students on their SEI competencies and will finish with the analyses at the systemic and policy level. 

The symposium is an answer to the special call of the Network: Research on Children’s Rights in Education & Inclusive education focusing on developing an inclusive educational environment that entails tackling any kind of barrier and discrimination that could protect the children’s right to education of high quality. As announced in the call, it targets respecting and valuing diversity as an important resource for learning.

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