INFORMATION FOR PARENTS

Prevention

We appreciate your interest in the prevention. It is an important part of the project “Together for tolerance”.

First of all …
What is a prevention?

The term “prevention“ (or prevention-program) refers to measures and activities that aim to prevent or reduce problems or negative developments. Further, a prevention can also provide knowledge and skills that promote positive and social competencies.

What goals does the prevention seek to achieve?

The goals of the prevention in the project „Together for tolerance” are to promote tolerance and prosocial behaviour and to prevent (group) conflicts. We want to achieve this by changing social norms. Social norms are the rules or guidelines for social interaction. In this context, so-called “social referents“ have particular potential to change social norms (see next section).

Who takes part in the prevention?

In the first part of the project (the surveys), participating students had the opportunity to indicate what relationships exist among them. They were asked, for example, who they spent time with, who they talk to about difficulties, or who is popular among them. Students who were named in these questions by their class- or schoolmates are so-called “social referents”. They are of particular importance because their peers look to them for guidance and derive from their behaviours what is and what is not acceptable in social interactions. In the prevention we would like to use the potential of these social referents to change the social norms (the rules or guidelines for living together) and give them the opportunity to make a positive change. At each there are several social referents. We can see this thanks to the surveys. After we know who the social referents are, we randomly choose who of them we invite to the prevention. The participation of the invited students in the prevention (as well as in the entire project) is voluntary. Before students can participate in the prevention, we inform their legal guardians are informed and obtain their consent.

Who carries out the prevention?

The prevention is part of the joint project “Together for tolerance” between the school, the researchers from the Department of Developmental Psychology of Osnabrück University and the pedagogical staff of the Association of Education Initiatives in Lower Saxony (Verein Niedersächsischer Bildungsinitiativen; VNB). The meetings of the prevention group are led by the pedagogical staff of the VNB. The prevention is scientifically accompanied by the researchers.

What happens in the prevention?

The participants of the prevention meet regularly with the prevention group. When the prevention takes place is agreed upon with the school administration. The prevention group consists of social referents from different grades of the school. The meetings are led by pedagogical staff of the VNB. The meetings take place during school hours. The dates and time slots are agreed upon with the school administration. Participants are excused from classes to attend the meetings. When choosing the dates, we take care to ensure that the meetings take place at different time so that attendance in the meetings does not always affect the same classes. The prevention consists of three phases:
  1. In the first phase, participants get to each other and the pedagogical leaders of the prevention group. This is important so that they can develop trust for working together.
  2. In the second phase, the basic principles for a tolerant way of living together (tolerant coexistence) are developed with the prevention group. The participants of the prevention are the experts of their own school. Therefore, they discuss which problems they see at their school and what problems they would like to deal with. Together, they then look for solutions for these school-specific problems and apply the basic principles of tolerant coexistence they learned.
  3. In the third phase, the participants of the prevention implement their own project. The project can be one or more actions/activities in which the entire school can participate. Here, we look forward to the creativity, expert knowledge, and drive for action of the participants. Like this, they can pass on what they have learned to the entire school. In this way, social norms may be changed in a positive way, which can contribute to a tolerant way of tolerant coexistence and reduce (group) conflicts. During the implementation of the project, they continue to be supervised by the pedagogical staff. In the end, they discuss together what was good and what can be improved.

Do you have questions?

…please feel free to contact us at any time by e-mail, stating the name of the project “Together for tolerance” in the subject line. We are looking forward to your message

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The translations provided here were made by non-professional translators. They help to overcome language barriers. It is not guaranteed that they are accurate, we always refer to the German version.

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