Schools and Radicalization
Workshop kicks off “Schools without Violence”

“It is wonderful to meet colleagues here in Egypt who devote their heart and expertise to non-violent education at schools. Their preparedness and openness to take part in a training on this challenge commands our respect.” With these words, Ralf Bornstedt, Director of the Institute for Pedagogics and Psychology Bremen (bipp), praised the dedication of the participants of a kick-off workshop for the project “Schools without Violence.” The Goethe-Institut Cairo, in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Education and bipp, organised the event in November 2017.

The creation of a violence-free school environment concerns education-policy makers, researchers, and practitioners in Egypt and Germany alike. Numerous concepts to achieve this goal have been published, and new methods have been introduced into schools in Germany and other countries that have proven successful. In Egypt, the Ministry of Education, bipp, and the Goethe-Institut have now agreed on a cooperation to assess and change conditions in schools.

The Workshop

Social pedagogues, school psychologists, and one female teacher participated in the kick-off workshop last year. Rolf Bornstedt, bipp Director, sociologist, and theatre pedagogue, described the meeting as imbued with “an unbelievably warm and open atmosphere that quickly translated into an honest and open professional exchange.” “In the end,” he concluded, “it was the mutual trust that we established that made it possible to be straightforward about the pedagogical challenges at schools.”

The workshop had two key purposes in that it introduced participants to different anti-violence models and approaches, on the one hand, and enabled a discussion of the transferability of social and behavioural training to the Egyptian context, on the other. Based on their professional experience, the participants believed that concepts like FIT FOR LIFE, for instance, could generally be transferred to the Arabic cultural area. A training programme developed by bipp, FIT FOR LIFE aims to develop social and learning skills, and key occupational competencies of, in particular disadvantaged, youth. Its approach also contributes to the prevention of violence.

One-to-One Transfer Impossible

All experts agreed that existing anti-violence concepts would have to be adapted appropriately to the structures of the Egyptian school system und cultural codes. There was further consensus on the necessity to differentiate between interventionist and preventative approaches, which could and should complement rather than exclude each other.

Back to Dialogue & Transition