The proposed project is about equipping lecturers, teachers and educators with useful knowledge, skills and tools on how to develop a social research project with their class. Being able to conduct one’s own social research project makes the students and pupils aware of available data and ways of using it (including online data), helps them to understand the social world (by participation, by researching it, being reflective), engages in team work and promotes contacts with other people (through the research). In other words it makes them understand the surrounding world by providing them with tools to explore and navigate it. It makes them participate and interact with other people (especially though qualitative research methods), it makes them learn how to design a study (which is a skill that can be useful in their careers), and it makes use of a wide range of online tools to conduct such studies.
The main output – the toolbox for social inquiry will be developed in English and translated into local languages to target teachers and lecturers in partner countries. Taking into account the institutional framework and teaching culture of CEE countries, as well as digital skills, the project aims to assist the „catching up” of the region in terms of digital skills and to reduce the digital gap. The project is intersectional as it targets both high school teachers and lecturers.
Project outputs include:
- The toolbox for Social Inquiry – the most significant project output. It will be an online resource for teachers and lecturers who teach social sciences to introduce social research methods and social inquiry in their classrooms. The toolbox will be useful beyond subject-specific classes and will contain general resources that will promote critical thinking and inspire curiosity among students, supporting various projects in social inquiry with digital tools. Students will learn what a social research project is and receive guidance on how they can design their own. The modules of the Toolbox will comprise handouts, templates, working sheets or other materials that teachers and/or lecturers can use in their classrooms. The Toolbox will be produced initially in English, but in order to make it accessible for local teachers and lecturers, it will be translated into the 5 languages of partner HEIs.
- 5 country reports which will identify, analyse and compare policies and strategies implemented on the country level in regard to teaching online as an emergency response to Covid-19.
- Small scale cross-sectional survey on students and teachers’ perceptions of teaching online.
- Recommendations for implementing digital tools for social inquiry – this output will comprise recommendations for quality implementation of research methods classes in higher education. It will be a set of policy and teaching recommendations, and a collection of best practices identified while implementing the toolbox.
- At least 3 scientific articles.
- 2 days international conference on using digital tools for teaching social studies online.
- 1 workshop for teachers on using digital skills in social sciences in classroom.
The project will be carried out by a consortium of 5 partners institutions from Central and Eastern Europe: Szkoła Główna Handlowa w Warszawie (SGH Warsaw School of Economics, leader) Latvijas Universitāte (University of Latvia; Latvia), Tartu Ulikool (University of Tartu; Estonia), Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai (Babeș-Bolyai University; Romania) Viešosios politikos ir vadybos institutas (Public Policy and Management Institute; Lithuania).