The 1° FRIENDS free seminar entitled “EDUCATION FOR INCLUSION THROUGH QUIET TIME/TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION” was held the 9th of May at the Auditorium Armando Guebuza of the Lusófona University Library, in Lisbon.
During this public event, schools and institutions participating in the FRIENDS project shared their relevant experiences with the Quiet Time/Transcendental Meditation (QT/TM) implementation in their classrooms.
It was a free event where anyone interested could take part to it, discovering how the Quiet Time /TM innovative approach contributes to foster social inclusion and a positive environment in schools’ settings.
The welcome speech was held by Mr. Figarreiro as representative of the from Ministry of Education of Portugal – Direção Geral de Educação (DGE). This speech was followed by the opening session and introduction to the conference by Fabrizio Boldrini – Fondazione Hallgarten Franchetti – Centro Studi Villa Montesca (Italy) as project coordinator of the FRIENDS project.
An important analysis on references on brain research related to the effects of the QT/TM programme was provided by Mr. Ashley Deans – Professor of Education and Physics. All participants showed great interest in getting acquainted of empirical studies and analysis conducted in the field of Transcendental Meditation with an active participation.
Also, the universities that are partners in the project presented and shared with participants preliminary scientific report from the 4 implementing countries (Belgium, Italy, Portugal and UK) of the schools who adopted the QT/TM programme.
Finally, practical guidelines for upscaling the QT/TM Programme in other schools, settings and countries interesting in the implementation of this innovative practice were given by Mr. Alberto Bramanti – Bocconi University (Italy) and Professor Frans Van Assche – University of Leuven (Belgium). Their
Building on policy recommendations coming from previous QT/TM programme implementation (see EUROPE project), outlining future prospectives in order to reach sustainable results during the overall FRIENDS project development.
Discover more about the full agenda of the event, clicking here.
About the project
FRIENDS: Fostering Resilience-Inclusive Education & Non-Discrimination in Schools is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme under the Key Action 3 Support for policy reforms – Social inclusion through education, training and youth.
Partners
The project partnership holds together:
- Coordinator: Fondazione Hallgarten Franchetti – Centro Studi Villa Montesca (Italy)
- Universidade do Algarve (Portugal)
- ALMA MATER STUDIORUM – Università di Bologna (Italy)
- CESIE (Italy)
- Escola Secundária de Loulé (Portugal)
- Municipality of Sacile – Pordenone (Italy)
- Maharishi School Trust Limited (United Kingdom)
- Maharishi Foundation (United Kingdom)
- APEJAA – Associacao de Pais e Encarregados de Educação da Escola Joao Afonsode Aveiro (Portugal)
- Cooperativa Cultural Ciencia e Tecnologia Vedica Maharishi – CCCT (Portugal)
- Associazione Meditazione Trascendentale Maharishi Italia (Italy)
- Civic Association for Communication and Education “Sophia”- ACCESOPHIA (Spain)
- Maharishi Institute of Vedic Science (Belgium)
For further information
Read more about FRIENDS
Visit the FRIENDS website
Follow us on the FRIENDS Facebook page
For general concerns, please contact: irene.pizzo@cesie.org.
