Objectives
- To promote social inclusion, tolerance & non-discrimination in schools through an innovative whole school approach known as the Quiet Time method based on the Transcendental Meditation (TM) programme for schools
- To disseminate and scale-up on a wider scale the chosen innovative practice in 4 countries (Portugal, Italy, Belgium, and UK), targeting schools and non-formal education institutions with minority students and those with disadvantaged or migrant backgrounds
- To foster the role of the Education, Training and Youth systems in Europe in preventing discrimination, violent radicalisation and promoting intercultural understanding, social cohesion and mutual respect in societies
Activities
- Analysis of the status quo and of the strategic perspectives regarding the Quiet Time method and its effects in promoting social inclusion (in order to identify possible barriers and enablers) for ensuring its successful implementation
- Implementation of the Quiet Time programme in schools and non-formal education institutions targeting students, teachers, educators and parents in a broader European context
- Study visit at Maharishi free school UK where partners have already been applying the best practices, implementing an ongoing EU funded project (The EUROPE project), involving educational authorities that support the project as well as the school staff and students
Results
- Analysis of the status quo and of the strategic perspectives with regard to the Quiet Time method and its effects in promoting social inclusion
- Project Platform and the Participative Web Portal
- Empirical data collection containing the strengths and the concerns of Quiet Time in the schools
- Overall conclusions, Policy Recommendations and lessons learned for successful policy development, implementation, and follow-up of the QT programme in schools
Partners
- Fondazione Hallgarten Franchetti – Centro Studi Villa Montesca (Italy, coordinator)
- Stichting Hogeschool Utrecht – Utrecht University of Applied Sciences (The Netherlands)
- 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)
- SelfCompetence Sàrl (Luxemburg)
- MAHARISHI Institute of Vedic Science (Belgium)
