Descripción:

Higher Education (HE) plays a fundamental role in shaping our subjectivities and social relationships. HE curricula and pedagogies can reproduce discrimination; but they also have the potential to promote social inclusion. BRIDGES addresses how Higher Education Institutions (HEI) can tackle discrimination and promote social inclusion by building relationships with marginalised groups in civil society. To achieve these objectives, BRIDGES constitutes a strategic partnership between HEI and CSO in 4 European countries (Spain, Germany, the UK, and Greece). Affirming the role of the university as an institution that can promote social inclusion, BRIDGES seeks to strengthen its relationship to Civil Society Organisations (CSO). Specifically, by forging a strategic partnership between HEI and CSO for the transfer of innovative strategies and curricular development based on the latter’s generally undervalued, yet invaluable experience. The growing consensus that educators lack the appropriate training to successfully integrate newly-arrived migrants in HEI and the broader society inspires BRIDGES to address the lack of attention paid to democratic citizenship and human rights in HEI curricula by innovating tools to strengthen the competencies of future and current HEI educators. Specifically, BRIDGES draws on Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodologies to develop a range of materials geared at making HEI inclusive of socially marginalised groups, in particular EU citizens and residents with migration backgrounds, who encounter barriers due to intersecting discriminations based on ‘race’, ethnicity, language, religion, citizenship status, gender identity and expression, sexuality, class, age, and disability. In particular, BRIDGES uses the PAR methodology of Narrative Productions (NP), which consists in an horizontal co-production of knowledge involving researchers and research participants on an equitable basis. In practice, BRIDGES methodology will imply day to day collaboration of HEI and CSO in monthly Local Collaboration Sessions, as well as 4 Transnational Workshops in which the different nodes of the project will share their expertise and work in productive exchanges using the methodology of Narrative Productions. This in-presence work will be supported by a virtual interface (the BRIDGES Virtual Lab) that will support the project development and will facilitate the participation of those suffering from mobility restrictions.