TERRA UCARE Lesson material for high schools

The Arq Psychotrauma Expert Group

Is the umbrella organisation of institutions with expertise in the field of psychotrauma in relation to persecution, war, aggression, violence, disasters and other traumatising events. The ARQ group comprises research and knowledge institutes, a department for diagnostics and treatment, an academy for education and a training and consultant institute. The ARQ foundation (350+ employees) is the subsidiary holding for the partners in ARQ.

ARQ partners contribute to high-quality expertise in the domain of psychotrauma through research programmes, innovative treatment and training programmes, standardisation of professional practice and specialised consultation.

They have extensive experience: with network management and collaborative product development; end-user consultation; support of victim organisations, and realisation of online information and referral centres after disasters; policy recommendations; training; guideline and (online) tool development; evaluation; and cross-national policy comparison. Arq is a private company, not financed by the EU.

Type of Organisation: Foundation

The TERRA II project team at University College Roosevelt (UCR) know that in an increasingly multicultural society, the development of citizenship skills and sensitivity to others are vital. They developed the UCARE curriculum to increase high-school students' social and citizenship competences, and at the same time to prevent radicalisation processes, by providing young people with an alternative skill set to violent behaviours.

It is a unique intervention, in that it aims to tackle radicalisation at its source, without singling out or stigmatising individuals at risk. The programme gives teachers of secondary schools the opportunity to teach citizenship skills. These skills, which can help counteract the threat of political or religious radicalisation in European society, are often excluded from the regular curriculum.

The intervention has a solid theoretical and empirical foundation. UCR instructors Dr Marcin Sklad and Dr Eri Park developed this innovative curriculum using a framework of citizenship education that draws on many established theories and empirical findings from the discipline of social psychology. This curriculum provides school teachers with material for classroom use: it is designed to foster empowerment, stimulate empathy and an understanding of different perspectives and world views, and increase citizenship competences. These skills ultimately delegitimise intergroup violence and help students maintain a peaceful coexistence with others.

This project is also in line with the core objective of UCR education, i.e. stimulating critical global citizenship. In accordance with the spirit of the UCR 'Going Glocal' programme, the TERRA II project provides an opportunity for university college students to gain pedagogical experience whilst implementing the pilot interventions in secondary schools, strengthening the link between academic and secondary education in the region.

TERRA UCARE comprises lesson and discussion material as well as exercises delivered to senior schools over the course of seven workshops. The materials are easy to use for all teachers, as a primary prevention intervention from which all can benefit, and are not targeted at special risk-groups.

The theoretical framework of the TERRA UCARE Curriculum for schools on the prevention of radicalisation is based on two knowledge domains. The first pertains to what we can gather from scientific literature about the factors contributing to radicalisation, and the second scientific domain is citizenship education.

As a first step towards radicalisation prevention processes at an early stage, citizenship educational insights into the notion of empowerment can make contributions to social change in democratic societies.

The lesson plans and curriculum are available online.

Universal Curriculum against Radicalization in Europe (UCARE). Seven consecutive workshops that can be applied within regular school classes. Print versions in Dutch and English.

• Sklad, M., & Park, E. (2016). 'Educating for Safe and democratic societies: The Instructor's Handbook for the Civic and Social Competences Curriculum for Adolescents UCARE'. ISBN 978-94-92170-15-6.
• Sklad, M., & Park, E. (2016). Onderwijs voor een veilige en democratische samenleving. Handboek voor docenten bij het lesporgamma UCARE voor burgerlijke en maatschappelijke vaardigheden voor adolescenten. Middelburg: De Drukkerij. ISBN-13: 978-9492170187

The electronic version of the materials is available for registered users. Registration is free of charge.

Lesson plans

Over the course of the project, in addition to the UCARE curriculum, 17 lesson plans for the same number of complete workshops were developed, covering 12 topics.

Website

A website containing information about the project has been created. It contains information on the background, the context and the goals. Extensive information on the curriculum is also available. And the website contains links to the manual as well as to auxiliary materials.

International peer-reviewed publication and conference presentations:

• Sklad, M. & Park, E. (2017). Examining the Potential Role of Education in the Prevention of Radicalization from the Psychological Perspective. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, (23)4, 432-437.
• In 2018, Dr Eri Park and Dr Marcin Sklad will publish a paper entitled 'A Critical Psychological Contribution to (Global) Citizenship Education: Seeing oneself through the eyes of the other' in the Annual Review of Critical Psychology.
• Empirical paper in preparation: M. Sklad, E. Park, I. van Venrooij, A. Pickard & J. Wignand: Radicalization prevention by means of strengthening social and civic competences: Outcome and process evaluation of a pilot implementation of a UCARE curriculum.
• Sklad, M. Park, E. (2017). Radicalization prevention by means of strengthening social and civic competences. The 15th European Congress of Psychology. Dutch Association of Psychologists (NIP) and the Belgian Federation of Psychologists (BFP), Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Sklad, M. Park, E. (2018). International Congress of Applied Psychology, Montreal. Process and effects analysis of school-based intervention aimed at primary prevention of radicalization through fostering social-emotional and civic skills. 26-30.06.2018.
• Seminar pa Gundtvigs Hojskole om forebyggelse af udenforskab, vrede og kriminalitet. UCARE curriculum. 24-25.09.2018.

Address

The Arq Psychotrauma Expert Group
Nienoord 4,
1112 XE Diemen
Netherlands

Contact person: Magda Rooze MA/MBA
Telephone: (+31) 623526239
Email | Website