The aim of Playground Heroes is to teach children in the highest grades of primary education (10 to 12 years old) to recognize discriminatory bullying situations. The young teenagers also learn how to intervene safely and constructively when they witness a bullying situation. The teaching material consists of an educational game, a video training for teachers and a lesson plan with activities for the whole class. All parts can be downloaded in four languages, including English.

GATE-BULL

GATE-BULL stands for ‘Using a games approach to teach children about discriminatory bullying’.
Europe is currently facing multiple challenges such as an economic and fiscal crisis, a migration crisis, terrorist attacks and the rise of political far-right ideology. According to the latest report of the Council of Europe’s Commission against Racism and Intolerance, these changes have resulted in a growing climate of racism, Islamophobia, homophobia and intolerance that filters to the younger generations. For example, racism and religious discrimination was voted as the number one issue of concern among young people in the UK in 2016 (British Youth Council, 2016). Especially among young children, discrimination is frequently expressed in the form of bullying. 
Discriminatory bullying targets the most disadvantaged and socially excluded groups of children and is a critical predictor of poor school attendance and school drop-out, thereby damaging these children’s future chances of seeking employment and integrating in the labour market. Developing a theoretically informed, integrated and innovative approach for this problem can, therefore, have a long-lasting impact on the lives of vulnerable children.

The approach

The GATE-BULL project developed an innovative approach to tackling discriminatory bullying that integrates an e-learning component with an intercultural pedagogy and curriculum. The approach will consist of two elements: First, the project will develop an immersive virtual environment to provide a safe environment where school children can develop inter-cultural and social competencies by interacting with NPCs (Non-Player Characters) in a simulation of real-world discriminatory bullying scenarios. Students will engage with simulations and be required to navigate their way through choices to arrive at the best solution. Second, the project will develop a complementary inter-cultural pedagogy and curriculum for use by the teachers who will implement the e-learning component in class.

The Open Universiteit developed and tested the method and materials with three other European universities in four countries in the GATE-BULL partnership. Dr. Maria Sapouna of the University of the West of Scotland leads the project. The University of Patras and the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra also participate in the project.