How to contribute to a social just world? The experience in Portugal

1. Stimulus situation

To introduce the topic, one or two videos about the topic of social and economic inequalities and/or Fairtrade were presented to children.

Examples of prompts to start a discussion on social inequalities with children:

• What was the video about? What problems does the video discuss?
• Have you ever heard of inequalities? What kind of inequalities exists? 
• What are the countries with more (or less) inequalities?
• Why are some people poor and some people rich?

Examples of prompts to start a discussion on Fairtrade with children:

• Where does the food we eat come from?
• What are the life conditions of the farmer who planted the food? (Where does he/she live? Does he/she have money to buy food or clothes? Can he/she afford education for his/her children?)
• Who else is involved in the process? 

Children between 7 and 10 years old 

In a Portuguese school, children between 7 and 10 years old watched two videos and discussed it with the teacher. 

The first video was:

First, the teacher asked children about the general ideas that arose while watching the video. Because the video also focused on sustainability and environmental changes, children initially mentioned “we need to save the planet from pollution” and “helping the planet”. The teacher acknowledged that this was one of the problems stated on the video, but that there was another problem that was exposed. One of the children mentioned: “many people are poor, and others are very rich”. Following this comment, the teacher asked if children had already heard about inequalities. Children referred: “some people need medicine but don’t have it”, “life is unfair”, “there are black children who have nothing because of their colour”. The teacher followed: “Do you think black people experience more inequalities?”. The child answered “yes”. The teacher, then, asked in which countries there were more inequalities. One child mentioned “Venezuela” and there was a brief discussion on the current political situation of the country (“there is a gentleman who is a dictator and does not allow elections”; “there is no food in the supermarkets”; one child talked about how he knew a friend that flee from Venezuela to be safe). Then, more countries were mentioned: “France” (the teacher highlighted that in (so called) developed countries there were also inequalities between rich and poor); “the Indian continent” (the teacher clarified that India was not a continent); “Pakistan” and “Brazil”. 

The teacher inquired “What can we do?” and followed “In this school there are children with more and less [financial] possibilities. What do we do in our school for children to have the same opportunities?” A child promptly referred “we give money”. The teacher clarified “we give money?”. Another child answered “no, but we give food baskets”. Children added: “we do campaigns to help”, “we share our materials and snacks”, “parents don’t have to buy materials and books”, “we can request books from our readers club”, “we can request tablets and take them home if we don’t have”, “we help each other”. Another child concluded: “here there are people who are poor and don’t have money and we all do the same things”.

Then, children were inquired on why (they thought) some people were poor. Answers were vast and had different levels of complexity: “because they spent all the money”, “because rich people stole the money”, “because they don’t have jobs”, “because their country was at war and there were no conditions”, “maybe they never had money”, “they produce less food”. One child exposed that “there are people who don’t work”. In response to this, another child told that “I knew a lady who told me that she cleans all the shopping centre and works many hours but receives very little money”. Then, one child said that “in the past, there were slaves, there were black men working for whites without receiving anything”. The teacher asked if slavery still existed. Children shared “yes, in some countries”, “because richer people see the poorer and say “come work for me”, but then they pay very little”, “they are envious and they keep all the money for them”, “they pay little to workers that work very much”.

This discussion was followed by the exhibition of the second video, “Pablo the super banana”, by the Fairtrade foundation. The teacher asked for general ideas about the video. One child told “bananas grow in Colombia”, another referred “there are a lot of bananas in Colombia”. The teacher asked about the worker’s life conditions, shown in the video. Answers were “he worked a lot and received little money”, “he only got 5 euros”, “they give him little money”, “his house is poor”. Then, the teacher explained the Fairtrade symbol, clarifying that it meant that the workers receive a fair price for their work. The next question concerned if children knew where the food they eat comes from, giving the examples of chocolate and rice. “Chocolate comes from cacao”, explained a child. “But where does chocolate come from?”, we asked. “From a plant”, said a child. Children were asked about where those plants grow. One child said “Brazil”, another “Japan”, another “Switzerland”. The teacher emphasized all the people involved in the process, including the farmer, the transporter, the producer and the seller. 

Children between 12 and 15 years old 

Following the ideas presented on the video, the teacher asked students about globalization and examples of it in their daily life. “Social networks”, “talking with persons from other countries”, “playing games online” and “online shopping” were mentioned as examples. The teacher asked if students had already heard about the term “global village” or “globalization”. One student mentioned “yes”, in Geography. Then, a student told that it referred to the world and the globe, “to something global, to the whole planet”. After clarifying the concepts of globalization and global village, the teacher asked if globalization was beneficial for all. The answers from students were clear: “no”, especially in “poorer countries where there are children with less possibilities”, students mentioned. The teacher asked for examples of countries. One student referred the Democratic Republic of Congo and how she talked with her mother that children had “practically no rights there”. A student mentioned “Africa” and the teacher clarified that Africa was a continent with very distinct countries. One student mentioned “Mozambique” and another “Angola”. Following this, the teacher asked if everyone in Angola was poor. The student described that there was “great richness and great poverty”.

Subsequently, a student mentioned that “we don’t need to go that far”, “here in Portugal” and “here at school” there were also inequalities. The teacher asked for examples of how students notice inequalities at school. Students indicated possessions such as clothes, shoes and smartphones. A student mentioned when students can’t buy cakes that are being sold at school. Other students mentioned that when students receive letters of notifications to a study trip, it indicates how much students need to pay (depending on their family’s income group) and students discuss with each other often how much they are going to pay (and the differences between the payments required). The teacher referred that he wasn’t aware of it and inquired students about what the school does, in their opinion, to mitigate social inequalities. Students mentioned the shared material, activities from group of responsibilities focused on solidarity and fundraising activities for more expensive school trips.

Then, we discussed what being poor means. Students mentioned “lack of resources, for example, of food”, “not having access to education and having to work to help the parents”, “not having access to goods, such as hygiene products or toys”, “being homeless”. A student argued that being poor could also mean “living a simple life”, “having two parents who earn the minimum wage”. The teacher asked if poverty was a problem. Some students mentioned “yes”. A student referred that “poverty always existed” and another added that “for people to be rich, some people need to be poor, not all people can be rich” and that poverty is needed for “a certain balance for things to work out”. Another student stated that “I think it is a problem, that needs to be improved, but never will be completely resolved”. When asked about the motives for a person to be rich or poor, students referred “descendance”, “jobs that give more or less money”, “occupations more or less valued”, “education”, “studies”. A student talked about how money is needed to study in university and how the state could contribute to more people to attend university with lower costs for their families. A student followed this idea and argued that people also need to have “will”, giving the example of people who work while studying. The teacher mentioned it was a valid point but asked if studying at University only depended on personal effort. Students were clear: “no”. 

The teacher asked how poverty could be reduced. The students gave several ideas, that were always countered with problems and objections. For example, the idea of “pressuring the government” was countered with the idea that “the government makes promises that aren’t kept” and “we don’t have solutions if they ask us what we want”; the idea of raising money through campaigns was countered with “money being diverted or stolen” (mentioning specific situations in Portugal when it happened, as reported by the media); the idea of making a manifestation or strike was countered with “there are too many strikes”, “strikes harm people” and “the government doesn’t pay attention to strikes”. Referring to these examples, a student concluded “like in physics, to every action, there is a reaction”.

The teacher then asked for examples of social inequalities. A student mentioned India and how “the money is badly divided”. Another student added that “there is a large group of people who receives much less than the ones leading”. Students also mentioned Portugal (“Portugal is rich, but money is diverted”) and Paris (this specific student had travelled there and shared how he noticed inequalities from the city center to the airport). Then, the teacher asked if it was fair the head of a company receiving 100 times more than his employees: “Is it fair?”. Students seemed surprised. A student said that it wasn’t fair, but another told that it depends on what he does and his responsibilities. Given the concrete example of inequalities in Amazon, some students claimed that it was not fair.

At the end, to introduce them to Fairtrade, students were asked if they could choose between a more expensive package of rice, knowing that workers were payed justly for their work, and a less expensive one, with no guarantees of the workers conditions, which one would they buy. Students said that they didn’t know. The teacher asked if students would buy a chocolate that they know was produced with slaves’ work. Opinions were “it was already produced” and “it isn’t our fault”.

Links with the curriculum:

• Geography – countries and continents in the world map, characteristics of each country and region, cardinal points
• Citizenship education – human rights, interculturality, social justice

2. Children learn more

In the next steps, according to the children’s age range and interests, the process unfolded in separate ways.

7-10 years old students:

• Developed research and activities on the origin of food and inequalities in trade
  

2.1. The origin of food and inequalities (Age range: 7+)

Children bring home a sheet with the proposal to search about the origin of food.

This proposal can be connected to a previous stimulus activity on social and economic inequalities.

“You certainly remember about the videos we watched concerning inequalities that exist all over the world and how our choices are related to them. Do you remember how the banana producer earn so little and how humble his house was? We had some curiosities to clarify”

A challenge is proposed to children: to search for some information with the help of their family.

Examples of prompts for research:

1. Pick a food item of your choice and draw it or collect pictures
2. With the help of your family, find answers to some of these questions:
1. How is it produced?
2. What's its origin?
3. What are the places in the world where there is greater production of it?
4. How did it come to you?
5. Are the people who produced it justly paid for their work?

Alternatively, the research can be conducted at school, individually or in small groups of children.

Children present their research to their peers. The drawing or picture is connected to countries in the map where that food item is mainly produced (according to the child’s research).

A digital map can also be created in the ISOTIS platform.

A whole group discussion was implemented for children to share the results of the home challenge. The majority of children completed the research at home and brought it to school to share with their peers. The activity was divided in three different moments, in separate days, so all children could present the research they conducted. Teachers (and children) referred to the moment as “a debate”. Repeatedly, a child would go near the teacher leading the activity and presented his research to the class. Then, the drawing or picture of the food item would be exposed and linked to the countries where it was mainly produced in the classroom map, using wool. Based on the children’s comments about the farmer’s economic conditions, the teachers would elicit some discussion on social and economic inequalities.

For example, sometimes children included the concept of fairness and justice in their responses: “the people who produce salt aren’t justly paid”. Referring to carrot farmers, a child read “farmers aren’t well payed”. When the teacher asked why, a child said that “they spend many days producing” and another child completed “the work is a lot and they are paid little”. The teacher highlighted the work it took to take care of food and asked if it was fair that workers were paid so little. Children answered “no”.  One child mentioned “People [referring to farmers] aren’t paid justly because the person who sells wants to have all the money”. Another child mentioned “only 6% of the value payed goes to the [chocolate] producer”. After the teacher explained how much 6% was, children showed some outrage. 

Links with the curriculum:

• Sciences: climate and plants
• Geography: countries and continents in the world map, characteristics of each country and region, cardinal points
• Literacy: writing and reading
• Mathematics: awareness of numbers and percentages on inequalities
• Citizenship education: human rights, interculturality, social justice

2.2. Data on world inequalities (Age range: 12+)

Different charts on world inequalities and on the evolution of inequalities over time are presented to students.

In Portugal, with older students, the teacher mentioned Portugal's position in the first chart and how the richest 20% in Portugal were eight times richer than the poorest 20%. The teacher asked, "Is that fair?". One student stressed that it was not fair, because “people were already rich and already had enough money”. Another student said that the difference was too large and that “the richest probably don’t even use all the money.” Regarding Portugal's position, one student pointed out “I thought Portugal was fairer”, another student said that she already had this perception of inequalities in Portugal. Then, we discussed the position of the United States. Students mentioned "no wonder, there are people with lots of money and people with very little money”; “when I think of the United States, I think of everything big and wealth, but also people who work and do not get as much”. A student pointed out that "people are selfish". The teacher provoked: if selfishness was the cause of inequalities how did some countries achieve half the inequalities (“are people in these countries less selfish?”)? One student responded that it was due to differences in "political and social action". More specifically, he referred to "laws that protect workers". In this way, students discussed the “minimum wage” as one of these laws, with one student referring it was important “to avoid companies paying less to workers”. Overall, all students agreed with this measure.

Then, students analyzed the second chart on the evolution of inequalities over time in different world regions. Again, one student read the title, another explained what the chart was about. The students referred that inequalities were increasing at the global level, but also pointed out that in Europe they were more stable. A student highlighted the case of Russia and the peak observed around 1990. The teacher asked if the students knew to what period or historical event that time corresponded and, as they didn’t know, he suggested that they researched it. He pointed out that inequalities are changing over time and are dependent on historical and political events. Finally, the teacher asked whether it is fair for the richest 10% to own 40% of the country's revenue (in the case of Russia in 2015). We gave the example of whether it would be fair for 2 students in the class to have 40% of the profits if students cooperatively made a sale. The students' response was clear: "no". Then we saw the case of Western Europe (one chart) and the United States (another chart) to highlight the fluctuation in levels of inequality and the United States case.

Finally, we discussed the chart on social mobility. The professor explained the case of Portugal and asked what could promote social mobility. Students spoke about compulsory schooling, mentioning that currently in Portugal school attendance is mandatory until the 12^th grade or until students are 18 years old and that social security protects children if they are not in school or are working. The teacher asked the students' opinion about this. One student said that she wished that it was not compulsory. She mentioned how she would like to work (as a cook) at the end of 9^th grade. A debate began among the students and most thought 12^th grade was an advantage. They also talked about the importance of specializing in one area and going to university. The teacher linked this discussion to the choices they will have to make soon (especially the older students, who are in 9^th grade). Then, the teacher asked how students thought schools were in the United States and whether the social and economic inequalities of the country would be reflected in schools. One student said that schools, as represented in movies, were very good, with “huge soccer fields”; another student stressed that there were also schools with “little security”, in which “students carry weapons”. The teacher said that both of them could be right and that those examples actually represent the inequalities in education. Then, students were questioned about inequalities in education in Portugal and if the school that students attend could determine their future. One student said that, at their school, for example, the relationships established with teachers were very close and that this helped all students succeed. Other students said that in education in Portugal there were “some inequalities, but not many”.

Links with the curriculum:

• Geography: countries and continents, globalization;
• Mathematics: reading and interpreting charts, awareness of numbers and percentages on inequalities;
• Citizenship education: human rights, interculturality, social justice.

3. Children take action

Finally, a discussion can be held with children to reflect on activities to design and implement that focus on raising the school community's awareness of social inequalities or small local actions that students can undertake.   

Example of possibilities:

• organize a farmers' or Fairtrade market at school;
• make posters and brochures to inform the school community on social inequalities and Fairtrade;
• engage in activities with other peers to raise their awareness of social inequalities and Fairtrade.

With younger children (7-10 years old), we discussed how we could change the unjust distribution in trade (“what can we do?”, considering activity 4.1. Inequalities in trade). 

Older students (12-15 years old) co-designed and implemented two activities with their younger peers (10-12 years old): Activity 4.2. Food available in each country: Is it fair? and Activity 4.1. Inequalities in trade. One group of older children presented to their younger peers their research on school mechanisms to reduce inequalities: Activity 4.3. Our school and inequalities.

3.1. Inequalities in trade (Age range: 7+)

In small groups, children discuss how they would divide 30 coins between those involved in the banana trade process: farmer, plantation owner, transporter, factory and supermarket. 

The activity can be implemented in the ISOTIS platform and complemented by using physical coins and paper cards (each card representing one of those involved in the trade process).

At the end, in whole group, children are confronted with the real values:

• Supermarket: 13 coins
• Factory: 7 coins
• Transporter: 5 coins
• Plantation: 3 coins
• Farmer: 2 coins

A discussion can be held about the fairness of the distribution and possible solutions to mitigate inequalities.  

children between 7 and 10 years old

Children between 7 and 10 years old were involved in the VLE activity, dividing 30 coins between those involved in the process of trade as they thought it would be fair. After all children completed the activity, the researchers presented a Power-Point with a summary of children’s responses on the distribution and reasons for that distribution and the actual distribution of money. 

When confronted with the real values on a chart, children immediately showed outrage and expressed their surprise. One child exclaimed “What?! How unfair!”. When asked to comment the results, children argued that the supermarket had less work when compared with others, although it received the most (“it’s unfair because the supermarket does almost anything and receives so much” and “the supermarket just has to make calculations and receives almost everything”). On the other hand, children highlighted the farmer’s hard work (“the farmer has to work day and night and walk in the rain and the supermarket does not”). One of the children voiced “I want everyone to receive the same amount because everybody works”. When asked by the teacher about why this happens, a child referred “because the supermarket wants to have a lot of money and because of that keeps all the money to itself”.

Then, children were invited to think about solutions ("what can we do?"). Although one child immediately expressed “nothing”, other children were full of ideas. On one hand, children highlighted how transparency in the amounts received by each part could help us as consumers (“we can go to the supermarket and ask how much each one receives”). On the other hand, children proposed advocating for farmers’ rights in different ways (“we can go with the farmer to the supermarket and ask more money for him”, “we can give food to the farmer”, “we can help the farmer plant things”, “we can do a manifestation”). One child also proposed to “call the police and complain”.  Another referred “I know who can help us” and mentioned “Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa”, the Portuguese president, but was unsure about what he could specifically do. The teacher suggested that maybe some legislation could be designed and implemented to regulate the percentage that farmers should receive and protect them. Another child proposed that planters spoke with each other and stopped selling until a just price was proposed to them. The teacher advance with the ideas of buying directly to farmers or in little grocery stores, markets, and fairs. Finally, Fairtrade was also mentioned as an alternative to diminishing the inequalities in trade.

CHILDREN BETWEEN 10 AND 12 YEARS OLD

Older students (12 to 15 years old) implemented this activity with their younger peers (10 to 12 years old). Contrarily to younger students, they were asked to guess how the distribution would be. Some interesting discussions and reflections arose. Regarding the income of the farmer, some children claimed “the farmer is going to receive less”, “the farmer is more explored, so he receives less”, “the farmer [receives less] because his profession isn’t as valued and is done in a poor country”,  others stated “I think the farmer receives more”, “I think that the farmer should receive more”, and “he isn’t paid as he should be”. Moreover, they also considered factors as the number of persons employed and additional costs (e.g., “the supermarket has more employees”, “the transporter spends money on gas”, and “the factory should receive more, because lots of persons work there and they need to pay for the machines’ maintenance”.

When faced with the real values, in the whole group discussion, students’ thoughts regarding the farmer’s payment were: “it’s unfair”, “the farmer should receive way more”, “the farmer does most of the work, he plants” and “the farmer doesn’t surprise me, it is not a job that is highly recognized, valued”. Concerning the supermarket, students referred that “the supermarket only sells”, “as it is the supermarket that sells the products, it receives more” and “all the money goes to the boss”. When considering the amount that went to the factory, they reinforced “I was surprised with the factory, they have lots of persons there working” and “the factory should earn a bit more, they have expenses with the equipment”. Also, one student expressed “the transporter should earn more, he does big distances sometimes”. 

Links with the curriculum:

• Mathematics: awareness of numbers and division;
• Citizenship education: interculturality, human rights and social justice.

3.2. Food available in each continent: is it fair? (age range: 10+)

First, papers with continents’ name are distributed throughout the classroom. 

2-3 children can be volunteers and divide the whole group of children between continents according to the population of each continent.

Then, other children can be asked if they agree with that disposition. 

Different dispositions of children, depending on the children’s suggestions, can be tried.

The teacher can then reveal to children the real distribution of the world's population.

If there are 20 children*:

• Asia – 11 children representing the population
• Europe – 2 children representing the population
• Africa – 3 children representing the population
• North America – 1 child representing the population
• South America – 2 children representing the population
• Oceania – 1 child representing the population

Then 2-3 other volunteers can distribute 30 papers (representing food) between continents, meaning how much food each continent has to live with. Other children can be asked if they agree with that disposition, according to what they know about inequalities worldwide. 

Then, the teacher can then dispose papers to reflect the real distribution of the continents’ access to food.

If there are 20 children*:

• Asia – 4 pieces of paper representing the food
• Europe – 9 pieces of paper representing the food
• Africa – 1 piece of paper representing the food
• North America – 10 pieces of paper representing the food
• South America – 1 piece of paper representing the food
• Oceania – 5 pieces of paper representing the food

Teachers can further explain that in Asia, for example, China has approximately 3 of the papers (meaning 3 /4 of the whole continent access to food).

Teachers can also highlight that even within countries there are inequalities and that inequalities are getting worse in this rapidly changing world.

A discussion and reflection with children can be held.

Prompts for discussion:

• How did children from different continents feel?
• How fair/unfair was the food distribution?
• What would make the distribution fair?
• Who is responsible to ensure that every human being has equal access to food?

The activity can be recorded in pictures or video that can be shared in the ISOTIS platform with peers, teachers and parents.

Older students (12-15 years old) presented the activity to a group of younger students (10-12 years old) in two separate moments, with two different groups. 

First, students had to divide themselves into five groups, each group representing a continent. Right from the start children started actively discussing how they would distribute themselves. For example, in one of the groups, one student kept arguing that “Asia has more population than America”, but others didn’t agree. After an initial distribution, every time a student made a proposal to add or remove students from one continent to the other, other students would vote if they agreed with their hand raised. When the students achieved a minimum consensus on the world distribution of population per continents, the group implementing the activity revealed the real values. The distribution wasn’t correct in any continent, in both groups. While students located fewer students in Asia than it was meant to have, students thought that other continents were more populated than they were. Students expressed their astonishment when hearing the real values. In the end, children shared some thoughts about the world distribution of the population. For example, in one of the groups, one student referred “I thought that Asia had fewer people”. Then, one student added, “once I borrowed a book that said that Asia was the continent with more population”. Then, children were invited to think about which Asian countries were the two more populated countries in the world. The first that children named was China and, after a few incorrect attempts, they were able to identify the second, India. In the second group, one of the students observed “[the population of] Asia represents more than half the world population”. A student spontaneously mentioned, “Asia has China that has more than a billion of inhabitants, it has Russia that is very big, it has India that is big”.  Another completed by mentioning “Bangladesh has more habitants than Russia”. The teacher confirmed online.

After the discussion on the distribution of population, children were invited by their older peers to distribute thirty pieces of paper between the five continents. Once again, students actively discussed with each other how they thought the distribution of food would be. Nevertheless, in the end, their distribution was very far from reality. Overall, students thought that Europe, Oceania and North America had less food available than they actually do and that Asia, Africa, and South America had more food than they have. In a nutshell, they thought that the world was more just, meaning that available food was distributed more evenly. When their older peers revealed the real distribution, younger students expressed their outrage particularly concerning the amount of food available in North America. Some reactions were “How much? Gee!”, “it doesn’t make sense that North America has 13 [pieces of paper, representing the quantity of food available], one person with 13!”, “it’s not fair” and “it’s a problem that North America has a lot of food and other have little”. In one of the groups, students claimed “it’s because it is very rich”, “I am not surprised”, and “it doesn’t impress me that much, there is a lot of obesity there, a lot of food is wasted there, it even makes sense”.  Regarding the food available in Asia, students mentioned “we were surprised” and “as Asia had a lot of population everyone thought they had a lot of food, but it is very poor”. Additionally, they also referred “I was surprised by the distribution in South America” and “in Europe, there is a lot of food”. 

When the teacher asked if this distribution was problematic, children were clear: “it is a problem”, “this is an important issue” and “everyone should have the same food, but some continents need more than others”, “every day someone can be dying with hunger and we are here wasting food”. When asked about what we could do to mitigate these inequalities, in the first group, a student mentioned: “to not waste food”. The teacher provoked “but if you don’t waste food how does that helps others having food?”. The child was silent thinking and answered, “giving food”. Another student completed “giving donations”. The teacher then asked if donating food or money would help the continents in need. The child answered, “it depends, if the leaders want that the money goes really for charity, then it also helps slowly”. Another completed “a lot of people don’t care”. Visibly displeased one of the children expressed “people receive miserably and lose the food they cultivate with exportations and live in poverty”. The teacher provoked “what if they keep the food?”, to which the child answered, “they are required to, they do slave work, they don’t see their family, they are mandated to send [food] to other countries, for it to be wasted”. In the other group, solutions to inequalities presented by children were also centered in donations: “to donate”, “if North America gave a little and donated for example to Africa”. To this solution a child countered with “if we simply donate the money, it finishes in little time, we need to help develop the countries”. When the teacher asked how, the child answered, “teaching techniques”. On the other hand, a child proposed “some countries shouldn’t sell their food”, to which another child reacted “but they don’t have money” and another “they earned very little with food production but they have to sell theirs to buy, not only to eat but to have a house, buy clothes”. The teacher concluded the activity in both groups by stating that these are “complex problems”, “hard to solve”, in which “one solution can cause more problems”.

Links with the curriculum:

• Geography – countries and continents, population
• Mathematics – awareness of numbers and percentages of the population
• Citizenship education – human rights, interculturality, social justice.

3.3. Our school and inequalities (Age range: 7+)

The teacher can organize a whole group discussion to reflect on mechanisms that the school uses to deal with and diminish social inequalities. 

Alternatively, in small groups, children can reflect and register on ways that their school uses to mitigate inequalities, describing how each school structure or procedure achieves that goal. To complement their research, children can interview their peers, teachers, school leaders, and other school staff to learn more about the school.

children between 7 and 10 years old

With children from 7 to 10 years old, a conversation about the school and inequalities occurred during the stimulus situation. When discussing inequalities, the teacher inquired “What can we do?” and followed “In this school, there are children with more and less [financial] possibilities. What do we do in our school for children to have the same opportunities?” A child promptly referred “we give money”. The teacher clarified “we give money?”. Another child answered, “no, but we give food baskets”. Children added: “we do campaigns to help”, “we share our materials and snacks”, “parents don’t have to buy materials and books”, “we can request books from our readers club”, “we can request tablets and take them home if we don’t have”, “we help each other”. Another child concluded: “here there are people who are poor and don’t have money and we all do the same things”.

CHILDREN BETWEEN 12 AND 15 YEARS OLD

A group of older students decided to conduct research on school mechanisms to reduce inequalities. Students conducted interviews with other children and school staff to inform themselves on each mechanism and resorted to that information to develop a Power-Point presentation. They presented to their
younger peers (10-12 years old) a Power-Point introducing the mechanisms they identified: 

1. the food corner;

2. the group of responsibility focused on solidarity;

3. the library that provides children books and tablets; 

4. the common, equal and shared material. 

Links with the curriculum:

• Citizenship education: human rights, social justice
• ICT: development of a presentation