<< Background >>The changing needs of 21st century society and related recuring challenges (economic recession, poverty, social inequalities, climate crisis, health crisis) are having a significant impact on the world of education, requiring a shift from ‘learning to know’ to ‘learning to be, to do and live together’ approaches (Council Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, 2018). Thus, the traditional formal education approach (‘learning to know’), focusing on the verbal-linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences, is considered a rather limited one in addressing the enhanced social and emotional needs of 21st century individuals, namely creative thinking, resilience, and creativity (NESET II, 2018). Although most Member States recognize the importance of Social and Emotional Education (SEE), national policies lack a clear set of goals, schools miss concrete plans and practical paradigms to teach and apply it, and educators often do not have sufficient training, experience, or motivation to embrace and deliver sustainable SEE programs (H2020 Boost policy brief 2020, JRC 2019). There is also a documented knowledge gap on evidence-based pedagogical guidelines and teaching approaches that would help educators to enhance students’ social and emotional skills (OECD, 2015). Despite the available research demonstrating that arts-based learning leads to improvement in student engagement and positive school culture and climate (DeMoss, 2002; Camille, 2019) and has strong correlation with the objectives of SEE (Karen, 2014), cross curricular arts-based school learning in Europe is rather limited. Simultaneously, Covid-19 impact on mental health and emotional wellbeing of school communities, with emphasis on children facing social and economic exclusion (Moroni et al., 2020, Hamedani et. al, 2015), overemphasizes the afore-mentioned needs, considering the long-lasted school lockdown measures and distance learning (JRC, EC, 2020). Based on the above, the REIMAGINED project aims to jointly address the EU-wide needs: a) of providing pedagogies, frameworks and tools to support educators to apply SEE on a cross-curricular approach, building on lower secondary educators’ collaboration, as it has been documented by the Greek Institute of Educational Policy and evidenced by University of Jyväskylä; b) of supporting adolescents’ social and emotional skills development to successfully respond to recurring crises and shocks (JRC, LifeComp 2020, OECD 2020), with a focus on those coming from vulnerable socio-economic environments heavily impacted by Covid-19 measures.<< Objectives >>The REIMAGINED project aims to: a) equip 75 lower secondary schools’ educators and directors with the necessary competences, pedagogic Social and Emotional Education methodologies and tools to embrace and deliver arts-based techniques into their disciplines, following a cross- and extra-curricular collaborative approach; b) to enhance the social and emotional skills of 180 adolescents aged 11-15 years old, with a focus on those facing social and economic exclusion, supporting their recovery from COVID-19, and enabling them to become resilient, responsible and active citizens at community level; and c) to contribute to evidence-based educational policy change, by proving a pilot tested paradigm and its learnings in order to institutionalize the correlation of arts education with SEE at secondary school level in Europe. Built based on the logic that improvements in learning practices do not necessarily require major reforms, but rather connections, REIMAGINED aims to provide the processes and methodological means for the development of a practical educational integrated paradigm correlating SEE with arts education through a cross- and extra-curricular approach, targeting lower secondary educators and students. It therefore seeks to connect: a) educators and school directors to collaborative apply arts-integrated techniques across the school curriculum using creativity as a lens to promote SEE within the classroom; b) educators, local CSOs already engaged in non-formal education, parents and community members, in order to promote learning-by-doing through extracurricular activities that build social and emotional skills through application at community level, enhancing the association between the school classroom and local realities.<< Implementation >>To achieve the REIMAGINED’s objectives, the following activities will be implemented: A desk research focusing on: a) overview of current status of SEE in EU, with a focus on partner countries, b) the interrelation between SEE and arts education, c) identification of arts-integrated best practices in a cross-curricular approach, and d) merging formal with non-formal education initiatives to promote application of skills. An online survey targeting educators and directors of lower secondary education in Greece, Italy and Hungary to document their training needs on SEE and arts-integrated methodologies. Focus groups with national educational public authorities, CSOs, and students aged 11-15 years old in Greece, Italy and Hungary to identify their needs and challenges in terms of national educational policy context, curricular and extra-curricular collaboration, and socio-emotional skill needs. Based on the above needs analysis, the REIMAGINED whole-school Intervention Framework for enhancing social and emotional education in lower secondary schools will be developed, guiding the next project’s Results. The REIMAGINED pedagogic methodology and training material will be specified, promoting learning-by-doing and arts-based practices. A cooperation framework will be developed to promote cross-curricular collaboration among diverse educators and extra-curricular collaboration with local CSOs. The organisation of national adaptation workshops with educational public authorities and experts will ensure applicability into partner countries’ national school and policy contexts. The developed training material will be hosted in an Open Training Course to be developed on SEE targeting educators, directors of schools and CSOs’ trainers. The online course will be delivered and evaluated by transnational participants form Greece, Italy and Hungary, who will form an EU working group on enhancing SEE across curricula in lower secondary education. Selected educators and directors of schools, who will be later involved in the pilot testing of the REIMAGINED Intervention Framework in their school context, will participate in a training workshop in Finland, and following their return will form a multi-disciplinary team per school (6 in total). The trained educators will deliver disciplinary sessions through arts-integrated practices based on the developed training materials. Partner CSOs will cooperate with the involved schools to co-design extra-curricular activities at community level in the form of artistic school projects at community level. JYU will provide continuous mentoring to trained educators from other countries throughout the pilot testing process. An impact assessment exercise will be implemented to assess the impact of REIMAGINED Intervention Framework on educators and students’ learning outcomes achievement. The impact assessment will feed evidence-based EU policy recommendations for educational public authorities and CSOs on the re-imagination of SEE in the school environment, which will be formed in the context of national and an EU policy roundtables with the participation of key EU policy stakeholders.Info days will be organised in Greece, Italy, and Hungary in which the key project results will be disseminated.During the final EU Conference, selected students from partner countries who have been actively involved in the local artistic school projects, will visit Athens to share their experiences, and be involved in the delivery of a transnational / EU artistic school project.<< Results >>REIMAGINED aspires to re-imagine education in lower secondary schools in Greece, Italy and Hungary through SEE mainstreaming, using arts-integrated practices in a cross-curricular approach. To achieve this, the following results will be developed: A whole-school intervention framework for enhancing social and emotional skills in secondary schools through arts-integrated practices and based on cross-curricular and extra-curricular collaboration. A cross-curricular social and emotional education pedagogic methodology equipping educators of lower secondary education with appropriate tools and training material. A cooperation framework, including processes to be followed by educators and directors of schools to establish effective multi-disciplinary teams within the school environment, and extra-curricular collaborations with agents at community level.An open online SEE training for educators, directors of lower secondary schools and CSO’s trainers with open educational resources and pedagogic methodologies to support them to design and deliver effective and sustainable SEE programmes, integrating arts-based practices across curricula, while associating them with extra-curricular community activities (75 trained educators and CSO’s training staff).An EU cooperation group with the participation of the 75 trained stakeholders, acting as a community of practice. 7 artistic school projects designed and delivered at community level in Greece, Italy and Hungary, developed in continuation of the in-class cross-curricular educational sessions (180 students involved in schools’ sessions), enabling students aged 11-15 years old to apply the newly acquired socio-emotional skills, through extra-curricular activities in cooperation with partner CSO, while engaging with parents and community members. 90 students will actively be involved in leading and designing the local artistic school projects. An EU artistic school project will be implemented as a celebration of students’ achievement during the final EU Conference.Evidenced-based policy recommendations on the re-imagination of lower secondary school education through SEE mainstreaming, using arts-integrated practices in a cross-curricular approach, will be co-developed by national and EU educational public authorities, based on the pilot-tested and assessed REIMAGINED Intervention Framework. Overall, it is expected that educators and directors of lower secondary schools across disciplines in GR, IT, HU will benefit from the REIMAGINED pedagogic methodology and online course, acquiring new skills, learning-by-doing methodologies and tools to enhance SEE in the school curriculum through collaborative multi-disciplinary teams of educators and arts-integrated practices. At the same time, students, with a focus on adolescents aged 11-15 years old from vulnerable socio-economic environments heavily impacted by Covid-19, will enhance their socio-emotional skills through their development within the school system and their application at community context in the form of artistic projects. Educational policy makers at national, regional and EU level will benefit from the evidence-based REIMAGINED policy recommendations, acquiring knowledge and strategies for mainstreaming SEE in secondary schools to support adolescents recover from Covid-19 crisis and become resilient citizens. Community members and parents of involved students from Greece, Italy and Hungary will enhance their life skills through their involvement in artistic community projects, reconnecting with their community, and enhancing their sense of belonging. Lastly, CSOs working on life skills development and active citizenship at EU level will benefit from the pilot-tested intervention framework, connecting curricular- (formal education) with extra-curricular activities (non-formal learning) to develop socio-emotional skills of students at community level.