DIGI-S.PA.C.E - The DIGItal innovative Strategies for PArental and Civic Engagement

Education for Social Justice

The DIGItal innovative Strategies for PArental and Civic Engagement - DIGI-S.PA.C.E. project is a three-year (2019-2022) Erasmus+ project with the Create Partnership Trust, UK, and partners in Italy, Lithuania and Portugal.

The project pursues the following general objectives:

To prevent early school leaving, social exclusion and poor learning outcomes through a proactive parental engagement in the education life of the pupils.
To reinvent the approach to parental engagement by introducing innovative methods that include ICT tools, peer support, a whole-school differentiated strategy.

Researchers in the Education Department at University of Staffordshire are responsible for evaluating the project. To date the researchers have conducted a needs analysis designed to ascertain precisely parents’ needs and the views of teachers and stakeholders, which will inform the shaping and development of the four Intellectual Outputs (IOs) and the project’s associated activities. The IOs comprise:

IO1 - Training kit for school staff and Parent Support Advisors
IO2 - Protocol for Parental Engagement
IO3 - Training kit to enhance parenting skills
IO4 - DIGI-S.PA.C.E. App

You can find more details about the project and its activities at the DIGI-S.PA.C.E. website.

Lead researcher

Professor Gillian Forrester

Professor Of Education Policy

I lead the Professional Doctorate in Education (EdD), which is a vibrant research degree programme for professional educators. I supervise doctoral students (PhD and EdD) and I am involved in several externally funded research projects.

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Associated researchers

Dr Jim Pugh

Director - Inst. Of Ed. - Assoc Prof.

I am proud to be the Director of the Institute of Education leading an innovative group of professionals, educators, researchers and working with our creative and exciting students, partners and community.

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Dr Ruth Hudson

P/T Lecturer (Hrly)- Education

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Collaborators and funding

The DIGI-S.PA.C.E (DIGital Innovative Strategies for Parental and Civic Engagement) is led by CREATE Partnership Trust, in partnership with Agrupamento de Escolas da Mia (Portugal), Etiudas Kindergarden ( Lithuania) , St Thomas’s International School (Italy).

The project is supported by Ponto PR (technical support), University of Staffordshire and the Home of Psychological Ideas (research and evaluation partners) and ProMETEUS (QA partner) representative of 4 EU countries (UK, Italy, Portugal and Lithuania).

Co-funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ Programme.