The Kitefighters Toolkit
The resource you need to fight bullying
and prevent conflicts
The KITE-fighters Toolkit has been designed to be a practical and valuable helper for pedagogues. It provides creative methods to cope with bullying situations and prevent the escalation of conflicts at school. especially useful for engaging students with social difficulties.
The Toolkit includes a collection of 13 innovative tools categorized according to the methodology used: Symbolwork, (Digital) Storytelling and Folk Tale Work.
Each tool is described using key information to guide and support pedagogues in the choice of the best activity to use: difficulty level, age target group, duration, themes covered, type of activity, source of the tool, overview, objectives, materials needed, instructions, the reason why the tool can be useful in the school environment.
Moreover, the toolkit contains a selection of best practices that can be taken as reference point to improve schools’ strategies, and case studies that have been gathered through interviews.
Our hope is that students and educators will use this toolkit to create a positive climate and improve the communication inside the classroom, having a real impact on students’ mental health, emotional resilience and on the school atmosphere, and, with a broader perspective, also to decrease social exclusion and bullying.
What does it offer to teachers?
A practical tool, based on a student-centered approach so to help teachers and students enhance their understanding of the dynamics of exclusion.
Why is it an effective resource?
It stimulates emotional intelligence/resilience of students, by making them available to use storytelling and narrative pedagogy (narrative pedagogy helps students interpret situations they encounter from multiple perspectives);
How does it produce lasting effects in the school?
It fosters the community building among students, through sharing their personal and/or collective experiences, when using the storytelling;
Why is it a good ally for students?
It helps them to learn different coping mechanism, as well as values and it enhances their imagination.
Be a Kite Fighter! Start to use the toolkit
Glossary of basic terms
The language used to describe complex situations has an important role in shaping the way we think about them. Being aware of this, in this glossary, we collected and explained terms useful to understand bullying dynamics.
Introduction with Case Studies
An introduction to learn more about the Kite Fighters project and to explore bullying, its dynamics and effects, also through case studies that we collected with interviews.
Storytelling
The language used to describe complex situations has an important role in shaping the way we think about them. Being aware of this, in this glossary, we collected and explained terms useful to understand bullying dynamics.
Collection of tools
Symbolwork
In bullying processes, it can be observed that the participants – in whatever role – are often literally “speechless”. Symbolwork is an innovative methodology that offers young people an additional language, making it easier to express personal feelings and thoughts.
The tools described in this collection are: creation of our own symbol box, Introduction Round, Basic Clearing Intervention, Mandala and Wheel Of Emotions.
Folktales work
All life situations and relationship problems – including bullying – has their own folk tales, in which the hero(ess) is empowered, reaches to her/his inner resources, and takes steps to change their fates into better. Using Folk Tale Work, students can look for and find their own resources and takes steps to solve their actual life problems.
The tools described in this collection are: Making A Paper Theatre, “The Queen Bee” Kamishibai, Lotilko. To support pedagogues, this collection also contains two appendixes: Appendix 1 – Collection and Appendix 2 – The story with the stops.
Selection of best practices
A selection of best practices of successful initiative to prevent and fight bullying that can be taken as reference point to improve schools’ strategies.