"<< Background >>The starting point and idea: Professionals in adult education, whether in general or professional continuing education practice, increasingly come into situations where polarizingly fought out positions on political, social or personal events trigger massive disruptions and negatively influence group dynamics to such an extent that a simple return to the actual learning topic is not possible. Be it the current topic of Corona and the regulations that apply to it or other topics: it seems in many cases that discussion, debating or arguing in the original sense is impossible. The erosion of the culture of debate can be observed throughout the Western hemisphere and is fueled by the social media. They play a major role in ensuring that camp thinking prevails in many areas, in that their algorithms reinforce opinions and ideological positions with similar content posts and no reference is made to counter-positions on the net. Those who only take note of positions that confirm and reinforce their own become incapable of dialog. It is becoming increasingly clear that a culture of debate cannot be created in the digital space. Only in face-to-face encounters do opportunities for debate seem to exist.The competence and willingness to enter into an interaction in which different opinions, perspectives, and convictions have a space and are expressed in language does not seem to be sufficiently present among many participants in the courses and measures. In an increasingly complex world, it is a key democratic competence to consciously deal with other opinions and perspectives and to accept diversity instead of leaving the situation resigned or aggressive.This is where the project ""Controverse"" comes in with a specific approach: The aim is not so much to develop behavioral change-oriented methods as instruments for professionals to practice behavioral patterns of debating and arguing. Rather, the aim is to develop a concept with practical approaches that make it possible to experience linguistic or non-verbal exchange with opinions and positions other than one's own, with the goal of changing one's consciousness toward greater acceptance of being different, of tolerating and, if necessary, of letting other opinions stand, or even - ideally - of achieving a kind of consensus or constructive agreement. The project wants to contribute to an integrated political basic education, which starts from the life worlds of the participants, follows the concept of situated learning (learning at authentic occasions and situations in the course everyday life) and realizes linguistic and non-verbal forms of the argument with different opinions with experience-oriented methods.The idea for the project arose in the context of a previous project that focused on the development of civil courage. The project sees itself as an important element of political basic skills, because the confrontation with other views or opinions is an important foundation of democracy, whose fragility has become obvious. The confrontation with the foreign and the other is one of the essential, if not sufficient, prerequisites of democratic societies. Adult education is called upon to make a decisive contribution here.<< Objectives >>With our project ""Controverse"" we would like to achieve the following: Improved competencies for adult educators as the direct target group of the project, i.e. lecturers, teachers, social pedagogues as professionals in different measures of adult education.The aim is to encourage them to take up and deal with situations in which black-and-white thinking and entrenched pigeonhole thinking can be observed among (so-called low-qualified or non-educated) learners in a way that is appropriate to the situation and effective for learning, and to equip them with correspondingly innovative theoretical-conceptual and - above all - practically applicable methods and instruments. We plan to achieve this goal through a set of clearly defined SMART objectives:- By the end of October 2022, we will design and develop a CONTROVERSE EXPERIENCE BOX ""Fair Disputes"", consisting of an introductory textbook and a practical toolbox for trainers* working with low-skilled, educationally disadvantaged adults (i.e. inidirect target group of the project).- By the end of April 2023, we will design and develop CONTROVERSE SHOWCASES ""Fair Disputes"", consisting of practical case studies for trainers working with low-skilled, educationally disadvantaged adults (i.e. inidirect target group of the project). These will be presented in concrete pilots of the previously developed experience box - with the active participation of trainers (min. 15) and learners (min. 30) - in an attractive and innovative way.- Until the end of June 2023: Realization of three (1 per partner country) multiplier events to disseminate or concretely promote the implementation of our results.Within the funded duration of the project, the Controverse partnership aims to reach at least 5000 stakeholders in the partner countries Germany, Austria and Norway directly. This is to be achieved through extensively planned dissemination activities in terms of maximum sustainability of the project results.<< Implementation >>The Controverse project is implemented over a period of 20 months to allow sufficient time for development work. At the same time, our methodology is based on experience in the implementation of comparable projects and enables feasible time efficiency, quality and sustainability of results. The small number of partners and countries involved, as well as the proven expertise of the teams that have been coordinated in our cooperation, also contribute to achieving maximum results.Overall, the project execution is divided into 3 overarching activity areas (A1, A2, A3) that will be implemented during the project duration and within which sub-activities are defined and distributed accordingly as follows:Activity1 - Management, Lead P1 (bbb). Duration: 20 months (November 1, 2021 - June 30, 2023)Main activities: development of project management guidelines (Project Manual), task allocation and distribution among partners, continuous communication and cooperation process within the partnership; monitoring through internal progress reports; risk management; interim and final report to NA-BIBB; preparation and follow-up of 4 transnational project meetings (kick-off online, 3 meetings in presence) and other activities described in more detail in the application form. Activity2 - Development of project deliverables, Lead: P1 (bbb) for PR1 (Controversy Experience Box ""Fair Disputes""), P2 (BEST) for PR2 (Controversy Showcases ""Fair Disputes""); the respective lead will coordinate the process, but each partner will be responsible for important sub-activities. Duration in total: 18 months (PR1 November 1, 2021 - October 31, 2022, PR2 October 1, 2022 - April 30, 2023).Activity 2.1: PR1, Develop the Controversy Experience Box, Lead P1 (bbb), M1-M12;Consolidate a draft proposal for the content of the experience box; Create the methodology for conducting a focus group in each country; Select and invite adult education experts (trainers, coaches) for the focus group;Consolidating the information from the focus groups and additional desk reasearch. Design of the experience box and its main contents (textbook and toolbox);Joint evaluation and fine-tuning;Consolidation of the final version of the Controverse experience box.Preparation of the language versions for publication: German, Norwegian, English.Activity 2.2: PR2, development of the Controverse showcases ""Fair Disputes"", Lead P2 (BEST), M12-18; Consolidation of a structural draft for the content of the showcases incl. creation of a methodology for the real and reconstructed case studies from educational work (image, film, sound, innovative media documentation methods); Development in a dynamic testing process (piloting) of result 1 in different educational practices and in cooperation with the associated partners in DE, AT, NO and with active participation of both professionals (trainers) and learners (participants of direct and target groups); Design of three showcases (each partner, i.e. showcase DE, AT, NO) with attractive case studies; joint evaluation and fine-tuning;Consolidation of final versions,Preparation of language versions for publication: German, Norwegian, English.Activity3 - Dissemination/Dissemination (Sharing and Promoting), Lead P3 (LoPe). Duration: 20 months (November 1, 2021 - June 30, 2022).Main activities: set up website (bbb/LoPe) and social media account (LoPe); 60 online publications; 15 thematic presentations at external events; organization of 3 multiplier events (1 per country), described in more detail elsewhere in this form.<< Results >>The partnership of ""Controverse"" aims to achieve the following (tangible and intangible) main results: - Creating the CONTROVERSE EXPERIENCE BOX ""Fair streiten"", consisting of a textbook and toolbox, to improve adult educators' competencies in basic political education and teaching debating skills (""Fair Disputes"") to low-skilled, educationally disadvantaged adult learners. - Creation of the CONTROVERSE SHOWCASES ""Fair Disputes"", which provides adult educators with attractive, practical and multimedia illustrative case studies and gives concrete impulses for their work with the target group of learners- at least 15 trainers and 30 learners will be actively involved in our Controverse pilot activities- Dissemination of the project results to a total of at least 5000 professionals & stakeholders from the partner countries and beyond- 3 multiplier events (in Germany, Austria, Norway)- 60 online publications- 15 thematic presentations at external events, ongoing information provision for dissemination of the project- Improved professional competences of adult educators to conduct trainings in the field of basic political education and skills transfer on factual debating and ""fair arguing- Improved skills and competencies of disadvantaged adult learners in the area of basic political education and in factual debating and ""fair arguing"".- Improved awareness of the adult education communities in the partner countries and beyond in the area of basic political education and skills transfer for factual debating and ""fair dispute""."