SHARE THE CULTURE Erasmus Project

Project Title

SHARE THE CULTURE

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Creativity and culture; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage

Project Summary

-Project context: The project started in 2018, taking up the challenge proposed by the European community to work for young people and with young people on the awareness of the varied and very rich natural, cultural and human heritage that characterizes Europe. For this goal, 4 schools, two Italian and two French, got together and worked together to allow their students to know, appreciate, feel like theirs and protect all the richness of this heritage. The four mobilities, despite the pandemic, were still able to take place, with some modifications during construction, compared to the initial design. Three mobilities were carried out in person, the last, the fourth, for which a one-year extension of the project was requested, took place remotely. The mobilities were prepared in synergy, thanks to the shared planning of the mobilities themselves during the first transnational meeting in Turin and thanks to the continuous contact between the partners, who continued to communicate and plan remotely even during the pandemic. In particular, the transnational meeting in Turin not only focused on teaching, but also allowed the meeting of the four principals and of the four administrative directors, with the aim of working together on the management and implementation of the project itself. The four partners also jointly designed the pre-mobility and post-mobility activities, aimed at preparing the students for the trip, the activities they would have carried out, at meeting the partners and disseminating what they would have learned to their parents and classmates on their return. These activities, carried out simultaneously in the four schools, made it possible to build a common learning program.
The partners have always shared educational objectives, tools and strategies. At the opening of the project, as the first activity of premobility, a work of presentation of the European community was perceived as a priority, with the aim of sensitizing young people on the modalities and the reasons of its constitution, the people who suffered to build it, the opportunities it offers them today.
The common thread that united us during these four mobilities is contained in the title of the project itself: ‘Share’. In this regard, each school wondered what aspect of its territory made it proud to live there and therefore wanted to share it with others.
The first mobility took place in Turin: IIS Boselli had no previous experience, but the generosity, the desire to do and learn and the desire of all to achieve something in which we all strongly believed, produced a great mobility, details of which can be read below. Turin addressed the following themes: economy and savings, entrepreneurship, social solidarity projects, history, cinema, music. The second mobility took place in Marseille, also inexperienced, but with everyone’s help and the great availability of the teaching team, it gave extremely interesting results. In particular, the very varied population of the school made it possible to create a real intercultural dialogue extremely enriching for the pupils. Marseille has developed the following themes: history of Mediterranean civilizations, cinema, crafts, spatial orientation, nature, craftsmanship.
The third mobility took place in Dunkirk. Jean Zay College had already experienced Erasmus projects and was used to teach by skills and authentic tasks. Their help was essential in creating pedagogical activities focused on students’ competency-based learning. The topics covered in this mobility were as follows: History, Cinema, folklore (carnival), history of European institutions, theater, plastic art. The didactic strategies used in the four mobilities were as follows: top down lessons (reduced to a minimum, to tell and give instructions), peer to peer, cooperative work in mixed groups, learning by doing. The fourth and final mobility took place remotely at the Catullo high school in Monterotondo. It took place over two days and covered the following themes: archeology, history, theater, music. In the four mobilities, a fundamental component ensured the success of the mobility itself and deserves to be mentioned, that of the families who welcomed the students, when possible, with great generosity and a desire to share.
Objectives set at the start of the project and which are considered achieved:
-contribute to increasing motivation and interest in studying and teaching a modern and shared education at European level,
-promote a methodological improvement of teachers
– contribute to the reduction of pupils’ academic failures
-contribute to linguistic enhancement
-improve knowledge of its artistic heritage
– educate in multiculturalism
– openness to the international vision of the world, both socially and culturally, in the logic of full European citizenship.
– create networks of opportunities
-promote mobility and cooperation with partner countries
– improve intercultural awareness by paying special attention to inclusion
-Increase digital skills
-Develop the attitude to flexibility, change, mobility
-promote an active and non-deductive study to awaken interest in knowledge and school, in order to face and reduce school dropout
– develop skills in active citizenship
The mobility experience had an impact on personal skills such as:
-group spirit
– the ability to adapt to multicultural environments
– communication and interpersonal skills
– organizational skills
– the ability to break self-referentiality
– self-awareness and self-esteem.
The concrete benefits of the training experience were assessed by observing the reduction in school failures and dropouts, with interviews and questionnaires that assessed knowledge at the start, during and at the end of the learning / training activities. The scope of the expected IMPACT has increased the dimension and strategic importance of the project itself and the quality implemented throughout its life cycle will be sustainable even after and for years to come. The realization of this project also showed other unexpected long-term benefits: a decrease in French debts for students in Italian schools, the desire of students to leave and get involved, the idea of continuing friendships and to build international projects, the desire – on the part of the professors – to carry out future projects with the partners they have known. In addition, this project was able, over its entire duration, to align educational systems of a very different nature, making it possible – even in their specificity – to build a common learning base which is no longer Italian or French, but European. In each of the mobilities, the host school wished to show the strengths, richness and specificity of its heritage, with the aim of showing it and making it known to both its students and its partners, in order to generate in them pride, a sense of belonging and the willingness to care about what they have seen, known, learned. Despite the pandemic and the last mobility organized remotely by three partners (since the fourth – the Marseille school – had to withdraw from the project due to force majeure), the objectives envisaged during the development of the project were therefore achieved

Project Website

https://www.liceocatullo.edu.it/categorie02.asp?id_categoria=32&id_sottocategoria=97

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 102762,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

Liceo Statale Gaio Valerio Catullo & Country: IT

Project Partners

• COLLEGE JEAN ZAY
• ISTITUTO DI ISTRUZIONE SUPERIORE “PAOLO BOSELLI”
• Lycée Camille Jullian