MY COLORFUL WORLD IN EUROPE Erasmus Project

Project Title

MY COLORFUL WORLD IN EUROPE

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Ethics, religion and philosophy (incl. Inter-religious dialogue); Social dialogue; Migrants’ issues

Project Summary

The project includes five schools from five different countries: DE, TR, IT, ES, FR.

Our countries are home to different national, ethnic minorities and immigrants who still isolate themselves in their own communities, forming self-organized communities, ghettos or parallel societies where they live according to their own culture, rather than creating social and cultural contact with the majority society into which they have immigrated. This creates disharmony in society. The integration of a larger number of people is always connected with problems or tensions. According to the SWOT analysis done by each partner in their institution, a series of common needs were identified, leading to the decision to create a project about social inclusion and tolerance. Unfortunately, violence, aggression, intolerance, racism, ethnic discrimination are tendencies can be observed in the behaviour of the students from all the partner countries. Notably, it is not only immigrants or minorities who need to become an integrated part of our schools, there are also other disadvantaged groups such as pupils with special needs among others.
The motivation behind the project is the integration of socially excluded students with a focus on immigrants, making our students aware of multiculturalism and the diversity of European countries. We hope to involve around 150 students from five different countries aged between 9 and 14. The project will last for two years.

The specific objectives are:
* To deepen students’ knowledge of national and ethnic minorities.
* To break down stereotypes of people from different cultures, and develop attitudes of tolerance through surveys, discussions, brainstorming and visits to partner countries.
* To engage students to tackle issues of oppression, economic inequality, sexism, racism, and other challenges through theatre events and role-plays in workshops.
* To deepen students’ knowledge about various religions and religious organizations and to help break down prejudices.
* To help students improve their self confidence in their lives and perspectives.
* To promote social inclusion and dialogue, we will encourage the integration of excluded young pupils by giving them responsibilities in local activities and on Twinspace. They will also be included in the mobilities.

During the activities we have planned, we aim to improve social intercourse. To achieve our objectives we will work in a collaborative way. The activities, including sports, art, music, games, role-plays, cooking and drama, are good elements to create a feeling of togetherness.
The experiences teachers gain while organizing these projects will be used in different teaching settings with other groups, and the collaborative activities we have planned can be repeated in every day classes, and even become part of the concept of social integration in the schools.
We will use the eTwinning platform for the monitoring of the project, through which the communication channels of the project will be established. Twinspace and social media channels of the project will serve as centers for sharing and storing all the resources developed over the two years.

The first short-term staff training event will be held in Germany. This meeting is essential at the beginning of the project as it allows the leading actors to establish group consciousness. They can discuss and take clear decisions on the schedule of the two years, implementation methods, dissemination and evaluation rules, as well as how to implement the topic and subtopics into concrete activities.
The next four short-term exchanges involving pupils will be in Italy, Spain, Turkey and France. During these visits, we will have workshops on the topics of Race & Ethnicity, Religions, Immigration, Gender Equality, Bullying & Bias, Social Classes. These will be followed by various events (e.g team sports, children games, theatre, charity event, cooking workshop, drawing workshop) enhancing the learning and sharing.
The final short-term staff training event will be held in Turkey where there will be a final assessment of the project, and we can agree on the last actions related to results and dissemination events.

Methodology wise, we would like to utilize project-based learning method through which our learners will improve their deep content knowledge along with critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication skills.

Through this project, we expect to contribute to inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue, encouraging students to be open to new cultures. By providing opportunities meet with the official people who represent them, we hope to reinforce the importance of bringing about a better mutual understanding, and ultimately a better coexistence. We want help our students to become tolerant members of a European community.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 151550 Eur

Project Coordinator

Otto Wels Grundschule & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Colegio Don Bosco de Cabezo de Torres Salesianos
• ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO DI RONCADELLE
• Ozel Halic Etap Ortaokulu
• collège Théodore Rancy