BONDING WITH GENERATION Z Erasmus Project

Project Title

BONDING WITH GENERATION Z

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: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Social dialogue

Project Summary

Difficulties are observed in the schools in terms of school climate : young people perceive the rules as obsolete, teachers often have the impression of showing incomprehension in dealing with daily situations with their pupils. There is a real awareness by the educational world of the lack of means to understand Generation Z. Generation Z includes individuals born after 1995, the vast majority of whom are from generation X parents. They are aged between 16 and 25 years. They will soon entering the workforce. A generation defined by technology, cultural aggregation ; their relation to time is different: reactivity, immediacy, speed, efficiency. Many wish to re frame social constructs and create new ones. For them, life and work must be a fluid process, which brings well-being to everyday life. Generation Z members don’t just dream : they believe they can succeed. They expect their family, educational or professional entourage to take them seriously and help them achieve their goals. Today, the one who has the authority is no longer knowing it, but the one who has experienced it. There is a reversal of authority, with a questioning of the teacher, the parent, the boss. Lack of access to an understanding of each generation’s world can result in misunderstanding and intolerance or indifference.

BONDING WITH GENERATION Z is a two year Erasmus+ project supported by 6 establishments in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and the UK. We will involve 130 students aged between 14 to 17 years, 60 teachers. This project aims to build an effective relationship between Z & teacher’s generations to engage, understand and communicate with each other more positively and break down misconceptions between the generations. Teachers will be empowered to be innovative and creative so that their students increase their knowledge and extend their skills and thus deepen their learning and become better communicators. Both, students and teaching teams will participate to the activities. Furthermore, we will work to improve understanding with families and professionals.

There is a gap between the social construction of the last generation and the generation Z, as we explained it previously, they have different life objectives and an innovative vision of the world. By consequences, the way for them to communicate is different and often difficult with older generations. The project main objective is to understand each other. We’re going to develop this topic through the following four themes :
– inter-generational context in the educational system aims to make the learning more adapted to the needs of Generation Z and to develop educational and teaching methods ;
– inter-generational relationship in the professional context aims to facilitate entry into the labor market, to understand business and generation Z issues and to find a balance between the needs of businesses and those of young people ;
– inter-generational context in the family environment aims to facilitate the dialogue over 3 generations : Z (including siblings), parents and grandparents ;
– inter generational communication aims to understand the codes and communication tools used by all parties and to get a cross look at the use of social networks : disinhibition vs security.

The students will realize researches about the different cultures and surveys on each topic in order to prepare the activities in the project before the mobility. Then analyse the results of the surveys in a usable database, offer proposition to improve the inter-generational relationships of the studied topic. Different materials will be developed as presentations, fanzine, online games or reports using social media, surveys, etc.

We expect a long-term improvement on the familial climate first concerning the families who participated at the project and after in a most general way in the future family that the participant are going to do. We expect the teacher to use the positive pedagogical methods and adapt their material to it, then to promote the well-being for the teachers as the management will be easier and for tu students who are going to learn more and better. We expect the professional to adapt the mission to their future internship or new employees. The pupils will also write a joint letter to the European parliament about their project and concerns – which could aware the parliament about the modernization of the continent.

This project was submitted for the first time last year and was accepted on the reserve list. Ultimately it was not funded. We deepened it this year by taking into account the comments of the agency and by drawing support from the international referent of the French Regional Federation MFR BFC.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 196670 Eur

Project Coordinator

MAISON FAMILI RURAL CHAROLLAIS BRIONNAIS & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Thomas Deacon Academy
• Liceo Scientifico Statale G. Galilei
• Bornova Suphi Koyuncuoglu Anadolu Lisesi
• IES JUAN DE HERRERA
• Agrupamento de Escolas Dr. Serafim Leite