NO to extremism- remember our past Erasmus Project

Project Title

NO to extremism- remember our past

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: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

Nowadays Europe debates the lack of tolerance and respect and the rise of extremist movements. A partnership formed by four schools- IIS ENRICO MEDI, Leonforte, Italy, CDP Santa Maria de Los Angeles, Málaga, Spain, A Escola Secundária Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, Caldas da Rainha, Portugal and Gymnázium V. Mihálika Sereď, Slovakia decided to contribute to this current issue by preparing a project whose aim is to lead students to a better EU citizenship avoiding dangerous acts of intolerance, xenophobia and even violence against minorities.
Our project is called NOE, which is an abbreviation of its title: No to Extremism- remember our past, created to avoid making the same mistakes our nations made during the period of World War II and in particular, Holocaust. As biblical Noah (in Slovak NOE) gathered all the animals in his ark in order to survive the flood, in one phase of the project students will gather the testimonies of Holocaust survivors, they will gather opinions of their peers, parents, grandparents about war to form a new generation of Holocaust witnesses (based on Elie Wiesel legacy: “When you listen to a witness, you become a witness) when soon there will be no more Holocaust survivors, so their message endures.
The objectives of the project are to learn from each other and share best practices in order to develop a transnational pedagogical approach to Holocaust and anti-extremism education. This project highlights the importance of thinking critically, recognizing facts from hoaxes and propaganda not to repeat mistakes from the past, particularly from the period of WWII. It aims at motivating teenagers to learn more about history of their countries including the painful period of World War II. Also it will contribute to struggle against discrimination, xenophobia and racism, for example through workshops in the Museum of Holocaust in Sereď.
On another stage of our project, it aims to enhance students’ skills that are necessary to achieve democratic culture such as learning to learn, analytical and critical thinking, listening and observing, empathy, flexibility and adaptability, linguistic, communicative skills, co-operation, and conflict-resolution. Through these skills, we want to highlight the benefits of active citizenship and demonstrate that teachers can contribute to the creation of sustainable democracies.
Participants of this project are students from 16-19 years old, 120 of them will take part in the exchanges and approximately 500 students will be affected indirectly. There will be at least 20 teachers participating actively and other 50 affected indirectly. Other target groups include host families, local community and the media. Some student activities, including listening to a former neo-Nazi or a story of a Holocaust survivor, will help students relate to these abstract concepts through personal accounts. Other student activities, such as creating a photo exhibition will engage students in thinking about stereotypes, prejudice and the consequences of unequal treatment. They will lead to strengthening of the students’ democratic values.
Apart from these activities held at schools and implemented via online management tools such as eTwinning, there will be 6 transnational meetings planned in 2 years. There will be different issues solved on each of these meetings, such as “Recognizing fake news and propaganda on social sites and evaluation of sources”, “Impact of misinformation in media and social sites on growing extremism in Europe”, “Educating critical thinking of youth through media literacy” and “Holocaust and its role in European heritage”. The tangible results will be a website, short films, an e- book, a photo exhibition and a conference. With regard to methodology a student – oriented approach, critical thinking methods and experience- based education will be used. The impact of the project will be measured by surveys and questionnaires about values and attitudes of the participants.
We hope this project will lead to long- term relationship among the partner schools and an inspiration for other common projects.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 130713 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gymnazium Vojtecha Mihalika Sered & Country: SK

Project Partners

• AGRUPAMENTO D ESCOLAS RAFAEL BORDALO PINHEIRO
• ISTITUTO ISTRUZIONE SUPERIORE “E. MEDI”
• Escuela de Formación Profesional Santa María de los Ángeles, S.Coop.And.