“Participative culture” – the way to be an european active citizen Erasmus Project

Project Title

“Participative culture” – the way to be an european active citizen

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 : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

Through this project, we proposed that students became aware both of the need and of the civic duty to be involved. In this respect, we followed the development of participatory culture of the students, who got the consciousness of belonging to the European community. We started from the idea that the information and the knowledge many young people have about the rights and duties as European citizens were incomplete. It was, therefore, necessary to create a dynamic of learning to live together. We believed it was fundamental to raise awareness about the need for active citizenship, especially in this crisis environment, where other values seemed to be of greater importance. Personal survival interests should be compatible with civic behavior. Reviving the feeling that young people belong to the society they live was an urgent task for us, a task which asked for a modernized approach to the concept of active citizenship.
This project was structured for 2 years. Through this project participants from 7 countries (high schools) got the chance of having a better understanding of European identity and they were able to emphasize the given points which were:
1. To develop the confidence of our students, their potential for civic engagement and well-being, in order to discourage early school leaving by including a new and innovative subject in the existing curriculum
2. To develop a sense of European identity, to promote European citizenship based on common values, obtained by participative culture in order to reflect on the common responsibility for the future of Europe
3. To encourage students and the community to become more open to reality and to the European events
4. To determine students and teachers to make better use of ICT and build an on line learning community to be extended to other educational topics
5.To enhance the tolerance and find the way of intercultural understanding in order to eliminate discrimination among the nations and to look for more similarities than differences between us
6. To improve transition between the different systems of education.
The Romanian school was the coordinator of the project, but all schools participated in the creation and the design of the project products.
The coordinator established the activities and the sub-activities and created the Gantt table. The management team developed a plan for monitoring and evaluation, communication procedures established between partners, and within each team in each country. Also, the persons responsible for the dissemination determined the details of its implementation.
During the project, various activities were held. Besides attending classes online, there were meetings of the management team, blended mobility of school learners and short-term exchanges of groups of pupils during which there were established and organized activities. Study visits for students and study meetings for teachers were organised. During short-term joint staff training events, teachers shared best practices and were part of the workshops where they were initiated into the use of different learning platforms.
The project had a diary, a product that was in two ways: one in an electronic format, which included all forms from the integrated lessons in curriculum, teaching materials or pictures taken on these occasions, as well as forms from the extracurricular activities conducted within the project (eg., visits, flash-mob); another traveling log , to move from one country to another, containing impressions from partners (students and teachers) about the workshops in which they were involved during the project meetings.
One of the final products was the glossary of terms specific for the project. There we can find the definitions of several terms/ structures that have recently appeared in the reality of today’s language, for example: effective citizens, participatory culture, and illiteracy.
The project products fall into OER category, so they can be very easily accessed. Online courses may become optional courses in the future and, most important, they can be adapted for secondary school children. After the successful outcome of the International Symposium, which was the most important way of dissemination, we plan to make it into a tradition in the organizing country.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 187670 Eur

Project Coordinator

LICEUL VOIEVODUL MIRCEA & Country: RO

Project Partners

• Istituto UgoMursia
• Evening High School of Aigaleo
• Agrupamento de Escolas de Santa Maria Maior
• Vilniaus Salininku gimnazija
• ATG EIC
• Karamursel 100.Yil Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi
• INS Lluís de Peguera