Inspiring European Citizenship through Educational Technology Erasmus Project

Project Title

Inspiring European Citizenship through Educational Technology

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 school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

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

Project Summary

This project aimed to address the anxieties, which exist about citizenship, in particular the social disengagement of those with differing cultural, social and religious backgrounds, in particular, the well well documented global tensions which are often reflected within local communities. This central discourse was the primary theme, interest and challenge to be solved by the project partners at the outset of this work. The project engaged participatory methodology, design and delivery to produce pedagogical resources that could be used in educational settings to address these issues.

In preparatory discussions across the team that led to this project, it was evident that they had shared knowledge, experience and expertise in this field across all three participating countries. The team was specifically keen to address this issue by utilising young people from communities with different religious or cultural identities, who can find it particularly difficult to identify, engage with, or be welcomed into; their host society and may not always fully acquire a sense of inclusive citizenship. We were also cognisant that teachers often find the topic problematic to teach, due to poor knowledge, inadequate training or resources and pedagogy that do not engage young people.

Therefore this project set out to develop educational practices and innovative digital resources that will allow young people in secondary, further and higher education to explore, develop and practice citizenship in a safe environment representing real-world contexts that deal with issues of direct relevance to them, their lives and their growth as European citizens in a pluralistic democracy. In doing so, our aim has always been to engage teachers and their classroom students in the process, enabling them to better learn how to teach and be taught citizenship education. As a result, the resources developed by the project team have, where practicable, involved both in the various stages of planning, creation and testing.

In addition to teachers and students, the project team included academic researchers from its higher education partner organisations. The academic researchers were able to share their expertise and research experience to direct and support the project’s design, implementation, delivery and reporting. This partnership of higher education, further education, college and schools helped develop a wide network of end users to share the project resources with and reach larger external audiences to promote the project findings to.

To ensure a collaborative approach was maintained throughout the project, partners met regularly, either online or face-to-face, in a series of team meetings, and were able to use two multiplier events to design, creative, develop and test a series of outputs. These include a Teacher Toolkit, Teacher Training Course Modules, a beta version of a virtual immersive world, a series of eBooks, and a Digital Survey Tool.

Teachers reported that teaching the topic of citizenship was often problematic. The ‘Teacher Toolkit’ and the ‘Training Course Modules’ were created to enable them to increase their knowledge in this area, gain access to useful resources and expand their pedagogical approaches that engage young people.

The eBooks were collated and co-authored by students as a mechanism to empower their personal skills, develop their study of academic knowledge of citizenship and support engagement with their own school or college’s ambitions to develop peer support.

The beta version of the virtual immersive world developed by the project enables students from secondary, further and higher education settings to explore, develop and practice citizenship in a safe environment representing real-world contexts that deal with issues of direct relevance to them, their lives and their growth as European citizens in a pluralistic democracy. The students participating in its development in particular will have immediate and long-term benefits. For both groups, research has shown that the imaginative use of ICT in the classroom can help change long-held and culturally deep-rooted views.

It is hoped that the use of the project’s innovative digital resources should therefore be effective in developing the self-perception and the renewed sense of identity required by the project.

In addition, an unexpected outcome and bonus of the project has been the reported upskilling of digital competencies, literacies and training of its school participants (both students and teachers) that are essential for the 21st century.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 347345 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF HULL & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Publiczne Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego im. Sprawiedliwych Wsrod Narodow Swiata
• Wyke 6th Form College
• Demotiko Koukliwn
• UNIWERSYTET LODZKI
• Hymers College
• Zespol Szkol Spolecznych Spolecznego Towarzystwa Oswiatowego w Lodzi
• CENTRE FOR ADVANCEMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY LTD-CARDET